{"id":11468,"date":"2026-06-02T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnti.org\/cnti-news\/\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T09:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:08:10","slug":"historical-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnti.org\/reports\/south-africa-indie-info-providers\/historical-context\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical context"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The impact of historic and persistent forces of marginalization in the South African media environment came up repeatedly in interviews. South Africa\u2019s media industry remains deeply influenced<\/span><\/a> by the legacies of colonization<\/span><\/a> and apartheid<\/span><\/a>. These historical injustices impact<\/span><\/a> current coverage gaps, reinforce negative stereotypes<\/span><\/a> and reflect imbalances in social power between segments of society. Further, some Africans have raised concerns that the reliance of African news outlets on Western news agencies<\/span><\/a> and the influence of Chinese and Russian<\/span><\/a> media outlets can overshadow local accounts. In response to these concerns, many of the South African indie info providers aim to provide nuanced and localized storytelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How and why we did this<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Note on terminology<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There is no consensus on terminology, even among our interviewees. We primarily use the term “indie info provider” and sometimes “creator-journalist,” which was the term used in our survey and interviews. Both terms appear throughout the report to refer to the same group: \u201cpeople who are working to provide verified factual information with a personality- or voice-driven brand that leverages the creator economy.\u201d <\/em>That definition encompasses a tremendous amount of variation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why we did this<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is the second report in a two-country series about indie info providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to our research<\/a>, about one in four people in South Africa get news from individuals rather than organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the South African media environment is undergoing a profound transformation<\/a>. Media crises<\/a> in recent decades have led to \u201can increasingly constrained business environment<\/em><\/a>,\u201d forcing outlets to rely on freelance journalists<\/a> and short-term contracts to stay afloat and leaving many journalists without stable employment. This shift has coincided with a massive migration in audience habits: recent surveys find that about 7 in 10 surveyed (online, English-speaking) South Africans<\/a> get their news from social media, especially on their smartphones.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, research<\/a> on this trend has largely focused on the broader landscape of content creators, including entertainers, politicians and other creators who do not necessarily focus on informing their audiences. And most research to date has focused on content sourcing and linking strategies. To enable a future for a plurality of fact-based sources that readers and viewers find relevant, our project sheds light on who indie info providers are and how they approach their role in the broader news landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How we did this<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In partnership with Code for Africa<\/a>, CNTI recruited 43 content producers in South Africa to take a screening survey, 42 of whom met the eligibility criteria, and chose 18 of them for a 60- to 90-minute virtual interview. (The one who did not meet the criteria was neither South African-based nor working for a primarily South African audience.) \u00a0 CNTI selected interviewees to represent a range of professional backgrounds, such as project management and the military, beyond legacy journalism. This report is based primarily on insights from the interviews, with data from the survey as a secondary source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In interviews, we asked participants about their backgrounds and motivations, audience engagement, their relationships with other indie info providers and legacy news outlets, platforms, and algorithms, revenue and business strategies, and their view of success and satisfaction with their own work.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We developed codes using a bottom-up iterative approach as themes emerged from the analysis. Code categories largely reflected the range of interview topics, as well as the addition of the broader theme \u201capartheid and historical context.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These methods provide richness and depth; however, it\u2019s not possible to generalize about the frequency of behaviors from these interactions, so we limit our use of quantitative terms to our interviewees throughout this report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNTI research and professional staff prepared this report. This project was made possible by the financial support of the Lenfest Institute and a second anonymous donor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See \u201cAbout this study<\/a>\u201d for more details.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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For South African indie info providers, social privilege and power shape how stories are told and who is seen as entitled to tell them.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For many interviewees, their social identities and the larger geopolitical context are inherently linked to their work. For example, one person was quick to situate themself as \u201ca white European male working in southern Africa, most of the time working with communities that historically are marginalized,\u201d<\/em> where people are skeptical due to \u201ca several-hundred-year tradition of people like me coming in, taking what they want and leaving.\u201d <\/em>In this vein, several interviewees spoke openly about the history of apartheid and its legacy of racism and social segregation. In their view, these conditions continue to impact both individual careers and the larger information environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many interviewees also reject the notion that \u201cobjectivity\u201d is possible to attain, or even valuable to strive for. As one trained journalist reflected, \u201cNo journalism is completely neutral or independent or objective. Everyone has a slant. It\u2019s about being honest about what your slant is.\u201d<\/em> For example, <\/em>choosing whether to use the word \u201cgenocide\u201d to describe conditions in Gaza or whether business journalism should be reflexively pro-capitalist reflects the journalists\u2019 stances and identity. Another interviewee with a journalism background linked their unease about this notion to South Africa\u2019s place in the world, saying, \u201cOne of my issues with the way journalism is traditionally done is these established ethics that we work under. As an African woman, they’ve never felt instinctively correct \u2014 the ways that we appeal to authority, which is usually Western authority and things like that.\u201d <\/em>The interviewees\u2019 acknowledgment that objectivity is impossible is consistent with the framing of South Africa\u2019s Press Council<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South African indie info providers see themselves as decolonizing local media by promoting positive perspectives over negative Western narratives.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was fairly common for interviewees to position themselves in contrast to mainstream media, which they described as \u201cnegative\u201d <\/em>and \u201calarmist.\u201d <\/em>The larger media environment feels like \u201cthe same people complaining about the same stuff\u201d <\/em>who \u201cnever talk about things that are motivating and encouraging civilians or citizens in a good way.