Framing corruption : a study of UK media coverage of three aid recipient African nations (2000-2009 and 2010-2017)

Abstract

Through quantitative content analysis and qualitative framing analysis, this study examines how a broad range of UK newspapers report and frame aid and corruption issues in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, three of the biggest beneficiaries of UK aid, nations that are also perceived to have a corruption problem. The potential contradiction of generosity abroad and austerity at home has raised questions, reflected in media reports, about the wisdom of the policy of maintaining a big aid budget, while at the same time cutting social spending.The study analysed over 300 articles in 15 UK newspapers published between 2000 and 2017 and makes several significant contributions to knowledge in the field of media representation of aid. First, its finding that UK newspapers did not rely heavily on news agencies for the coverage of the topic in the three countries is noteworthy, given cuts to foreign correspondents by many newspapers. Second, the positive coverage given to these issues by many ‘quality’ UK newspapers is significant, when viewed against the history, in existing literature, of negative representation of Africa by the mainstream UK media, including on matters related to aid and corruption. Third, the study fills a unique gap in literature as a result of its relatively large eighteen-year sample period. Fourth, comparing two periods of time (2000-2009 and 2010-2017) before and after the introduction of austerity makes it the first academic study to make such comparison raising new questions about the relation between aid policy, newspaper coverage and against the background of austerity economic policies in the UK.