Framing Covid-19 in the South African News Media: An Analysis of 22 Months of Reporting

ABSTRACT

Although research has been done showing how health crises and pandemics are framed in the media, to date, no long-term studies on the framing of the pandemic in the South African media have been found in the literature. Prior research has shown that scientific information and the media play a key role in influencing decision-making and behavioural change and, therefore, its potential to influence the development trajectories of nation-states. This study analyses a sample of 524 newspaper articles to determine how the South African print media has framed COVID-19-related news during the first two years of the pandemic in South Africa. The results reveal that three South African newspapers framed the COVID-19 pandemic according to three dominant frames, conveying an overarching sense of alarm regarding the pandemic’s impact on society. However, it is also true that no consistent framing pattern is evident during the 22-month period. This suggests that reporting on COVID-19 in the news media was episodic, while also indicating that the South African print media prioritised market demands over society’s needs during the COVID-19 crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• corona
• pandemic
• news frames
• news
• journalism

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mehita Iqani, Lars Guenther, and Peter Weingart for their helpful comments in guiding this research in the right direction.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Corlia Meyer, upon reasonable request.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is based on research supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (grant number 93097). Any opinion, finding and conclusion, or recommendation expressed in this material is that of the authors and the NRF does not accept any liability in this regard.