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‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2026.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2026
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| _version_ | 1867613936041328640 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Hilliard-Lomas, Caitlyn Dominique |
| author2 | Iqani, Mehita |
| author_browse | Hilliard-Lomas, Caitlyn Dominique Iqani, Mehita |
| author_facet | Iqani, Mehita Hilliard-Lomas, Caitlyn Dominique |
| author_sort | Hilliard-Lomas, Caitlyn Dominique |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/136060 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:44:03.396Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/136060 ‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching Hilliard-Lomas, Caitlyn Dominique Iqani, Mehita Antonites, Christel Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Journalism. Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. Hilliard-Lomas, C. D. 2026. ‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/80b74538-19d1-4c0d-8fcd-f7ba822c79a3 Rhino poaching in South Africa is not only an environmental issue but also a socio-political crisis. In 2024, 81% of all poaching incidents on the African continent occurred in South Africa. As a result, various groups, including government, conservation groups, non-profit organisations, and scientists, responded with field-based strategies and policy responses. Although conservation efforts proved effective in increasing rhino numbers, they also endorsed violence through measures such as “green militarisation” and “green land grabs,” which suggested that the lives of rhinos were favoured over the lives of poor Black communities living near conservation areas. Although the news media was responsible for framing, politicising, and co-creating the rhino poaching crisis, few studies explored this area. Therefore, this research aimed to address this gap by examining the dominant frames present in rhino poaching coverage in a set of South African regional and national newspapers over three critical years of the crisis. This research sought to answer the following question: How do South African news media representations of rhino poaching construct conservation as a socio-political crisis through the selection and omission of voices and sources, the privileging of institutions, and the reproduction of ideological assumptions about land, property, race, and belonging? To answer this question, this research conducted a qualitative news frame analysis using a typology of frames and codes derived from deductive environmental and generic frames. A mixed-methods approach combining purposive and random sampling was used to select the study parameters, and the unit of analysis was a newspaper article. Thirty-one newspaper articles were analysed across five South African newspapers: Witness, Mail & Guardian, The Citizen, The Herald, and Cape Times. In addition, three years (2008, 2013, and 2024) were purposively selected for analysis to map the evolution of framing. The findings indicated that rhino poaching was framed as a war/conflict between conservationists and poachers in 2008, with an attribution of responsibility towards the government and Asian demand in 2013, and social progress, including science as a solution, in 2024. The most cited voices in the newspaper articles were those of conservationists, followed by government spokespeople. Moreover, the most frequently cited conservation group was the non-governmental organisation, the World Wildlife Foundation, and the most cited government group was the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment. Furthermore, the underrepresentation of the citizen rights frame indicated the exclusion of local and indigenous communities in conservation discussions. These findings demonstrated the normalisation of violent conservation in South African news media through the dehumanisation of the poacher, the exclusionary framing of local and indigenous communities living near conservation areas, and the heroic framing of the conservationist. The findings revealed that the way rhino poaching was framed in the newspapers made it a conservation issue rather than an issue about the colonial appropriation of land and its commodification, and the commodification of nature in the context of racial capitalism. These findings reinforced broader socio-political issues such as green militarisation, fortress conservation, neo-colonial land control, and ecological neo-imperialism, all rooted in unequal racialised dynamics in post-apartheid South Africa. This researcher suggested that journalists and news media practitioners communicating the environment adopt a decolonial approach in the newsroom, including indigenous voices and histories in framing practices to restore broken connections between the environment and society, in line with Iqani and Judge (2025). Masters 2026-04-21T11:56:03Z 2026-04-21T11:56:03Z 2026-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/136060 en Stellenbosch University 143 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Hilliard-Lomas, Caitlyn Dominique ‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching |
| title | ‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching |
| title_full | ‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching |
| title_fullStr | ‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching |
| title_short | ‘Straight bloody slaughter’ – the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in South African newspaper coverage of rhino poaching |
| title_sort | straight bloody slaughter the normalisation of violent conservation through exclusionary framing practices in south african newspaper coverage of rhino poaching |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/136060 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hilliardlomascaitlyndominique straightbloodyslaughterthenormalisationofviolentconservationthroughexclusionaryframingpracticesinsouthafricannewspapercoverageofrhinopoaching |