#PUTSOUTHAFRICANSFIRST: EXPLORING HOW HASHTAG ACTIVISM ON BLACK TWITTER PROMOTES XENOPHOBIA

Social media challenges the idea that mainstream media shapes the public, media, and policy agenda. The fragmentation of audiences and their selective consumption of content also challenge the agenda-setting theory and the influence of discourse. Fittingly, principles of the agenda-setting theory and discourse theory apply to this study that explored which discourse under #PutSouthAfricansFirst sets the public agenda for misperceptions and violence towards black African immigrants in South Africa. The study used netnography and discourse analysis to assess purposively selected tweets using the hashtag #PutSouthAfricansFirst from June 2023 to July 2023, a period during which there were a significant number of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The results indicate that crime, political rhetoric, strife over jobs, and dehumanisation are pivotal topics of the #PutSouthAfricansFirst xenophobic discourse dominating the online community Black Twitter on X. These issues appear to set the agenda among the public and in the media for negative perceptions and physical violence targeted at black African immigrants.