Browsing by Author "MUSHAYAVANHU, KUDAKWASHE"

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    FRAMING OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN NAMIBIAN NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NAMIBIAN, NAMIBIAN SUN AND NEW ERA
    (NAMIBIA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 2022-01) MUSHAYAVANHU, KUDAKWASHE
    Media plays a central role in communicating risks to the public during outbreaks of infectious diseases. Since Covid-19 was first discovered, media has played a critical role in providing health information and people have relied on the media for information about Covid-19. While much of what the public knows about COVID-19 and ways to prevent infection has come through various media platforms, the framing or how such messages were presented, to some extent, influenced public’s understanding, perception and behaviours in light of the pandemic. The aim of this study was to determine how newspapers in Namibia reported on the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of three (3) national daily newspapers were selected for the study namely, The Namibian, New Era and Namibian Sun newspapers. The study was anchored on the framing theory and a qualitative research design was used for the study. The study focused on selected articles which were written between 13 March 2020 and 31 December 2020. Findings of the study reveal that newspapers used different frames to report on COVID-19. Specifically, the frames that were employed by the Namibian print media include, among others, the alarming frame, the social frame, the recovery and the assurance frame. It was found that newspapers mainly utilised war terminology and pessimistic language in their reporting. The themes that emerged in the framing of the COVID-19 pandemic focused on crime-related issues, the impact of the pandemic and the medical-related issues. The study argues that media frames, which were used by the three newspapers can influence public’s understanding and response to Covid-19 interventions. It is therefore imperative for the media to consider the frames or ways in which messages are packaged as frames of media messages could have serious implications on how messages are received and acted upon.