The Framing of Federalisme: The Case Study of Ethiopian Television
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The federal system has a long history with different arrangements in Ethiopia and issue is the issue of every citizen in the country. development, social achievement, economic achievement , political right, nation and nationalities, resource, power division , conflict, constitutions, are some of the major federalism issues in Ethiopia that make the headlines of most Ethiopian media.
The media can play a pivotal role by including federalism issues in their coverage. How the media entertain and frame the federalism issues may be related to the public perception on the issue. It is essential to find out how the issues are framed in the various program of the Ethiopian Television. The Episodes, 20 minutes each, were aired in January 1, 2010 to Dec 31, 2010 were covered in this study. Two reporters, the deputy editor in chief of the program and the official from the Ministry of Federal Affair were also interviewed. The data collected through content analysis.
The findings indicate that half of the stories were event-oriented and the other half were educational .The stories mostly focused on development issues. Government officials were found to be the most frequently reported sources. Social achievement issue was also the second main federalism content covered in the program. The analyzed stories frequently framed federalism issues using educative/advocacy frame. Furthermore, other frames were also used with some diversity. However, attributions of responsibility were totally ignored. Yet, the program focused on suggesting remedies by giving good emphasis to defining and stating the federalism issue. The federalism journalists handling such program were also observed to have less skill and insufficient knowledge in the field.
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Federalisme