South African newspaper coverage of COVID-19: A content analysis

Abstract

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to unprecedented media coverage globally and in South Africa where, at the time of writing, over 20,000 people had died from the virus. This article explores how mainstream print media covered the COVID-19 pandemic during this time of crisis. The news media play a key role in keeping the public informed during such health crises and potentially shape citizens’ perceptions of the pandemic. Drawing on a content analysis of 681 front-page news stories across eleven English-language publications, we found that nearly half of the stories used an alarmist narrative, more than half of the stories had a negative tone, and most publications reported in an episodic rather than thematic manner. Most of the stories focused on impacts of the pandemic and included high levels of sensationalism. In addition, despite the alarmist and negative nature of the reporting, most of the front-page reports did not provide information about ways to limit the spread of the virus or attempt to counter misinformation about the pandemic, raising key issues about the roles and responsibilities of the South African media during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study shows that South African newspaper coverage of COVID-19 was largely negative, possibly to attract audience attention and increase market share, but that this alarmist coverage left little possibility for citizens’ individual agency and self-efficacy in navigating the pandemic.

Risk communication in an informal settlement during COVID-19: Case of Dinaweng, Bloemfontein South Africa

“…Print media also play an essential role in informing the public about ongoing developments regarding the virus. Wasserman et al (2021) reported high levels of sensationalism due to the COVID-19 virus, and these were generally reported in an alarmist and negative tone. Few print media outlets reported ways to limit the spread of misinformation and focused instead on increasing market share, which was concerning ( Wasserman et al, 2021 ).…”

“…We conclude that the reliance on radio and a strong faith in official broadcasters' information among the poor suggest that these media should be prioritised for risk communication, particularly local-language regional radio stations. As highlighted by Wasserman et al (2021) , the use of print media has been limited, and in poor neighbourhoods this may be attributed to a lack of disposable income to buy newspapers, while the lockdowns may also have limited the ability of the community to go out and buy the print media.…”

“…The motives may vary from avoiding public panic to concealing governance failures, especially when the disaster results from bad governance and poor decisions ( Ataguba and Ataguba, 2020 ; Matamanda et al, 2022 ). The latter has been the case in reporting COVID-19 information across most African countries as governments tried to convince the world that COVID-19 was not in their backyards ( Wasserman et al, 2021 ). For example, in Tanzania in 2020, the government forced the closure of media houses reporting on COVID-19 in the country, when the President announced that “there is no COVID-19 in Tanzania” ( BBC News, 2021 ).…”

No change without some continuity: Evergreen health myths resurfacing during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated journalistic corrections

“…On the other, they take issue with various aspects of (social) media messages. For news media, criticism generally boils down to a too narrow focus on negativity and sensationalism, especially as this is often paired with an omission of self-efficacy information (i. e., information about how people can maintain their health; e. g., Wasserman et al, 2021). Some scholars also point out a decreasing quality of reporting believed to enable misinformation to slip through (Popiołek, Hapek, & Barańska, 2021).…”

Pandemia en tiempos de posverdad: Narrativas sobre desinformación acerca de COVID-19 en medios mexicanos

“…Esta tendencia también coincide con la cobertura que se dio en otros países de acuerdo con estudios enfocados en otras regiones, los cuales concluyeron que el fact-checking en la cobertura mediática fue marginal. (Wasserman et al, 2021).…”