Gatekeeping and the Framing of Refugees From Tile Horn of Africa in the Daily Nation

Abstract

Gatekeeping is an area in the media that usually draws controversy due to the limited understanding that the general public has of the processes in the print media. The press has been accused on several occasions of lacking in integrity in their reporting To test this hypothesis, the researcher selected the Daily Nation as the leading print publication in the country and studied reporting on refugees from the Horn of Africa the drought and refugee crisis of 20 11. Refugees were selected because the complexities that surround migration and as a topic, can easily be sensationalized. To get a better understanding of the gatekeeping function, the researcher did a content analysis of the framing of reports carried from 15t July to 3151 of December on refugees from the Horn of Africa and compared the findings with the opinions of key informants using semi structured interviews. The results indicate the role of gatekeeping plays in setting the agenda for national discourse in the Daily Nation in the period under review