1 Introduction

Mainstream media is a powerful medium that aggregates, coordinates, and reproduces social representations of any society. Mass media has been instrumental in reaching large groups of audiences and becoming increasingly more personalized through the internet resulting in self-mass communication [1]. The growth of mass interpersonal media such as social media has further personalized mainstream media, influencing how people consume and participate in news-making processes. Social and digital media has increased access to previously marginalized voices, particularly those that have not been included due to limited access through mass media, such as the masses of people living in South African townships. Mainstream media is no longer the only source people rely on to access information, using social media as a news source [2]. Mainstream media and social media co-exist, and according to [3], enjoy a complex, but symbiotic relationship.

Townships in South Africa carry a historical legacy of marginalization, developed during the National Party government’s vision of separate development i.e. apartheid. The spatial planning of the apartheid government relegated urban and poor Black, Indian, and Coloured communities to the periphery of cities, far from places of economic activity [4]. Townships are spaces of significant economic hardship, with contestastions for minimal socio-economic resources and opportunities among their residents. The increasing adoption of social media by marginalized individuals has provided them a platform for self-expression, to increase their visibility and possible inclusion of their voices in society [5]. While social media’s benefits for audience engagement, interaction, and exchange have transformed the media landscape, they have also cultivated a fertile ground for breeding communication risks [6]. The use of social media for reliance as a source of mainstream media news can be risky, especially if the story cannot be verified [3].

One of the most prominently risky topics of communication globally is the discussion of migration. Migration has garnered significant global attention, with mainstream media carrying pictures of migrants on boats risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean, traversing risky arid spaces to reach safety, and arriving en masse to more stable neighboring countries. The growing number of such migrants and refugees has been labeled a crisis in Europe [7]. South Africa is a traditional receiver of migrants, especially from the African continent. The increased competition for limited resources has placed a strain on the relationship between citizens and migrants living in South African townships, with criminal or illegal activities mainly attributed to ‘illegal’ migrants in these communities. Social media, a form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has allowed people in townships to share their experiences and opinions online with their geographically dispersed social media networks [8] as townships continue to be a hotbed of explosive unrest about ‘illegal’ migration.

The paper begins with an overview of the relationship between the media and the history of South African townships, followed by a discussion on social representation theory in the context of mainstream media. Social representations of townships and ‘illegal’ migrants are then discussed, including the role of social media in the production of social representations in township communities. The main objective of this study is to evaluate how social media has influenced social representations carried in mainstream media reporting on South African township anti-migrant unrest. Through a qualitative approach, thirty (30) mainstream media articles from the last eight (8) years covering South African migrant township unrest are thematically analyzed, with a particular focus on the social representations on social media of ‘illegal’ migrants in townships reproduced. The key themes are discussed, in understanding the production of social representations of migration through the lens of citizens through social media and re-produced in mainstream media.

2 Literature review

2.1 South African townships history and the media

Townships in South Africa arose from the Group Areas Act of 1950, through which the racial segregation of cities and towns was enforced, driving Coloured, Black, and Indian (collectively referred to in this paper as people of color) South Africans away from areas designated for white occupation. There was mass removal of poor people of color away from economic centers, and restriction of movement within the country as a result of the enforcement of the Group Areas Act. The restrictions included limitations on media, with the apartheid government limiting the contribution and self-direction of people of color in South Africa [9]. Media became an extension of the apartheid government machinery, manipulating the political agenda and driving a deep mistrust of the mainstream media locally, especially among township residents, as the country’s majority. The mistrust of the government and mass media has persisted, extending to the mistrust of journalists as well [10], particularly in matters concerning South African people of color’s belonging and identity.

Townships have always been communities of diversity, as people of color sought work in urban areas. South African townships are home to some of the poorest of the poor, in one of the world’s most unequal societies with inequitable access to housing, sanitation, water, education, employment, and income [11]. These tough socio-economic conditions in South African townships provide a fertile breeding ground for discontent, with the persistent economic slump, perpetuated by the slow recovery from COVID-19 economic lockdown after effects. Compounding these matters is the contestation on belonging, and who has a legitimate claim to being called South African, and thus primary beneficiaries to the country’s resources.

