South Africa's media often portrays foreigners in a bad light. This fuels xenophobia

By Sikanyiso Masuku, Research Fellow at The Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Aﬀairs (TM-School), University of South Africa
Sizo Nkala, Research Fellow

The media’s huge influence comes from the fact that it’s capable of affecting public perceptions. In the light of this we set out to understand how South Africa’s print media writes about foreigners. And the implications of this representation on local attitudes towards foreign nationals.

Our recently published study looked at the representation of foreigners in some of South Africa’s biggest print and online newspapers. These included the Mail & Guardian, Sowetan, Times Live, Daily Maverick,…

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