Newsprint representation of the alcohol sales bans during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa: A mixed methods analysis

Alcohol sales bans in the news

  • Marieke Theron School of Public Health, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, 7535, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6685-7803
  • Nadine Harker Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Francie van Zijl Drive, Cape Town, 7505, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0850-541X
  • Rina Swart School of Public Health, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, 7535, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7786-3117
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.419
Keywords: content analysis, public health, alcohol policy, newspaper, commercial determinants of health, Pollock method, mixed methods

Abstract

Aims: Content analysis of newspapers covering the alcohol sales bans during Covid-19 in South Africa.

Methods: Mixed method content analysis of the highest circulated, paid for, English language newspapers published by four newspaper outlets in South Africa, between 26 February to 26 September 2020 (seven months).

Setting: South African Bibliographic Information Network (Sabinet) and Arena Holdings Media databases were used.

Participants: 317 newspaper articles were identified for analysis from four newspapers: Sunday Times (Arena Holdings), Daily Sun (Naspers), The Star (Independent Media) and the Mail and Guardian (Media Development Investment Fund).

Measures: Qualitative data: a structured coding frame was used to identify themes. Quantitative data: date, agency, placement/page number in the newspaper, number of graphics, words in heading and in article and whether the article was based on opinion or fact. The media vectors: framing, responsibility and newspaper media exposure were calculated.

Findings: Articles were predominantly unfavourable toward the alcohol sales bans, indicated that government should take responsibility for prevention of harmful alcohol use, and focused mainly on the negative economic impact of the alcohol sales bans.

Conclusions: News agencies should make a concerted effort to ensure balanced reporting on matters of health and put measures in place to prevent undue influence on journalists by large corporations, such as the alcohol industry.

Author Biographies

Marieke Theron, School of Public Health, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, 7535, South Africa

Marieke Theron has been working as a lecturer of dietetic students since 2013 at leading universities in South Africa such as the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of the Western Cape. She received a merit award for her outstanding teaching and research at UCT in 2018 and is currently completing her PhD in public health with a bursary from the National Research Foundation (NRF). She completed her MSc (med) specialising in dietetics at UCT in 2019.

Marieke is passionate about nutrition and population based health and has completed research in both correctional facilities and public hospitals in the Western Cape. She has been an avid advocate of the dietetics profession in South Africa and as such has been nominated as the chair of the Nutrition Society of South Africa (NSSA) and is a member of the Association of Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA) and registered as a dietitian with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).

Nadine Harker, Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Francie van Zijl Drive, Cape Town, 7505, South Africa

Prof Nadine Harker is employed as a Specialist Scientist in the Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drug Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council. She is also Deputy Director: Substance Use Programme in the Unit.

She completed her PhD at the University of Cape Town and currently holds the position of Associate Professor at the UCT School of Public Health and Family Medicine.

She has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles, technical research reports, and policy documents on the topic of substance abuse prevention, and presented at conferences locally and internationally. She has co-authored a book titled Alcohol, Drugs and Employment.

She has advised local, provincial and national government on issues related to alcohol and drug abuse prevention and policy and has acted as a technical advisor, consultant, reviewer to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organization, the African Union and the Colombo Plan.

She has and continues to teach various postgraduate courses at the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch.

Prof Harker is currently the national head of the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU), a project that aims to provide community-level public health surveillance of alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) use trends and associated consequences. Her specific interests are in epidemiology, improving the quality of substance abuse prevention services, treatment service quality monitoring and evaluating the performance and outcomes of such services, and designing and implementing substance abuse prevention services for the work sector.

Rina Swart, School of Public Health, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville, 7535, South Africa
Prof Rina Swart is a registered dietitian / nutritionist with the HPCSA and part of the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition at the University of the Western Cape.

Her post-graduate qualifications and area of specialization is in Public Health Nutrition with a focus on the prevention of all forms of malnutrition through nutrition policies and programmes as well as the evaluation of such policies and programmes.  She serves as the Nutrition Programme Leader within the DSI/NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security since 2014.

Prof Swart is a registered member of the Association of Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA) and the Nutrition Society of South Africa (NSSA).  She served as chairperson of the NSSA Council (2010-2012) and as president of the organization (2006-2010). She is an active member of the World Public Health Nutrition Association, serving as independent adjudicator of elections on two occasions and currently serves as part of the working group on competency development of accredited Public Health Nutritionists.  In 2016 she arranged the Congress of the WPHNA in Cape Town.

Published
2023-10-23
How to Cite
Theron, M., Harker, N., & Swart, E. C. (2023). Newsprint representation of the alcohol sales bans during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa: A mixed methods analysis : Alcohol sales bans in the news. International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. https://doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.419
Issue
Early View Papers and Abstracts
Section
Special Issue: Alcohol Prevention Research and Policy Development in LMICs

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