Abstract: Gender Based violence is a day-to-day tragedy around the world. Many females, both children and adults, have suffered a great deal from different acts of violence because of their sex. Rape, beating, female genital mutilation (FGM), abduction, and early marriage are among the dominant types of Gender Based Violence that affect women physically, psychologically, socially and economically. Scholars in media, gender and politics have interest in the apparent gender differences in media coverage and framing of those in GBV. The general objective of the study was to examine the influence of print media on the framing of the perceptions on Gender Based Violence in Rwanda. The study based on the following three objectives; to assess the perceptions and beliefs of print media practitioners on GBV in Rwanda, to examine the factors that influence the framing of print media content on GBV in Rwanda and to examine the role of Print Media frames on the perceptions and beliefs of GBV in Rwanda for better understanding of these portrayals. The theoretical underpinning of this study is borrowed from the media framing theory. The research approach of the study was qualitative in nature and employed content analysis and in-depth interview data collection techniques. The sample frame for the study included New times publications published daily over a period of one year (January to December) 2017. The sample size for the content analysis included all the newspaper articles that mentioned any form of GBV. A total of ten senior editors and writers working for the New Times was purposively selected for the in- depth interviews. The themes and priming of these articles were identified. The results indicated that there are ten types of Gender based Violence as reported during the period of analysis. The articles given the most prominence was on physical violence and Domestic violence while those that occupied the smallest space were on rape, child abuse, physical violence, and which appeared under letters to the Editor and on News. From the findings, there is need for the Rwandan journalist to be part of the solutions in the fight against GBV. While news can, and often does, offer in-depth and informative coverage of issues, strategies need to be developed to encourage journalists to incorporate more context and analysis when reporting violence against women. This study makes several conclusions. This study has analyzed how the print media in Rwanda has primed GBV. The study used the New Times newspapers to give examples of how the print media in Rwanda prime GBV. The media in Rwanda should have more thoroughly researched feature stories on gender-based violence to communicate to society and set the agenda of a gender-based violence-free Rwanda. The agenda setting role of the media is important because people many times conform to the media agenda and use it in their lives. Due to time constraints, the researcher could not study everything in the field of media, framing and gender-based violence and was restricted to only study sexual violence. After the findings of the study, the researcher also noted that there are areas that can be enhanced to create other useful studies.
Keywords: Mainstream print media, gender-based violence, New Times.
Title: INFLUENCE OF PRINT MEDIA FRAMING ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN RWANDA: A CASE STUDY OF THE NEW TIMES
Author: DOREEN NAKURE, Dr. CAROLINE NABUZALE (PhD), Dr. PATRICK MULYUNGI (PhD)
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
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