Mediating Xenophobia in Africa Unpacking Discourses of Migration, Belonging and Othering

This book brings together contributions that analyse different ways in which migration and xenophobia have been mediated in both mainstream and social media in Africa and the meanings of these different mediation practices across the continent. It is premised on the assumption that the media play an important role in mediating the complex intersection between migration, identity, belonging, and xenophobia (or what others have called Afrophobia), through framing stories in ways that either buttress stereotyping and Othering, or challenge the perceptions and representations that fuel the violence inflicted on so-called foreign nationals. The book deals with different expressions of xenophobic violence, including both physical and emotional violence, that target the foreign Other in different African countries.

1. Mediation, Migration and Xenophobia: Critical Reflections on the Crisis of Representing the Other in an Increasingly Intolerant World.- 2. Defying Empirical and Causal Evidence: Busting the Media’s Myth of Afrophobia in South Africa.- 3. Talk Radio and the Mediation of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa.- 4. Media, Migrants and Movement: A Comparative Study of the Coverage of Migration Between Two Pairs of sub-Saharan Countries.- 5. Knowledge, the Media and Anti-Immigrant Hate Crime in South Africa: Where are the Connections?.- 6. Quantitative Linguistic Analysis of Representations of Immigrants in the South African Print Media, 2011?2015.- 7. Xenophobia, the Media and the West African Integration Agenda.- 8. National Identity and Representation of Xenophobia in Mozambican Private and Public Television.- 9. ‘They are Vampires, Unlike Us’. Framing of South African Xenophobia by the Nigerian Press.- 10. ‘Uganda can Protect Chinese Investors but Not Its Own Citizens?’ Paradoxical Perspectives in Xenophobic Narratives and Practices Fostering Otherness in Uganda.- 11. Feminisation of Migration: A Thematic Analysis of News Media Texts About Zimbabwean Migrants in South Africa.- 12. ‘Africa Must Be … One Place, One Country’: Xenophobia and the Unmediated Representation of African Migrants in South Africa.- 13. Complicity and Condonation: The Tabloid Press and Reporting of Migrant Access to Public Health in South Africa.- 14. Gateways and Gatekeepers: Social Media and the (Re)Defining of Somali Identity in Kenya’s Security Operations.- 15. Social Media, Migration and Xenophobia in the Horn of Africa.- 16. Not Just a Foreigner: ‘Progressive’ (Self-)representations of African Migrants in the Media.- 17. ‘They all Speak English So Well ...’ A Decolonial Analysis of ‘Positive’ Representations of Zimbabwean Migrants by South Africans on Social Media.- 18. Picturing Xenophobia: Photojournalism and Xenophobic Violence in South Africa.