COVERING ETHIOPIA: COMPARISON OF THE ETHIOPIAN NEWS AGENCY WITH REUTERS By ABEBE DEMISSIE BANJAW Submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the subject INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR ELIREA BORNMAN NOVEMBER 2007 Page i Declaration I declare that, COVERING ETHIOPIA: COMPARISON OF THE ETHIOPIAN NEWS AGENCY WITH REUTERS is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete reference. Student No. 35733829 Page ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply grateful to Professor Elirea Bornman for her guidance, patience, accessibility, and attention to details, all of which were instrumental in helping me write this dissertation. I am also extremely thankful to Professor PJ Fourie for his interest, insight and encouragement throughout my stay at UNISA. I wish to take this opportunity to thank Professor GM du Plooy for her guidance while I crafted the proposal and Mr. Tsegie Gebre-Amlak, former Editor-in-Chief of the Ethiopian Herald, for his uninterrupted support in reviewing and commenting on my papers. I am also grateful to the staff of Communication Department, especially to Ms. Marie-Hélène Bataille and Mr. D.J. Malan for their prompt and unwavering support they provided me in the course of my study. This dissertation could have hardly been possible without the support and love of my family, particularly Dr. Serkalem Demissie, and; for this, I will be forever in their debt. Page iii SUMMARY This dissertation examines the agendas and frames used by the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) and Reuters in their coverage of issues and actors of the May 2005 Ethiopian Elections, by employing agenda-setting and framing theories. The study applies quantitative and qualitative methods and examined fifty news stories from each news agency, and forwards five main findings: One, ENA and Reuters differed in setting agendas. While ENA focused on the legitimacy, Reuters emphasised on the killings and arrests of the electoral process. Second, ENA and Reuters differed in their motives to make some actors more salient than others. Third, ENA framed Elections processes as rightful, while Reuters framed them as disfigured. Fourth, ENA framed government parties as visionary and indomitable, and the oppositions as wrongdoers. Contrastingly, Reuters framed the oppositions as victims, and the government parties as brutal actors. And finally, by so doing, both agencies reflected their respective interests. Key words Ethiopian News Agency, Reuters, global news agencies, national news agencies, agenda-setting, framing, salience, NWICO, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Elections, Africa, global journalism, ideology, values and stereotyping. Page iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ……………………………………….. iii SUMMARY …......................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES .................................................................. viii ABBREVIATIONS................................................………….... viii CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND AND AIMS OF THE STUDY 1.1 INTRODUCTION ………………………... 1 1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY ........................... 3 1.3 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS ……….. 4 1.4 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS ……… 5 1.5 METHODOLOGY ……………………….. 5 1.6 OVERVIEW OF THE DISSERTATION… 6 CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS OF THE STUDY 2.1 INTRODUCTION ………………………… 7 2.2 AGENDA-SETTING THEORY...……….. 8 2.2.1 Defining the concept ………….. 9 2.2.2 The processes of agenda-setting 10 2.2.3 Research issues in agenda-setting 12 2.2.4 Examples of research studies within the agenda-setting paradigm …… 13 2.3 FRAMING THEORY…………………......... 15 2.3.1 Defining the concept …………….. 16 2.3.2 The locations of frames …..…….. 18 2.3.3 Examples of research studies within the framing paradigm……. 19 Page v 2.4 THE EFFECTS OF SALIENCE AND FRAMING …………………………… 22 2.5 OBJECTIVE REPORTING AND THE CHALLENGES IT FACES ………… 23 2.5.1 Objective reporting and elections 23 2.5.2 The practice of news agencies in news reporting ………………. 24 2.5.2.1 Government policies and practices …………. 25 2.5.2.2 Ideologies and values .. 26 2.5.2.3 Journalists and editors’ views 28 2.5.2.4 Media policies ………… 29 2.5.2.5 NWICO…………………… 30 2.6 ETHIOPIA IN THE GLOBAL MEDIA ….. 32 CHAPTER 3 ETHIOPIAN POLITICAL AND ELECTIONS’ CONTEXTS 3.1 INTRODUCTION ………………………… 35 3.2 ETHIOPIA’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONTEXTS ....................… 35 3.3 THE MAY 2005 ETHIOPIAN ELECTIONS’ CONTEXTS ……………………………… 38 3.3.1 Pre-Elections period ................. 41 3.3.2 Elections day ............................ 42 3.3.3 Post-Elections period ............... 42 3.4 A GLIMPSE ON ENA AND REUTERS 47 3.4.1 ENA as a national news agency 47 3.4.2 Reuters as a global news system 49 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY 4.1 INTRODUCTION …………………………. 