Re -presenting knowledge: The coverage of xenophobia research in selected South African newspapers, 2008 -2013

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[Re]-presenting knowledge: The coverage of xenophobia
   research in selected South African newspapers, 2008 -2013

                   *KUDAKWASHE PAUL VANYORO AND **LYTON NCUBE, Ph.D.

   Abstract
   Recurring xenophobic attacks on perceived foreign immigrants stand out as one of the major setbacks on South Africa’s
   envisaged ‘rainbow’ nation discourse. These attacks remain a topical issue in, academic, media, social, economic and
   political circles. While a significant body of literature explores the coverage of migration and xenophobia issues in the South
   African mainstream press, studies examining media coverage of xenophobia research from research institutions are scarce.
   This study explores the [re]-presentation of xenophobia research findings in two popular South African newspapers: the Mail
   & Guardian and the Sowetan from 2008 to 2013. The study utilizes a qualitative research approach. Findings show that the
   two analyzed newspapers uncritically picked up stories and purveyed them without a strong base facilitated by empirical
   research. In essence, empirical research findings were selectively utilized to ‘authenticate’ or legitimize convenient
   ideological positions. Finally, a clear tension between discourses of ‘empirical knowledge’ and ‘popular perceptions’; was
   evident in analyzed stories.

   Key Words: Immigrants, Mail & Guardian, [Re]-presentation, Research findings, Sowetan, Xenophobia

                                                                     the total population (Polzer, 2010; Crush,
Introduction                                                         2011; Statistics South Africa, 2011).
Archbishop Desmond Tutu regards South Africa                                However, it is not surprising that the
as a ‘rainbow’ nation, a term he coined in 1994,                     numbers of international migrants in the
due to a number of different races residing in the                   country are constantly inflated and
country. Almost twenty-two years after                               misrepresented by politicians and policy
independence, South Africa finds itself being                        makers (for e.g., see Vanyoro, 2015;
home to the second highest number of migrants in                     Palmary & de Gruchy, 2016 for a
Africa (International Organization for Migration                     dedicated account on the politics of
(IOM), 2013). These are mostly refugees, asylum                      migration data in the country). Forging a
seekers and labour migrants from neighboring                         common South African national identity
African countries. According to Statistics South                     remains elusive, as the country can be best
Africa (2011), an estimated 3.3% of the country’s                    understood as a developing idea (Alegi,
population was born out of the country. Results                      2010; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2011). Partly
from the analysis of 2011 South Africa Census                        because of the perception and alarmist
data revealed that there were 2 173 409                              discourse that migrants are ‘swarming’ the
international migrants (4.2% of the 2011 total                       country (see Neocosmos, 2008; Forced
population) (Statistics South Africa, 2015). The                     Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) &
rural to urban migrant labour system, converging                     Musina Legal Office, 2010) - what
towards mines and peri-urban informal settlements                    Neocosmos (2008) calls a politics of fear -
in the country’s metropoles, has also created great                  of late, xenophobic attacks continue to
spatial mobility (Vearey, Nunez & Palmary,                           recur as ‘indigenous’ South Africans target
2009). Consequently, internal migration is ar more                   perceived ‘foreigners’ whom they blame
significant than international migration at 7% of                    for their social and economic problems.

   *  Kudakwashe Paul Vanyoro is a Research Communications Officer and Doctoral Researcher at the African Centre
      for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
   ** Lyton Ncube, Ph.D. is a lecturer in the Department of Media and Society Studies, Midlands State University,
      Gweru Zimbabwe and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Communication, University of Johannesburg,
      Johannesburg, South Africa.
   JCMR
          Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2018, 76 - 89
Vanyoro & Ncube; The coverage of xenophobia research in selected South African newspapers   77

