Jane Duncan
Biographic Data
| ID | 3613642 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jane Duncan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jane |
| FAMILY NAME | Duncan |
| SIGNATURE | DUNCAN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Johannesburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5336-8322 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Introduction to the Special Issue
Developing a model for effective public oversight of intelligence-driven surveillance through an African-focused lens
This article distils the main findings of the Special Issue on public oversight of intelligence-driven digital surveillance in Africa. We explore how the public can perform such oversight better, learning the lessons from moments when public oversight has been attempted and proposing a model for effective public oversight that identifies its main features. Underpinned by democratic accountability theory, participatory governance, and social movem…
Resolving conflicts around surveillance and sustaining public oversight in South Africa, Angola and the DRC
Through an examination of digital surveillance controversies in South Africa, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this article explores the factors explaining differences in the settlement of conflicts over digital surveillance overreach and the sustainability of public oversight practices across three countries with similar authoritarian histories. In South Africa, activism around surveillance overreach peaked and then declin…
Destroying Democracy
Thabo Mbeki and Dissent
The print media transformation dilemma
Accumulation by symbolic dispossession
Using a critical political economy perspective, this article focusses on the migration from analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in South Africa. Drawing on relevant international examples, it explores whether South Africa’s regulator is realising one of the major promises of the DTT transition, namely, to create more media diversity in the television sector. It analyses decisions taken by the communications regulator in allocating th…
Protest Nation
South Africa has become a nation defined by its protests. Protests can, and do, bring societal problems to public attention in direct, at times dramatic, ways. But governments the world over are also tempted to suppress this right, as they often feel threatened by public challenges to their authority. Apartheid South Africa had a shameful history of repressing protests. The architects of the country's democracy expressed a determination to break …
A political economy of press self-regulation
In 2011, the Press Freedom Commission (PFC) was established to recommend the most appropriate regulatory form for South Africa’s press, in the wake of the ruling African National Congress’s (ANC) criticism of the existing system of self-regulation as toothless and self-serving. The ANC has argued for the establishment of a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal. South Africa is not the only country having these debates. In the wake of the phone hacking…
Press Freedom in Africa
Since its National Congress in 2007, the African National Congress (ANC) has criticised the system of self-regulation in the print media, and promoted a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). This article considers the merits of the ANC’s arguments, as well as the media’s counterarguments. While there are problems with South Africa’s self-regulatory system for the print media, as it could be a more effective regulator of journalism standards, th…
Toward a measurement tool for the monitoring of media diversity and pluralism in South Africa
This article responds to recent debates within South African media politics regarding the diversity and transformation of the print sector in the country, by suggesting a necessary refocus of previously used methods of measuring media diversity and proposing a more audience-centred approach. This audience-centred method is discussed with regard to meeting the demands of the normative understanding of media diversity, where the media are viewed as…
Communication, culture and human rights in Africa
Communication, culture and human rights in Africa, edited by Bala Musa and Jerry Domatob, Lantham, Plymouth, University Press of America, 2010, xvii + 275 pp. In the preface of this collection, the
The ANC's poverty of strategy on media accountability
Since its National Congress in 2007, the African National Congress (ANC) has criticised the system of self-regulation in the print media, and promoted a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). This article considers the merits of the ANC's arguments, as well as the media's counter-arguments. While there are problems with South Africa's self-regulatory system for the print media, as it could be a more effective regulator of journalism standards, t…
The uses and abuses of political economy
This article examines the evolution of the African National Congress’ (ANC) media policy, with specific emphasis on policy developed for the party’s 2002 and 2007 national conferences. It considers how the ANC has used critical political economy arguments to justify its media policy, and concludes that the party has shifted recently towards appropriating these arguments selectively to justify positions that are deeply inimical to media freedom: a…
They say Venda is winning, but we can't see how
This article considers the position of selected artists from what was the north‐eastern Transvaal in the context of current attempts by a range of art institutions to project the existence of a representative ‘New South African’ national culture. The benefits and drawbacks of their fame are examined, and it is concluded that while these artists have profited in certain ways, they have been disempowered in others in that they have little control o…
Toward a measurement tool for the monitoring of media diversity and pluralism in South Africa
This article responds to recent debates within South African media politics regarding the diversity and transformation of the print sector in the country, by suggesting a necessary refocus of previously used methods of measuring media diversity and proposing a more audience-centred approach. This audience-centred method is discussed with regard to meeting the demands of the normative understanding of media diversity, where the media are viewed as…
Press Freedom in Africa
Since its National Congress in 2007, the African National Congress (ANC) has criticised the system of self-regulation in the print media, and promoted a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). This article considers the merits of the ANC’s arguments, as well as the media’s counterarguments. While there are problems with South Africa’s self-regulatory system for the print media, as it could be a more effective regulator of journalism standards, th…
The uses and abuses of political economy
This article examines the evolution of the African National Congress’ (ANC) media policy, with specific emphasis on policy developed for the party’s 2002 and 2007 national conferences. It considers how the ANC has used critical political economy arguments to justify its media policy, and concludes that the party has shifted recently towards appropriating these arguments selectively to justify positions that are deeply inimical to media freedom: a…
