EXAMINING THE PERCEPTIONS OF READERS ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE DAILY NATION’S PEACE MESSAGES TO THE 2013 ELECTIONS IN KENYA
EXAMINING THE PERCEPTIONS OF READERS ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE DAILY NATION’S PEACE MESSAGES TO THE 2013 ELECTIONS IN KENYA
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this
study was to examine the perceptions of readers on the contribution of the
Daily Nation’s peace messages to the 2013 elections in Kenya. The study relied
on descriptive research design, which is a design in qualitative research and
premised on Agenda Setting theory by Mc Combs and Donald Shaw. The study
population consisted of respondents from four marked newspaper-vending points
within Nakuru town and the selected contents from the Nation newspapers. These
newspapers carried messages advocating for peace between the periods of
February and April 2013. Purposive sampling was used to choose newspaper
contents with peace messages and to select newspaper readers in Nakuru town.
Focused Group Discussions and Interviews were used as research instruments.
Content and textual analysis was the primary form of data analysis in the
study. Research findings showed that Nation newspapers carried peace messages
in news and feature stories, editorials, opinion and advertisements. The
conclusions of the study show that although media experts and scholars accused
the media of ‘indulging' in peace advocacy and forgetting their watchdog role,
the respondents praised the role media played in ensuring after-poll calm,
peaceful coexistence and tolerance.
Key Terms:
elections, newspapers peace reporting, perception
INTRODUCTION
In Kenya, newspapers lead in covering elections. Elections cannot be
avoided in any democratic society, and the media is always out to ensure fair,
free and democratic election processes. It is presumably based on fair and free
elections that leaders are elected into political offices to supervise the
affairs of any independent nation, and Kenya is no exception. Different media
groups own Kenya's leading television channels. Royal Media, a Kenyan
multimedia house, own citizen; NTV is owned by Nation Media Group, a Kenyan
media company. KBC is owned and operated by the government, which is similar to
Britain's BBC. Also, KTN is owned by the Standard Group, a regional media
company which also publishes the Standard newspaper.
Apart from the
television stations, in
print media, the mainstream newspapers
are privately owned.
The Daily Nation was started in
1958 as a Swahili weekly called Taifa by the Englishman Charles Hayes and was
bought in 1959 by the Agha
Khan and became
a daily newspaper.
The newspaper, additionally, has an electronic platform where news and
current events in Kenya are published over the internet, further increasing the
total number of readers by a significant figure. This newspaper is owned by the
Nation Media Group which publishes more than eight newspapers in Kenya,
Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda. These include Daily Nation,
Saturday Nation, Sunday
Nation, Taifa Leo, Taifa Jumapili, Business Daily and Daily Metro. The Nation newspaper is one
of the mainstream newspapers in Kenya with the highest circulation as at
205,000 readerships on average per day with a market share of 74% (Maina,
2006).
In the run-up
to the 2007
general election, the
UNDP contracted Strategic Public Relations & Research Limited to
conduct monitoring from September through December 2007, to inform journalists,
public, and politicians to ensure "enhanced fair and accurate media
reporting on electoral issues." Balance, accuracy, impartiality and
fairness was the
goal of the exercise, with a
focus on equitable access to media by political parties. Media monitoring
reports were issued regularly with quantitative and qualitative assessments of
political news in six newspapers, four television channels, six English/Swahili
radio stations, and ten vernacular radio stations.
The media monitoring operation specifically aimed to influence
journalists, editors and media owners to provide accurate, impartial and fair
reporting, and to encourage adherence to professional standards by journalists.
