Xenophobia: The media giant of 2015?

SA news media

The xenophobic attacks yielded by far the most media coverage (66.36%) of news stories in South Africa, even more then Eskom and its loadshedding. It is interesting to see statues fall almost completely off the chart in the shadow of Xenophobia.

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SA social media in seven days

Xenophobic attacks also yielded the most publicity on social media (68.46%) - almost three times as much as Eskom. Interestingly xenophobia and Eskom yielded basically equal results in last week's media measurement.

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International news media in seven days

The amount of publicity generated by xenophobic attacks in South Africa is even more apparent when comparing it with international stories like the US Presidential Election, Star Wars and the Garissa University Massacre, where it yielded 16.36% of international news media publicity. Making Xenophobic SA bigger than Garissa, Bring Back our Girls commemoration and even the Holocaust remembrance.

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SA businesses mentioned in media coverage of xenophobia

After Sasol withdrew its South African employees from Mozambique, it became very apparent how South African businesses in Africa were affected by xenophobia. Other companies mentioned regularly in media coverage on xenophobia were MTN, Shoprite, SAB Miller and Game.

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Key themes of xenophobia media coverage

Several key themes could be identified in media coverage of xenophobia, including President Jacob Zuma (his reaction and calls that he should react), requests for peace, the death of Emmanuel Sithole (whose alleged murderers' case was postponed) and King Goodwill Zwelethini. Zwelethini and Edward Zuma have been largely blamed by some for inciting the xenophobic attacks and at the King's Imbizo on xenophobia, he accused the media of misquoting him, leading to the media being blamed for xenophobic attacks.

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Sentiment of media coverage on xenophobia

Most coverage on the xenophobic attacks was negative. Neutral coverage also yielded significant results, which could relate to news reports stating the mere facts and people voicing balanced opinions.

Countries reporting on xenophobic attacks in SA

As could be expected, South Africa yielded the most publicity, followed by the USA and Nigeria. South Africa and Nigeria are the two biggest economies on the African continent and threats were made by Nigerians about South Africans working there, which lead to the high coverage.

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The data set consists of:

- 206 million social networks (Global)

- 60,000 online newspapers (Global)
- Thousands of printed publications (South African and Rest of Africa)

- 76 radio and TV stations (South African)