There is a strong belief that Zulu newspapers do so well because people want to read news in their mother tongue. Having done the latest research in futurefact 2012, Jos Kuper disagrees.
In the table below, we look at LSM 5-7 where the indigenous language consideration is most relevant in terms of preferred language for newspapers, looking at it according to province and in the country as a whole (in the total).
|
Total |
KZN |
GP |
WC |
EC |
|
| English |
68% |
69% |
69% |
68% |
83% |
| Zulu |
16% |
61% |
13% |
1% |
|
| Sotho |
14% |
24% |
|||
| Xhosa |
11% |
13% |
5% |
||
| Afrikaans |
16% |
3% |
6% |
60% |
11% |
This means that English is the preferred medium for reading newspapers for LSMs 5-7 irrespective of province. There are nuances in the different provinces depending on the composition of the population, with KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) being the most receptive to Zulu newspapers and the Western Cape (WC) the most receptive to Afrikaans newspapers.
The interesting thing is that although Zulu newspapers are available in Gauteng, they are not really resonating with Zulu home language speakers in this province as the papers’ content is not as locally focused, as is the case in KZN. We have conducted a myriad of focus groups in KZN over the years that have shown that it is content rather than language that drives the success of the Zulu language newspapers in KZN.
They really do reflect the interests and mindsets of the market in that province and, as in all media, content is king. The other very important variable in the mix is that they get their distribution right in that province, far broader than the major metropolitan component of the market.
A further point of interest is that by and large around the country, parents of school-going kids are choosing English as the medium for their kids’ education. This is because speaking English well is believed to be very important for getting a job. There are variations according to province. Nonetheless, many parents are also concerned that children are no longer able to speak their home language properly.
This story was first published in the August issue of The Media magazine.