Townships became organized along multiple cultural and ethnic identity lines, fuelled by the Group Areas Act. National identity was contested during apartheid, with South African people of color not socially represented as citizens of the country, through separate forms of documentation such as the dompas [12]. The difficulty in understanding national identity is that is it perceived to be acquired by birth [13], meaning that individuals assume the nationality of where they are born. However, national identity, particularly in a heterogeneous society like South Africa’s includes cultural identity, as it played a significant role during apartheid, based along the lines of ethnicity and tribes, further entrenching social representations of difference among people with a common shared history and mixed identity.

As more people migrated to the cities, in search of better economic prospects, townships provided a home and familiarity for people choosing to be close to their sociocultural groups, with whom they share background and language. It is common for migrants to move closer to traditional communities to limit their sense of loss from having moved away to a new setting [14]. Spatial arrangement is critical for maintaining relationships with personal networks, as it influences the quality of communication between individuals. People who moved to townships developed sub-communities along cultural and tribal grou**s, including immigrants. South Africa hosts an estimated 2.9 million migrants [15], the largest number of immigrants on the continent. With South Africa as a traditional receiver of migrants, the increased competition for limited resources influences the relationship between citizens and migrants, experienced through their social representations.

2.2 Social representation theory and the role of mass media

Social representations are the sense-making processes of how we understand the world, which we acquire through birth and social experiences. Identity is thus critical to understanding how individuals and communities represent their world through their social representations [16]. Social representations are products of social dealings and communication between individuals and groups [17], thus, communication is the process of social representation exchange for meaning-making in society. Social groups collectively produce, share, and participate in explaining reality through social representations [18]. Members of social groups develop frames through which to understand their reality, relying on shared backgrounds of common-sense knowledge [19,20,21]. Social representations are broadly categorized into hegemonic, emancipated, and polemic representations [22]. Hegemonic representations are shared consensually by members of a group; emancipated representations are developed by subgroups within a larger social collective and polemic representations are generated during social conflict, characterized by antagonistic relations between groups [22].

Social representations of townships are of areas of squalor, density, lack, and largely black. Globalization has increasingly brought diversity to communities, forcing different social representations to engage, as immigrants and citizens interact with each other in communities, workplaces, and socially. However, in the last decade, as social representations of migration have been brought to the fore, the idea of national identity in a globalized world has, due to some factors, been fuelling rising sentiments of patriotism [23]. There has been a growing feeling of threat globally by citizens, including in South Africa, of the perceived acceleration of immigration, especially of migrants fleeing their countries. The sense of threat of change by migration fuels nationalism and intolerance of migrants, with cultural segregation and ‘othering’ of migrants in their destination nations [24].

Mass media in South Africa has encapsulated the changing social representation of migrants and contestations of how different migrant groups are reported on. Mastro, Behm-Morawitz and Kopacz [25] explain that the social representations images in mainstream mass media produce are important as they may elicit a wider range of discriminatory responses. The challenge with social influences of migration is that in townships, they occur simultaneously as processes of contestation for belonging by South African citizens are taking place, further entrenching the social representation of immigrants in these communities as a threat. While some consider societal diversity as beneficial, it can also be viewed by others as a threat to the community [26], especially among township communities seeking to entrench an identity and social representations of legitimacy and belonging. The social representation of migrants as a threat has led to cultural segregation in nations like South Africa and the ‘othering’ of migrants, fuelling an us-against-them stance that has played out increasingly through social media, and mainstream media.