            These xenophobic episodes hardly               by some epistemic communities challenge
evade the watchful eyes of the media at any                popular press discourse, attitudes and powerful
given moment. Indeed, both the mass media                  positions. Because re-presentation is a fluid
and the new media in South Africa and across               process (Hall, 1997), we are interested in
the globe have been awash with stories                     exploring the coverage of xenophobia research
concerning the recurring xenophobic attacks in             findings in two popular South African
the ‘rainbow’ nation. Academics from political             newspapers, the Mail & Guardian and the
science, sociology, cultural studies as well as            Sowetan from 2008 to 2013. This endeavor
media studies have also engaged with the                   allows us to critically tease out the relationship
discourse of xenophobia from different angles.             between ‘empirical knowledge’ and ‘anti-
Most of these academics have focused on the                immigrant’ sentiments, as polarized discourses,
manner in which the media portray xenophobia,              in these media texts.
migrants and migrant related issues (for e.g.,
see Danso & McDonald, 2001; Smith, 2010).                  Recurring xenophobia: A contested South
But, from a Media Studies viewpoint, there is              African reality
one issue that is conspicuously absent: the                In South Africa the apartheid state implemented
coverage of xenophobia empirical research                  racist pass laws in order to control permanent
findings from research institutions such as the            urban settlement and try to ensure that the black
African Centre for Migration & Society                     African population remained in their
(ACMS), Southern African Migration Project                 ‘homelands’ (Bakewell, 2008; Castles, 2010).
(SAMP), Centre for the Study of Violence and               After years of protracted violence, owing to
Reconciliation (CSVR), Institute for Security              (among others) international pressure, on 27
Studies (ISS) and others in the mainstream                 April 1994, South Africa held its first, non-
media.                                                     racial, democratic elections. The African
        We argue that the coverage of these                National Congress (ANC), led by Nelson
findings in the popular press is political;                Mandela won 252 of the 400 seats in the
therefore, it requires rigorous investigation and          National Assembly, falling only two seats short
detailed analysis. This issue, which epitomizes            of the two-thirds majority needed to effect
a representation of a re-presentation (see Hall,           unilateral constitutional change. Ultimately, on
1997), has received very little amount of                  May 9 1994, the National Assembly
attention in the academic world of Media                   unanimously elected Nelson Mandela as
Studies due to its ‘unconventional’ standing.              president, with Thabo Mbeki and F.W. de Klerk
While an array of global literature exists on the          as the country’s deputy presidents.
role of the media in communicating research,                     This development was earmarked to be the
particularly in the public health and                      beginning of a new epoch governed by an
development sector, most of this work is biased            audacious principal in the constitution which
towards research translation and development               states that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live
communication (See Court & Young, 2003;                    in it’. That the country’s black majority thought
Fisher & Vogel, 2008; McPhail, 2009; Oronje,               that their economic misfortunes would be
Undie, Zulu & Crichton, 2011; Vanyoro, 2015).              reshaped as a result is also unquestionable. But
As such, it also does not adequately tease out             today South Africa remains one of the most
the interaction between research findings and              unequal societies in the world. The country is
popular discourse in the mainstream media.                 marked by an extended history of regular
One notable contribution however is by Goslin              experiences of violent conflicts such as violent
(1974) who highlights different types of                   crime, violent service delivery protests,
research      information      that     may     be         communal violence, vigilantism within its
communicated by the media. Beyond this work,               townships and informal settlements (Misago,
little more exists, especially in the global south,        2016). Within this context, the foreigner has
more specifically in South Africa.                         become a political scapegoat. Xenophobia and
        This lacuna forms a central part of the            intolerance have indeed become a recurrent
impetus for writing this paper. In essence, what           reality in South African politics (Thakur, 2010).
we interrogate here are the power contestations                  Significant    studies    have     therefore
that exist in the coverage of marginalized issues          extensively explored xenophobia and its
and groups when empirical knowledge produced               recurrence in South Africa at different epochs in
78   Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2018

an attempt to explain its morphology (for e.g.,           state institutions have never condoned violence
see Harris, 2001; Black, Crush & Peberdy,                 against migrants and have regularly condemned
2006; Crush, 2008; Neocosmos, 2008; Crush &               it, ‘they have provided an environment wherein
Frayne, 2010; Landau, 2011; Misago, 2011;                 such xenophobic violence has effectively been
Misago, 2016). The World Conference Against               legitimized by the state’ (p. 589). This
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and             observation resonates well with Adjai and
Related Intolerance (WCAR) Declaration (as                Lazaridis’ (2013) argument that, under
cited in Adjai & Lazaridis, 2013, p. 194) defines         xenophobia, institutions have been used to
xenophobia as ‘attitudes, prejudices and                  exclude the ‘other’ through practice and not by
behavior that reject, exclude and often vilify            design.
persons, based on the perception that they are                   Second, foreign migrants are also constant
outsiders or foreigners to the community,                 targets and victims of violent xenophobic
society or national identity’. Meanwhile,                 attacks. This is not a new phenomenon. ‘Foreign
Neocosmos (2008, p. 587) argues that:                     nationals have been attacked repeatedly in South
                                                          Africa since 1994’ (Misago, 2011, p. 96; Adjai
      Xenophobia must be understood as a                  & Lazaridis, 2013, p. 195-196; Misago, 2016).
      political discourse […] the result of               Crush (2008) has also argued that xenophobia
      political       ideologies         and              has been a long-standing feature of post-
      consciousnesses – in brief, political               apartheid South African society. Indeed, many
      subjectivities – which have been                    grueling accounts of violence against foreign
      allowed to arise in post-apartheid                  migrants have been recorded between 1998 and
      South Africa, as a result of a politics             2008 (Crush & Frayne, 2010). However, one of
      of fear prevalent in both state and                 the most notorious occurrences of xenophobic
      society’.                                           violence in the world was the May 2008
                                                          violence. Most scholars agree that 62 people lost
      Xenophobia in South Africa takes multiple           their lives, a third of whom were local
forms; it can either be violent or institutional.         inhabitants, whereas at least 670 were wounded;
We will briefly touch on the two forms of                 dozens raped and more than 100 000 displaced
xenophobia we have put forward in an attempt              (Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in
to foreground our study’s point of departure.             South Africa (CoRMSA), 2008; Polzer,
First, institutional xenophobia is seen in the            Igglesden & Monson, 2009; Landau, 2011).
unapologetically xenophobic remarks by top                Misago (2016) argues that young people formed
ranking officials since 1994 including ex-Home            the vast majority of the perpetrators of the 2008
Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Zulu               violence. But ongoing studies are showing that
King Goodwill Zwelithini, Johannesburg Mayor              it is not angry, poor, young uneducated men
Herman Mashaba, Minister of Police Fikile                 who are most likely to perpetrate the violence
Mbalula, and most recently his deputy Bongani             by looting shops during protests for example.
Mkongi to name but a few. As Harris (2002)                Ongoing research by Social Surveys Africa has
puts it, ‘the shift in political power has brought        begun to show that there is no significant
about a range of new discriminatory practices             correlation with age, household-income level,
and victims and the ‘foreigner’ is one such               education and poverty and the propensity or
victim’ (p. 169). Institutional xenophobia                disposition to loot from foreigners.
manifests itself in South African practices                      Several scholars have tried to explain the
through the exclusion and discrimination of               causes of xenophobic violence differently.
foreigners in various institutions like banks,            While it is not the intention of this paper to
hospitals, the Department of Home Affairs,                settle those debates, it will briefly identify a few
police, and social service providers (Landau,             arguments and concepts that are key to the
2010). This has persuaded critics to assert that          following discussion and analysis. Misago
xenophobia has thus become institutionalized in           (2016) has argued that the May 2008 violence
practices of ‘street-level bureaucrats’ like              cannot be understood nor investigated in
immigration officers, health care providers,              isolation from the general history of violence in
police officers and policy makers since 1994              informal settlements and townships. Structural
because of the perceived ‘threat’ foreigners              violence by the state through repression and
pose. Neocosmos (2008) argues that, although              resource, opportunity inequalities during
Vanyoro & Ncube; The coverage of xenophobia research in selected South African newspapers   79

