Browsing by Author "Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)"

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    An Assessment on the Practice of Strategic Communication for National Image Building: The Case of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa University, 2018-05) Bimer, Mekuanint; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    The purpose of the study was to assess the practice of strategic communication in national image building in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia. The study assessed the roles of strategic communication and current practice of the Ministry in promoting the country’s image to the international community. In the assessment, the researcher collected views of practitioners working in the Ministry and the overseas diplomatic missions of Ethiopia. The researcher employed qualitative methodology to get detail views and used purposive sampling technique to select key informants in the Ministry. For the conceptual and theoretical frameworks, the concepts of strategic communication, national image building, agenda setting and framing theories were reviewed respectively. Strategic communication guides for a favorable image promotion of a nation in a way the promotional messages are framed and set as an agenda. Furthermore, the Foreign Policy and National Security Strategies and other related documents were reviewed for supporting the study as a baseline. The findings of the study revealed that a huge gap exists in using strategic communication for national image building in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry and missions abroad do not use strategic communication, rather practice the traditional and conventional way of promoting a country. Also, there is lack of coordination between or among stakeholders in the country in promoting the country’s image. The Ministry also lacks skilled public diplomats and communication practitioners who are familiar to digital diplomacy. Though the Ministry has shown limited improvement in training diplomats, the rigid bureaucracy and unresponsive working systems have still become impediments that hinder the Ministry in using strategic communication for building the image of Ethiopia. Based on the findings, the Ministry has to replace the traditional practices for strategic communication to build the country’s image. In the contemporary world, the image of a nation highly matters for developing countries like Ethiopia in attracting foreign direct investment, tourism, and establishing friendly relations with other sovereign countries. The study also suggests that the government has to establish an overriding institution which regulates the disintegrated promotional activities of various stakeholders in the country.
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    Content Analysis on Children Television Program: EBC in Focus
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-04) Assefa, Meseret; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    The present study is conducted to assess the content of children' s Television program through content analysis. In order to explore the data, the researcher has done content analysis as a primary research method and has reviewed 48 television programs geared toward the Ye/ejochgize and Lehet sa na t audiences. It focused on three broad areas: Language appropriateness, understandability, and violence effect. The finding h as exposed that th ere is improper u se of language and it is believed to b e difficult for children to understand. Not only the vocabulary and sentence construction that mak es the message co mplex, but the presentation format is not as such simple for most children the finding also shown that there is no producer's research condu cted to revise the EBC format that is used for the last more than 15 years. The data has also given away that the EBC scheduling is not regular and in practice; it co uld be broadcast anytime between 8:30 to 12 AM. This is because of priority given to other p rograms that are considered to be more important by section editors, the children's program are pushed up or down in the sch edule. The finding also reveals th a t o nly six journalists with no special training to cover the program. Based on the findings, that EBC utilizes an older version of children's program format which doesn't p ermit the program reachable to all se gments of audiences. It is recommended that the program producers have to fix the transmission time and give priority to children program. It is also recommended that the program should a pply the recent format that helps to catch that attention of children.