\u201d <\/em>One interviewee even said that South African journalism \u201coften tarnishes the reputation of the country.\u201d <\/em>In response to this overall trend, these indie info providers see themselves as filling an important gap by providing \u201ca solutions mindset<\/em>\u201d and the ability to report on positive developments that might give their audience hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several interviewees discussed fighting these pervasive negative narratives in South African media with their content. One interviewee said their indie info projects \u201c[try] to present a kind of more positive story, but one that’s not a feel-good story. It’s one that’s factually based.\u201d <\/em>Another interviewee, whose project focuses on the fashion industry, said, \u201cI think one of the big problems of African fashion, as an ecosystem, we tend to talk about ourselves like a charity, especially in South Africa, and not like a business.\u201d<\/em> They want the content in their newsletter to move beyond the creative \u2014 even negative \u2014 focus typically found in fashion coverage to be more actionable for their audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many interviewees described their work as addressing gaps in a media landscape. One described working against entrenched media narratives shaped by colonization: \u201cThe African continent, specifically South Africa, has been colonized for the longest time \u2026 we also have a challenge when it comes to articulating our own culture, articulating our own language. So now I’m trying to decolonize all of this.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, interviewees\u2019 attempts to challenge limiting portrayals can be understood as part of a broader pushback against entrenched media narratives. Historically<\/span><\/a>, Western-informed news has cast the Global Majority<\/span> as an \u201centity of struggle,\u201d prioritizing the unusual, tragic, or bizarre, and creating narratives centered on famine, conflict and despair.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interviewees fill a gap left by the influence of foreign media by providing nuanced, locally-driven storytelling.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One interviewee, who had previously worked with international outlets, started their indie brand to shift from writing about South Africa for international audiences to writing about South Africa for South Africans. As they explained it, \u201cthere’s a dominance of the international publications that could afford to pay correspondents and things \u2026 and I know from working with international publications that that kind of coverage doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty.\u201d <\/em>They added, \u201cI wanted to make that shift to just be part of the local news ecosystem so that I can write about things to more of a granular level.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another interviewee focuses their work on stories that mainstream media is not covering, and said, \u201cThese stories are about people who are invisible in the public discourse. They are people that are ignored, whose suffering is ignored by rich, wealthy people whose comfort comes at the expense of those who are suffering the most.\u201d <\/em>In the view of these interviewees, a reliance on foreign media narratives<\/span><\/a> limits the number of nuanced African stories. Many interviewees see themselves as providing an important alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What the U.S. can learn from South Africa<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Both U.S. and South African interviewees are working to fill gaps left by legacy media, but only South Africans situate their work in a larger global context. This difference likely reflects the varied priorities of Global North and post-colonial audiences.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Continue reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Professional Backgrounds<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Strategic Relationships<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Credibility<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Distribution Platforms<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Making Money<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Finding Stability<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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About This Study<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Participating Creators<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Creator Videos<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Companion Report: U.S. Indie Info Providers<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African indie info providers are doubling down on local voice and vantage, countering the dominance of foreign and foreign-influenced media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":11437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-no-image","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mbm_post_meta_color_slug":[],"_mbm_featured_category_id":"76","inline_featured_image":false,"_mbmamp_team_author_id":[7905,7891,7825,10621],"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"cnti-focus-area":[105,106],"cnti-topic":[],"class_list":["post-11468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports","cnti-focus-area-building-news-economic-sustainability","cnti-focus-area-news-relevance"],"acf":{"cnti_article_quick_read_link_file":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_6609f4b7a6240","label":"Quick Read","name":"cnti_article_quick_read_link_file","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"file","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_6609f4b72d6a1","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"return_format":"array","library":"all","min_size":"","max_size":"","mime_types":"","allow_in_bindings":1,"_name":"cnti_article_quick_read_link_file","_valid":1}},"cnti_article_full_report_file":{"simple_value_formatted":"06.02 South Africa indie info providers - PDF-combined copy<\/a>","value_formatted":{"ID":11959,"id":11959,"url":"https:\/\/cnti.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/06.02-South-Africa-indie-info-providers-PDF-combined-copy.pdf","title":"06.02 South Africa indie info providers - PDF-combined copy","alt":"","description":"No blank pg 2","caption":"","mime_type":"application\/pdf","type":"application","subtype":"pdf","icon":"https:\/\/cnti.org\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/document.png"},"value":"11959","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_6609f53ba6241","label":"Full Report","name":"cnti_article_full_report_file","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"file","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_6609f4b72d6a1","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"return_format":"array","library":"all","min_size":"","max_size":"","mime_types":"","_name":"cnti_article_full_report_file","_valid":1}},"cnti_article_parallel_study_sneak_peek_file":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_69dce511d7a57","label":"Parallel Study: Sneak Peek","name":"cnti_article_parallel_study_sneak_peek_file","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"file","value":null,"menu_order":2,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_6609f4b72d6a1","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"return_format":"array","library":"all","min_size":"","max_size":"","mime_types":"","allow_in_bindings":1,"_name":"cnti_article_parallel_study_sneak_peek_file","_valid":1}},"post_audio_embed":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_68e438d2c1796","label":"Add audio embed iFrame","name":"post_audio_embed","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"text","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_68e438d1a3701","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","maxlength":"","allow_in_bindings":0,"placeholder":"","prepend":"","append":"","_name":"post_audio_embed","_valid":1}},"post_guest_author":{"simple_value_formatted":"This data type is not supported! 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