apartheid created a climate where housing,                 definitional preoccupations. Naming the
education, jobs, wages and service delivery are            violence ‘Afrophobic’ is politically expedient
today politicized (Hamber, 1999 as cited in                because it focuses on the effects of apartheid
Misago, 2016). Indeed, as Misago (2016) notes,             and internalized racism rather than the actual
the violence against foreign nationals speaks in           political drivers, including poor leadership
part to the history of tensions between local              (Polzer & Takabvirwa, 2010); absolving the
urban residents and internal migrants in                   state of any blame in the process. In other
townships. In light of this, others have thus              words, it also allows the state to blame the
proposed that xenophobia can be explained by               violence on a third force (Nyar, 2010; Landau,
relative deprivation. Lerner, Roberts and                  2011), a term that largely refers to unidentified
Matlala (2009, p. 16) for example submit that,             ‘white racists’ attempting to stifle the pan-
‘In South Africa, high expectations for                    Africanist agenda and the ‘African renaissance’.
employment, housing and other social                       This argument is cemented by Ndlovu-Gatsheni
provisions, coupled with the realization that              (2011) who argues, ‘The outbreak of
delivery of these is not immediate, are seen to            xenophobic attacks in May 2008 […] ran
result in frustration targeted at foreigners.’ In          counter to the philosophies of ‘Ubuntu’ and
other words, xenophobia manifests itself as a              African Renaissance that Mbeki was
spillover of citizen opposition to migration and a         articulating’ (p. 281). Ultimately, ‘xenophobia
by-product of political scapegoating which                 undermines concepts such as the rainbow
blames       migrants      for    the    country’s         nation’ (Adjai & Lazaridis, 2013, p. 194).
unemployment woes. Foreigners are seen as                         The denials of xenophobia in the country
taking jobs away from locals and, as we will               have gone as far as citing criminal elements as
show, there is a perception among locals that              the responsible ‘third-force’. Polzer and
they fare better economically as a result.                 Takabvirwa (2010) argue that the South African
       However, conditions of real or perceived            Police Service’s (SAPS) response to the 2008
socio-economic and political deprivation alone             violence in protecting victims was quite
cannot explain the outbreak of violence in                 ambivalent and left a lot to be desired. Yet, the
specific locations in specific times (and not              Thabo Mbeki regime then took a denialist stance
others) (Fauvelle-Aymar et al., 2011).                     and underplayed the attacks as ‘criminal’ and
Therefore, the concept of relative deprivation is          not xenophobic (Polzer & Takabvirwa, 2010;
not a sufficient explanation on its own (Misago,           Landau, 2011). Mbeki even went as far as
2016). As Neocosmos adds, it requires little               arguing that there was no xenophobia in the
effort to see that, however real; economic                 country (Amisi, Bond, Cele & Ngwane, 2010).
factors cannot account for why those deemed                There is a general consensus in the literature we
non-South Africans are attacked (Neocosmos,                reviewed that the tendency by public officials in
2008).                                                     South Africa to reduce xenophobia to
       There has also been scholarly and political         criminality is a long-standing discourse in the
contestation over the terminology of                       country, more profoundly within the police
xenophobia. Sevenzo (2010) refers to the attacks           service (Polzer & Takabvirwa, 2010). It aims at
on foreigners as ‘Afrophobic’ and not                      sustaining other discourses beside those of a
xenophobic. However, while more Africans are               ‘xenophobic crisis’. This observation reiterates
targets, referring to the violence as ‘Afrophobia’         Lindley’s (2014) argument that ‘political actors
fails to adequately explain why other non-                 may promulgate a ‘business-as-usual’ or non-
African       groups      including     Pakistanis,        crisis discourse, seeking to deny or minimize
Bangladeshis and Chinese are targeted. Against             empirical experiences and objective indicators
this argument Sevenzo’s (2010) definition of the           of severe threat and discontinuity’ (p. 6) (italics
2008 and subsequent xenophobic violence as                 ours).
‘Afrophobia’ is contentious. This is one term,                    In terms of actual justice, only one person
which is empirically unsubstantiated, and one              was brought to book by the South African
that we shall have occasion explicitly to reject.          justice system (The Times, 2015). Besides that,
Political interests and attempts not to taint the          hundreds of other perpetrators of the violence
romanticized image of Desmond Tutu’s so-                   simply went unpunished. That said there was
called inclusive ‘rainbow’ nation by avoiding              another recurrence of xenophobia in 2015,
the ‘X-word’ have in large part driven such                starting off in the township of Soweto and
80   Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2018

