PR-Driven Journalism Model: The Case of Ethiopia

Mohammed, Jemal

doi:10.1080/23743670.2021.1888138

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…However, the interview was not pursued because, at the time of doing the research, conflict news crowded the airwaves. Furthermore, evidence also shows that there is “sadness bias” in the sharing of negative political news on the social media (de León and Trilling, 2021; Mohammed, 2021; Hamborg et al , 2019; Bleaney and Dimico, 2017). Despite the assurance that the interviews would follow the Institutional Review Board’s standards for the study of human subjects, potential interviewees were reluctant to participate, and others feared reprisals.…”

Section: Research Questions Methodology and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking accountability in developing countries: an institutional pillars perspective

Negash,

Hassan

2023

MRR

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Purpose This paper aims to fill gap in the literature and explore policy options for resolving the problems of accountability by framing three research questions. The research questions are (i) whether certain elements of Scott’s (2014) institutional pillars attenuate (accentuate) corporate and public accountability; (ii) whether the presence of ruling party-affiliated enterprises (RPAEs) create an increase (decrease) in the degree of corporate (public) accountability; and (iii) whether there is a particular form of ownership change that transforms RPAEs into public investment companies. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative research methodology that involves term frequency and thematic analysis of publicly available textual information, the paper examines Mechkova et al.’s (2019 forms of government accountability. The paper analyzes the gaps between the de jure and de facto accountability using the institutional pillars framework. Findings The findings of the paper are three. First, there are gaps between de jure and de facto in all three (vertical, horizontal and diagonal) forms of government (public) accountability. Second, the study finds that more than three fourth of the parties that contested the June 2021 election did have regional focus. They did not advocate for accountability. Third, Ethiopia’s RPAEs are unique. They have regional focus and are characterized by severe forms of agency and information asymmetry problems. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of the paper is its exploratory nature. Extending this research by using cross-country data could provide a more complete picture of the link between corporate (public) accountability and a country’s institutional pillars. Practical implications Academic research documents that instilling modern corporate (public) governance standards in the Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) region has shown mixed results. The analysis made in this paper is likely to inform researchers and policymakers about the type of change that leads to better corporate (and public) accountability outcomes. Social implications The institutional change proposed in the paper is likely to advance the public interest by mitigating agency and information asymmetry problems and enhancing government accountability. The changes make the enterprises investable, save scarce jobs, enhance diversity and put the assets in RPAEs to better use. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that uses the institutional pillars analytical framework to examine an SSA country's corporate (public) accountability problem. It demonstrates that accountability is a domestic and a (novel) traveling theory. The paper identifies the complexity of resolving the interlock between political institutions and business enterprises. It theorizes that it is impossible to instill modern corporate (public) accountability standards without changing regulatory, normative and cultural cognitive pillars of institutions. The paper contributes to the change management and public interest literature.

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Section: Research Questions Methodology and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking accountability in developing countries: an institutional pillars perspective

Negash,

Hassan

2023

MRR

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“…Still, more than 73.3 percent of the sources of the news are either government officials' interviews or events organized by the government, contradicting the principle of development journalism (Galtung & Vincent, 1992;Mwaffisi, 1991;Romano, 2005;Xu, 2009). The medium still didn't significantly escape from serving as the propaganda machine of the government or the ruling party, as clearly criticized in development journalism by academia in the area (Gessese, 2014;Mohammed, 2021). Similarly, Amhara radio disvalues empowering ordinary people to improve their own lives and communities through the role of development journalism (Chiyamwaka, www.scholink 2009; Lencho, 2013;Wimmer & Wolf, 2005;Xu, 2009;Zerai, 2013), and development journalism should allow people to talk (Galtung & Vincent, 1992) by ignoring its investigative news stories.…”

