11 November 2015 – In an in-depth analysis of media coverage for the recent #FeesMustFalll student protests, Newsclip Media Monitoring’s senior analyst, Nadine Schlebusch has made some important findings. The analysis considered both local and international coverage.
“Coverage ranged in tone and content, from lambasting students for their actions to messages of support and encouragement,” writes Schlebusch.“By employing Newsclip’s media management systems, a textual analysis on a selection of articles that speak to the violence, relevancy and meaning of the protests, was possible,” explains Schlebusch.
From a South African media perspective, which included selected articles from print and online media, Schlebusch found there was a generally balanced view. She found that publications were giving the protestors a voice as well as focusing on providing a platform for political debate.
Schlebusch’s report cites that, for example, the Mail & Guardian focused on the “enraged” students while also suggesting “a type of care which casts the police in a positive light”. This is in contrast to the situation on the ground as many photographs and first-hand accounts by students suggest a heavy-handedness on the part of police.
Meanwhile, in an opinion piece that appeared on iol.co.za, Suntosh Pillay described the protests as “energising” while also stating that traditional media stands accused of being “dry, sterile, disconnected, sensational, predictable and irrelevant” in their reporting of the protests.
At the same time, both the President and Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, were accused of idleness and lack of leadership by Mmasekepe Matsebane, a journalist and social commentator for The New Age. According to Schlebusch, the journalist was also “derisive of political opportunists, especially the DA’s Mmusi Maimane”.
In looking at African media, Schlebusch found that emphasis was placed on the economic exclusion of poor black students. However, there also appears to be an allusion to the deeper issue of racial transformation at universities.
In international media title bbc.com, Phumza Fihlane appears to justify police action towards protesting students depicting them as hostile. The severity is also downplayed in the article, although Fihlane does allude to issues of white privilege when he describes the shield that white students made to protect their black counterparts.
The Wall Street Journal also refers to students as hostile by describing the meetings between them and the university leaders as “violent clashes”. However, similar to that of African media, there is an acknowledgement of the economic exclusion and the difficulties that poor black students face.
Since Wednesday, 14 October, the media has been consumed by the #FeesMustFall student protests. By the end of the first week of November, over 16 000 articles had been published across both traditional and online media platforms. It is, for this reason, why a detailed report is so important. Not only does it allow readers an opportunity to digest the information in bite-sized chunks, but it also provides an in-depth, unbias analysis of what is happening in the media, and how they are reporting it.
A first of many by Newsclip, this in-depth analysis provides an opportunity for the media consumer to see the bigger picture.
To read the full report, click here.