It is generally agreed that the media have played and continue to play a major role in the efforts against HIV and AIDS. The literature shows that the media have not only informed the public but also circulated ideas that frame the pandemic in particular ways. The aim of this study was to uncover such ideas by examining how Sesotho newspapers represented HIV and AIDS between 1986 and 2015. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, the study focused on the ideologies encoded in dehumanising metaphors. The findings reveal that the main ideological function of these metaphors has been to promote stigma against those affected by the pandemic. The findings show that the newspapers used a variety of metaphors to achieve this goal, including those with the source domains of “dirt,” “plants” and “animals.” Although the use of these metaphors gradually declined over time, their long-lasting influence remains evident, as stigma continues to be a major barrier to HIV prevention, treatment and care in Lesotho. These findings suggest that value-free reporting can help to mitigate stigma and support effective HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment efforts.

On November 10, 1995 the Nigerian military regime executed author and political activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in spite of widespread international condemnation. This study examines American and British elite press coverage of Saro-Wiwa’s activism for the environment of the Niger Delta, the Ogoni people and the role Shell Oil played. Based on framing and content analysis, I argue that coverage was mostly episodic and revolved around Saro-Wiwa himself. His activism brought a modest increase of coverage that dissipated after his death. However, this study reveals differences in reporting between the American and British press, especially concerning the role of Shell Oil.

While multiple scholarly disciplines have scrutinised algorithms and their social power, this article examines algorithmic recommender systems in terms of their potential to reduce exposure diversity online. The paper positions the debate on algorithmic content curation within the theoretical framework of media diversity studies, emphasising the normative ideal of media diversity as a social good, and examining the impact of algorithmic behaviour on personal autonomy, specifically focusing on exposure diversity in online environments. The discussion then introduces a complementary concept to Pariser's (2011) notion of the “filter bubble,” namely the shrinkage funnel, and discusses this concept in terms of online exposure diversity, personal choice sovereignty, and its potential to initiate the illusory truth effect. The paper reviews selected examples of content restrictive algorithmic behaviour to demonstrate how shrinkage funnels can undermine personal autonomy and prompt detrimental societal or political outcomes. By distinguishing between filter bubbles and shrinkage funnels, this study provides a foundation for future empirical investigations and potential policy interventions aimed at promoting exposure diversity in algorithmically curated online environments.

This article examined the effects of digital media on radio's role in public discourse and civic engagement in South Africa. The study combined a review of existing literature with empirical research using in-depth interviews with 10 participants that included radio producers and listeners from radio stations that have Zulu as their broadcast language (five radio producers from Ukhozi FM and Gagasi FM and five listeners from Durban, South Africa). Two key questions were asked: (1) How has the growth of digital media affected radio's traditional role as the most popular platform for public discussion and civic engagement in South Africa? and (2) How do audiences engage with radio programming that utilises digital media during its discussion programmes, and what factors influence their preferences for one platform over another regarding accessing public discourse and civic engagement? The article argues that while radio remains a dominant platform for public discourse and civic engagement in South Africa, its role has been transformed by the rise of digital media. These platforms have allowed for more civic engagement opportunities and expanded the scope and accessibility of public discourse in a country where such opportunities were once restricted. The study's findings have important implications for radio broadcasters, policymakers, and scholars seeking to understand the changing dynamics of the public sphere in the digital age. Overall, this study highlights the importance of considering the impact of digital media on traditional media platforms such as radio, especially in countries undergoing significant political and social change.

This article employs the methodological framework of Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies to investigate language ideologies in the context of South African Twitter (now known as X) discourse. In the diverse linguistic landscape of South Africa, where multiple languages coexist, Twitter (X) serves as a digital space for users to express their identities, affiliations and perspectives. The study draws on a carefully compiled corpus of South African Twitter (X) data, encompassing tweets, retweets and replies, to conduct a comprehensive linguistic analysis. The article aims to illuminate how language ideologies in South African Twitter (X) often favour colonial principles of hierarchy, superiority, power and segregation of certain groups over others, reflecting historical efforts to marginalise some indigenous languages in favour of others. The article contributes significantly to the conversation on coloniality and the necessity to decolonise the Internet by thoroughly investigating the lasting impacts of colonisation on social media. It highlights the widespread presence of language ideologies within digital environments. Leveraging Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies allows quantitative and qualitative examination of patterns, frequency and discourse structures, enabling a nuanced understanding of how language ideologies are enacted and negotiated within this digital space. Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies facilitates the identification of recurrent linguistic patterns and explores how users strategically deploy linguistic resources to construct and negotiate their identities in a multilingual and multicultural digital space.