Section: Dominant Sources Used In News Storiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The other problem that affects the quality of the news is that Woreda and Zone government communication affairs offices serve as reporters for Amhara Radio, although this office is the spokesperson of the government and, at the same time, the ruling party (Woreda and Zone are local-level administrative units of Ethiopia). From 1329 selected news, 159 news (12% of the news in the medium) is reported by the government communication affairs office; PR-driven journalism (Mohammed, 2021) comes here. The underlining point is that the government communication office serves as a reporter, not as a source of news; this is against the basic principles of journalism (example as seen in appendix 7 and 8).…”

Section: Dominant Sources Used In News Storiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All the criticisms and challenges regarding the practice of development journalism in Ethiopia are also visible on Amhara radio. Most of the roles of Amhara radio's news were advocating the good will of the government by reporting success-oriented stories (Gessese, 2014;Mohammed, 2021), ignoring the investigative role of reporting news where only 1.9 percent of the information was engaged in constructively criticizing the government (Gessese, 2014). This undermines the public's right to criticize the government's wrongdoing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigative Reporting Within Development Journalism in Ethiopia: What Triggers Amhara Radio to Reconcile It?

Gessese

2023

SSSR

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This study assesses the practice of investigative reporting within development journalism in Amhara radio. The study used quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Data was mainly collected through document analysis and semi-structured interviews. 1326 pieces of news were selected for content analysis by using multi-stage sampling, and 13 reporters, editors, and media managers were selected for interviews by using multi-stage sampling and purposive sampling. The finding shows that Amhara radio tries to reconcile investigative reporting within development journalism by maximizing the number of news stories that engage in investigative reporting. As per the findings, 28.4% of the news stories were devoted to investigating and criticizing the wrongdoings of the government; this is by far higher than the previous four years’ average of 1.9%. However, the media didn’t touch on the fundamental structural problems of the government in its investigative reporting, and there was also a lack of in-depth investigation into issues. The main factors that trigger the medium to engage in investigative reporting are media managers’ and regional government’s commitment, social media pressure, and the public protest movement against the government. Generally, with different challenges, Amhara Radio is striving to change history and become a model for other state-owned media in the country.

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“…Media and state narratives have been tightly controlled by both governments, through the targeted intimidation and management of journalists and academics, and massive state public relations campaigns, typically outsourced to Western firms (on Biya's PR docket in Cameroon, see Ndongmo, 2021; on the Ethiopian PR-driven journalism model, see Mohammed, 2021). In this context, social media and digital platforms afford a collective cosmos for overt and covert provocations and resistance by activists and artists in Cameroon (Anyefru, 2008), Ethiopia, and their diasporas; what Téwodros Workneh (2021) calls 'outrage communication'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A decolonial political geography of resistance and digital infrastructural harm in Cameroon and Ethiopia

Murrey

2022

Globalizations

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In the decisive responses to protest movements in Ethiopia and Cameroon between 2015 and 2018, state control and repression were facilitated by colonial-corporate digital infrastructures and neo-imperial techno-political configurations. In both cases, resistance was met with pervasive stateinitiated and corporate-sanctioned internet shutdowns and disruptions. I situate these techno-political practices within the longue durée of coloniality to argue that the state suspension of internet connectivity is a form of infrastructural harm; an intentional violence made socially and structurally possible by the colonial configurations of infrastructure. My analysis draws from five years of digital ethnography and ethnographic fieldwork, including 13 months in Jimma, Ethiopia and nine months in Yaoundé, Cameroon. I mobilize a decolonial praxis that unmasks practices of authoritarian control within global racial coloniality, and seeks to foster cross-fertilizations of struggle and resistance praxis.

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PR-Driven Journalism Model: The Case of Ethiopia

Cited by 8 publications

References 9 publications

Rethinking accountability in developing countries: an institutional pillars perspective

Rethinking accountability in developing countries: an institutional pillars perspective

Investigative Reporting Within Development Journalism in Ethiopia: What Triggers Amhara Radio to Reconcile It?

A decolonial political geography of resistance and digital infrastructural harm in Cameroon and Ethiopia

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