The Bill, the Billed and Billy: analysis of media framing of the South African land expropriation Bill

ABSTRACT

Arguably, no issue evokes so much emotion amongst South Africans, post-1994, like the land and agrarian question. After going through various stages of ‘failed’ implementations of the land reform programme, the government decided to consider the path of land expropriation, with a Bill to that effect already passing the motion in Parliament. The Bill, which seeks to provide for the expropriation of property for a public purpose or in the public interest, was recently passed by the South African Parliament, with attendant discordant discourses amongst the populace. Given the vociferous nature of the South African media and its potential to influence public perception of sensitive social issues, this article undertakes a content analysis of media reportage of the land expropriation Bill with a bid to ascertain how it has impacted on public opinion and understanding of the Bill, and land reform in general.

KEYWORDS:

• Expropriation
• land
• land expropriation
• land reform
• peace journalism
• media frames

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Joseph Olusegun Adebayo

Joseph Olusegun Adebayo is a research fellow in the Journalism and Media Studies Department of Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests include good governance and development in Africa, analysis of media framing and representation of Africa, elections and democracy in Africa, and practical strategies for building peace infrastructures. Joseph is passionate about building the media’s capacity to promote good governance, societal peace, and community development through peace journalism.