Journal of Power, Politics & Governance

Mass Media in Nile Politics: The Reporter Coverage of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
Yeshiwas Degu Bealy, Mr.

Abstract
The ‘Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam’ (GERD) project, started in 2011 on Blue Nile (Abay) trans-boundary river with tense political confrontation with Egypt, has received sizeable national and international media coverage in a manner of introducing customers and depicting vital and selected details about the project. However, it remains understudied, if not neglected, issue in media research. This article examines The Reporter, private owned national circulation newspaper in Ethiopia, salient frames pertained to the dam project and how these frames reflect Ethiopia’s dominant perspective on Nile politics. To this end, a longitudinal qualitative content analysis of articles in thereporterethiopia.com dated between 09 March 2013 and 15 March 2014 was conducted. The findings reveal that six dominant frames emerged inductively from the data that rendered certain aspects of the dam construction more salient than others. These are ‘Development’; ‘National Image’; ‘Right’; ‘Victimhood’; ‘Mutual benefit’; and ‘War’ frames. The article argues that The Reporter, using official sources mostly, engaged in cautious and selective framing weighting certain aspect of the GERD more salient so as to promote a particular interpretation to the project that is consistent with its editorial agenda in corollary with Ethiopian government interest and perspective on Nile politics.

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