Page 14 - SESSION 2 (Graduation e-BOOK)(3 October 2023)

School of Humanities, Society and Development
FACULTY OF EDUCATION &
HUMAN SCIENCES

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN MEDIA STUDIES

CANDIDATE: MAGADZA Moses E

CANDIDATE’S DISSERTATION
FRAMING OF KEY POPULATIONS BY THE
NAMIBIAN PRINT MEDIA IN COVERAGE OF HIV
AND AIDS (1990-2018).
This doctoral study was conducted under the supervision of Professor
Eno Akpabio (Main Supervisor) from the University of Namibia, and Dr
Phillip Santos (Co-Supervisor) from NUST.
The study analysed how the The Namibian and New Era newspapers
framed key populations (KPs) through reportage on HIV and AIDS and
to gauge the extent to which the voices of KPs were present in the
news coverage. It analyses factors shaping the way journalists from the
selected media have represented KPs vis-à-vis HIV and AIDS. The results
indicate the existence of a multiplicity of frames through which KPs
were reported on. They emanate from social, religious, political, and
cultural influences that also overlap to influence journalistic positions
assumed in the news reports. These include the nuisance frame, the
criminal frame, the victim frame, the superstition frame, the disease
vector frame, and the foreigner/other frame. Notably, the study also
reveals a different kind of framing – “silence as framing” - as the voices
of ordinary KPs are often conspicuous by their absence.

The study finds fault with objective journalism, which the two media
houses seemed to prefer. From Namibia’s independence in 1990, the
two publications took uncompromising positions on KPs. However,
since 2014 the tone towards KPs softened and the number of articles
about them increased. The study recommends that the media adopt
a Justice Centric form of journalism when reporting on marginalized
communities like sexual minorities.

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