2.3 Social media and social representations of South African townships

Social media has grown exponentially in the past two decades to become a key channel of interpersonal communication. Social media is a result of the convergence of mass and interpersonal communication [27, 28]. Social media has been used to form social bonds, organize communities, and engage with people of similar interests, without the limits of geography, becoming a form of sharing word-of-mouth electronically (eWOM). Social media allows people to share an array of content from images to videos and such rich media very easily [29]. In South Africa, the cost of internet connectivity is prohibitive and divided along urban/rural lines, with most social media users based in urban areas. As of 2024, only about 57% (26 million) of all internet users in South Africa are active on social media [30], with a national internet penetration rate of 74% [31]. There is a strong and growing social media presence in the integration of social media into standard newsroom practice in South African newsrooms as a source of news stories and information, to grow engagement with audiences and to keep up with increasing competition from non-mainstream news sources [32]. However, in a context like South Africa’s, mainstream media’s responsibility needs to be to ensure no digital divide blind spots in engaging social media content for reporting.

Digital communication and social media have significantly low barriers to entry compared to mainstream media, providing previously marginalized voices a space for self-expression. Mare [3] highlights the growth of citizen journalism, spurred on by social media, cautioning however that this has also devolved the news-gathering process by mainstream media to ordinary citizens. The social representations of groups are formed through processes of intergroup comparisons as well, and this plays out online through social media. Social media is a source of news for people globally, however, the content online is susceptible to the spread of fake news, further complicated by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to generate and disseminate fake news online that are made to look as close to the truth [33]. The implications of the growth of digital and social media technologies for the South African media landscape have been reduced circulation, shrinking newsrooms due to job losses, closure of publications, issues of news credibility as well as the growth of online mobile news consumption [34].

Social media with its respective online communities form intercultural settings requiring a diversity of social representations of the participants in such spaces. Social media enables the bypassing and influencing of traditional flows of information, raising questions about the extent to which traditional news sources have been supplemented and/or replaced by traditional news sources, with stories trending online before reaching mainstream media headlines [3]. Digital and social media facilitate ubiquitous intercultural contact [35], with interculturality describing the interpersonal relationships of varying contexts between different cultures [36].

Social representations influence interculturality significantly, as those in these relationships of diversity, whether virtual or in-person, engage with one another. Representations in the media influence how stereotypes are formed and sustained [37], even through social media channels. Townships have always been spaces of diversity, organized along multiple cultural and ethnic identity lines, however, social categories cannot be mutually exclusive as they intersect due to the varying identities of individuals [38]. The increasing sensitivity to the presence of migrants living in South African townships, amidst growing social conflict, has escalated to violence contesting belongingness in townships between citizens and migrants. In 2015 there was an escalation of violence aimed at foreign nationals, mostly African nationals, resulting in at least 15 deaths, displacement of hundreds of people, and looting [32]. Social media has been used on the African continent to report human rights violations, at times as a means to bypass mainstream media censorship, but also as a real-time capture of the ongoing unrest, which mainstream media tapped into for sources for stories, they reported [3]. The main source of the conflict in townships as captured through social media is the social attribution by citizens of illegal criminal activities as being perpetuated by ‘illegal’ migrants living in South Africa.

2.4 Factors influencing social representations of migrants in townships

Migration in South Africa is overseen by several government ministries and agencies, including the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Justice, and the Ministry of Police, to name a few. Migrant data according to Statistics South Africa [39] initially relied on self-reporting, when the first effort to estimate national migration numbers and Statistics South Africa conceded that migrants may not have always been forthcoming in disclosing accurate information [39]. Without having exact immigration statistical information, the prevailing anecdotal rhetoric about migrant numbers in South Africa may contribute to negative stereotypes held by citizens [40]. These stereotypes have been perpetuated through social representations of immigrants being labeled 'illegal', and videos shared on social media of citizens demanding to see legal paperwork of suspected migrants, especially in townships among African migrants.

The social representations of identifying migrants by South Africans are based largely on physiological differences, location, and other features, driving assumptions of those who are potential migrants versus South Africans. Migrants, particularly African migrants in townships, are thus othered through social representations of national identity that may include their names, language, skin complexion, accent, style of dress, nationality, tribe, and even religion. Ethnic hostilities that are founded in ethnocentrism, inequality of resources, and stereoty** are difficult to change, especially at the level of values of discriminated minorities [20]. African migrants living in townships are often socially represented through hegemonic labels like illegals, foreigners, amakwerekwere, matswa’ntle, all denoting their outside-ness as the other relative to citizens, with little differentiation in their legal status.

