Inspired by “extra-market” initiatives to ensure media diversity in social-democratic
Northern Europe, the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA)
is a path-breaking attempt by a developing country to support the media needs of
marginalized communities too poor to be of interest to advertising-driven commercial
media. This paper examines the policy process towards the establishment
of the MDDA as a partnership between the state, capital, and civil society within
the constraints of South Africa’s re-entry into a global economy that privileges
“free market” solutions to developmental problems. Under these conditions, do
partnerships between the state, the private sector, and civil society facilitate or
hinder the achievement of social objectives aimed primarily at uplifting the poor
and marginalized?