An analysis of The New Age’s framing of Jacob Zuma’s campaign trail in the run-up to the 2014 general elections

Abstract

Former South African President Jacob Zuma told a judicial commission investigating allegations of state capture that The New Age newspaper was his idea and that by facilitating its establishment, he hoped to create a less “negative” publication about his government. The Gupta family, who founded the now-defunct publication, had a “half-full glass” editorial posture toward Zuma's government. This study examines The New Age's framing of Zuma’s campaign trail in run-up to the 2014 general elections. It aims to answer the question: How did The New Age frame Jacob Zuma’s campaign trail in the run-up to the 2014 general elections? Using the framing theory, this study uses The New Age as a case study and conducts a qualitative content analysis of 150 articles related to Zuma’s campaign, published between January 11, 2014, and May 6 2014. The articles were analysed using thematic analysis. The results show that the good-story-to-tell frame, which was prevalent in Zuma’s speeches during the study period, dominated The New Age’s coverage of his campaign trail. The New Age also adopted the vilification frame, also sponsored by Zuma and his associates, to interpret the campaign message for the readership. The articles were also framed around Zuma being an electable, experienced leader and a nation-builder. The positive frames were complemented by Mandela, transformation, apartheid and jobs frames. The results suggest that The New Age lived up to Zuma’s expectation of positive news in its coverage of his election campaign. By studying not just how a newspaper framed a candidate's campaign trail, but also the frame sponsors, this study enhances the discourse of news framing of presidential election campaigns, which is scarce in Africa, and notably in South Africa. There have been few framing studies focusing on frame sponsorships and the relationship between media frames and general political and social power issues. Therefore, this study departs from the norm. This is also the first study to examine how The New Age framed issues. This study looked at an essential part of the media: an editorial posture and how it relates to the framing of a political issue in the South African media. As a contribution to knowledge, the study discovered that Zuma's association with The New Age's founding owners resulted in the frames that journalists adopted in their coverage of his election campaign.