Media Framing of Violence Against Children in Ethiopia: The Case of the Children's Program of Ethiopia Radio

No Thumbnail Available

Date

2009-10

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Violence against Children is a social problem that is very prominent in Ethiopia and is affecting children everyday. The study was conducted based on the premise that the media has a role to transmit relevant information in order to curb social problems such as violence against children. The study also highlighting the importance of frames in determining the understanding of the audience had used the framing conceptual framework. The media chosen for this study was the Ethiopia radio children's program, "From the world of Children". Focus was on the coverage of the programs broadcasted on Violence against Children for three consecutive years that is, 2007ยท2009. Six dominant frames were used as reference to study the types of frames used by the children's program. These were: The Economic Frame, The Conflict Frame, The powerlessness frame, The Human Impact Frame, The Morality Frame and the Attribution of Responsibility frame. The research hence found that in covering violence against children the Powerlessness, the Attribution of Responsibility and the Conflict frames were the most prominently used frames. The study further found that major factors that affected the coverage of programs on violence against children were editor's conscious decision; lack of awareness of editors, producers an d journalists on the subject; sensitivity of the issue and lack of appropriate age classification as target group. The research finally gives a conclusion and recommendations for further studies in the area of violence against children and framing in general.

Description

Keywords

Media Framing of Violence Against, Children in Ethiopia

Citation