The objective of this blog is to put the online media coverage of South Africa’s recent win of the 2023 Rugby World Cup within the context of the field of communication for development (C4D) and ICT for development (ICT4D). The aim is to link the role of the media through publishing online stories about South Africa’s win, with the concept of building hope, and to provide context for how this hope may result in social change.
Rugby World Cup, hope and national unity in South Africa
South Africa won the 2023 Rugby World Cup for the fourth time by beating their arch-rivals New Zealand by one point at the Stade de France on 28 October. In the process South Africa’s Springboks became only the second team in history to win back to back titles. The Springboks captain Siya Kolisi has now led the team to victory in 2019 and 2023. Following the final Kolisi had among other things the following to say:
“People that are not from South Africa don’t understand what this means for our country. It’s just not about the game on the field. Our country goes through such a lot and we are that bearing hope that they have… I just want to tell the people of South Africa thank you so much. Children from a third world country who just fight and fight over and over for people that need hope.” (Rugby World Cup, 2023).
Reminiscent of Kolisi’s words, former South African president Nelson Mandela has said at the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2000 that “sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they can understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair” (Laureus, 2000).
Mandela’s speech came five years after South Africa won its first Rugby World Cup title in 1995, shortly after the country was readmitted to international sport following the end of apartheid (Laureus, 2019). This win in 1995 became a symbol of national unity (Evans, 2023).
Upon the arrival of the Springboks at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, they were greeted by the following scenes (The Guardian, 2023):
As one member of the public said in the video, echoing Kolisi’s post-match speech: “This is what we needed to uplift our spirit. You can see there’s a lot of things that are happening in our country. But at this point in time we are one. We are united for the Boks, all of us. This is for Africa!”
The Springboks and social change
At the press conference at O.R. Tambo International Airport Kolisi’s words struck a political tone when he said the following:
“We need to know what the way forward is.
“How do we get better in South Africa? I know this win will inspire a lot of people, but it’s not going to change a lot of people’s circumstances. For us as players, it will give us a platform from which to open more opportunities with our foundations, and the work we do around the country. But we really hope this doesn’t end in a celebration for a week, we need to do more.
“We need to learn to mind each other in our different cultures – not just in rugby, but in our communities, our businesses and all that we do. You can’t just want to force your way because it’s how you do things, think about the next person.
“That’s what we’ve learnt, and coach Rassie [Erasmus] asked us not to keep it in the team and to speak about it openly and honestly. We’ll speak about serious stuff, how our people dealt with things before, and how the next generation is going to see the way forward.
“That’s so important for us because I feel like a lot of things are spoken about, but the serious issues are too sensitive for us to speak about.” (Xanabisa, 2023).
According to Xabanisa (2023) “the maiden victory in 1995 helped coin the term Rainbow Nation, the 2007 and 2019 left hangovers that lasted a few weeks, but the open-top buses at the ticker tape parades had hardly receded from view when South Africans went back to being a divided country.”
Xabanisa (2023) reflects on Kolisi’s words above by saying that “having seen this movie before after his interest in the game was piqued in 2007, and after leading South Africa to the 2019 victory, Kolisi thought he’d make a plea.”
Furthermore, on the first day of the Springboks’ victory tour Kolisi said the following during a speech in Pretoria at South Africa’s administrative headquarters, the Union Buildings, and with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa in attendance:
“We come from different backgrounds with different challenges, and we see life very differently, but we share the same strength and diversity, and we work for South Africa
“Everything that I do is focused on South Africa, which is what we also do as Springbok players, and we deliver by playing rugby.
“I believe you can use that amongst the country and everybody that you work with at parliament.
“We want to be servants of this country and we serve the country as best as we can by playing rugby.
“We hope to see this unity continuing going forward. We appreciate and we see you.” (Tshwaku, 2023).
The Springboks have just finished their victory tour across South Africa. As the scenes of South Africans of all walks of life cheering on the Springboks spread on media channels and reach people across South Africa and the world, the question which this blog post aims to answer is what the value of this digital material is, which falls under the banner of constructive journalism, in terms of inspiring hope. However, not only hope for the short term, but for the long term and possibly to effect social change beyond the ‘feel good’ effect, without dismissing the latter as unimportant.
Communication for development, hope and social change
Tufte (2017:42) refers to three meta-debates within a new wave of communication for social change research, namely its political, cultural and media dimensions. Due to the close link between sport and the political dimension in South Africa, and within the context of Kolisi’s rallying cry above which links with the political, it is important to explore this dimension by Tufte. According to Tufte (2017:42) ‘in order to speak of social change in any depth, or tackle structural constraints, socio-economic conditions or human rights, will necessarily require a stronger political perspective. Making the underlying social change assumptions explicit is about reclaiming the political dimension of communication for social change.’