Mainstream media’s social representations of minorities are important because certain images may enflame a wider range of discriminatory responses [25], amplified through social media in a feedback loop. African migrants in townships are shown on social media as criminal deviants, unscrupulous in their dealings with locals, and accruing benefits of resources that should be reserved for South Africans in those communities e.g. access to healthcare. How African migrants living in South African townships are perceived is made up of individual perceptions and group interactions informing shared social representations, carried through mainstream media, in close relation to social media engagement, where social representations are produced and reproduced about migrants. It is thus critical to evaluate the role of social media in influencing social representations carried in mainstream media reporting on South African township unrest attributed to illegal migrants’ activities.

3 Methods

This paper employs a qualitative research approach to evaluate the role of social media representations influencing mainstream media on South African ‘illegal’ migrant township unrest. Through exploratory research design, the paper seeks to contribute to the limited evaluation of the influence of social media on mainstream media reporting and the resulting social representations produced. The exploratory design is suitable as this study considers an unexplored area of research, is open-ended and flexible providing an in-depth understanding of the perspectives [41]. The key method of data collection was through online mainstream media articles reporting on township unrest linked to ‘illegal’ migrants.

The data collection process began with an online Google News web search for mainstream media news reports using the search term "South Africa township unrest". Articles from the search results were read and reviewed to evaluate whether their content specifically included migrant unrest in South African townships, with a reference to social media as a source of some information in the news reports. For this paper, 2015 was chosen as a starting point for the sampling of the mainstream news media articles collected and analyzed. The decision to focus on the period beginning in 2015 was informed by the widely reported anti-migrant riots that started in KwaZulu Natal province and spread to townships across South Africa in response to key leaders’ utterances of government accused of not protecting local citizens from the influx of migrants [42].

In total, 30 mainstream news articles were considered and sampled for analysis. The articles included are a mix of local South African sources and international media sources, as indicated in Table 1.

Table 1 List of data analyzed by year and source
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The 30 articles sampled were first grouped by their year of publication to be analyzed, yielding the number of publications over the period 2015–2023 (see Table 2). Each news article needed to include content on migrant unrest in South African townships and social media as some source of information for the news content. The articles were then analyzed by grou** similar information into codes and then develo** common themes from the codes generated.

Table 2 List of data articles analyzed by year and number of articles
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Trustworthiness was ensured through the four generally accepted measures of credibility [43] for this study in the following ways:

  1. a)

    Credibility (in preference to internal validity)—done by providing a very detailed description of what the research is studying, and how the mainstream media article data was collected.

  2. b)

    Transferability (in preference to external validity/generalizability)—a detailed contextual description of the research setting is provided, including a full description of the data collection process, and search keywords used, to give a baseline understanding for comparison.

  3. c)

    Dependability (in preference to reliability)—credibility ensures the dependability of the study, and for this to be achieved the research process details are reported, allowing other researchers to potentially repeat the work if not necessarily to obtain similar results.

  4. d)

    Confirmability (in preference to objectivity)—to minimize researcher bias, the data analysis process is documented, tracing each research step and the decisions made to keep as close to the information in the mainstream news articles as possible.

The data analysis process was conducted through manual coding [44] which was then organized into four main themes related to the influence of social media on mainstream media social representations of ‘illegal’ migrant South African township unrest.

4 Results

The most notable outcome of the sampled data analyzed was the progressive growth of the number of mainstream news articles making mention of social media as a source of information for their reporting. Two-thirds of the articles were from 2022 and engaged social media significantly in their coverage of 'illegal' migrant unrest in South African townships, thus reproducing eWOM social representations of the violence reported. The four key themes outlined are briefly described in Table 3 followed by a detailed discussion of each theme.

