Framing of Traffic Accident-Related Problems by State Media in Ethiopia: Addis Zemen and EBC in Focus
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Date
2016-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Traffic accident has increasingly become the recurrent problem in Ethiopia where thousands of people are killed and properties amounting to multimillion birr are destroyed every year, causing disastrous socio-economic consequences on the citizens and the country. Media, particularly state media, have the responsibility to play a pivotal role in overcoming this prevailing crisis. The purpose of this study was to examine how Ethiopian state media, particularly EBC‟s “Guzo” program and Addis Zemen newspaper framed traffic accident issues from September 1, 2014- August 30, 2015. Informed by framing and persuasion theories, the study set out to answer four basic research questions. Both Addis Zemen and Guzo program broadcast by EBC were directly selected as sources of the study. The study employed triangulation of methods, a combination of qualitative and quantitative method, to gather the necessary data, both quantitative and qualitative, was used as the principal instrument of data collection. In the study 70 stories were selected and analyzed. In addition, in order to strengthen the findings obtained through content analysis, in-depth interview was conducted with reporters and editors who were purposely selected from the media institutions under study. The result of the study revealed that in covering road traffic accident issues, the selected state media used different frames, but most of the stories were framed in attribution of responsibility frame. Prognostic frame and economic consequence frame were the second leading frames in Addis Zemen and EBC (Guzo program), respectively.
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On the contrary, empathy and conflict frames were the least used frames in the analyzed stories whereas, human interest, educative advocacy, morality, prognostic and motivational frames were hardly used in the stories covered by the two media. In visual framing majority of the pictures/images have been directly related with the stories which include graphs, different accidents, and crashed cars. Moreover, provision of driving license (the new implemented government strategy) and over speed were commonly stated causes of road traffic accidents in the analyzed stories. In both media, government officials were repeatedly mentioned more than other sources of information. On the contrary, victims and families were the least quoted sources. Police, community members, journalists, drivers and other sources were given a slight chance in the analyzed stories. When the findings were viewed from the perspective of extended parallel process model, EBC gave more emphasis to danger control strategies while; Addis Zemen used fear arousal texts in the analyzed stories. Regarding message design, the finding indicated that EBC (Guzo program) design story message in severity, susceptibility and self-efficacy message format. On the contrary, Addis Zemen used threat component messages. In the case of media roles Addis Zemen newspaper highly used informative role in the articles whereas, EBC (Guzo program) mainly employed educational strategies. The study concludes that both media institutions showed a gap in framing of road traffic accident issues that can play a potent role in order to minimize the accident rate.
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Traffic Accident-Related Problems