The social change assumption which will be explored here is the potential link between hope and social change. According to Bender and Rawluk (2023) who refer to Lueck (2007), Andersson (2016) and Strazds (2019) individual hope could ‘be merged into collective hope with benefits such as a greater possibility of success in creating social change, building cooperation, trust, learning, and motivation.’
However, the link between hope, motivation and action are not clear. According to Andersson (2016:26) ‘while the constructs of hope and motivation have overlaps, the results showed that it might be highly meaningful to differentiate their meaning and explore how different aspects of hope relate to motivation to engage in action. Hope also needs several preconditions to be sustained: ‘Hope is sensitive to a variety of conditions, such as time, information, personal resources, social context, and perceived support.’ (Andersson, 2014:24). Meier (2018:777) further warns that ‘hopeful prospects should not be used to simply garnish a difficult problem at any price, and secondly not be at the expense of a differentiated and comprehensive presentation of a complex social problem.’
In a country such as South Africa with its myriad of challenges including poverty, inequality, crime, unemployment and challenges within education, health and more recently electricity provision, it can be argued that the hope which the Springboks inspired may have a minimal impact or be relatively short-lived unless the hopeful prospects can be channelled into sustainable social change initiatives, echoing Kolisi’s words above.
The final part of this blog post will focus on where digital constructive journalism can be contextualised within the broader C4D and ICT4D field, followed by concluding remarks in terms of what the Springboks’ win may mean for South Africa in the long term.
Digital constructive journalism, C4D and ICT4D
Constructive journalism can be seen as a type of journalism which focuses on ‘productive’ and ‘engaging’ coverage (Lough & McIntyre 2023:1072). According to Meier (2018:776) ‘constructive journalism aims not only to draw attention to problems and injustices, but also to look towards the future and seek solutions as well as possibilities for action, prospects and hope’.
In terms of constructive journalism’s link to the broader media field, Manyozo (2012:19-20) identifies three methodological and theoretical approaches within communication for development, namely media for development, media development and participatory and community communication. It is within the media for development approach where constructive journalism may find its place, with Manyozo contending that the functional objective of media for development is ‘using media to promote and sell positive attitudes and behaviours’.
However, Scott (2014:2) cautions against simply accepting that media has a positive role to play: ‘while it may be useful in some contexts to draw attention to the potential benefits of media, the danger is that this comes at the expense of developing a more critical appreciation of the contexts in which media-related interventions can work, when they are not appropriate and the conditions upon which their effectiveness depends’.
The link between the media and social change is therefore ambiguous and difficult to prove. According to Scott (2014:3) ‘the primary explanation for the relative lack of attention given to the field of C4D is the difficulty of attributing development outcomes directly to the media.’ The question therefore could be what the channels may be, even if not conclusive, through which the media could contribute towards positive development outcomes.
Lennie & Tacchi (2013:7) builds on Scott’s view by alluding to the difficulties of evaluating C4D: ‘…the complexity of C4D and social change makes it very difficult to assess direct cause and effect impacts, and because the outcomes and ripple effects of C4D can be difficult to adequately capture using standard approaches.’ The authors therefore advocates for a ‘focus on outcomes, rather than impacts measured through pre-defined, topdown indicators.’
In terms of the digital element of digital constructive journalism, this can be grouped under ICT4D. According to Heeks (2017:10) ICT4D in short is ‘the application of any entity that processes or communicates digital data in order to deliver some part of the international development agenda in a developing country’. Due to the proliferation of the internet over the last two decades and its central role in the media, it is critical to explore this extra dimension.
However, Scott (2014:4) cautions against an over-optimistic view of the internet, a key element within ICT4D in terms of its potential impact on social change: ‘presenting media, and particularly information and communication technologies (ICTs), as a magic bullet for development has also become a key feature of the discourse of many corporations involved in international development. As is argued in Chapter 1, it allows them to frame their interventions as technical, apolitical projects which draw attention away from the structural causes of poverty and inequality, in which they could be implicated.’
Conclusion
Given the above, it is clear that the potential social change impact of the wide media coverage of the Springboks’ win is and will be difficult to ascertain. However, Kolisi’s sober words that the win will in itself not change people’s circumstances do not mean that the win may not have an impact on fostering hope in a country with many challenges, and that there is intrinsic value in the ‘feel good’ effect. However, the political impact of the win in terms of fostering national unity cannot be underestimated although South Africa is still struggling to deliver economic prosperity to the majority of the population following the end of apartheid.