By publicizing results periodically during the months preceding the election,
the monitoring operation aimed to alert citizens to question their sources of
information and to encourage parties and candidates to refrain from negative
campaigning. The UNDP project also sought to advocate for new legislation to
protect freedom of the press, the right to information, and the right of
expression.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Functions of Newspaper Headlines
Newspaper headlines play a vital role in determining the readership of
an issue (Harrower, 2009). They are usually packaged with
unique linguistic characteristics. A
well- written newspaper headline must be able to attract the
attention of the
reader. In most
cases, newspaper headlines are
unusual, sensational and short. There are four functions of a headline that
scholars are mostly interested in (Harrower, 2009). First, headlines should be
crafted in a way that they grab the attention of the readers. The best tool for
a headline to capture the reader's focus is to select words that present the
readers’ self-interest. For example, search engine scholars have realized that
the word "free" attracts
a lot of
viewership and readership
for the newspapers (Kahneman,
& Tversky, 2000; Hamilton, 2004). Another thing that captures the attention
of a newspaper headline is the
news item because
readers are always waiting to see and read about
something new. In Kenyan elections
in 2013, such
words as free
and fair polls
frequented the newspaper headlines and attracted
a lot of attention from the readers. A headline should select the newspaper and
story readers.
frequented the newspaper headlines and attracted
a lot of attention from the readers. A headline should select the newspaper and
story readers.
The headlines are supposed to be specific to screen
viewers and readers. Moreover, a headline should deliver a complete message because
most people read headlines, and few read the
story under the
headline (Harrower, 2009). Headlines are also supposed to
draw the reader's attention through style and creativity. Styles such as humour, curiosity and suspense intrigue the
readers. This is usually done by posing a question or suspending an issue and promising
to give it later in the story. By controlling the knowledge of the readers through
stories, the newspapers can also control the understanding of such an audience
(Kahneman, & Tversky, 2000). Therefore, if the news media and political as well
as other elites
access news fail
to provide detailed information about the
interest of any
country. Scholars
agree that the control of one’s knowledge through media is a crucial element of controlling the discourse of understanding. Beyond
knowledge, there are essential forms of what is generally called social cognition
and specially shared opinions, which are traditionally known as attitudes.
Newspaper headlines provide a summary of their
stories, yet this theoretical conception seems to be too narrow, based on three
complementary reasons. Firstly, even the most prototypical news headlines, those
that appear in the so-called ‘quality newspapers' do not always provide a
summary of their stories. Some headlines outline a single detail extracted from
the story, while others contain a quotation decided upon by the editor decided
to be promoted to the foreground. Some headlines may even contain material that
does not appear in the news item itself. Different writers have noted the fact that
headlines do not always summarize, but sometimes highlight or quote. Bell
(1991), for example, makes a distinction between headlines which ‘‘abstract the
main event of the story’’, and headlines which ‘‘focus on a secondary event or
a detail’’. Nir (1993) distinguishes between
headlines which function as ‘‘a summary
of the story’’ and ‘‘Headlines
which, rather than summarize the story, promote one of the details of the story’’.
Second, the traditional notion of headlines-as-summaries does not capture the function
of headlines in more popular newspapers, and especially in tabloids. Different writers, most notably
by Lindemann (1990), have made this point. As Lindemann
shows, tabloid headlines rarely summarize
their stories, are not
always telegram- like, and in many cases
are not even informative. Lindemann discusses the function of tabloid headlines
in poetic terms: They present
the reader with
a ‘‘complex riddle’’, which, first, triggers frames
and belief systems in the reader’s mind, and, then, gets resolved in the ensuing
text. This is a classic example of how the Nation
newspaper carried their stories in the run-up to the 2013 elections.
Lindemann's analysis implicitly assumes that the
function of tabloid headlines is so radically different from their function in
quality newspapers, that the two cannot be theoretically unified. The
relevance-based analysis will allow exactly for that to anyone’s mind, a very
welcome theoretical result.
The other reason to reject the traditional conception
is the simple fact that headlines seem to have an additional, pragmatic
function, beyond the semantically oriented function, which is supposed to be
captured by the headline-as-summary analysis. Bell (1991) says that headlines are
a ‘‘part of news rhetoric whose function is to attract the reader''. Nir (1993)
claims that the headline has to attract the attention of the reader and provoke
the reader to read the whole story. In a sophisticated analysis of the
semiotics of headlines, Iarovici and Amel (1989) explicitly contend that the headline
has a double function:
The implicit convention between author and reader
regarding the intention of correlating a text to another text as a headline, and
regarding the formal marking of this quality by a privileged position, concerns the
double function of the headline.
formal marking of this quality by a privileged position, concerns the
double function of the headline.