manifesting more acutely in Durban and across             xenophobic violence publicly, an argument that
other parts of Gauteng. Our review of existing            has also been made elsewhere (for e.g., see
literature suggests that, in the long run,                Vanyoro, 2015).
notwithstanding other factors, this recurrence                   Second, in terms of scholarly responses,
can be partly accounted for by the culture of             most studies that have explored xenophobia in
impunity underscored by scholars like Misago              the country have tended to focus on violent and
(2016). Impunity has allowed violence to                  institutional xenophobia. We are particularly
become one of the ways citizens use to grab               responding to this gap: that Media Studies have
government attention to attend to poor service            simply focused on the manner in which the
delivery issues, especially in poor townships and         media portray xenophobia, migrants and
informal settlements.                                     migrant related issues (institutionalized). This
       Xenophobic sentiments by top leaders               forms the point of departure for our paper in
have also elevated the xenophobic attitudes of            which we take a nuanced approach. We
locals. Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini in his             subscribe to Bourdieu’s (1999, p. 11) concept of
speech a few days before the attacks encouraged           symbolic violence by arguing that xenophobia is
Zulus to ‘remove ticks and place them outside in          symbolic violence where symbolic capital in the
the sun’. SAPS officially reported that seven             form of mass communication is used as a means
people were killed in the violence, three of              of power to reinforce an institutional and
which were South Africans. A thousand more                structural form of discrimination (italics ours)
undocumented by SAPS were displaced. This                 (Kamali, 2005; Sjoberg & Rydin, 2008). As
time around, for scholars like Achille Mbembe             Foucault (1980) argues, every regime of
(2015) the cancer had metastized. In what was a           representation is a regime of power formed. His
foreseeable and inevitable reincarnation of the           assertion holds true, as the media in South
violence, the rainbow nation’s image has again            Africa are a heated terrain of identity politics.
been brought to international disrepute in recent         By examining how xenophobia research as a
attacks in 2016 and 2017.                                 discourse in itself has been covered in the two
       We contend that there appears to be a bias         newspapers under study and how these
in both scholarly and media responses to                  newspapers uncritically picked up stories and
xenophobia in general. First, xenophobic                  purveyed them without a strong base facilitated
violence grabs more media attention than                  by research - to reinforce institutional forms of
institutional xenophobia. For example, it was             discrimination - this paper presumes to fill this
only in the month of May in 2008, a remarkably            scholarly gap.
violent, dark period in post-apartheid South
Africa, that the rainbow nation’s mainstream              Method of Study
media was flooded with graphic images of                  The study utilizes a qualitative research
violence against foreign migrants; burning                approach. Qualitative research is an approach to
shacks and even burning people that left the              human science research in which the researcher
continent and the whole world shocked (Nyar,              studies people, cultural practices or beliefs,
2010). This phenomenon and ‘politics of                   institutions, or communities in their natural
representation’ is well articulated in the work of        settings (Bryman, 2012; Yin, 2014). Qualitative
Polzer and Segatti (2011). They argue that,               research is usually utilized when there is need
some politicians, civil society, celebrities and          for a complex, detailed understanding of a
‘ordinary’ South Africans stood up in solidarity          difficult    problem     that   has     debarred
condemning the violence as it occurred. They              comprehension (Yin, 2014). The scarcity of
further posit that the violence in 2008 received          studies on the interface of empirical research
global media coverage and was debated publicly            findings and press coverage of xenophobic
(p. 200). They then refer to the violence as a            attacks in South Africa is a serious problem
‘crisis’ which created ‘political opportunity             worth investigating utilizing a qualitative
structures and universes of political discourse’          research methodological lens. Through a critical
for collective action. In other words, their              analysis of stories from the Mail & Guardian
conclusion is that violence provides a                    and the Sowetan newspapers on migration and
convenient window of visibility for multiple              xenophobia, we provide a detailed account on
actors within the public sphere to assert their           the extent to which empirical research findings
legitimacy and relevance through condemning               informed the selected newspapers’ framing of
Vanyoro & Ncube; The coverage of xenophobia research in selected South African newspapers   81

