Framing the Poor during Covid-19: Townships and Informal Settlements in South African Online News

Abstract South Africa’s deep-seated social inequality problem has been exposed and exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The economic pain and joblessness are disproportionately felt by the poor living in townships and informal settlements. This study investigates online news media’s coverage of the plight of poor people living in townships and informal settlements during the pandemic. Although numerous scholars have argued that the commercial media is biased and mutes the voices of the subalterns, this study shows an increase in the voices of ordinary citizens on the online media in question. During the pandemic, coverage of the poor and their issues increased and was framed from a human interest perspective. Despite this positive trend and the massive upsurge in online media during the pandemic lockdown, many online platforms are still linked to traditional media. In the final analysis, the commercial media’s problem of ownership, control, and concentration has migrated to online platforms. Because it is located in capitalist structures of power, commercialised media reproduces the views of the dominant powers and remains unable to unpack the underlying failures of capitalism. This article therefore makes a case for considering an alternative, decommodified media that will serve the majority as a public good.