1.
A semantic function, regarding the referential text, and
a pragmatic function, regarding the reader (the receiver) to whom the text is addressed.
The two functions
are simultaneous, the semantic
function being included in
and justified by the pragmatic function. The
primary function of the headline
is to alert the reader, who is the receiver
to the nature or the content
of the text. This is the
pragmatic function of the headline, and it includes the semantic one. The headline
enables the reader to
grasp the meaning
of the text. The headline
functions as a plurality of speech acts (urging, warning,
and informing). The challenge
posed by the above assertions is that of theoretical unification. At least two questions
are involved: G
1.
Can we functionally define the headline in a way,
which would transcend the above distinctions between the different
semantically- oriented functions? In other words, is there a generalized
function, which summarizing headlines, localizing headlines and quotation
headlines have in common?
2.
Can we define the headline in a way, which would transcend the distinction between
the above semantic function and the parallel pragmatic function, which
headlines fulfill? G
Consumption
of Newspaper News
Newspaper readership has drastically reduced over the last 20 years around the world. The decline seems to be on a
continuous trajectory due to technological advancements. In
particular,
the
so-called ‘popular'
newspapers
are
no
longer popular
now as
they once
were.
Yet the
quality press' ability to sustain overall readership levels also looks unimpressive considering the
rise in
the
number of graduates in the population over the last 20 years. It could be argued that this is healthy for
most countries' democracy. It means that the ability of newspapers unfairly and
unaccountably to sway the outcome of an election is now much diminished. It
also means that fewer people are exposed to their supposedly cynical coverage
of politics that discourages people from participating in politics at all.
However, this seems too dismissive a picture. Popular newspapers were once a
mechanism whereby information about politics could reach those with little
inclination to follow political matters. Now they are increasingly unable to
fulfill that role. Instead, the readership of newspapers in Britain and other
parts of the world, including Kenya, is increasingly confined to those with
interest in politics. For years politicians have worried about the power of the
press. But perhaps, instead, it is time for them to be concerned about its
weakness.
According
to Sparks (2010),
the newspaper audience
is increasingly inclining towards a need for sensationalism, but during
elections, the audience expects a lot from media and is continually expecting
new information and counsel from the media.
Since headlines are
meant to be sensational, headlines pass a message to
the audience that ensures viewers evaluate
such stories as
objective and believable (De
Kantzow, 2000). During
elections, any political news is
news, and people are eager to know what is
happening with the
other party or
the party they support. In fact, the election process
brings with it hype and a lot
of sensational materials
coming from the politicians through
the media engage
the minds of the
affected society into
a political hype
(Uribe, & Gaunter, 2007). This
is where the
media can make
an effort to control and direct the society's minds to
think, behave and act in a certain way. In this regard, the Nation newspapers,
over the entire
period of study
propagated peace messages across
the various sections
of the paper ostensibly to
drive the peace
agenda during the electioneering period in 2013.
METHODOLOGY
The descriptive research design, one of the qualitative
research designs, was used in the study. The population of the study was
twofold: everybody who could
read the Nation
newspaper but the target population was Nakuru town and the
Nation
newspaper editions that carried
contents of peace messages, but the target population was the Nation newspaper editions that were published
in the period between February, March and
April 2013. The
researcher chose Nakuru town for the study because it was the heart of former Rift
Valley province and the bedrock of the infamous 2007/2008 post-election violence
according to Kriegler and Waki Reports (2009). The researcher used purposive sampling
to select Nation newspaper contents with
peace messages and to select newspaper readers in Nakuru town. The
sample size of
newspaper readers consisted of respondents
from four marked
newspaper vending points (Section
58, Huduma Centre next to the National Bank of Kenya, Afraha stadium junction
and Kenya Farmers Association roundabout) within Nakuru
town. With the help of the newspaper
vendors from each vending
points, the researcher was able to identify
frequent Nation newspaper readers, which formed
the Focused Group Discussion
and the participants
in the interview sessions. The researcher,
therefore, selected between 6 and 12 participants at four
newspaper vending points to form four FGDs in the study.
