"This thesis considers the role of the mainstream South African print media in perpetuating discrimination during the years of legalised racial discrimination – commonly known as apartheid – from when the Herenigde Nationale Party took power in May 1948 with an unprecedented 28-seat swing under the leadership of 74-year-old Dr Daniel F. Malan until it was replaced by the African National Congress, black-dominated unity government in April, 1994. Against an historical background, it focuses on the agenda and efforts of the mainstream metropolitan print media during the apartheid era, the build-up to the first nonracial elections, and the media’s role in the immediate post-apartheid era." (Abstract, page 5)