Print media coverage of service delivery protests in South Africa: A content analysis

ABSTRACT

In recent years South Africa has seen an increase in ‘service delivery protests’ – protests related to the inadequate provision of services – as a result of growing citizen frustration resulting from high levels of economic inequality. Unemployment, housing, water and sanitation, electricity, corruption and municipal administration, health and crime, have all been listed as reasons for the protests, often described a ‘rebellion of the poor’. Given the frustration expressed by citizens using protest as a form of communication, the question arises whether the media covered these protests in a way to contribute to democratic participation, and how they were framed in relation to the young democracy in the country. Through a combination of quantitative content and qualitative framing analysis, this article explores mainstream print newspaper coverage of the protests, which we term ‘community protests’, to include the range of different types of protest and to signal that these protests are a bottom-up engagement by citizens to demand to be listened to. Mainstream mass media often subscribe to the protest paradigm, which includes delegitimisation and demonisation, highlighting the negative consequences of protests. Given the significance of the media as sources of collective knowledge and people’s perceptions of reality, this article explores how a sample of mainstream South African newspapers portray the conflict parties, and what kind of interpretations and value judgments are offered to frame the conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• service delivery protests
• South Africa
• mass media
• citizenship
• democracy

Notes on Contributors

Herman Wasserman is professor of Media Studies and director of the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He holds a doctorate from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and worked as a journalist before starting an academic career. His latest book is Media, Geopolitics, and Power: A View from the Global South (University of Illinois Press).

Wallace Chuma is associate professor of Media Studies at the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa where he teaches journalism and media studies courses. He has worked as a reporter for the Daily News and edited the Zimbabwe Mirror. His research areas include contemporary journalism and the public sphere, critical political economy of media, media policy and regulation, and media and political transition in southern Africa.

Tanja Bosch is associate professor of Media Studies and Production at the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where she teaches multimedia journalism and research methods. Her primary areas of research include: radio and democracy, media and conflict, social media, culture and politics.

Notes

1 L. Grant, ‘Research shows sharp increase in service delivery protests’, Mail & Guardian 12 February 2014 <http://mg.co.za/article/2014-02-12-research-shows-sharp-increase-in-service-delivery-protests> (accessed 23 June 2015).

2 ‘One wounded as PE school protest turns violent’, eNCA 27 July 2015 <http://www.enca.com/south-africa/one-wounded-pe-school-protests-turn-violent> (accessed 28 July 2015).

3 ‘Live ammo fired at Port Elizabeth protesters – reporter’, News24 27 Juy 2015 <http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Live-ammo-fired-at-Port-Elizabeth-protesters-reporter-20150727> (accessed 29 July 2015).

4 Personal communication (29 May 2015).

5 See Herman Wasserman & Anthea Garman (2012) for further discussion.

6 Ibid.

7 The concept of news values refers to the classic study by Johan Galtung and Mari Holmboe Ruge (1965) and since then developed by others such as Winfried Schulz (1982) to refer to the factors that journalists use to decide what events are ‘newsworthy’ and determine their selection of news. The 12 factors identified by Galtung and Ruge are: frequency, threshold, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, reference to elite nations, reference to elite people, reference to persons, reference to something negative (see O’Neill & Harcup 2009).

8 Steven Friedman, ‘Social media a far cry from the “voice of the people”’, Business Day 29 May 2013 <http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2013/05/29/social-media-a-far-cry-from-the-voice-of-the-people> (accessed 31 July 2015).

9 16 April 2014.

10 Rebecca Davis, ‘Is the New Age’s coverage really pro-ANC?’ Daily Maverick 4 February 2013 <http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-02-04-is-the-new-ages-coverage-really-pro-anc/> (accessed 29 July 2015).