Heliyon (Feb 2024)
News discourses threatening multiculturalism in Ethiopian mainstream TV channels: Discourse historical approach
Abstract
This study explores how the political interests of different ethnic groups influence mainstream televisions’ news discourses in Ethiopia. It was based on data generated from a corpus of 1167 news stories in three TV channels from 2019 to 2021 and analyzed stories threatening multiculturalism. Based on the theoretical lenses of critical theory, it employed a Discourse Historical Approach to analyze discursive strategies used in TV news. It underscores that in a diverse society like Ethiopia, achieving public consensus through news discourse might become tougher. The results also show that recent political polarization, conflicts, and civil wars have potentially compromised the objectivity of news reporting, undermining the utilization of inclusive language for representing diversity. Newsrooms employ antagonistic narratives that impede the cultivation of tolerance and respect among diverse ethnic and political factions. Consequently, these narratives cunningly neutralize the political undertones of ethnic conflicts by labeling the culprits as terrorists. Hostile mode of discourse perilous to the enactment of multiculturalism characterizes the news discourses in TV channels. While discussing political conflicts and insecurities, the news stories intensify divisions among diverse political groups. Therefore, the study suggests that news reporting in a diverse society ought to focus on peace bargaining, the use of impartial and inoffensive discourses to lay the groundwork for multicultural integration.
