Online Media Framing Of the West African Ebola Virus Disease (Evd) Epidemic: A Content Analysis of Cnn, Global News Network (Gnn) and Daily Nation

Abstract

This study was aimed at identifying the dominant frames in the coverage of the West African Ebola Virus Disease (EBOLA) by CNN, Global News Network, Liberia and Daily Nation, Kenya. It was also designed to identify any relations between newsmakers and the issue-specific frames, examine ethical issues that emerged from the coverage and investigate the kinds of media representations of Africa in the coverage. A quantitative content analysis was carried out to study a total of 555 online news items by CNN, GNN and Daily Nation from the period 1st March, 2014 to 31st December, 2014 through a composite week sampling. The study found that “action”, “consequence” and “reassurance” frames were the major issue-specific frames used, with “action” being the most dominant. More than half of the stories were centred on disease statistics which included cases and casualty figures as well as conditions of Ebola patients. Majority of the stories were also found to be episodic in nature suggesting the predominance of coverage of events as incidences, rather than coverage of the disease holistically by situating it in context through the provision of background information. No differences were found in frames irrespective of the newsmaker involved. Newsmakers were framed in a similar way, with majority having action, consequence and reassurance frames being the most dominant. The media representation of Africa was generally neutral in the coverage, although CNN tended to be more stereotypical in its reporting on Africa. The media in this study did not embrace constructive journalism frames as alternative ways of reporting on Africa. Majority of the stories analysed recorded no issues of ethical concern. Finally, it was found that 63.5% of Daily Nation’s news were sourced from a non-African news agency while only 5.9% of GNN’s news came from its own journalists. The study recommends greater reliance on primary indigenous news sources such as African news agencies in the coverage of African issues, in order to avoid transferring any kinds of biases that may have been carried in the news of the foreign media houses.