The Extent of Media Coverage and Framing Types in the Celebration of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day in Ethiopia: In the Case of Some Selected Newspapers Abstract-The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of media coverage and media framing types of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day both in government and private print media outlets from 2010-2014. Three newspapers: namely, the government owned Addis Zemen, and the privately owned Addis Admass and Reporter newspapers have been purposefully selected based on ownership, access and large circulation of newspapers. The study also included newspapers published in November 24 to December 24 from 2010 to 2014. Accordingly, 135 news articles were analyzed by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative content analysis and in-depth interview methods were dominantly used. Moreover, in-depth interviews were conducted with 9 key informants from government and private media houses. Accordingly, the findings of the study revealed the dominance of development frame over other media frame types both in Addis Zemen and Reporter Amharic newspapers. However, in the weekly, Addis Admass, advocacy frame was the most frequently employed frame type for the coverage of NNPD of Ethiopia. The result also indicated that Addis Zemen relatively published more news articles than Addis Admass and Reporter newspapers due to its daily published and government owned newspaper. Since Addis Zemen is government controlled and owned newspaper, it has no space to criticize the event whereas; the weekly Addis Admass portrayed the event of NNPD of Ethiopia in a negative way because it has relatively better media freedom than the government owned media. This shows that there are biased views in the newspapers towards the celebration of the event. Hence, journalists who are working for both media should be always governed by journalistic ethics and they should not be servile/ partisan and government should give freedom for the media. Keywords: media framing, media coverage, positive and negative tone, celebration of nations, nationalities and peoples day, major government events. I. introduction n the pre-mass communication era, people used more of traditional way of communication like interpersonal communication to exchange information about the events and major happenings in their localities. In the then time, the exchange of information was poor. As a result of poor communication, people in this era were prone to information shortage when the message passes from the sender to the receiver (Mc Quail, 2001). However, in today's globalized world, all these hindrances are changed with the emergence of new technological advancements in mass media. Such technological advancements in mass media have enabled the world to share various social, economic and political happenings faster than ever before. Since then, mass media play a pivotal role in composing and transmitting different social, economic and political activities occurring in different parts of the world (ibid). Before the emergence of the concept of democracy, most politicians or government officials utilized mass media for disseminating propaganda. As a result, it is a common aspect to see politicians using mass media for propaganda purpose. Such use of mass media for political purposes is referred to as mediatization of politics (Kumar, 2006). Nowadays, it is a common phenomenon to see different organizations which use mass media to address issues for the wider public. Among these organizations, government organizations are the major ones, which heavily use mass media to achieve their main objectives. As it has been noted by different scholars, politicians use mass media for propaganda, election campaigns, and public mobilization purposes (Hallin & Mancini, 2004). As a result, media and politics are two sides of the same coin. In doing so, politicians need to use mass media to reach a large audience at once and to distribute their ideas and point of views broadly for the general public. On the other hand, mass media are potentially needed by politicians to write their stories. These kinds of relations become more visible in election campaigns and major government events like the celebration of Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples day (Tuing and Hasim, 2009). Concurrently, various organizations including, Ethiopian government have organized different annual events for various purposes. Particularly, politicians use those events to transfer persuasive political messages as well as to propagate their policy and strategy for the general public besides promoting that particular occasion. In this regard, Ethiopia government organized many events, like Sport and Entertainment; May 28/Ginbot 20; National Flag Day; Public Holydays; and Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Day of Ethiopia. Thus, this study primarily deals about the extent of media coverage and media framing types of "Nations, Nationalities and People's Day" in some selected Amharic newspapers in Ethiopia. It is known that Ethiopia is a country that consists of more than 80 nations and nationalities with their own respective historical, cultural, linguistic, religious and other remarkable peculiarities. Moreover, it is a country which is extensively endowed with plenty of historical, social, cultural, ecological, natural and religious resources and diversities (Hopkins, 2005). Accordingly, in an attempt to give full recognition to these tremendous peculiarities and identities of the Ethiopian Nations, Nationalities and Peoples and to respond on the historical claimed oppressions or tyrannies such as: violation of people's basic human rights, inequality and mistrust among nations by the previous regimes; and to declare the existence of democracy in the country, Ethiopian government has decided to annually celebrate Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Day (Hidar 29 /December 8) since 2006. Because of the celebrations of nation's day, it is widely claimed that the Constitution of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (here after referred as, FDRE) opened a new prominent chapter of political history in the country. As it has been noted above, the celebration of nation's day ensures basic human rights and fundamental democratic freedoms of the Ethiopian nations, nationalities and peoples' for