Maart 2013: jaargang 10, nommer 1 - LitNet

Abstract
LitNet Akademies Jaargang 10 (1), Maart 2013
Rapport’s reporting on school violence, 1994–2011: a multidimensional social problem
Violence forms an inseparable part of the South African and international education
landscape. Not only researchers, but also all members of the public are displaying an
increasing interest in school violence in the South African context. They all turn to the media
for information about this topical social problem. To boost circulation figures, as well as
viewer and listener figures, the mass media are more than willing to comply with their
readers’, listeners’ and viewers’ demand for news on school violence. The media can
determine, consciously as well as subconsciously, through selection and emphasis, which
aspects of a specific news event are more important that another. The media can report on a
single event in various ways. The reality (news) presented by the media is therefore not an
objective, but an interpreted reality. If media reporting of school violence is biased, media
users’ views will also be biased or warped.
From an investigation into some local and international media analyses about school violence
the following deficiencies transpire in South African studies: up to now, no study has been
undertaken about the electronic media or a single newspaper’s portrayal of school violence.
Against the background to these deficiencies, the objective of this study is to answer the
following research question: What message does the Sunday newspaperRapport convey to its
readership public regarding school violence? In the quest for an answer to the question this
article reports on a media analysis of 43 news reports and editorial comments that have
appeared over a period of 18 years (1994–2011) in Rapport. The data system was identified
with the help of SA Media’s database.
A three-level ecosystemic model, based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecosystems theory, which
illustrates the complexity of school violence, served as the theoretical point of departure for
this study.
Inductive, qualitative content analysis as well as an interpretive approach were used to
analyse the newspaper reports and editorial commentaries. Qualitative content analysis is a
recognised research model in media studies. As the objective of this study was an in-depth
investigation into Rapport’s reporting on school violence, I decided to analyse both the
manifested and the latent content of the reports and editorial commentaries. Themes 1 to 4
were identified with the help of inductive analysis of the manifested content of the newspaper
reports and editorial commentaries. Themes 5 to 8 were identified by looking at both the
manifested and the latent content of the reports and editorial commentaries. The eight themes
are summarised briefly:
Theme 1: Learners are central to school violence. The biological and personality factors that
have an influence on individuals’ actions feature at the microlevel of Bronfenbrenners
ecosystemic model. In Rapport’s reporting on school violence the focus is on the individuals
– in this case the learners – as the main characters. In the reports, learners are one-
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