Violence, Xenophobia and the Media: A Review of the South African Media's Coverage of Xenophobia and the Xenophobic Violence Prior to and Including the Events of 2008

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to assess academic research on the manner in which the media in South Africa portrayed the events leading up to, and including, those of May and June 2008. The review found that whilst the evidence is convincing that the print media have been xenophobic during this period, this does not necessarily imply that the print media was complicit in the xenophobic events of 2008. Further evidence-based research is needed on how the print media influences attitudes and perceptions in South Africa. Such research should scrutinize news media production and the context within which this occurs in order to provide a more informed view as to why the print media have been xenophobic for more than a decade.

Notes

For the purposes of this article xenophobia, which combines the Greek xenos (foreign) and phobos (fear) (Crush et al., 2008, p. 13), is a term that is typically used to describe a fear or hatred of foreigners or of people significantly different from oneself, often in the context of visibly differentiated minorities.

Much of this protest has been united under the banner of the ‘Right to Know’ campaign. At the time of writing this campaign was supported by more than 11,000 individuals, including prominent South Africans such as Nobel laureates Archbishop Tutu and Nadine Gordimer, and 400 different public, private and civil society organisations (Right to Know, 2010).

For more details see the ruling by Press Ombudsman Thloloe, J. (8 August 8, 2008) in The Media Monitoring Project (MMP) and Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CorMSA) vs. Daily Sun, http://www.presscouncil.org.za

The SAARF AMPS universe is those aged 16 and above in South Africa, which at the time of their 2007/2008 survey equated to a population of 31,303.00. Data from these surveys is available at http://www.saarf.co.za/

Commercial radio attracts the most listeners (about 91%, as opposed to community radio which has approximately 18% of all listeners). The major stations on average per week are Ukhozi FM (18.8% of all adult listeners), Metro FM (14.2%), Umhlobo Wenene FM (14.7%), Lesedi FM, and Thobela Fm (8.8%) (SAARF, 2008).

SABC attracts the bulk of adult viewers per week on average—SABC 1 71%, SABC 2 60.2%, and SABC 3 47.7% of viewers. However, eTV gets 57.7% and DSTV has 15.2% of adult viewers per week on average (SAARF, 2008).

Top five daily newspapers in terms of adult readership on average per week: Daily Sun 16.4%, Sowetan 7.1%, The Star 3.6%, Isolezwe 2.1% and Die Beeld 1.8%. Of those focused on in many of the studies reviewed for this article, the primary papers were Business Day, which has 0.5%, the Cape Times 0.9%, The Citizen 1.7%, and Die Burger 1.6% of adult readership on average per week. Top five bi-weekly/weekly newspapers on average per week: Sunday Times 12.8% of readership, Sunday Sun 9.8%, City Press 8.1%, Soccer Laduma 8% and Sunday World 6.1% (SAARF, 2008).

The figure could be even higher depending on how one defines literacy and illiteracy. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), for instance, records anyone who is 15 years and older and has not completed Grade 7 as being illiterate. Thus when Census 2001 was conducted, using the Stats SA definition, this meant that 31.5% of the population fell into this category (a staggering 14.1 million people) (Statistics South Africa, 2005).

An example of such a network is the South African Civil Society Information service, www.sacsis.org.za

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew J. Smith

Matthew J. Smith, Senior Partner, Strategy and Tactics.