US network evening news portrayal of the new South Africa

Abstract

This study sought to understand how political changes in South Africa have affected coverage by the US network evening news programs between 1990 and 1996. A content analysis of abstracts from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive was done, continuing earlier work by Giffard & Cohen (1990) on coverage of South Africa from 1982–1987. The concern with lack of representation of international stories and with negative presentation of developing countries in US nightly news was investigated. The study found a steady decrease in coverage of violence, and an increase in coverage of government activities. Upon examining gender, political affiliation, and occupation of the sources in the stories, we also found a lack of diversity of sources in South African coverage. Overall, a gulf was identified between the actual situation and how it is portrayed.