The Political Economy of the Ethiopian Media and Its Impact on Media‘s Representation of Multiculturalism: Selected Mainstream Television Channels in Focus
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Date
2024-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study explores the intersection of the political economy of the media and multiculturalism in the nature Ethiopia. Employing Transformative Mixed Methods design, and utilizing theoretical frameworks of Critical Political Economy, Critical Multiculturalism, Pragmatist Theory of Cultural Pluralism,
Representation Theory, and the Theory of Public Sphere under the umbrella of Critical Theory, this research draws upon a diverse array of data sources, encompassing 1,167 news stories, eighteen television talk shows, and interviews. It used systematic and availability sampling techniques to select
television contents. Fifty journalists working in the three televisions‟ newsrooms are also selected based on their interests and experiences of multicultural news production. Snowball sampling was used to select 200 audience members to examine their multicultural TV viewing. In-depth interviews were
conducted with thirty-five informants, including journalists, media monitoring experts, and journalism educators. Document analyses were further employed to scrutinize the political-economic dynamics inherent within the television channels. The findings indicate close interconnections between media
ownership and political power in Ethiopia. The blurred line between commercial and government media ownership and parallel regulations are leading to limited competition and slow TV infrastructure development. Disparity in representing peripheral communities due to economic constraints, editorial
decisions, and language barriers confine news gathering to specific regions. Limited journalists‟autonomy and newsroom culture prioritize government affairs, hampering diversity of voices. Recent political polarization and conflicts have threatened the impartiality of news reporting, the use of inclusive language to represent diversity. Newsrooms adopt antagonistic narratives undermining the fostering of tolerance and respect among diverse society. This hostile discourse poses risk to multiculturalism. Talk Shows predominantly focused on personalities and political behaviors of leaders, rather than engaging withmulticulturalism. Exploratory Factor Analysis with KMO and Bartlett's Test yielding values of 0.911 for ETV viewers, 0.896 for Fana TV viewers, and 0.888 for Walta TV viewers. Five factors, including Tolerance of Diversity, Audiences‟ Choice, Fair Representation, and Quality of Multicultural Programs, and Views on Ethnic Identities were identified as factors of multicultural TV viewing. Mainstream TV channels focused on government ideology, lacking diverse viewpoints. The study suggests that collaboration of news stakeholders and policy adjustments are crucial for diverse media. Future policies should balance the needs of multicultural groups to foster national unity. The study proposes Plurinationalwelfare media model to ensure diverse ownership, content, and fair
resource allocation in Ethiopian media.
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Keywords
Multiculturalism, Political Economy