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    History and Role of the Voice of America (VOA) Amharic Radio Broadcast
    (Addis Ababa University, 2014-12) Hailu, Ashagre; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    The major purpose of this s tudy is to asse ss the hi sto ry and ro le of The Vo ice of Ameri ca (VOA) Amha ric service, one of the internationa l radio broadcasters to Ethio p ia. It a lso examines its relations h ip with th e d iffe re nt r egimes that rul ed the co untry du rin g it s three decade of broadcasti ng news a nd in fo rm a tion. T he st ud y is pure ly used a hi s toric al a ppro ach of th e qualitat ive m ethod and it empl oyed Edwa rd Herma n and Noa m Chomsky' s th e Political Eco nomy of the Mass Media as it s theoret ical fra m ework. Quali tative data was co ll ected f rom differen t printed or e lectro nic d ocuments and pe rso nal interviews w ith fonner a nd c urre nt emplo yees of th e VOA A mhari c se rvic e and o th er people who a re direct ly and ind irect ly famil iar w ith the service of the radi o station. VOA sta rt ed it s record ed broadcast on Radi o Ethiopia durin g the Imperi a l period but it d idn ' t last lo ng. Afte r th e mi lit ary re g im e turn ed it s face towards the soc ialist ca mp VOA began its Amharic br oadcast l ive from Was hin g ton DC in 198 2 to co unte r a nti- US pro paganda and to w in acceptance among the populatio n, a nd a ft e r the e nd of Cold War the need to continu e o r to e nd the Amh a ri c service was an iss ue amo ng VOA officia ls and US diplomats to Ethiopi a. But a lon gsi de the A mh a ri c serv ice VOA s tart ed add itiona l broadcast to Ethiopi a in Afan Oromo a nd Tigregna in 1996. The stu dy find o ut that VOA Amharic service se rved as an alte rn at ive source of info rmat ion, started o ther language broadcast as Ho rn of A fri ca se rvi ce, co nn ected th e Et hi op ian diaspor w ith ho me, served as a re liabl e so urc e of new s a nd information fo r th e pr iva te press, crea ted a fo ru m for ope n di scu ss io n among a nta go nisti c gro ups in the co untry a nd di as pora. B ut the Ethiopi an gove rn men t accused t he rad io broadcast play ing a negati ve rol e as a mouth pi ece of th e op pos ition. A nd most of th e t im e E thi opia n offi c ia ls we re no t w ill ing to spea k the ir s ide by p utt ing VOA Amhari c se rvice as bi ase d and un he lpful , engaged in des ta bi liz ing an d hate propaganda. T he gove rn ment a lso admi tt ed t hat it has tried to j a m t he broad cast in res ponse to it s c rit ic ism . The study recommended that rathe r than accusi ng and tryin g to take dow n VOA Amharic broadcast off a ir th e go ve rn ment s ho ul d feat ure it s sid e of an y sto ry to g ive the lis tene r a cha nc e to u nd ers tand it a nd mak ing d i ve rse an d bal anced info rmation ava il able to th e publi c thro ug h th e go ve rnment c ontro ll ed medi a . Further studi es are need ed to u nde rstand VOA ' s broadcast s to Ethi o pia mo re and thi s st ud y c an se rve as a sp ring boa rd fo r it.
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    Media Framing of Nations Nationalities and Peoples Day in Ethiopia: The Case of Some Selected Newspapers
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-11) Yeshambel, Dessalegn; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    The main objective of this study was to examine media framing of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples day both in government and private print media outlets from 2010-2014. In order to conduct this study, three newspapers: namely, the government owned Addis Zemen, and the privately owned Addis Admass and Reporter newspapers have been purposejitlly selected based on ownership, access and large circulation oFnewspapers. The study also included newspapers published in November 24 to December 24 from 2010 to 2014. Accordingly, 135 news articles were analyzed by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative content analysis and in-depth interview methods were dominantly used. Moreover, in-depth interviews were conducted with 9 key informants from government and private media houses as well asji'om the house of federation. This study also dominantly employed framing theOlY as a theoretical framework. The findings of this study revealed the dominance of development frame over other media frame types both in Addis Zemen and Reporter Amharic newspapers. However, in the weekly, Addis Admass, advocacy frame was the most frequently employed frame type for the coverage of the event. With reference to the coverage of NNPD of Ethiopia, the findings of the result indicated that Addis Zemen relatively published more news articles than Addis Admass and Reporter newspapers due to its daily published and government owned newspaper. In addition, Addis Zemen and Reporter Amharic framed and portrayed the day in a positive way since Addis Zemen is government controlled media, it has no space to criticize the evel1l whereas, the weekly Addis Admass portrayed the event of NNPD of Ethiopia in a negative way because it has relatively beller media freedom than the government owned media. This shows thotthere are biased views in the newspapers towards the celebration of the event. Moreover, in the findings of the study, living peacejitlly in tolerance with NNP 's and building a single political and economic community in the country was found to be the dominant discussed theme both in Addis Zemen and Reporter (Amharic) newspapers.
