Media Framing Of People With Disabilities In Local Amharic Newspapers

Disability is a very ordinary part of life in every part of the world. Yet the problem getsrnworse in developing countries like Ethiopia as a result of poverty and war. Hence thisrnresearch aimed to study how this issue is framed, portrayed and covered in three localrnAmharic newspapers. The research looked in to dominantly covered types of disabilitiesrnand pictures used in these newspapers. Framing theory was also made central to the work.rnThe study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods; content analysisrnand in-depth interview. Of 53 newspapers in the country, the study made purposivernselection of three sample newspapers (Addis Zemen, Addis Admas and Medical) with inrnthe time frame of 18 months between December 2005 and May 2007. Through out thesernperiods, 56 articles were coded by two trained individuals. In-depth interviews were alsornmade with journalists and editors of each newspaper so as to get information that wouldrnhave been impossible otherwise.rnAs per the results acquired, the issues of disability in Admas and medical were coveredrndue to the presence of a link of research finding in it. These newspapers also employedrn“need for cure” themes hence depicted disability as ‘synonymous with illness andrnsuffering’. While in Zemen it was covered as news stories, depicted socially, onlyrnbecause it involved charities and donation links made by international organizations.rnMuch of the stories in Zemen were framed to attribute responsibility to Government andrnNGOs as having the ability to alleviate the problem, although there were a number ofrnother frames used. On the other hand, Admass and Medical persistently used empathyrnframes while reporting on disability depicting them as ‘helpless and needy’.rnAll the newspapers also were engaged in selection and salience as they persistently coverrnone type of disability over others. Zemen and Medical dominantly reported on Visualrnimpairments of adults over others while Admass was engaged to cover mental illness andrnretardations in children.

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