Allegations of corruption and rape against President Jacob Zuma constituted among the most covered stories in South Africa and beyond. Widely dubbed “the Zuma saga” by the media, the twin stories began with allegations of corruption in the arms deal. While the corruption case still gripped the public, another damning allegation (rape) surfaced and fermented the story to levels surpassed by no other story at the time. Zuma was subsequently acquitted of the rape charge, but the charge of corruption continued relentlessly until the eve of the 2009 elections, in which he was elected as president. But just as the South African public thought the dust was settling, Zuma was hit by another damning allegation of inappropriately spending R250 million on upgrading Nkandla, his private residence. This article is three-pronged. First, it examines the key issues that accounted for the media frenzy sparked by both the Nkandla debacle and the Zuma saga. Second, it unravels critical ethical questions and legal issues implicit in the aforementioned cases. Third, because Zuma’s acquittal raised questions regarding the independence of the judiciary, the article also assesses the condition of judicial independence in South Africa. Theoretically, the article is informed by the sociology of journalism ethics and the notions of ethical leadership and judicial independence.

Using the media agenda setting and media agenda building approaches as theoretical lenses, this qualitative study investigated whether media coverage of South African platinum mining companies results in a proportionate top-of-mind awareness of the companies among mining news consumers. This is a timely topic, considering the growth in business news coverage in recent times. This growth has been spurred on by, among others, the increasing popularity of share ownership in many countries, the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis, which resulted in stock market investors desiring to be savvier about the workings of the financial system, and the rise of the internet, a technology that has enabled media houses to distribute news to much larger numbers of news consumers than previously. The study entailed content analyses of news stories published by Mining Weekly, a Johannesburg-based news magazine, over a 14-month period and of the transcripts of 27 semi-structured interviews, after which the two datasets were compared. A positive relationship between media coverage and top-of-mind awareness was demonstrated.

This paper calls for greater scrutiny of data journalism as a practice in the semi-authoritarian context of Zimbabwe. Based on in-depth interviews with practising journalists in Zimbabwe, this paper answers two main questions: In what ways is data journalism practised in the Zimbabwean context? To what extent are newsrooms in Zimbabwe “tooled” and capacitated for data journalism practices? We note that data journalism is widely understood by individual journalists in this country but paradoxically less practised due to many challenges. By answering these two questions, we sustain an argument that data journalism appropriation in semi-authoritarian contexts can be instrumental in promoting monitorial democracy and reversing media decadence. In such a political context, which suffers from a democratic deficit, data journalism can cushion journalists from state-sanctioned harassment by “presenting facts to authorities” and reinvigorating “persecutory” practices like investigative journalism.

Humour can function as a protest against bad governance, and citizens often appropriate digital humour to speak back to power. The article analyses 20 satirical memes and texts shared on Facebook and WhatsApp after the government of Zimbabwe introduced bond notes in 2016. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe indicated that the bond notes would be pegged equally against the US dollar. However, the Zimbabwean populace did not embrace the idea of the bond notes. The article uses the theory of voice and the thesis of the weapons of the weak to interrogate how humour speaks truth to power on online public platforms. Zimbabwean netizens do not enjoy such an opportunity in the actual public sphere, given the inhibiting political environment in Zimbabwe. Civil resistance is a form of protest by civilians against those in authority. Cyberspaces offer alternative platforms for registering dissatisfaction with state policies in contexts where the state has orchestrated a substantial shrinkage of the democratic space.

This study adopts meta-analysis and text mining approaches to systematically explore the prevalence of agenda setting theory (AST) in Africa-focused publications indexed in high-impact databases from 2000 to 2020. It aims to evaluate the usage frequency of AST in Africa-focused studies, the dominant perspectives explored in these studies, the dominant communication medium of reference, the dominant academic disciplines, the dominant regions of focus in Africa, frequent keywords within these studies, and the authors’ institutional affiliations. The findings revealed a dearth of quality literature from 2000 to 2008, after which at least one paper was published each year from 2007 to 2020, with the exception of 2016. The research showed that media scholars (51%) published more papers, followed by scholars from political sciences (12%), ethnic studies (12%), public health (9%), development studies (6%), and public administration (6%). Although many papers were about South Africa (33%), other dominant countries of focus were Ghana (18%), Nigeria (12%), and Kenya (9%). The qualitative review revealed the major perspectives of the AST- related papers to be issues of political advocacy, governance, and social activism; rural, national, and regional transformation and development; and social representations and framing. The medium of communication most often referenced for agenda setting was the newspaper.