| dc.description.abstract | This study seeks to investigate the role of print media in the fight against corruption in
Kenya by focusing on coverage.
The objective of the study is to establish the prominence given to corruption related
themes in the Nation Newspaper publications, together with the frequency of coverage
of corruption related stories on the newspaper. It also seeks to explore how framing of
such stories was done within the period of the study which covered four months from
1st April to 31stjuly 2013.
One of the findings of this study is that the Nation Newspaper plays a major role in
sending corruption messages to the public who are the readers and this is generally
done through publication of stories about corruption, giving them distinct prominence
and a wide coverage. In the study, the Nation Newspaper makes an extra effort to
expose corrupt incidences in government institutions and senior public officers are
presented as the main culprits of corrupt practices. However, this portrayal by the
research could be a result of bias on the part of the media practitioners who put more
emphasis on corruption in government as opposed to also covering corrupt incidences
in the private sector, which is also portrayed as being involved in the vice though at a
much lesser level.
In spite of such efforts to expose corruption, it is intriguing to note that they have not
had any significant deterrent effect. Thus corruption in the country has not declined as
reports on corrupt incidences continue to feature prominently in the news media. The
question is what can the media do to serve as an instrument of deterring corruption in
the society? This question requires a more elaborate study to determine the full extent
of both private and public involvement and corresponding disincentives.
As shown in this study it is critical that both the corrupted and the corruptor are
exposed by the media in equal measure with a view to dissuading public officers and
private sector workers and owners from using corruption for personal gain or profit at
the expense of tax payers and national development | en_US |
