US Media Coverage of the 1994 Elections in South Africa

Abstract

Using a frame analysis technique, this article attempts to depict the way US media, represented here by the Washington Post and New York Times, presented major issues and actors in the 1994 South African elections. The data in support of the study's two hypotheses reveal that the media framed issues in such a way as to encourage negotiation, reconciliation, free and fair elections and the formation of an all-inclusive government. By contrast, the media discouraged violence, belligerence and separatism. Similarly, they projected a favorable image of South African pro-election groups or personalities, while they disfavored all forces that stood against free and fair elections and the installment of a government of national unity. Coverage was found to be reflective of American journalistic values of ethnocentricism and social order. The author concludes that the US media framed issues and actors in the South African elections based on American democratic values.