An investigation of content diversity in the Ethiopian media news: the case of Ethiopian News Agency
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Date
2018-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate content diversity in the Ethiopian media news. In order to investigate this diversity, in terms of content, geographical coverage, number of sources and types of news sources, the research attempted to see the stories of five hundred five (505) news items. While quantitative research method was employed for the study, the five hundred five news stories were taken by using systematic random sampling technique. So as to see how these diversities are treated in the Ethiopian media news, literatures related to the topic under study are consulted. Additionally, agenda setting theory is used here as a theoretical framework for the study.
The findings depicted that there are regional news coverage disparities. While 40.4 percent of the news stories generated from Addis Ababa, only 0.6 percent of the news stories were generated from Benshangul Gumuz. In relation to content diversity, even though many news topics are touched up on by the news Agency, societal issues, which comprises 16.8 percent of the total news topics are the most frequently covered issues of the Agency. The study revealed that 41 percent of the news stories were produced from official sources. And 23.6 percent of the news stories that comprises the majority of the news items were produced out of a single news source. Regarding to the Agency’s treatment of diversified views and opinions also the study discovered that, diversity of opinions and views are not adequately entertained by the Agency.
Finally the study tried to suggest the ways how ENA can proportionally cover all regions of the country and recommend the Agency to come up with diversified opinions and views both its news sources and contents
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Keywords
Ethiopian Media News, Ethiopian News Agency