the xenophobia discourse.                                          Data was collected using an online
        Grounded in the interpretive prism of              archive called SA Media. Because of the need to
qualitative research, we make inferences by                access documents created at some point in the
interpreting different trends, and forms of                relatively distant past, this archive provided
meaning        constructed     through       textual       access that the researchers might not otherwise
representation by the two newspapers under                 have had (Ventresca & Mohr, 2001). Purposive
study (one could call these media frames)                  sampling was used to select articles for analysis.
immersed in social context. This is a fitting              Purposive sampling is simply selecting groups
complement to the qualitative research process             or categories to study on the basis of their
that entails identifying categories, and patterns          relevance to the research questions and the
that emerge from the data under scrutiny (Leedy            theoretical position (Yin, 2011; Bryman, 2012).
& Ormrod, 2005).                                           The sampling procedure involved two stages.
        The study employs an explanatory case              Firstly, articles falling within the period between
study approach. A case study is ‘an empirical              2008 and 2013, and exclusively reporting on the
inquiry that investigates a contemporary                   themes of migration and xenophobia, were
phenomenon within its real-life context,                   collected. In the second stage, relevant articles
especially when the boundaries between                     that used xenophobia research findings in their
phenomenon and context are not clearly                     reporting were screened towards much detailed
evident’ (Yin, 2011, p. 13). Case studies are              analysis. Eventually, from a total of 476
generally associated with a qualitative                    migration and xenophobia articles, there
methodology, and have become a common way                  remained only 14 articles from the Sowetan and
to conduct qualitative enquiry (Yin, 2011). A              57 articles from the Mail & Guardian that
case study approach suits the intention of this            grappled with the discourse of research findings
research, which examines newspaper coverage                in their reportage. This disparity is explained by
of a contemporary topic in South Africa:                   the fact that most articles in the Sowetan had a
xenophobia. Often, case studies are the                    huge inclination towards sensationalism at the
preferred strategy ‘when ‘how’ or ‘why’                    expense of engaging critically with the
questions are being posed’ (Yin, 2011, p. 1).              discourse of knowledge unlike, in the Mail &
The paper shows how the Mail & Guardian and                Guardian, a more ‘elite’ newspaper which takes
the Sowetan newspapers in reporting recurring              evidence relatively more seriously. Analysis
xenophobic attacks in South Africa, from 2008-             was narrowed exclusively to these 71 articles,
2013, ‘conveniently’ deployed empirical                    employing a Foucauldian discourse lens to
research findings. However, the limitation of the          analyze the ‘discursive formation’ of text
case study is that the findings cannot be                  through the nature of reporting. In the following
generalized. Yin (2011) contends that case                 section, the findings are discussed employing
studies can only be generalized to theoretical             insights from Foucault’s theory of discourse,
propositions and not to populations or universes.          power and knowledge.
In this case, our findings are specific to the Mail
& Guardian the Sowetan newspapers.                         Research findings and discussion
        Our focus was on the Sowetan, the                  (See tables 1 and 2 for summation of
largest morning daily with over 1.5 million daily          coverage trends).
readers and the Mail & Guardian, a weekly
publication (Danso & McDonald, 2001). The
choice of the two newspapers was influenced by
our observation that these are popular
newspapers reporting significantly on migration
and xenophobia issues.
82     Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2018

Table 1: Trends: Mail & Guardian
coverage of migration related issues (2008
2013)

Year                   migration         xenophobia           Research           Total          articles
                       coverage          coverage             coverage           reporting migration
                                                                                 related issues/year
2008                   69                65                   14                 150
2009                   36                10                   3                  49
2010                   42                14                   15                 71
2011                   34                5                    12                 51
2012                   64                0                    2                  66
2013                   67                11                   11                 89
Total                  312               105                  57                 476
Frequency

Table 2: Trends: Sowetan coverage of migration related issues (2008 to 2013)
Year             migration       xenophobia          Research         Total    articles
                 coverage        coverage            coverage         reporting
                                                                      migration
                                                                      related issues/
                                                                      year
2008             3               100                 8                126
2009             0               15                  6                20
2010             2               15                  0                17
2011             0               9                   0                10
2012             4               10                  0                14
2013             1               6                   0                7
Total            10              158                 14               198
frequency

Research coverage by both newspapers                        xenophobia issues (65 times) and migration
was relatively lower than overall migration                 issues (150 times), which is a lot than in
and xenophobia coverage. Therefore, it is                   subsequent years. Similarly, from Table 2,
plausible to assert that the two newspapers                 we observe that, in 2008, the Sowetan
did not use much scientific evidence in                     reported more on xenophobia issues (100
their reporting. As we demonstrate later,                   times), which is also significantly higher
where the two newspapers employed                           than in subsequent years. This suggests that
‘empirical evidence’, they did so in an                     there could have been a reactive interest in
uncritical manner. However, when                            the issues because it was also the year that
juxtaposed, the Mail & Guardian relatively                  the first major recorded xenophobic
utilized empirical data more than the                       violence outbreak took place in 21st
Sowetan. This could be explained by the                     century South Africa.
different patterns of their target audiences.                      A closer scrutiny of data shows that,
The Mail & Guardian mainly targets a                        on 5 June 2008, the Mail & Guardian had
more elite group than the Sowetan, which                    16 articles in one publication that reported
thrives more on sensational reporting.                      on xenophobia, and a similar trend can be
From Table 1, we observe that in 2008 the                   found in the 29 June 2008 edition. On 21
Mail & Guardian reported more on                            June 2008, the Sowetan had 11 articles in
Vanyoro & Ncube; The coverage of xenophobia research in selected South African newspapers   83