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    Perception of ECA's Officials and Stakeholders on the Role of lCT in the Campaign against Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) from Africa
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-06) Arega, Meseret; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    This study examines the roles that ICTs play in Economic Commission for Africa's CECA's) campaign against Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) as documented in the report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa submitted to the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in January 20 15. The report finds that over $50 billion of Africa's fund s, which could have been used to meet development needs is salted out of the continent yearly in illicit flows. The study employed two prominent theoretical frameworks that could underpin the study; they are Networking Theory popularized by Manuel Castell and Diffusions of Innovations theory by Everett Rogers In exploring the role of ICTs in the campaign against IFF, the study adopts triangulation both quantitative and qualitative approaches: First, it examines the ICT-related elements, especially the IFF Webtracker, in the communication strategy designed by ECA for the purpose of tracking, stopping and returning the funds illicitly tran sferred out of Africa. Second, it dwells on the response to questionnaires administered to 115 people who are the staff members of ECA and ECA's stakeholders and collaborators who are purposively sampled based on their areas of engagement, which is either ICT or are invo lved directly to the programme, IFF. ECA's stakeholders and collabo rators that include the African Union, African Development Bank, the World Bank, the African Capacity Building Foundation, NEPAD Agency and relevant Civil Society Organ izations including Action Aid and Tax Ju stice Africa were selected considering their exposure to IFF and ICT events organized by ECA. Thirdly, in order to get deeper in sight, one-on-one interviews were carried out with eight experts who are either connected with the preparation and implementation of the High Level Panel (HLP) report or have expertise in areas including ICT for development, Communications and development, Data management, etc. The study unveiled that ICTs plays a significant role in tracking and stopping IFFs through the use of web applications, advocacy campaigns led by social media, as well as communication systems and devices which vent the negative impacts of IFF, create public awareness and curb the problem. The study, however, finds that ICT plays less of a role in returning the money to the source countries and argues that political will of governments should complement ICTs in order to stop IFFs. The study, accordingly, calls for enhanced communication strategies and involvement of media in advocacy campaigns.
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    A Study on Diabetes Communication Strategy in Ethiopia: The Case of Ethiopian Diabetes Association
    (Addis Ababa University, 2014-06) Mekuanint, Firew; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    The purpose of the study was to study effectiveness of the communication strategy of the Ethiopian Diabetes Association (EDA) in combating diabetes. The study was conducted among members of the Ethiopian Diabetes Association, health professionals working at the Federal Ministry of Health and other government and private health institutions. To achieve the objectives, the study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches, which includes individual interview, questionnaire, observation and document analys is. Therefore, the communication strategy employed by the Ethiopian Diabetes Association has not been effective because of various reasons. These include, among others, lack of skilled human power and financial constraints. The findings of the study showed that use of mass media, informal education session, mainstreaming with formal education system and interpersonal communication methods are the most commonly used and accepted in the study to communicate diabetes messages. As applied in other sectors of health such as HIV IAIDS, the outcome of the study illustrated that those occasions as coffee ceremonies, Idir, Mahiber, Debo and other relevant meetings are to be the major indigenous gatherings and ways of information exchange particularly in rural areas. However, the society and members of EDA did not exploit the venues for the purpose of exchanging diabetes messages extensively. The results showed the need for improved and target oriented information and education materials as well as disseminated programs on diabetes through mass media including broadcast and print media. Although association leaders, active members, decisio n makers, religious leaders living with it, and health professionals working in the area are credible sources of information, they are not targeted to address diabetes message properly. In general, designing sound communi cation strategies for the prevention and control of chronic NCDs in general and diabetes in particular has to be important to constitute the shared commitment and consensus among the government, partners and stakeholders on the strategic directions to prevent and control the main chronic diseases and their risk factors . The proposed strategies developed by the Federal Ministry of Health should provide the framework for partners and stakeholders towards a common goal. Besides, addressing environmental, psychological and structural problems is found to be equally important.
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    A Study on Framing of Pre- election News Stories in the 2015 Ethiopian General Elections: The Case of Addis Zemen, Reporter, EBC and FBC.
    (Addis Ababa University, 2015-06) Hailu, Ketema; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    These days, media plays a decisive role in all aspects of political, economic and social affairs of a country being the main source of information. It turns into an actor during political parties running for general elections in a given country. Along with that, the media play either an adverse or significant role in such a critical time of national elections by framing the news and programs in the way that to gratify the abiding interest of owners adherent to one side. This study was conducted mainly to investigate the framing of pre - election news stories during the 2015 Ethiopian general elections by the country's government owned and privately owned media. The study employed qualitative content analysis approaches. To conduct the study, two newspapers namely Addis Zemen and Amharic Reporter and two broadcasters namely EBC and FBC (television and radio respectively) with a relatively larger circulation and high coverage of domestic politics were under the study. Two major contending opposition parties, the Blue party and Medrek were interviewed to help the researcher see how the framing of pre - election news stories was done. The study included news stories and editorial pieces published and broad casted within the period of March 24 to May 21 , 2015. Results of the study revealed that the government owned media Addis Zemen and EBC were under the pressure of the government and portrayed the ruling party (EPRDF) positively whereas the privately owned media Amharic Reporter and FBC were relatively under a lesser pressure and portraying the political parties relatively neutrally in framing of the pre - election news stories during the fifth round Ethiopian general elections. Morality frame and conflict frame were the predominant frames employed by the selected media during the preelection period. Finally, recommendations are given based on the findings.