It will be telling to see in the coming months and years if the impact of South Africa’s 2023 win is more sustaining than its wins in 1995, 2007 and 2019, and if so, what the reasons may have been. The 2023 Springboks ethos of unity, commitment and never-say-die attitude (Vardien, 2023) under its tagline ‘Stronger Together’ may provide positive momentum in terms of affecting social change if the public and private sectors make the most of taking the learnings forward of South Africa’s world cup campaign and collaborate with Springbok players – now household names and national heroes in every corner of South Africa – through their foundations for example. However, the ripple effects of South Africa’s 2023 Rugby World Cup win may be difficult to ascertain and may not be clear until years from now. Notwithstanding, given the challenges South Africa face there will hardly be a more opportune time than now to use this historical moment as a springboard to further social change in South Africa, in whichever form this may take.
Reflections on the blog exercise
At first the blog exercise felt daunting, but as I started writing my first post the words started to flow. It really helped that I connected with our group’s theme. South Africans, like myself, connect well with solutions and constructive journalism. It provides an antidote to the negative news cycle in the country and also reminds us that we have come a long way despite the many challenges in the country. As the 2023 Rugby World Cup was underway when I joined the group, the concept of constructive stories were very topical in terms of my personal interest, and as I am an avid Springboks supporter too. The fact that the Springboks won the world cup, inspired my final assignment.
I enjoyed the freedom of the blog exercise to go beyond formal academic writing and the fact that we could choose our own theme was positive for me as well. I felt our group’s theme was specific enough to keep us all focused, but also broad enough for each of us to explore our own sub-interests. The exercise has also encouraged me to write more blogs as part of honing my writing skills. However, I have learnt that it is important to continue writing even if you do not always feel inspired to do it. A key takeaway for me is that I would need to dedicate time to write more often as part of a deliberate practice. I felt our group worked together well and there was a good spirit of collaboration and mutual understanding.
The blog exercise has also enabled me to connect with my interests in nation-building, politics and sport, especially within a South African context. It was a pleasure to explore these interests from an academic perspective and with fellow students.
References
Andersson, P. 2016. The Dynamics of Hope and Motivations in Groups Working on Complex Societal Issues, Integral Review, 12:1, 4-31. [Online]. Available: doaj.org/article/12f79872b0034805a4d0cc53aec660b2 (Integral Review) [Accessed, 29 September 2023].
Bender, H. & Rawluk, A. 2023. Adaptive hope: a process for social environmental change, Ecology and Society, 28:2, 14. [Online]. Available: doi.org/10.5751/ES-14099-280214 (Directory of Open Access Journals). [Accessed, 30 September 2023].
Evans, F. 2023. How Nelson Mandela Used Rugby as a Symbol of South African Unity. [Online]. Available: https://www.history.com/news/nelson-mandela-1995-rugby-world-cup-south-african-unity [Accessed, 3 November 2023].
Heeks, R. 2017. Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). [Online]. Abingdon: Routledge. Available: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/malmo/detail.action?docID=4912767 (EBook Central). [Accessed, 8 October 2023].
Laureus. 2019. Springboks unite a nation | 1995 Rugby World Cup Final | Nelson Mandela. [Online]. Available: https://youtu.be/G7E4KGJFTek [Accessed, 3 November 2023].
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Lough, K. & McIntyre, K. 2023. A systematic review of constructive and solutions journalism research, Journalism, 24:5, 1069-1088, DOI: doi.org/10.1177/14648849211044559 (SAGE Publications). [Accessed, 30 September 2023].
Manyozo, L. 2012. Media, Communication and Development: Three Approaches. [Online]. SAGE India: New Delhi. Available: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/malmo/detail.action?docID=1013489 (EBook Central). [Accessed, 29 September 2023].
Meier, K. 2018. How does the audience respond to constructive journalism? Two experiments with multifaceted results, Journalism Practice, 12:6, 764-780, DOI: doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2018.1470472 (Taylor & Francis Online). [Accessed, 30 September 2023].
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The Guardian. 2023. ‘We are one’: Springboks given heroes’ homecoming after Rugby World Cup win. [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ovvi75aDY [Accessed, 3 November 2023].
Tshwaku, K. 2023. Siya’s strong message to ‘Mr President’: ‘We want to be servants of this country’. [Online]. Available: https://www.news24.com/sport/rugby/worldcup/siyas-strong-message-to-mr-president-we-want-to-be-servants-of-this-country-20231103 [Accessed, 4 November 2023].
Tufte, T. 2017. Communication and Social Change: A Citizen Perspective. [Online] Cambridge: Polity. Available: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/malmo/detail.action?docID=4854000 (EBook Central). [Accessed, 29 September 2023].
Vardien, T. 2023. Stellenbosch to infuse Springboks’ World Cup wisdom in pursuit of Carling Knockout glory. [Online]. Available: https://www.news24.com/sport/soccer/psl/stellenbosch-to-infuse-springboks-world-cup-wisdom-in-pursuit-of-carling-knockout-glory-20231102 [Accessed, 5 November 2023]
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