the first time in their history. To affirm this, the preamble of the FDRE constitution starts by saying that: "We the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia" and the Ethiopian Nations, Nationalities and Peoples have unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession (1995 FDRE Constitution). With this regard, Ethiopian government has organized the event of nation's day in a special manner. During event organization campaigns, political parties and government officials use various strategies to get media attention, which in turn leads them to secure their main objectives. Accordingly, to mobilize the mass of the people, they use both broadcast and print media outlets to frame the event from various perspectives. In doing so, Ethiopia government has been celebrating the day starting from 2005-2006 on 8 th of December. This was the day on which the current constitution of the federal democratic republic of Ethiopia was adopted. Therefore, the main intention of this study is to examine the extent of media coverage and critically how the selected newspapers frame the event of nations, nationalities and peoples' day of Ethiopia from 2010-2014. According to Hallin & Mancini (2004), most developed nations in the Western world, including the USA, follow a liberal democratic type of political system, which allows media to function fully with little intervention from political institutions except southern European countries like France, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal and Northern and Central European countries like Germany, Norway and Poland. They allow exercise of full freedom of speech to the mass media. As a result, media outlets in these Western societies are relatively free to frame any news article as they wanted and can also expose all the wrong doings of politicians. On the contrary, in the developing nations where political and media structure significantly differs from that of the western world, media are suffering from lack of freedom. Under such circumstances governments exert a high pressure on the work of journalists. The jailing and intimidation of journalists are a common phenomenon in developing nations. The existence of this significant difference is because of the political ideology and the media systems which these two different worlds or nations follow (ibid). Concomitantly, the reports from international organizations like Reporters without Borders and Human Rights Watch indicated that the intimidation and jailing of journalists in most developing countries is more pronounced. In the presence of such intimidation and jailing of journalists, it is naïve to think the media will operate freely to accomplish their social responsibility role. Due to the existence of such pressure from the government, media framing both in government and private media outlets of developing countries would significantly differ from that of the developed countries (Ohchr Report, 2012; Human Rights Watch, 2012 cited in Ashenafi, 2013). Regarding media framing differences, there are different scholars that put their assumptions. Accordingly, Hallin & Mancini (2004) and Strom back and Kaid, (2008) contend that, various media outlets may frame the same event in different ways based on the type, the organizational (editorial) policy, the ownership of the media outlet and the prevailing social, political and economic condition of the country. Therefore, the researchers believe to what extent the selected newspapers gave priority or coverage to the celebration of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' day and identifying framing types that were dominantly employed in covering the event. Besides, the audiences of print media are supposed to be literate people; print media are expected to report more critical, wide and interpretive nature of stories. # II. Methodology of the Study a) Design of the Study quantitative approach was selected as a major method for its importance in the area of media framing and it is used to measure frequency of coverage, tones and the type of frames used by the newspapers, whereas qualitative approach is used to describe and interpret themes, words and expressions (idioms, metaphors, and commentaries) of the texts written on the event of NNP's day. Therefore, in order to examine the extent of media coverage and how the selected newspapers frame the event of NNP's day to the wider public as well as to find out what kinds of dominant frames are employed, and to analyze the contents of media messages as well, this study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. # b) Data Collection Methods In order to collect necessary data from the representative samples, this study employed quantitative content analysis and in-depth interview methods. Accordingly, the researchers employed quantitative content analysis method to measure the extent of media coverage in terms of frequency and the type of frames that were dominantly used by the selected newspapers. Accordingly, in-depth interviews were conducted to examine a complete picture of the event and to explore the perspectives of higher government officials, journalists and editors who are working for both government and private print media outlets. Hence, for this study, the researchers purposively selected two political and economic oriented editors, two journalists who wrote news articles on the event of NNP's day in each media outlets for indepth interview. # c) Subject of the Study and Data Source d) Sampling Procedure and unit of Analysis For this study, individual stories were selected manually by searching for specific words containing events, event celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia in the front page headlines; editorial pieces, news features, interviews and commentaries from inside pages of the newspapers. Therefore, the units of analysis which have been employed in this study were: news stories, feature articles, commentaries, interviews and editorials that were written about the event of NNPD of Ethiopia. # e) Time Frame In order to get a reliable result for the study, the researchers used stories on representative samples of both government and private newspapers which were written about the event of NNPD of Ethiopia. Accordingly, the researchers selected the newspapers which were published from November 24 to December 24 from 2010-2014. This time frame is selected because it is the