ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Science and Environmental Communication
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Human Communication in Addressing Global Wicked ProblemsView all 4 articles
"Watershed moment" or "more money to steal"? South Africa's COP26 just energy transition deal in news media vs. Facebook comments
Provisionally accepted
- Center for Science Communication, Department of Journalism, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
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This study compares how South Africa’s COP26 energy transition deal was framed in news media versus Facebook public discourse. At the 2021 Glasgow summit, South Africa secured an $8.5 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) to support the decarbonization of its coal-dependent energy system, sparking national debate. Energy communication research provides a valuable lens for understanding how such deliberations unfold, highlighting public perceptions and attitudes toward a just energy transition. Yet, attention to justice dimensions—particularly in Africa—remains limited, and cross-platform discourse comparisons are rare. Addressing these gaps, we analyzed 53 news publications from 17 South African mainstream media outlets and 743 Facebook comments on news posts about the JETP deal using qualitative frame and network analysis, focusing on justice framing, actor visibility, and temporal orientation. Findings reveal stark asymmetries. Procedural justice appeared prominently in both spaces (58%) but served divergent purposes: media framed it to legitimize state-led pacing, while Facebook emphasized governance failures and systemic distrust. Media narratives privileged elite voices—government, experts, business—with workers and communities receiving just 1% visibility. In contrast, Facebook reflected grassroots perspectives anchored in lived experience and socio-economic precarity. Media discourse was future-focused and optimistic; Facebook was rooted in historical grievances and skepticism. We discuss implications for South Africa’s energy transition, noting discursive power imbalances and their significance for just-transition governance and communication.
Keywords: Just energy transition, Decarbonization, COP26, framing, news media, Facebookcomments, South Africa
Received: 22 Jul 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Okoliko and Iqani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dominic Ayegba Okoliko, okolikoda@gmail.com
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