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SA media plays significant role in Covid-19 coverage and awareness

28 Apr 2020

It has been nearly a month since South Africa went into lockdown to flatten the curve in the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. The media has played a pivotal role in helping citizens to understand and navigate this challenging time where data shows that most coverage was around various issues from economic impact, announcements by government and ways for the nation to function.

SA media plays significant role in Covid-19 coverage and awareness

In the fourth release of weekly research by Ornico, media data analysis shows that – out of a sample of 4838 media items collected – the most syndicated coverage continues to talk to the economic impact of the pandemic. The data analysed was collected from online, print and broadcast sources from 15-21 April 2020.

Newspaper and online coverage account for 81% of mentions in the sample data analysed with online media contributing 59% of all coverage. The past week’s media analysis shows Media24’s Riana de Lange, Elvira Wood and Hendrik Cronje to feature as leading journalists. IOL journalists took the lead weekly for the first three weeks of the lockdown media research, which now reflects Media24 in the latest results.