Outlining the Media Framing of the Covid-19 Omicron Variant, and Its Consequences on Africa

Abstract

The quality of the information that people are exposed to influences their outlook, perceptions, and interactions. This study examines how the framing of information about the Covid-19 Omicron variant led to its characterization as an '‘African’ variant. The World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the term '‘disinfodemic’ to describe the widespread misinformation and biased reporting during the pandemic, which significantly impacted society. This concept emerged from what the WHO termed a “massive infodemic,” a key driver of the pandemic’s spread. This study evaluates the global fear and reactionary measures taken by governments towards African countries. Using a desktop systematic review of online news coverage and Covid-19 regulations over two periods (November 2021 – January 2022 and October 2022 – December 2022), this study addresses how the media contributed to the portrayal of the Omicron variant as an '‘African’ variant, and the implications of this portrayal for the African continent. Supported by the media framing theory, this paper advocates for enhanced media literacy to combat misinformation. Given the critical role of the Internet and related technologies in managing information, this study underscores the importance of developing media literacy competencies to mitigate and counteract news misinformation.