one publication reporting on xenophobia                   centered      on    reporting    xenophobic
issues, and a similar trend also took place               incidences with little attention to research
on 20 May 2008. Inferring from the                        findings on the issue (e.g., what causes
context, which shows that the worst                       xenophobia?). Where it did, it also reported
xenophobic violence took place in May                     ‘using’ findings, but in an uncritical
and June of 2008, this trend also suggests                manner.
reactive interest in the xenophobic violence                    In 2008, the Mail & Guardian
of that month.                                            published an article Xenophobia: Business
       Our interpretation of these findings               in Africa set to take a dive. The article was
persuades us to argue that the Mail &                     concerned with how South African
Guardian and the Sowetan had a reactive,                  business was set to take a dive ‘following
rather than proactive interest in these                   the wave of xenophobic attacks against
issues. Where the two newspapers were                     foreigners in the past few weeks’. The
interested, they picked up stories and                    journalist interviewed Saki Macozoma, one
purveyed them without a strong base                       of South Africa’s most prominent
facilitated by research, which is largely                 businessmen, and wrote:
contradictory to popular discourse. In so
doing, we argue, the two newspapers                           “These attacks will have serious
implicitly became complicit in a political                    implications for South African business
agenda that selectively deploys knowledge                     in other countries. Standard Bank’s
to reconsolidate state autonomy, political                    personnel has been threatened in
power, order and preserve the reputation of                   Mozambique,” he told the Mail &
the ‘rainbow’ nation. This view resonates                     Guardian. “Doing business on the
with Foucault (1980) who argues that, not                     continent is going to be harder.”
only is knowledge always a form of power,                     Macozoma cited an Institute for
but power is implicated in the questions of                   Security Studies assessment of the
whether and in what circumstances                             situation, which states: “What we have
knowledge is to be applied or not. In this                    seen is what some have termed a perfect
regard, media coverage uninformed by                          storm- the coming together of pent-up
scientific knowledge becomes tantamount                       frustrations over poor service delivery,
to ideology (seeThompson, 1990). This                         lack of leadership and the legacy of
mediated ideology, wittingly or not,                          apartheid”. “If you add into that witch’s
mobilizes a range of meanings and                             brew the culture of violence and general
practices to establish and sustain relations                  criminality, you have a potent cocktail
of domination and alterity (Chimni, 2000).                    of explosive material”, said Macozoma.
In order to strengthen this argument, we
draw on an analysis of the newspapers’                           (Mail & Guardian, 05-06-2008, p. 2).
content itself in the following two sections.
                                                          From the excerpt above, we argue that the
Reporting ‘using’ findings and not ‘on’                   article was primarily interested in South
findings                                                  African business operations in other
As tables 1 and 2 have shown, during the                  countries and its potentially negative plight
period 2008 to 2013, the Mail & Guardian                  in the light of xenophobic violence. It was
and the Sowetan’s research coverage was                   only in passing that the source made brief
relatively lower than that of migration and               reference to a particular piece of research
xenophobia issues. In this section, we                    from ISS. Research was only used in order
focus our analysis on the content of the                  to ‘build a story’ connected to other
relatively few articles that carried out                  possibly more ‘important’ proceedings and
‘research coverage’. During this period, the              ground a totally different story on
Mail & Guardian research coverage did                     empirical evidence in order to qualify
not report ‘on’ research findings per se,                 Macozoma’s         viewpoints.      Research
but, rather, it reported ‘using’ findings in              coverage itself does not appear to be the
an uncritical manner. In contrast, the                    primary interest here. Rather, empirics
Sowetan’s focus seemed to be more                         were only used to meet the objective,
84     Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2018