With regards to the sample size
of the Nation newspaper contents with
peace messages, the researcher selected a total of 33 excerpts from the
Nation
newspapers (Daily
Nation, Saturday Nation and the Sunday Nation) between the period of
February, March and
April 2013. These
excerpts were then grouped into five categories, namely: headlines, opinion pieces, editorials, news stories, and Advertisements. With the help of the newspaper
vendor, the researcher engaged the respondents in Focused Group Discussions. Since the
main aim of the study
was to examine the implications
of Nation newspaper
peace reporting in the run-up to the
2013 elections in Kenya, the study
used descriptive
research design to
solicit for qualitative data in
the study. Therefore,
to arrive at the sample
size of the
study, the researcher
focused on analyzing peace
messages one month to and a month after the elections. In this case, the
researcher analyzed peace messages in February, March and April 2013 from
Nation newspaper cuttings purposively in one month.
The study used Focus Group
Discussions and interviews as research
instruments to collect
data from the
selected respondents from Nakuru
town. The FGDs
consisted of male and
female respondents comprising of
6-12 respondents per group.
In using this
technique, the researcher
formulated a list of question guides that were posed to
the participants after
they were shown
the newspaper cuttings of the peace messages from the Nation newspaper.
Through the Focused Group Discussions, the researcher was able to get the
respondents reactions to the messages that called for peace in the run-up to
the 2013 elections in Kenya
and to determine
the readers perceptions on the
contributions of the peace messages to the 2013 elections in Kenya which the
researcher needed to collect for his second and third objectives respectively.
The researcher also used the interview schedules to collect his data; however;
the interview questions were almost similar to
the FDGs questions.
The aim of
the interview was basically
to establish the
respondents' reactions to the
peace messages that were carried in the Nation newspaper cuttings and
to establish whether
the peace messages informed their behaviours before,
during and after the 2013 elections. The
interviews were supplemented by
issuing the respondents with Nation newspaper cuttings with the peace
messages they carried in the run-up to 2013 general elections. The
contents were selected
from newspaper cuttings from
Egerton University Nakuru
Town Campus library and archives
section and photocopied the relevant contents
for the study.
The researcher collected newspaper contents from the
publications in February,
March and April 2013.
FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSISRole of Media in Peace Advocacy
As per whether print media is
well placed in advocating for peace, most participants agreed that the media is
well placed in advocating for peace though they were of the view that the large
percentage of Kenyans do not access print media. As per their views, print
media in Kenya is mainly through the newspaper and more so the Nation newspaper, which they termed to
be costly for the ordinary Kenyan. These respondents argued that advocating
peace messages by using community newspapers can facilitate ease of access for
people in different areas, even those with different languages. This is a
direct way of addressing people, and their personal experiences and lives can
be incorporated much better. The danger of inflammation and manipulation of
ethnic tensions, however, cannot be ignored. Another advantage of local print media
is that in border areas, it is possible to convey peace messages to passing
fighters and refugees. Democratic media structures need more than this; it is vital
that the use of information within a society is not solemnly passive but that
the population gets actively involved in creating content and passing it.GGAlthough
some respondents argued that print media is well placed in advocating for
peace, they were for the opinion that electronic media would have done better.
According to them, electronic media reaches many Kenyans as compared to print
media; at the same time, electronic media in Kenya is disseminated even in vernacular.
At least every tribe in Kenya has a vernacular radio today. For instance, one respondent
argued that: Sisi kwa wakale tuna Kass FM
lakini hatuna gazeti ya kikalenjin. (We Kalenjins have a radio station known
as Kass FM, but we do not have a newspaper written in Kalenjin).
