Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Abstract

This study examines how the Western media frames its coverage of Africa and this impact on Westerners’ views of Africa. To develop the hypothesis and provide the data needed to answer the research questions, I reviewed the literature on framing, the determinants of international news coverage, as well as international media coverage. Newspapers were my data sources, and using LexisNexis with the key word “Africa,” I searchedthe online news service of the Associated Press(AP). Thissearch yielded 1,000 articles and was reduced by including only those published between January,2015 and January,2016,and then using random sampling. The final number of articles analyzed was 110. The data analysis used seven parameters: common issues (economy, health, war, politics, religion and social well-being), tone and depth of coverage, date published, cities covered, authors’ country of origin, and sources quoted in the stories. Results of the analysis identified the top three issues covered by the AP during the period under study: social issues, political issues and other issues, i.e. education, tourism, conservation, sports, etc. My conclusions were that the AP stories lacked depth in coverage, continuity, credibility (over 65% of the sources cited were unidentified), and scope (the dominant focus was on individuals and South Africa).

Year of Submission

2020

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Communication and Media

First Advisor

Tom Hall, Chair

Date Original

2020

Object Description

1 PDF file (68 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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