acceptable standards of social critique. If                 voice of the researcher, rather than to
anything, by using research as a reference                  problematize research evidence. Yet, as we
point, the article most probably created                    have already shown through our review of
‘moral panic’. This view is consistent with                 existing literature, economic factors alone
Boin (as cited in Lindley, 2014, p. 6) who                  cannot adequately explain the occurrence
argues that, ‘Political actors may be very                  of xenophobia (Neocosmos, 2008; Misago,
active in the construction of a crisis,                     2016).
typically because it serves to justify, or                              However, there were a few
reorient the dominant policy agenda in                      notable exceptions where the Mail &
ways they deem desirable’. In another                       Guardian gave researchers space to write
article   headlined       Copy-cat   ethnic                 opinion pieces or special columns, in order
cleansing, the journalist wrote:                            to put some of their findings across. Here is
                                                            an excerpt from an article headlined
     Xenophobia may have been the spark                     Xenophobia: No one is safe, written by two
     that set Ajax alight this week, but                    researchers from ACMS (FMSP at the
     joblessness, crime, a lack of service                  time). They wrote:
     delivery and soaring prices provided the
     kindling. Loren Landau of the Forced                        This      week       the   International
     Migration Studies programme at the                          Organization for Migration launched a
     University of the Witwatersrand points                      report on the violence and responses to
     out that “in some instances, leaders have                   it. With research conducted by the
     blamed foreigners to deflect criticism                      Forced Migration Studies Programme
     around the lack of jobs and service                         at Wits, it argues that the violence is
     delivery”. Lashing out at foreigners is                     rooted in the antisocial politics of life
     rather like domestic violence, he says:                     in our townships and informal
     “A man who loses his job may go home                        settlements. Based on almost 300
     and beat his wife. He’ll feel better for                    interviews across the country, it shows
     five minutes, but in the morning his                        that local leaders mobilized the
     wife is bruised and he still doesn’t have                   violence to claim and consolidate
     a job.”                                                     power and further their economic and
                                                                 political interests. There was no third
       (Mail & Guardian, 22-05-2008, p. 4).                      force.
                                                                  (Mail & Guardian, 26-03-2009, p. 23).
The article only made reference to
xenophobia research findings against a pre-                       We observe differences in tone
existing premise. The researcher as a                       between this excerpt and the previous one
‘source’ was called upon to validate the                    where the journalist only appealed to
journalist’s viewpoint that ‘joblessness,                   knowledge to substantiate their premise.
crime, a lack of service delivery and                       By use of technocratic language and a
soaring prices provided the kindling’,                      strong ownership of claims and voice
instead of objectively unpacking actual                     through premises such as ‘There was no
research findings and discussing them                       third force’, we begin to see the value such
against the context they exist in. The                      forms of coverage ‘on’ findings can bring
researcher was called upon to provide their                 to critical journalism. We also begin to see
view, against an already established lead,                  much critical analysis of the causes of the
paradigm and discourse. Reference to                        violence, beyond popular discourse that
research was made within the ‘parameters’                   presents xenophobia as purely economic or
of the journalist’s biases and agenda by                    ‘Afrophobic’ while ignoring its political
first establishing their own premise then                   drivers. But there are very few cases of
validating this viewpoint using a solicited                 such opinion pieces within our sample and
quote to justify a ‘certain kind’ of                        during the period we investigated.
argument. In this regard, research was only                       Findings of this article are consistent
used as reference point. For some reason,                   with Danso and McDonald’s (2001) study,
the journalist preferred to use the active                  which show that the South African press
Vanyoro & Ncube; The coverage of xenophobia research in selected South African newspapers   85

tends to be unanalytical, uncritical and                   categories as ‘his people’ and ‘others’,
lacking in depth, even where they do report                revolving     around      the    ‘dangerous’
using research findings. They mostly use                   nationalist binaries of insider-outsider that
research to appease acceptable standards of                caused xenophobia in the first place. The
social critique which emphasize the need                   same article cited Human Science Research
for evidence-based reporting, but as Danso                 Council (HSRC) and ISS research showing
and McDonald (2001) note, the coverage                     that a majority of South Africans were in
may appear neutral, but there is a tendency                fact xenophobic. Here is the excerpt:
by so-called ‘statistics-happy’ journalists
and editors to catalogue statistics and other                    Research conducted by the
data on migration and so this apparent                           Human         Sciences     Research
neutrality does not necessarily constitute                       Council (HSRC) and the Institute
good reportage or a lack of bias.                                for Security Studies in 1996 and
                                                                 1997 showed that South Africans
Tension between discourses of ‘empirical                         were becoming more xenophobic
knowledge’ and ‘popular perceptions’                             in their attitudes towards migrants
The article also shows that tension was                          generally and illegal immigrants
visible between discourses of ‘empirical                         in particular. The survey showed
knowledge’ and ‘popular perceptions’ in                          that     almost     two-thirds   of
the Mail & Guardian and the                                      respondents (65 percent) believed
Sowetan’smedia coverage. Few articles in                         that illegal immigration was “bad”
both newspapers either written by                                or “very bad” for the country.
researchers or citing research, seemed to                                  (Sowetan, 04-09-2008, p. 13).
always suggest a contrary belief system to
popular public and political discourses on                 This research countered Mbeki’s denialist
migration and xenophobia. Polemical                        claims, again confirming tensions between
discourses were evident between popular                    empirical knowledge and popular public
perceptions and research in the two                        and political discourse. Another article in
newspapers, wherein ‘indigenous locals’                    the Mail & Guardian headlined Sanco
perceived foreign migrants negatively even                 chief in war over RDP houses, also
when scientific evidence suggested that                    demonstrated the overt contestation
migrants are positive contributors to South                between empirical and popular discourse in
Africa’s socio-economic dynamic.                           the text. The Mail & Guardian reported:
      For instance, an article in the Sowetan
entitled Xenophobia deepening reflected                         ANC MP Rose Sonto, also the
these contestations. Thabo Mbeki, then                          head of the South African National
South African president, strongly denied                        Civic Organisation (Sanco) in the
that the 2008 violent attacks were                              Western Cape, this week repeated
xenophobic, arguing instead that they were                      unsubstantiated allegations that
criminal. In a clear ring of denial, he was                     foreigners are buying government
quoted as saying: “When I heard some                            subsidized houses and forcing
accuse my people of xenophobia, of hatred                       South Africans to live in shacks.
of foreigners, I wondered what the accusers                     […]. Following the allegations, the
knew of my people, which I did not know.”                       provincial minister of housing,
(Sowetan, 04-09-2008, p. 13)                                    Richard Dyanti, went on a fact-
      This excerpt portrayed tensions                           finding mission to Du Noon.
between research showing that the violence                      Dyanti and 32 officials conducted a
was xenophobic and not criminal (Polzer &                       door-to-door investigation of 500
Takabvirwa,       2010)      with      popular                  houses in the township, and
government discourse. Mbeki used                                discovered that only one was
inclusive and exclusive phrases like ‘my                        owned by a foreigner.
people’, to disregard the existence of                                   (Mail & Guardian, 12-06-
xenophobia in the country. Implicitly, his                                             2008, p. 10).
speech suggested that there were such
86     Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2018