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    A Study on Social Media Usage among Ethiopian University Undergraduate Students: Impacts and Opportunities
    (Addis Ababa University, 2014-06) Worku, Mebratu; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    The advance and popularity of the social media is increasing rapidly since the last few years. These social media have been noted for some benefits. This is especially in the socialization process by giving access to communicate with old ji-iends, new friends' and family. Social medialFacebook has also been used as a source of news and as a vehicle for political and humanitarian causes too. However, these benefits do not erase the foars associated with the usage of these forms of media. These fears range ji-om privacy issues to waste of time, addiction, Loss of educational achievements, eliminating interpersonal communication in its most original form and many others. However, the aforementioned social media impacts remains hazy when it comes to the case of Ethiopia, especially of the young students. This study, therefore, examines the usage and related impacts of Facebook, one of the most popular social media, among young University Undergraduate students in Ethiopia. Accordingly, using the uses and gratifications, media dependency and the network society theories as a theoretical guide, the study investigated 'why for' and 'how' HE students in the country use Facebook. Obsen'ation and questionnaire has been used to collect data from 300 respondents studying at four different HE institutions. Hence, the finding shows that many students in the HE institutions are heavy users of Facebook with many already tending toward excessive usage and over dependency. Many undergraduates access their Facebook account several times a day and spend an average of 1-2 hours per day. Furthermore the study provide consistent evidence that chatting and messaging as well as posting and viewing photos as the most frequent activities of these undergraduate students on Facebook. They use the site mainly for personal and socialization purposes, but lower for academic purposes. However, the study, of course, does not find any relationship with academic achievement of the sample students. Moreover, Facebook has created an opportunity for students to easily communicate with their existing friends, to enjoy leisure time, to date online and to keep them up-to-date. However, the finding also detected some sort of negative Facebook impacts including time wastage, addiction and loss of privacy. Hence, the study recommends that students and any user should be carejid in their social media use and should exert targeted efforts to counter Facebook risks and thereby achieve maximum benefit the site offers.
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    A Study on the Health Communication Strategies of FHAPCO to Prevent HIVIAIDS in MARPS and Vulnerable Groups, Particularly to Address College and University Students.
    (Addis Ababa University, 2016-07) Abiye, Ayenabeba; Beyene, Zenebe (PhD)
    Annual reports and researches show that HIVIAIDS is still the cause of death for the p eople around the world especially for the third world countries like Ethiopia. Hence, this study is designed to assess the health communication strategies of FHAP CO to prevent HIVIAIDS in most at risk population (MA RPS) and vulnerable groups, particularly to address college and university students. In the study, qualitative research inquiry was employed. Document analysis and an in-depth interview were data collection tools. Th e qualitative method followed purposive sampling to select interviewees from the members of th e technical team that has designed the SBCC strategy of FHAPCO and personnel in AA U and analyzed the health communication strategy to prevent HIVIAIDS, MARPS and vulnerable groups in Ethiopia. Additionally the document (health communication strategy for MARPS alld vulnerable groups) HIVIAIDS and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) communication for higher education institutions were analyzed thoroughly. The stu dy was informed by participatory communication theory. Therefore, the study hasrevealed that the social and behavior communication (SBCC) strategy is a strategy which was designed to prevent HIVIAIDS in MARPS and vulnerable gro ups. Members of the tec hnical team who were assigned to desig n th e SBCC strategy were followed the P-process systematic health co mmunication approac h as a guide line. According to the findings of the study, the controversies between the high risk behaviour of university students to sexually transmitted HIVIAIDS and the availability of the perceived health communication strategies is due to some gaps which were in all stages of the strategy development (lack of key stakeholders participation) and on its implementation. And the study concluded that the participation of key stakeholders in all stages of communication strategies and communication interventions at all levels of the society is vital to bring about the desired behavior change.