The practice and challenges of media coverage of entrepreneurship issues in Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Communications - Journalism, Journalism Professions, grade: Excellent (A+), Addis Ababa University (Journalism and Communication), course: Journalism, language: English, abstract: This research attempted to examine the practice and challenges of media coverage of entrepreneurship issues in Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC). Specifically, the study evaluated the extent of the coverage and prominence being offered to entrepreneurship news, the source of entrepreneurship news, the way of presentation of massages in the stories (frame) and challenges of reporting on entrepreneurship news.

The study was formed by development communication, social responsibility and framing theoretical frameworks. The study employed mainly quantitative method and supplemented by qualitative one. A content analysis was conducted on the stories carried by the corporation to provide a brief description on the extent of the coverage, frames and source of entrepreneurship news. In addition, an in-depth interview with 12 key informants was used as supplementary tool to support the quantitative findings and to find out challenges of reporting on the issue. Analysis of data was made by SPSS using descriptive, graphs, charts, and tables. The study revealed that EBC did not give necessary and adequacy attention to the coverage of entrepreneurship issue. It also showed that the amount of coverage and the degree of prominence given to the issue were very low and not strong enough.

Government officials influence the journalist's news frame and they have better chance of getting the voice rather than entrepreneurs. Most of entrepreneurship news stories are event based and sourced by the government organizations. In general, the coverage is favors what the government is doing on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship development rather than what the entrepreneurs are doing. Internally trends of collecting money among reporters and media as an institution to give fine coverage of news in favor of the payer and lack of understanding on the issue and externally the government influence are the major challenges of reporting on the issue.

The findings of the study imply EBC fails to create awareness, inspire and mobilize the society at large on the power and value of entrepreneurship development. Based on the findings, pertinent recommendations were forwarded.