Table 3 Key themes from mainstream articles analysis
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4.1 Media representing all migrant unrest in townships as xenophobia and hate speech

Mainstream media reports analyzed covering township migrant unrest commingle multiple issues related to migrant unrest in townships, reproducing community representations about the alleged sources of unrest based on the inclusion of social media content. Throughout the articles analyzed, the reports on township migrant unrest are socially represented as xenophobia, supported by social media content of African migrants being targeted by township citizens. There is seemingly little differentiation between criminal activity perpetuated by ‘illegal’ migrants and community unrest. The mainstream media picks from the social media content the mixed labels and terms used to reference migrants living in townships such as foreigners, illegal immigrants, and undocumented.

When the position of migrants is reported on about township unrest their perspectives are legitimized through mainstream media largely representing migrants living in those communities as blameless, vulnerable, law-abiding residents, entrepreneurs, and successful business people, most of whom are presented as being in South Africa legally. The mainstream media reports incorporating social media content focus on the personal narratives shared by migrants of their challenges, or experiences of the violent unrest in townships, representing migrants as being driven by fear and circumstances beyond their control. Media reports use words like “fearful”, and “targets” to describe African migrants’ experience of township unrest shared on social media. Such reproduction of social representations attests to Ben-Asher and Wolff’s [24] finding that when citizens feel threatened by change, nationalism and intolerance, it plays out as othering. The othering on social media, carried into mainstream media is the ongoing use of different and sometimes derogatory labels between township residents and immigrants in those communities, socially represented as xenophobia and Afrophobia because it is experienced primarily by African migrants.

In reinforcing the social interactions between citizens living in townships and immigrants, mainstream media regularly positions migrants as economic victims during periods of unrest. The pictures and videos selected from social media for mainstream media news reports are effective rich media in providing powerful audio-visual representations of migrants as victims of unrest perpetuated by citizens in townships while overshadowing any violence committed by migrants in the mainstream media reports. South African citizens dwelling in townships are socially represented in mainstream media reports using words like "blame", "vandalism", "attacks", "looting", "targeting", 'envy", "anger", and "mobs" in media reports, some taken from social media content. Howarth and Andreouli [26] report on diversity being considered a benefit and a threat by different community members; however, such social media representations of the importance of diversity are not often carried in mainstream media.

4.2 The rise of Operation Dudula as a social media movement in mainstream media

Mainstream media has been instrumental in the meteoric rise of Operation Dudula from 2021, formed in Soweto, with significant focus reporting on the fringe social movement’s activities, rising from its self-organization on social media. The social movement Operation Dudula’s name, as reported in the mainstream news articles analyzed, means “to clean up” or “to push”, representing itself as responsible for getting immigrants out of South African townships to rid communities of social ills. The social representation carried in the sentiment of cleaning up is that of migrants ‘sullying’ township communities. Mainstream media reports socially represented Operation Dudula, as a movement to be feared, with content showing the carrying out of clean-up campaigns aimed at immigrants and inspiration for citizens in other townships across South Africa. As Valkenburg et al. [1] found, the differing levels of media susceptibility are influenced not only by the intended use of the media but also by the heterogeneity of individuals consuming the media.

Mainstream media followed Operation Dudula’s social media activities closely, and reported it, thus driving up its popularity and fear of it. The violence and unrest moving across different townships were reported and thus socially represented as singular continuing ongoing violent activities attributed to the Dudula movement. Mainstream media reports, reproducing the social media content of the movement socially represented Dudula as a singular-minded right-wing anti-migrant movement. Social representations reinforce Dudula's leader as militant through images and videos of him from social media in tactical gear, armed with a weapon, and social representation processes of objectification (see [22] on objectification). The leader of Dudula was compared in mainstream media reports to former US President Trump, and the social movement as sharing similarities to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) fringe social movement. Mainstream media achieved being able to transform the unfamiliar Operation Dudula into concrete common-sense realities through these comparisons to MAGA.

