Press coverage of Muslims in Uganda. A case study of New Vision Newspaper

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the frames that New Vision apply while covering Muslim related issues as well as to explore the prominence and relevance attached to the stories that have Muslims as the main protagonists. The specific aims were to discover the dominant frames and how New Vision newspaper treats such frames and tones in terms of prominence and relevance. It was presumed that newspapers always frame Muslims negatively and always shun the events that reflect Islam as an appealing religion. The research was premised on the media theories of framing and Agenda setting. In this study, the agenda-setting function of media coverage was determined based on the frequency and placement of stories in newspapers and the framing theory was concerned with how news stories are packaged in other words. The study is quantitative in nature and employed content analysis methodology for data collection. The researcher purposely selected New Vision newspaper and considered all articles / stories about Muslims and Islam that were published in the year 2017. The study found out that New Vision newspaper published stories that reflected Muslims negatively and those that reflected them positively. However, it attached too much relevance and prominence in terms of placement, story length and visual presence to the crime frame (Negative stories) than the rest of the frames (Positive stories). The study also discovered a number of frames that are applied by New Vision while covering Muslims. These frames included the; crime frame, Development frame, Family frame, Unity frame, Fashion frame, Religion frame, Conflict frame, and Political frame.