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May 26, 2009: South African news is most strongly concerned with violence at schools, but killing sprees are considered newsworthy in foreign news all over the world – especially about crime in US schools. In the period from January 2007 until April 2009, there was not one single month without coverage of school violence in South African TV news. Based on its continuous monitoring of international TV news, Media Tenor International, the Zurich-based research institute, has analyzed coverage of schools, pupils and teachers in nine countries and regions.
Violence at schools accounts for more than a quarter of all news stories focusing on schools in international coverage, but even in the domestic context, crime and violence accounts for more than 10% of the news from schools.

“This is especially alarming, as education issues do not get major attention in TV news”, explains Roland Schatz, Founder and President of Media Tenor International. “Only 0.8% of all the stories of TV news in the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, South African and in Arabic satellite TV deals with education. And most of this reporting is clearly negative”.
Negativism is a characteristic feature of TV news, but positive stories dominate school reporting only in the US news. “Negative coverage of schools in foreign news – especially from developing countries – undermines the support for foreign aid, as the people in the industrialized nations get the impression, that their money is wasted on inefficient education programs”, concludes Roland Schatz.

South African, French and US news deals more often with schools and pupils than broadcasters from other countries. But especially South African focuses on negative issues. “Almost 60% of the news stories from SABC and E-TV news paint a critical or at least unfavourable picture of schools, pupils and teachers. And stories focusing on school violence account for more than 15% of the reports”, explicates Dr. Christian Kolmer, head of political research at Media Tenor International. While spectacular killing sprees like the Columbine Massacre in 1999 get high awareness in international news, school violence is a routine feature in South African TV.
According to Wadim Schreiner, the Managing Director of Media Tenor in South Africa, a number of spectacular school killings in South Africa during a short period of time, such as the death of a pupil by a fellow pupil through a samurai sword, contributed to an increased awareness on the topic – but it is linked to a generally high focus on crime as well as a failing school education system in the media. But the share of crime-related school coverage was even higher in Swiss and Spanish news – both in domestic and in international perspective. Schools are thus presented to the public as a rather dangerous place.

For this study Media Tenor International has analyzed 472,431 news stories in 30 TV news shows from the US, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, South Africa and from Arabic Satellite TV in the period from January 2007 to April 2009. Out of these stories 3,065 focuses primarily on schools pupils or teachers.

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