Daily nation framing of news on Kenya’s political parties in the 2017 general elections.

Abstract

This study sought to analyse the Daily Nation framing of news on Kenya’s political parties in the 2017 General Elections. Despite the fact that media has a role to play in informing and educating the electorate, the modern day electorate continues to go to the polls with skewed understanding of the electoral process, the contenders and what their parties stand for. They therefore may end up making uninformed choices at the ballot. Several studies have been conducted on print media coverage of elections and specifically sought to gain insight into priming of political party leaders and informative role of media during elections. However, why the electorate makes uniformed choices at the ballot and effects of this partisan voting on a general election is an area that has remains unexplored which this study seeks to delve into. Daily Nation being the newspaper with the largest readership in the country was analysed to determine what it primed in its news on political parties. The specific objectives of the study were; to analyse the framing of messages on political parties prior to the 2017 general elections and to assess the prominence given to the political parties by the Daily Nation prior to the 2017 general elections. The study used the framing theory as propounded by Goffman 1974, to analyse aforementioned objectives. The study used Descriptive research design of the Daily Nation to analyse newspaper reports for a period of sixty-six days when the electioneering activities were at their peak. All the 66 DN newspaper editions published during this period of intensified political activities were analysed as it population of study is limited. The collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics in SPSS. Reliability of this research was enhanced using systematic and transparent methods of data collection. On the other hand, validity of the research was enhanced by using a coding tool that was relevant and appropriate in line with the research questions. Ethical issues in the research were observed through using an appropriate sampling procedure and a large sample size to guard against misrepresentation of facts.