U. Frames used,
5.2 Qualitative data presentation: Thematic coding
5.2.3 Qualitative thematic coding of online reports on the case of Noluvo Swelindawo
On 3December 2016, Noluvo Swelindawo was taken from her home in Khayelitsha while her partner hid behind their bed and was witness to the homophobic motivation of the killers (The Citizen, 2016;
The Daily Maverick, 2016). Like many victims of homophobia, Swelindawo knew her killers (News24, 2016). Her badly beaten body was thrown over a bridge and found on 4 December 2016 with a gunshot wound (The Daily Maverick, 2016). Sigcine Mdani was arrested and the trial date was postponed to 21 December 2016 (IOL, 2017). As Case 3, the four selected online reports pertaining to Swelindawo’s murder provided a perspective on reporting where there was a clear targeting of the victim because of her sexual orientation.
171 Table 5.8: Qualitative data collected on four selected online reports on the killing of Noluvo
Swelindawo
Article 1 Article 2 Article 3 Article 4 TOTAL
K2: "Lesbian" X X X X 100%
K7: Other X 25%
L1: Binary: Gendered pronouns used when referring to the victim;
"she", "her", "herself"
X X X 75%
L3: No pronouns used to
refer to victim(s) X 25%
M1: Meaningfulness X X 50%
M2: Conflict X X 50%
M4: Sex X X 50%
M5: Conservative ideology
or political diversion X 25%
N: Headings of
online reports N2: Emotive X X X X 100%
O7: No Comments X 25%
O8: No "Comments"
feature X X X 75%
P1: No "Share" feature X X 50%
P3: "Share" feature f t X X 50%
Q: Accuracy of the
online report Q1: No inaccuracy found X X X X 100%
R1: Non-secularist
(reference to religion) X 25%
R2: Secularist/ Neutral (no
reference to religion) X X X 75%
S1: Descriptor(s) indemnifying the accused
of the crime against the victim
X 25%
S2: No reference to culpability of the accused
of the crime against the victim
X X 50%
S4: No reference(s) to
accused X 25%
T1: No source(s) consulted X 25%
T2: Source(s) has objective
epistemic perspective X X X 75%
T3: Source(s) has subjective epistemic
perspective
X X 50%
U1: Human interest X 25%
U3: Morality X X X 75%
U: Frames used, according to Entman
(1991) S: Reference to the
accused
T: The nature of sources consulted K: Moniker used to refer to lesbians in
online reports (general)
L: Gendered, or non- binary/ neutral
pronouns of victim(s); or no use
of pronouns (specific)
M: Conditions for news evident in online reports as described by Galtung & Ruge (1965) and Jewkes
(2004)
P: "Share" feature whenever they appear on each online report is also
seen by audiences and contribute to the context of the
report
R: Ideological approach clearly identifiable in the online report; online
writing contextualised by
religion O: "Comments"
whenever they appear on each online report is also
seen by audiences and contribute to the context of the report (see "social
plugin" from Almgren & Olsson,
2016)
172 In all the selected online reports (100%) on this case, “lesbian” (K2) was used to refer to the victim, while online report 3 also referred to Swelindawo as “LGBTI” (K7) (Cape Talk, 2016). In 75% of the reports binary gender pronouns were used (L1) to refer to the subject, for example “she” and “her”
(Mzantsi, 2018), while 25% of the reports did not refer to the subject by using any pronouns (L3), as her name “Noluvo Swelindawo” (News24, 2016) or “Noluvo” (Verwoerd, 2016) was used.
Meaningfulness (M1) was used as a condition for news in 50% of the reports, for example “We know that the majority of killings, rape and assault on women in this country are by men known to their victims” (Verwoerd, 2016) and “…discrimination against LGBTI people, including killings and assaults, continued...”. Such attacks were believed to be “grossly under-reported to police, reads a report…” (News24, 2016), while 50% of the reports included reference to conflict (M2), for example
“shot dead” (Mzantsi, 2016). Also, 50% included sex (M4), for example “…said to the press that Noluvo was not killed because of her sexual orientation. When asked how she knew, she answered…”
and “...hate crimes...” (Verwoerd, 2016). It was found that 25% of the reports included references to conservative ideology or political diversion (M5), for example “…government and lobby groups failed to transform society to walk with the rights…” (Cape Talk, 2016).
All four the selected online reports (100%) had headlines in which emotive language was used (N2):
“Partner tells of lesbian’s brutal murder” (Mzantsi, 2016), “To love who we want is the most basic right” (Verwoerd, 2016), “Suspected lesbian hate crime indicative of SA’s social crisis, says activist”
(Cape Talk, 2016), and “An awful year for human rights – Amnesty International” (News24, 2016). In 25% of the articles no comments were made (O7), 75% did not have a “Comments” feature (O8), 50%
had no “Share” feature (P1), and 50% included a “Share” feature referring to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and email (P3). No inaccuracies were found in any of these reports (100%) (Q1) that related to the LGBTIQ issue of lesbian murder. Moreover, 25% was non-secularist (R1), for example
“…prayed for God not to take her…” and “If this is what God wants, then it is fine” (Mzantsi, 2016), while 75% of the reports had no reference to religion (R2). One of the reports (25%) indemnified the accused of culpability (S1) by stating, “You get labelled [for] a lot of things and that we do not respect men’s dignity” (Mzantsi, 2016), while 50% of the reports made no reference to the responsibility of the accused for the crime against the victim (S2). It was found that 25% of the articles made no reference to the accused at all (S4).
In 25% of the reports no sources had been consulted (T1), while 75% of the reports included sources with an objective epistemic perspective (T2), for example “Police spokesperson, F.C. van Wyk…”
(Mzantsi, 2016), “Deputy Minister of Police Maggie Sotyu said to…” (Verwoerd, 2016), and “Triangle Project, LGBTI civil group…” (Cape Talk, 2016). However, 50% referred to sources that had a subjective epistemic vantage point, for example “Nqabisa Mkatali, partner of Noluvo Swelindawo…”
(Mzantsi, 2016) and “…Swelindawo was abducted from her home close to where Yonela grew up…”
173 (referring to a subject [pseudonym used to protect anonymity] who had been subjected to homophobia in Khayelitsha), as stated in a News24 report (Verwoerd, 2016). Lastly, 25% of the reports occupied a human-interest frame (U1) which can be observed in the second report by Verwoerd (2016), who wrote about a young lesbian and her perspective of homophobia in a township with reference to violence perpetrated against Swelindawo, while the other 75% of the reports used the morality frame (U3).