A study of newspaper columnists’ framing of Kenyan politics in post-2007 election violence

Abstract

This research investigates the prevalence of five media frames in op-ed articles published in Kenya's Sunday Nation newspaper: attribution of responsibility, conflict, economic consequences, human interest and international interest. Through the lens of the attribution of responsibility frame, the study examines who, between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, was blamed for problems facing Kenya. How the two leaders were framed – positively or negatively – was also analysed. In total, 90 opinion column articles were content analysed in the 18-month period following the formation of Kenya's Grand Coalition Government in 2008. The results show that the conflict frame was the most prevalent, followed by international interest, attribution of responsibility, economic consequences and human interest. Kibaki was blamed more, and thus framed more negatively, than Odinga.