Exploring audience inclusion in Facebook and Twitter reporting among young university students in South Africa: The case of #FeesMustFall

Abstract

Studies have shown how social media, including Facebook and Twitter are reshaping communication, news and Journalism. With the growing popularity of Social media for news sharing, there is a need to explore the audience-inclusion of these social media tools in news reporting. The audience approach expands our theorisation of social media especially for campaigns. In particular, it is important to explore the role social media plays in student protest, campaign or uprising in other to determine to what extent social media allows participation and audience inclusion in political (#FeesMustFall) and other contemporary discussions among students. This study considered the hashtag (#) FeeMustFall campaign that sprang up in the year 2015 (there are still elements of the campaign as of 2020) as a case for this study. The South African university students used this hashtag on different social media platforms to campaign against corporate education and largely payment of fees in institutions of higher learning across South Africa. This study also looks at the media-audience relationship and explore how audience inclusion in Facebook and Twitter are increasingly changing the ‘News’ habits of young South Africans students. The approach used for this study was a qualitative exploratory study with an interpretive approach. Thirteen (13) students were interviewed one-on-one and audio-recorded using a semi-structured interview guide. These students were selected through purposive and convenience sampling and the interviews were transcribed verbatim. This study identifies the relevance and relationship social media posed for students in including them in public participation. Findings indicate that students find recourse in social media as an avenue for inclusion and participation on social issues surrounding youth especially during the peak of #FeesMustFall. There is also a change in news reporting as a result of the audience inclusion provided by social networks. The outcome of this study can be relevant to communication researchers studying news and social media especially among young people and most importantly students.