March 08, 2022

Media Release: Lens on Gender-Based Violence – an analysis of media coverage

MEDIA POLICY & QUALITY RESEARCH AND ANALYSISMedia Release
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Media Release 

8 March 2022

JOHANNESBURG, 8 March 2022 – Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) conducted a media monitoring and analysis of the coverage of Gender-Based Violence in South African media. From the five year monitoring period (2015 to 2020) over 30 000 stories about or relating to Gender-Based Violence were collected. To streamline the analysis, only periods with peaks were selected for manual monitoring and analysis. This process saw 400 stories being monitored and analysed to determine trends.

South Africa has been battling Gender-Based Violence for a long time but the period 2018 to 2019 saw a huge public outcry, street protests and a media storm including social media movements against rape and murder. Findings reveal that the year 2020 had the biggest coverage of the scourge with over 100 stories recorded in that year. The lowest recorded was in 2015 with 30 stories. A deep analysis indicates that media coverage of Gender-Based Violence in South Africa only started improving in terms of quantity after national and global movements like the national 2016 #EndRapeCulture campaign and the global #MeToo movement that went viral in 2017.

Another key finding is that most of the coverage came from Gauteng at 21% with Mpumalanga and Northern Cape receiving the least amount of coverage at 1% each.

Lastly, the quality of information in these stories was analysed. While all the stories provided basic context at 100%, only 7% discussed relevant policies to do with Gender-Based Violence. Further and sadly, only 1% of the stories on Gender-Based Violence provided self-help information for the public.

For further information, please contact:

Lister Namumba, Media Monitoring Africa, Tel: 011 7881278, listerr@mma.org.za

For more information about Media Monitoring Africa and its work visit  www.mediamonitoringafrica.org

About the Lens On Gender-Based Violence report:

About MMA

Media Monitoring Africa‘s vision is a responsible, quality media that enables an engaged and informed citizenry in Africa and across the world. MMA aims to promote the development of a free, fair, ethical and critical media culture in South Africa and the rest of the continent. To achieve MMA’s vision, the three key areas that MMA seeks to address through a human rights-based approach are: media ethics, media quality and media freedom.

For more information about MMA and its work for children visit www.mediamonitoringafrica.org
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