| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this study was to examine the print media coverage of County Governance in Kenya
by analyzing the two leading dailies: Daily Nation and The Standard. Framing Theory, Public
Sphere Theory and Agenda Setting Theory, were used to guide the study.
The data used in this study was drawn from the two leading local dailies: Daily Nation and The
Standard for the period of May 2013 to April 2014. The referenced time period was significant
on the basis of some observations. First, the country was fresh out of the election in March 2014
and the government was hard pressed to work under the new constitution. The constitutional
implementation process that began way back in 2010 after promulgation was to gain momentum
with the new leaders in the office. A total of 364 newspapers were analyzed and data collected
from the two leading dailies were coded in Excel MS and analyzed accordingly.
From the findings, the study revealed that both newspapers covered county governance issues
relatively well because virtually all the newspapers sampled had a story or two related to county
governance issue or issues. The Standard newspaper had more articles pertaining governance
issues principally because there was a section specifically dedicated for county governance
issues. After the analysis, a number of dominant topics came to the fore. A number of articles
contained issues such as Revenue Allocation, Salaries, Central Government Relations, County
Hiring, Corruption at County Government, County Government Spending, Governors' powers,
Senators' powers, Members of the County Assembly, County Governance among others were
found to be dominant. Nevertheless, most of the issues were presented by reporters who merely
reported the incidences that touched on County Governments. Significantly, most of the articles
or stories sampled were of poor quality with the reporters regurgitating on issues instead of
providing in-depth and well-researched information regarding the issue at hand. Whilst the two
newspapers covered the County Governance issues, their objective to foster good governance at
the county level was probably not felt.
Consequently, there is need for training and sensitization of reporters, editors as well as other
print media gate keepers on the significance of covering County Governance issues in a thorough
and comprehensive way. The print media should also give space to Devolution experts who will
pre-empt pertinent issues. Lastly, print media houses should meticulously train their reporters on
matters County Governance so as to have an informed group of reporters reporting on County
Governance issues. | en_US |
