Rhetoric in the Ethiopian state media: A textual analysis
Despite a declared editorial policy which foregrounds balanace, fairness and objectivity as key journalistic values, the Ethiopian state media are habitally accused of favouring the ruling party and scorning the opposition. The favouritism is supposedly expressed both in the selection of stories (what is covered), the selection of sources (who gets to speak), and the style of presentation (how it is said). According to informants in the concerned media organizations, journalists in the state media develop a set of standard formats for reporting and editing which serve to reproduce the ideological preferences of the current political leadership. At the surface level, however, coverage in the state media appears to carry traits of seriousness, journalistic relevance and careful treatment of facts rather than being propagandistic and politicized.
The discrepancy between the intended reporting format as expressed in the editorial policy and the felt bias towards the political authorities is the subject of this study. The study scrutinizes selected media content by means of textual analysis in a two-step examination: First, it uses content analysis to determine the selection of stories and sources in the media reports; second, it uses linguistic and visual analysis to investigate the assumed systematic construction of a pro-government bias in the articles and broadcasts.
Content from two media outlets are scrutinized in the study, namely Ethiopian Television’s evening news and current affairs stories from The Ethiopian Herald. 20 news broadcasts and newspaper issues are selected from ETV and Herald respectively, divided by 10 items from the period November 2009 to February 2010 and 10 items from the last three weeks before the national elections in Ethiopia in May 2010. The research is part of a wider analysis of the rhetoric in the Ethiopian state media and carries potential for comparative analyses of media strategies by semi-democratic authorities elsewhere.
The discrepancy between the intended reporting format as expressed in the editorial policy and the felt bias towards the political authorities is the subject of this study. The study scrutinizes selected media content by means of textual analysis in a two-step examination: First, it uses content analysis to determine the selection of stories and sources in the media reports; second, it uses linguistic and visual analysis to investigate the assumed systematic construction of a pro-government bias in the articles and broadcasts.
Content from two media outlets are scrutinized in the study, namely Ethiopian Television’s evening news and current affairs stories from The Ethiopian Herald. 20 news broadcasts and newspaper issues are selected from ETV and Herald respectively, divided by 10 items from the period November 2009 to February 2010 and 10 items from the last three weeks before the national elections in Ethiopia in May 2010. The research is part of a wider analysis of the rhetoric in the Ethiopian state media and carries potential for comparative analyses of media strategies by semi-democratic authorities elsewhere.
Publisert i Norsk medieforskarlags 14. konferanse, Ålesund, 2010
Les artikkelen her