Peace Messages and Conduct of Kenyans before and after 2013 Elections
On whether the respondents considered media messages in their conduct
during and after elections, every respondent argued that during elections,
peace messages dominated the media. This continued shortly after elections
during the presidential disputes in court. Thereafter, the media went silent on
the subject. According to the respondents, peace building should be an everyday
activity and not an activity of before, during and after elections. Concerning
whether the respondents thought that other Kenyans were influenced by the peace
messages during and after elections, the respondents/ interviewees were for a
common opinion that Kenyans were greatly influenced by the messages. One
interviewee said: Kila wakati sio kwa magazeti peke yake, lakini hata kwa redio
na TV tulikuwa tunaonywa tusipigane. Ujumbe kwa media ilitufanya tusipigane na
wakenya wengi walitii. (Every time, in newspapers, radio and TV we were warned
against violence. The media messages prevented us from resorting to violence).
Handling of Peace Reporting by Newspapers in 2013 Elections
On how the media handled the reporting of the elections, the majority of
FGDs participants felt that during the 2013 elections, the
newspaper handled the
reporting of the campaigns keenly and carefully. They
further argued that the media had been warned prior by the state on reporting
suspicious news that
would bring about
tension upon citizens like hate
speeches. Hence the media was cautious about
what they were
reporting. Besides, there
were tremendous changes that were done on the constitution of Kenya that
put restrictions on
Kenyan media reporting, especially when
it comes to
sensitive matters like campaigns.GGA few
participants argued that
the newspaper was of great assistance in reporting campaigns and
peacebuilding. However, they argued that their power was limited, as they were
not allowed to report beyond certain
circumstances, especially the
negative side. The newspaper would only be a useful tool in
a healthy and functioning environment, but more is needed than ethical and responsible
reporting to ensure
lasting peace and safety. The role of the media (newspaper)
is twofold: on the one hand,
the media report
and reflect on
pressing issues and can help to question established concepts and ideas.
On the other hand, they can be used for propaganda purposes and
instead of revealing
truths, try to
cover things up and by this curtail people's freedom and right to
information. The newspaper
was suppressed on
the second fold during
the 2013 elections,
this way; the newspaper was underutilized to this
point in time. All the respondents in this
study were of
the view that
the dominant messages from the media were advocating for peace. The
Nation newspapers were not an exception; its dominant messages were advocating
for peace as well.
Media as Peace Advocates or Not
Concerning some people's argument that the media should not have
advocated for peace, all respondents were of the common view that the media is
critical in advocating for peace and any other course. According to them, the
media is the only means, which can reach all or most people in the country.
Although it has a double effect, meaning it can also be misused, they agreed
that it had been premised on maximizing good and minimizing harm. There has
been a debate by analysts that many journalists, editors and other information
gatekeepers do not perceive the undesirable news values and counterproductive
effects of the media from a peace building perspective. Kenyans see that media,
despite its strong influences on the society, for several reasons is
handicapped in the role of peace building in that the media tends to choose
frames that are not compatible with the nature of peace processes. The role of
Media as ‘watchdog' of campaigns and other events during elections is a
necessary ingredient. The appropriate coverage of the protest events with the
value-added opinion formation of the public, besides practical suggestions for
sustainable solutions, is destined
to become a
factor of relief
and peace for the
whole society. From
the FGDs, the participants agreed that media played a
role in quenching the violence in 2013, and it was felt that they never did
this in the 2007/2008 election time. The participants felt that media, all
times of media, are potential advocates of the right course.
One participant intimated
that if all
media collude to drive a campaign, they will succeed because they are
highly regarded by the audiences.
Discussion of the Results
The third question was
whether the Nation
newspapers messages on peace
contributed to the
formation of different
perceptions of the readers on the 2013 elections in Kenya. The findings of the
study show that the messages did significantly contribute the Kenyan’s conduct
before, during and after the 2013 general elections in Kenya. The FGDs and
the interviews show
that Kenyan’s were considering the messages seriously.
