Media reporting and student self-representation: a Comparison of the 2015 #FeesMustFall campaign at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University by The Herald and #FeesMustFall

South Africa’s higher education system was deeply disrupted in October 2015 by the #FeesMustFall student-led movement which affected almost every student from most South African universities. As student movements called for a national shutdown of tertiary institutions, students in their numbers gravitated to social media, mainly Twitter and Facebook, where they mobilised, and held discussions pertaining to the protest movement. Whilst, most studies on mainstream media coverage of protest movements have shown that protests around the world are typically portrayed in a negative and delegitimising manner, scholars have declared social media to be very useful in helping protesters counter the negative mainstream media coverage towards them by telling their side of the story to the public, and in a manner in which they want to be perceived. Considering these nuances, this study focuses on The Herald, a Port Elizabeth based newspaper, and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University 2015 #FeesMustFall student protest movement. Through a content analysis, this study aims to, firstly, to explore the mainstream media’s representation and students’ social media self-representations of the #FeesMustFall student protest movement, and secondly; to identify the purpose(s) for which students utilised social media during the #FeesMustFall student protest movement. The results showed that The Herald coverage was predominantly positive and pro-student, and that students represented themselves and the movement in a positive and legitimising manner on their #FeesMustFall social media platforms. The results also showed that the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University students did not only use social media to communicate, organise and coordinate, debate, build and maintain unity during the course of #FeesMustFall movement, but also as a channel to attract mainstream media coverage for their movement, and to further shape the narrative in the coverage.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, 202