      Housing is a highly politicized                           owned by foreign nationals whose
discourse in South Africa, and it has been                      refugee status is unknown to us as
responsible for most service delivery                           citizens of this country.
outrages by citizens over the years.
Consequently, locals in the Western Cape                         (Mail & Guardian, 12-06-2008, p. 10).
township of Du Noon had been repeatedly
blaming foreigners for supposedly                                 The Sowetan also reported an almost
‘stealing’ their Reconstruction and                         similar story on the topic of foreigners
Development Programme(RDP) housing.                         ‘stealing’ RDP housing from locals,
As a result, foreigners had been targeted in                headlined Corruption fans the anger (4
the 2008 xenophobic attacks. The literature                 June, 2008). Unlike the above article, the
we reviewed shows that politicians also                     journalist did not use any research to prove
stirred this discourse. For example                         whether the claim that foreigners steal
Mangosuthu Buthelezi the ex-Home                            migrant housing was true or not. But given
Affairs Minister stated in 1998, ‘if we as                  the little amount of research used in the
South Africans are going to compete for                     newspaper’s overall coverage during this
scarce resources with millions of aliens                    period; this observation comes as a little
who are pouring into South Africa, then we                  surprise.
can bid goodbye to our Reconstruction and                         In an article titled, ‘Putting out ‘fire
Development Programme’ (Neocosmos,                          next time’ in the Mail & Guardian, we also
2008, p. 588). However, as an investigation                 observe tensions between empirical
by Richard Dyanti, the Member of the                        knowledge and popular perceptions. The
Executive Council (MEC) for local                           writer presented evidence from FMSP at
government and housing in the Western                       Wits University, which argued that,
Cape later proved, the notion that                          ‘immigrants, even at the bottom of the
foreigners were ‘stealing’ RDP housing                      heap’ help to create employment
belonging to locals was a pure case of                      opportunities for South Africans ‘rather
scapegoating, perpetrated through popular                   than taking away their jobs’. But this
perceptions. Du Noon is predominantly a                     argument did not sit well with an 18-year-
black population with an unemployment                       old South African, also featured in the
rate of 53%. There are 2 500 RDP homes                      article. This ‘indigenous local’: “[…]
in Du Noon therefore, while it is not clear                 expressed the standard sentiment: “They
what sampling strategy Dyanti’s Housing                     must go back to their countries. They do
Occupancy Survey used, it is safe to say                    not belong in South Africa.” (Mail &
the sampled 500 houses are illustrative of                  Guardian, 25-02-2010, p. 40).
the township profile. Nowhere is this                             One lady in that same article was also
contestation clearer than in Sonto’s                        quoted as saying: “These foreign people
conviction (like Buthelezi) that foreign                    come to South Africa with nothing, but
migrants were ‘stealing’ local RDP                          tomorrow he has cash, third day he owns a
housing, despite Dyanti’s evidence to the                   shop and fourth day he has a car. Where do
contrary. In February 2008, Mr Sonto told                   these foreign people get this money?”
an audience at the Human Settlement                         (Mail & Guardian, 25-02-2010, p. 40).
Summit in Cape Town that ‘three-quarters’                         In all fairness, given the huge
of the 2 500 RDP houses in Du Noon were                     disparity of inequality in South Africa, it is
owned by foreigners (South African                          to be expected that locals will be
Institute of Race Relations, 2008). In a                    suspicious of foreigners who generally tend
speech, Sonto was quoted as saying:                         to work harder to climb the social ladder,
                                                            and have been found to sometimes accept
     With no apology, I must say, in                        lower wages in sectors like hospitality
     what many would regard as being                        because of their precarity and poor
     xenophobic, when laying bare the                       monitoring of         employer      minimum
     dangerous problem that is creeping                     standards by the Department of Labour.
     into our democracy […] many                            But, through our observation, we are
     houses in various localities are                       critical of the writer’s unanalytical
Vanyoro & Ncube; The coverage of xenophobia research in selected South African newspapers   87

standpoint. The writer stated that perhaps                were used; this was done in an unanalytical
‘this makes perfect sense’ for people who                 and uncritical manner.
have just come out of apartheid expecting a
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