4.3 Growing inclusion of social media as a credible source for mainstream media news

The mainstream media reports analyzed demonstrated a steadily growing engagement with social media content in reporting on township unrest. The mainstream media reports seem to include social media representations in some instances with little evidence of counterbalancing fact-checking or verification and investigative journalism techniques used on social media content, especially from global news media. Mare [3] warns of the dangers of unverified citizen journalism through social media and the need for journalism to ensure more verification. Social media, while beneficial, can become a fertile breeding ground for communication risks [6], especially when their information is carried through mainstream media without fact-checking. Throughout the news articles analyzed, reports referred to unrelated past anti-migrant unrest, quoting social media content when reporting current issues of unrest, for example:

  • In 2008, more than 60 people were killed in a series of attacks on foreign nationals. In 2013, a 25-year-old Somali man was dragged through the streets of Port Elizabeth, and pelted with stones and rocks.—Al Jazeera, 2015;

  • South Africa: Xenophobic violence resurfaces.—DW, 2018;

  • Sporadic violence against foreign-owned stores and enterprises has a long history in South Africa.—France24, 2019;

  • In 2015, seven people were reported killed during outbreaks of xenophobic violence in Johannesburg and Durban. In 2008, more than 60 people died in a more intense outbreak.—The Guardian, 2019;

  • Online xenophobia was prominent on Twitter, with tweets and hashtags, which incite violence, regularly trending.—Times Live, 2020;

  • Xenophobic attacks and intimidation in South Africa only became widespread in 2008.—Daily Maverick, 2022;

  • They estimate that since 2014 there have been 565 incidents, 15,093 displacements, 3,040 shops looted, and 218 deaths.—Global Witness, 2023

There is growing evidence in mainstream media reports of the inclusion of African migrant social media groups, organized by nationality, as legitimate socially representative voices speaking on behalf of immigrants living in township communities. These social media groups are often quoted in news media reports as legitimate structures widely accepted as representing specific migrant group interests. The social media platforms for these groups include WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups, whose content is then shared with mainstream media on potential unrest in townships. The mainstream media reports carry these social representations despite reported admissions of rumor-mongering from community leaders of these social media groups. Rich media such as pictures and videos shared on social media are reproduced in mainstream media often with limited evidence of verification of the legitimacy of the images. The increasing frequency of fake news and the growing difficulty of identifying deep fakes [33] makes the trend of social media information shared through mainstream media with limited verification questionable in its contribution to social representations of anti-immigrant unrest in township communities.

4.4 Government represented as inadequate in responding to township anti-immigrant unrest

Citizens and immigrants living in townships produce social representations through social media of expectations to be defended against one another’s hostilities by the South African government. The social media representations during periods of unrest oscillate between the fairness of immigrants’ legal status, quality of goods sold to South African citizens, compliance with tax regulations, and taking away opportunities from South Africans by the mere presence of immigrant businesses in townships and rising crime.

The immigrants in township communities through social media content reported in news media, point out the South African government's response and intervention as inadequate towards protecting migrants. Violent migrant retaliatory activities captured on social media e.g. shooting of South African citizens are represented in mainstream media from migrants’ perspectives as self-defense. Mainstream media reports of unlawful behavior carried out by migrants during township unrest are represented from social media content using phrases such as “vulnerable”, “minorities” “living in hostile conditions”, and migrants “defending themselves”. On the other hand, government responses reported through social media representations in mainstream media as being inadequate as “looters [go] unpunished” and there is a “lack of compensation” for the economic loss experienced by migrants living in townships during the unrest.

The social representations of the South African government in mainstream media reports as a referee by citizens and immigrants living in townships alike, bring to question social media debates of priority of belonging in these communities. In some extreme cases, African governments were reported in mainstream media having called for boycotts of South African companies operating in their countries, or the expatriation of their citizens back to their countries of origin to avoid suffering in townships. Such expressions in the mainstream media, however, often raise representations on social media of those governments’ failure to retain their citizens in-country, fuelling as Sitto [23] outlines, rising sentiments of patriotism linked to national identity.