Most respondents said if the messages were not broadcast with such a frequency,
probably there could have been violence in some places. The most conspicuous of
the parts of newspapers were the front-page
headlines that carried
peace messages inattention,
capturing sizes and fonts. In the literature, it was established
that the manipulative
function of the newspaper headlines are positive in the
sense that they manipulate the readers
and the audience
at large to be tolerant, accommodative and embrace peace
in looming crisis. Moreover, it is to be noted that newspaper headlines play a
critical role in determining the readership of an issue (Harrower, 2009).
Newspaper headlines are
usually packaged with unique linguistic characteristics, as seen in
the headlines for
the Nation newspaper.
A well-written newspaper headline
must be able to attract the attention of
the reader. In
most cases, newspaper
headlines are unusual,
sensational and short.
There are four
functions of a
headline that scholars
are mostly interested in
(Harrower, 2009). First,
headlines should be crafted in a way that they grab the attention of
the readers. The best tool for
a headline to capture the reader's attention
is to select
words that present
the readers' self-interest. Therefore, language, as used in the
headlines can never appear by itself - it always appears as the representative
of a system of linguistic terms, which themselves reflect the current
discursive and ideological systems.GGIt is at this point, where agenda setting
takes place as seen in the theoretical framework. Van Dijk, (1996: p.11) as
established in the literature reviewed argued that in order for a mass medium
to have the readers react the way they
want, they should
be particularly useful
when the readers "do not
realize the nature or the implications of such control and when they change
their minds of their own free will, as
when they accept news reports as true or journalistic opinions
as legitimate or
correct”. This was particularly true in the study because
most respondents engaged in the FGDs were not aware of the implications of
believing newspapers and
mass media. According
to Kahneman and Tversky
(2000) it becomes
essential to study and consider
the mental representations, including the
so-called social cognitions
such as attitudes
and ideologies, shared by groups of readers or viewers, and this
was why
the researcher engaged
them in Focus
group discussions so that
they could discuss
the raised issues freely and
then the researcher could
draw some conclusions. The
results were that
the readers were observed to
support the ideals
that were found
to be homely to their affiliated
political party ideals.
This becomes important in the analysis because the evaluation of social
power in media together with its symbolic dimensions requires going beyond a
narrow social or political approach to power and control. If we can relate more
or less explicitly such mental representations, as well as their changes, to
properties of news reports, essential insights into media power can be gained.
It is from this standpoint that the influence and control that newspaper
messages during the selected period in the study was to be examined for
some understanding. Because
of the message usage
by the newspapers,
the findings of
this study show that the messages contributed to the peace and calm
witnessed during the run-up to 2013 elections in Kenya. The subject of peace
at the time was taken
as a dominant and necessary ethic
to guide Kenyans on their conduct.
This is in
agreement with the
agenda-setting theory that factors
of political interference, personal interests, media law and ethics may
determine the amount of agenda setting, an exercise that can be both useful and
dangerous. It is helpful if it shields audiences from harmful information and
threatening if, it shields the public from the
truth. For this
case, the peace
messages produced favourable results,
although most scholars
have argued that media overdid it
and forgot their watchdog role.
CONCLUSION
The objective of
the study was
to determine the perceptions of the readers on the contribution of these messages to the 2013 elections in
Kenya. The results of the findings show that the peace messages contributed to
the peaceful conduct of
Kenyans before, during
and after elections. The
findings are supporting
the literature reviewed that
newspapers can use their power as media to set
agendas that can
shape people’s perceptions
and conduct during times when the society is supposed to act in a
certain way. As for the objective of this study, which was to determine the
perceptions of the readers on the contribution
of these messages
to the 2013
elections in Kenya, the
researcher concludes that
the Nation newspapers
contributed in one way or the other, to the conduct of
Kenyans in the
run-up to 2013
election. The respondents argued
that the messages they received from the
Nation newspapers helped
them to unite and
made them value tolerance,
calm and peace
instead of reactionary and
violent approaches to election disputes.
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