A major Idasa report, “Press Coverage of Cross Border Migration to
South Africa Since 2000â€ÂÂ, says the country’s newspapers and news wire
services have played a major role in inflaming xenophobic sentiment, according to a report in the Sunday Times.
Drawing on earlier research, the 2005 study noted that less than 10% of South Africans had a “great deal†of contact with foreign Africans  and that, therefore, “anti-immigration sentiment in the region is not primarily a result of (personal experience) with foreigners but rather the product of (mis)information from secondary sources, including the mediaâ€ÂÂ.
In a study of 950 press reports on immigration, the survey found:
# More than half the articles used at least one negative reference ( job stealers, criminals, illegals …). This cumulative effect of rhetoric is perhaps the most revealing statistic of all;
# 17% used a “negative metaphor†to describe the migration, eg. floods, waves or hordes;
# 22% associated migrants with crime;
20% referred to migrants as illegals
# “The long discredited figure of nine million illegal immigrants living in South Africa … continues to be reproduced in the pressâ€ÂÂ;
“A large amount of press coverage remains anti-immigration and non-analyticalâ€ÂÂ;
# Of the articles that used the term “job stealersâ€ÂÂ, the SA Press Association (Sapa) was by far the worst offender, making up 38%; and
# The problem was inflamed by “the growth of a tabloid press in SA . . . which latch on to reactionary and sensational issues and attitudesâ€ÂÂ.
Click here to read the full report, posted on the Sunday Times website. ÂÂÂ