5 Discussion

Social media is undeniably an influential medium, growing in number and reach, as people use it as a means to express themselves, especially those previously marginalized. The usefulness of social media to mainstream media has grown exponentially over the years, with citizen journalism becoming more accepted over the years as common practice. When considering relationally sensitive circumstances, such as anti-migrant unrest in townships, the influence of social media on mainstream media reports becomes critical in understanding what social representations are reproduced and from which group's perspective.

The results from the articles analyzed demonstrate the challenge of the reproduction of social representations from different marginalized groups and the reproduction of the stereotypes the groups hold about one another. The use of emotive words that reproduce mistrust among township residents, both citizens and migrants alike, frays inter-group relations. Townships are spaces with a deep history of diversity and contention about belonging, which can often be reduced to the simplicity of the current unrest being reported, without adequate scrutiny of the potential consequences of reproducing social media representations of anti-migrant unrest. The labeling of all township unrest involving African migrants as xenophobia simplifies the complexities of the inter-group relations among township communities. Howarth and Andreouli [26] caution against “stigmatizing representations of difference”. Migrants living in townships, in mainstream media, are frequently represented as victims of citizens, even in instances where they may be involved in the commission of a crime. The national social media migrant groups, that primarily seek to protect the interests of those migrants in South Africa become sources of information on the causes of the unrest.

Mainstream media is entrusted with having the public's interest as its primary motivation for reporting stories, especially those of the voiceless or marginalized. The consequence of the integration of social media content in reporting on anti-migrant unrest in townships is to provide platforms of power for fringe groups, such as Operation Dudula, which was mainly a small social media movement in part of one township. The social media content of Operation Dudula, as with similar fringe groups socially represents their in-group emotions, animosities, and representations of othering. With limited evidence of investigative verification of social media content and rumors, or seeking facts from the other side, mainstream media faces the risk of reproducing word-of-mouth social representation and thus perpetuating stereotypes about African migrants and citizen relations in townships. This risk, as [3] emphasizes, makes social media a dangerous source of information for mainstream media.

Townships are diverse communities with a long history of residents from different places of origin living together, bound by the common pursuit of a better life in the cities and contestation of belonging. Social media is but a small representation of all the different people living in these communities, with only a fraction of South Africans active on social media, per [30], thus mainstream media news including social media content for reporting may not be a balanced reflection of the township community social representations of those not online. The outcome of reproducing social media representations in mainstream media news of a limited few is too much emphasis on the differences between township residents (migrants and citizens) living in those communities. The reported mainstream media news is then shared on social media which [2] highlights as a key source of news for people, thus further entrenching the oppositional identities [26] described, carried through social media to fuel engagement with the news reports.

Increasingly, mainstream media reports include rich media from social media platforms such as images and videos as supporting content. The probability remains likely that some of the rich media shared on social media are susceptible to artificial intelligence-generated content, fake news, deep fakes, and distortion that can result in inaccuracies of representations of anti-migrant townships' social unrest. Mainstream media faces the challenge of oversimplification of the township community representations by increasingly relying on social media representations of anti-migrant unrest in townships in their reporting. The mainstream media effects of the reporting and reproduction of social representations carried in social media of immigrants in South African townships may fray their sense of community and inter-group relations, reducing social cohesion through misreporting, misinterpretation, misrepresentation, and click-baiting.

6 Conclusion

Social media’s influence in the generation of mainstream news media reports is unquestionable. However, social media only represents a subset of any society or community, even in South African townships. During township unrest involving primarily African immigrants, mainstream media reports risk demonstrating their limited understanding of the social representations being reproduced from social media, as the battle for belonging rages on in those diverse communities. The growing influence of social media on mainstream media reporting, particularly on issues of social unrest such as anti-migrant violence in South African townships, needs closer examination of its effects on social cohesion. Social media will continue to be a significant source of information as mainstream media seeks to gain relevance with audiences, however, the consequences of reproducing social representations that reinforce inter-group stereotypes perpetuating recurring social problems in places plagued by contestations of belonging such as townships need further attention.