54 4.2 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS ………… 54 4.3 THE RESEARCH DESIGN ……………… 55 4.4 QUANTITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS Page vi 4.4.1 Population and sampling ………. 56 4.4.2 Unit of analysis ………………….. 58 4.4.3 Categories of coding …………… 58 4.4.4 Coding procedures ……………… 59 4.4.5 Analysis of the data …………….. 61 4.5 QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS … 61 4.6 CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE STUDY 62 CHAPTER 5 RESULTS OF QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSES 5.1 INTRODUCTION …………………………. 63 5.2 THE FOCUSES (AGENDAS) OF ENA AND REUTERS........................…… 63 5.2.1 The salience of issues as covered by ENA and Reuters..................... 63 5.2.2 The salience of actors as covered by ENA and Reuters ................... 74 5.3 THE FRAMES OF ENA AND REUTERS 81 5.3.1 The framing of issues by ENA and Reuters …………........... 82 5.3.2 The framing of actors by ENA and Reuters …..................... 95 5.4 CONCLUSIONS …………………………… 106 CHAPTER 6 DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 6.1 INTRODUCTION …………………………. 107 6.2 MAJOR DIFFERENCES OF ENA AND REUTERS IN THE COVERAGE OF THE MAY 2005 ETHIOPIAN ELECTIONS ….. 108 6.3 CONCLUSIONS ………………………….. 116 SOURCES CONSULTED........................................................ 118 ADDENDUMS........................................................................... 125 Page vii LISTS OF TABLES Table 1: The frequency of salience of issues by ENA and Reuters ………………………………………. 64 Table 2: The frequency of salience of sub-issues by ENA and Reuters ………………………………………. 65 Table 3: The frequency of salience of actors by ENA and Reuters ………………………………………. 75 Table 4: The frequency of the salience of specific actors by ENA and Reuters ……………………………………. 77 ABBREVIATIONS AFP Agence France Presse ANDM Amhara People’s Democratic Movement AU African Union CIPs Complaints Investigation Panels CRBs Complaints Review Boards CUD Coalition for Unity and Democracy EBA Ethiopian Broadcasting Agency EPLF Eritrean People’s Liberation Front EPRDF Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front ETV Ethiopian Television EU European Union HOF House of the Federation HPR House of Peoples’ Representative HRW The Human Rights Watch ICCPR International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights MOI The Ministry of Information NEB National Electoral Board NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations Page viii NWICO The New World Information and Communication Order OFDM The Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement OLF Oromo Liberation Front OPDO Oromo People’s Democratic Organization RCs Regional Councils SEPDC Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Coalition SEPDM Southern Ethiopia People’s Democratic Movement SNNP Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples TPLF Tigray People’s Liberation Front UEDF United Ethiopian Democratic Forces UK United Kingdom US United States of America USEDF Unity of Southern Ethiopian Democratic Forces USSR United Socialist Soviet Republic Page ix CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND AND AIMS OF THE STUDY 1.1 INTRODUCTION At the dawn of the new millennium, the post modern society, as Thussu (2000:132-148) perceives it, is witnessing the operation of over 2600 media channels with the support of about 300 satellites, reaching nearly 1.5 billion people across the globe. It can be thus argued that the majority of the global citizens learn about and experience the environment beyond their immediate surroundings largely through the global news agencies, such as Reuters. Nevertheless, only a few news agencies, namely the Agence France Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP), and Reuters, dominate the playing field of the global news exchange (Boyd-Barrett 1998). For Boyd-Barrett (1998) the concept and development of news gathering and dissemination are highly linked with modern capitalism. The term “news” hence denotes the “reconstruction of ‘information’ as a commodity”. This commodified product is used for facilitating political and trade (economic) communications, as well as consumed for pleasure (mainly cultural). The role of the global news agencies in news gathering and reporting appears to be a contentious subject among media scholars. The Western world praises the global news agencies for their greater role in the timely reporting of events and globally promoting of dominant liberal concepts, such as democracy and free market. They are also commended for opening up new fronts against state controlled media, which they alleged suffer draconian censorship and interferences by their respective governments (Hachten 1999). Nevertheless, such an optimistic outlook toward the role of global news media are overshadowed by a number of disputes, when they are evaluated from the perspectives of developing countries and the exponents of the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). The issues,