Practices and Challenges in Internal Political Pluralism in Ethiopian Broadcast Media: FM 102.1 , FM 98.1 and Ethiopian National Radio in Focus
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Date
2015-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main purpo se of thi s stud y was to exa mine man ifestati o n of po litical plura l ism in news
coverage of the Ethiopian broadcast media in reference to three selected stations. T heories of
Habermasian pub li c s phere theory, polarized pluralist model, age nda sett in g and political
econom y of mass media have been em ployed as theoretical frameworks for th is st ud y. The study
empl oyed qua ntitati ve meth od a s th e princ ip al method a nd qual itative as suppl e me ntary. By
taking samp les fr o m a s ix-month news transmi ss ions in th e selected station s, an an a lysis a nd
interpretation was co nducted based o n th e procedures and rul es of cont e nt a na lys is. Moreover,
eleven ke y informants, w ho have direct o r indirect re lation wi th the t op ic , were selected and
in te r v iewed, to tr iangulate the information gai ned via co nte nt a na lys is. The data were organi zed
into re leva nt categories a nd ana lyzed acco rdin g ly. T he res u lt of th e stud y revea ls that , inte rnal
p lurali sm ha s not been prope rl y interprete d in the studied media ho uses. Compa rati ve ly, the
views of op pos it io n pa rti es were hi ghl y oppressed in th e se lected broadcastin g m edia. The media
fai ls to entertai n equitable coverage of news presentat ion between th e rulin g party a nd th e
oppos ition parties . It seems th at id eas a nd complaints from th e society doesn't get enough s pace
in the media. When we see the representa ti on of th e rulin g part y in th e medi a, it is mostly
d ep icted as d eve lopmenta l, th e stat ion s did not have room for corrective news pi eces. Becau se
th ey use mostly news p repa red or deve loped by the in -ho use reporte rs, the balance of the news
tra nsmi ss ion has bee n affected. The s tud y concluded that th e democrati c po liti ca l sys tem
demands Ethi o pi an broadcast medi a to ente rta in plura li sm, intern a l po liti cal p lur a li sm has been
comprom is ed in th e sa mpl e broa dcast med ia impl yi ng th at th ere is li ttle c ha nce fo r enterta in ing
di verse po lit ical views in the Ethi opia broadcast med ia predominatel y owned by t he governm ent.
Ba sed o n the stud y, a coupl e of r ecommendati o ns that might he lp to reduce th e limitat io ns o f the
press are s u ggested.
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Keywords
Political Pluralism, Ethiopian Broadcast Media