The ANC's poverty of strategy on media accountability
Since its National Congress in 2007, the African National Congress (ANC) has criticised the system of self-regulation in the print media, and promoted a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). This article considers the merits of the ANC's arguments, as well as the media's counter-arguments. While there are problems with South Africa's self-regulatory system for the print media, as it could be a more effective regulator of journalism standards, t…
Accumulation by symbolic dispossession
Using a critical political economy perspective, this article focusses on the migration from analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in South Africa. Drawing on relevant international examples, it explores whether South Africa’s regulator is realising one of the major promises of the DTT transition, namely, to create more media diversity in the television sector. It analyses decisions taken by the communications regulator in allocating th…
They say Venda is winning, but we can't see how
This article considers the position of selected artists from what was the north‐eastern Transvaal in the context of current attempts by a range of art institutions to project the existence of a representative ‘New South African’ national culture. The benefits and drawbacks of their fame are examined, and it is concluded that while these artists have profited in certain ways, they have been disempowered in others in that they have little control o…
They say Venda is winning, but we can't see how
This article considers the position of selected artists from what was the north‐eastern Transvaal in the context of current attempts by a range of art institutions to project the existence of a representative ‘New South African’ national culture. The benefits and drawbacks of their fame are examined, and it is concluded that while these artists have profited in certain ways, they have been disempowered in others in that they have little control o…
The uses and abuses of political economy
This article examines the evolution of the African National Congress’ (ANC) media policy, with specific emphasis on policy developed for the party’s 2002 and 2007 national conferences. It considers how the ANC has used critical political economy arguments to justify its media policy, and concludes that the party has shifted recently towards appropriating these arguments selectively to justify positions that are deeply inimical to media freedom: a…
The ANC's poverty of strategy on media accountability
Since its National Congress in 2007, the African National Congress (ANC) has criticised the system of self-regulation in the print media, and promoted a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). This article considers the merits of the ANC's arguments, as well as the media's counter-arguments. While there are problems with South Africa's self-regulatory system for the print media, as it could be a more effective regulator of journalism standards, t…
Communication, culture and human rights in Africa
Communication, culture and human rights in Africa, edited by Bala Musa and Jerry Domatob, Lantham, Plymouth, University Press of America, 2010, xvii + 275 pp. In the preface of this collection, the
Press Freedom in Africa
Since its National Congress in 2007, the African National Congress (ANC) has criticised the system of self-regulation in the print media, and promoted a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). This article considers the merits of the ANC’s arguments, as well as the media’s counterarguments. While there are problems with South Africa’s self-regulatory system for the print media, as it could be a more effective regulator of journalism standards, th…
Toward a measurement tool for the monitoring of media diversity and pluralism in South Africa
This article responds to recent debates within South African media politics regarding the diversity and transformation of the print sector in the country, by suggesting a necessary refocus of previously used methods of measuring media diversity and proposing a more audience-centred approach. This audience-centred method is discussed with regard to meeting the demands of the normative understanding of media diversity, where the media are viewed as…
A political economy of press self-regulation
In 2011, the Press Freedom Commission (PFC) was established to recommend the most appropriate regulatory form for South Africa’s press, in the wake of the ruling African National Congress’s (ANC) criticism of the existing system of self-regulation as toothless and self-serving. The ANC has argued for the establishment of a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal. South Africa is not the only country having these debates. In the wake of the phone hacking…
Protest Nation
South Africa has become a nation defined by its protests. Protests can, and do, bring societal problems to public attention in direct, at times dramatic, ways. But governments the world over are also tempted to suppress this right, as they often feel threatened by public challenges to their authority. Apartheid South Africa had a shameful history of repressing protests. The architects of the country's democracy expressed a determination to break …
Accumulation by symbolic dispossession
Using a critical political economy perspective, this article focusses on the migration from analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in South Africa. Drawing on relevant international examples, it explores whether South Africa’s regulator is realising one of the major promises of the DTT transition, namely, to create more media diversity in the television sector. It analyses decisions taken by the communications regulator in allocating th…
Thabo Mbeki and Dissent
The print media transformation dilemma
Destroying Democracy
Introduction to the Special Issue
Developing a model for effective public oversight of intelligence-driven surveillance through an African-focused lens
This article distils the main findings of the Special Issue on public oversight of intelligence-driven digital surveillance in Africa. We explore how the public can perform such oversight better, learning the lessons from moments when public oversight has been attempted and proposing a model for effective public oversight that identifies its main features. Underpinned by democratic accountability theory, participatory governance, and social movem…
Resolving conflicts around surveillance and sustaining public oversight in South Africa, Angola and the DRC
Through an examination of digital surveillance controversies in South Africa, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this article explores the factors explaining differences in the settlement of conflicts over digital surveillance overreach and the sustainability of public oversight practices across three countries with similar authoritarian histories. In South Africa, activism around surveillance overreach peaked and then declin…
Political science (10 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Media Studies and Communication (5 works) · Political economy (5 works) · African history and culture studies (3 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Economics (3 works)