time where the event becomes the top government, public and media agenda. # f) Data Analysis For this study, the researchers used both qualitative and quantitative research method of data analysis. The quantitative data was entered to SPSS 20.0 version and analyzed using descriptive statistics to measure the frequency of coverage, tone, and compare the type of media frames that the newspapers employed while framing the event of NNPD of Ethiopia. On the other hand, the data which were collected through semistructured interviews were analyzed qualitatively. That means, audio recorded interviews with government officials, journalists and editors were first transcribed into text form. Then, the transcribed notes/texts and other reliable information were analyzed thematically. # III. # Results and Discussion # a) Media Coverage The main focus of the study was to examine how the selected newspapers have framed and what kinds of framing types were dominantly employed while covering the issue of NNPD of Ethiopia. With this in mind, the coverage of the event, major frame types and descriptions of the event of NNPD program were examined. The extent to which, media covers an issue has its own implications on the importance of the event in both public and media agenda. As different scholars contend that the more the media covers or gives emphasis for the certain issue, the more the issue become public agenda (Price and Tewksbury, 1997; Scheufele, 1999). The events which are given high Based on this mechanism, a total of 135 news articles i.e. 32 news stories, 26 editorial pieces, 40 feature articles, 11 interviews and 4 commentaries were collected from Addis Zemen and 2 feature articles and 6 commentaries were collected from Addis Admass. Concurrently, a total of 2 news stories, 3 editorial pieces, 8 news features and 1 commentary were collected from the Reporter Amharic newspaper. Then after, content analysis on individual news stories, editorial pieces, news features, interviews and commentaries was conducted by using a prepared code sheet. In order to examine the type of framing used in the coverage of NNPD of Ethiopia, the researchers used printed newspapers as its main source. As a result, the researchers selected three locally printed Amharic newspapers for this study. The privately owned Addis Admass and Reporter (Amharic) tabloid newspapers and Addis Zemen, governmentally owned broadsheet newspaper were selected. The selected newspapers are weekly, bi-weekly and daily newspapers respectively. The selection of the newspapers was made based on the circulation, ownership and coverage of domestic political-economy. In addition, due to the accessibility of newspaper archives, it is easy for interested bodies to cross check the findings of studies which in turn assure the reliability of the study. attention and taken as an agenda in the media, became more important and can influence its social, political and economic conditions in one way or another. In today's democratic world, event organizations or celebration of national holydays, like Nations, Nationalities and People's Day is one of the major (top) issues which grasp the public as well as the media agenda. Even though the event of NNPD is taken as a high or prior agenda in the political atmosphere of the country, the extent of the coverage and weight given to it differs across different media platforms; such celebration also varies from country to country. Due to this and other factors, it is crucial for the researchers to look at the extent of coverage and how intense the media frames this public event. Accordingly, this study tried to examine how the event of NNPD of Ethiopia had been given attention in both government and private (Addis Zemen, Addis Admass, and Reporter Amharic) newspapers from 2010 -2014. # b) Frequency of Coverage in the Selected Newspapers The following As can be seen from Table 1, 135 news stories have been published in the selected newspapers about the celebration of NNP's day in the period between November 24 to December 24 from 2010-2014 (the time in which the issue becomes both government and media agenda). When we examine the total number of articles published independently, the government owned newspaper, Addis Zemen published 113 (83.7%) of articles. In this newspaper, more than one news story or feature article is published per publication. Similarly, the result in private newspapers indicates that a total of 8 (5.92%) of articles were published in Addis Admass and the remaining 14 (10.37%) of news articles were published on Reporter newspaper. As indicated from the table above, Addis Zemen newspaper gives more coverage/space to the celebration of the event. Since it is daily and has been owned and controlled by the government, the newspaper treats stories which are positive about the event and do not criticize the event of nation's nationality day. On the other hand, the number and the extent of coverage increase as the day of celebration approaches. On top of this, media coverage becomes intense in times where the events are taken as public and political agenda. This has been also evident in the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia since 2006. Findings from the interview also supported the content analysis. In light of the coverage of NNPD of Ethiopia, a senior editor from the government owned media states that: Though there is no clear feedback system from the readers, we as journalists and the media we are working in have given a special coverage/space to the celebration of NNPD. To do so, we have given space for the celebration of the event before and after the celebration of the day. While, we covered/framed the event of nations and nationalities day to the public, our basic reference was the editorial policy of the media house (Personal interview, June 13, /6/2015). Apparently, the following figure clearly depicts frequency of news stories about the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia published by the selected newspapers with in (November 24-December 24 from 2010 -2014). # Volume XVI Issue VII Version I # ( A ) As can been revealed in figure 1, out of the coded 135 articles, majority of the news articles were published by the government owned Addis Zemen on the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia. On the contrary, the privately owned Addis Admass and Reporter, which focus on politics and other social issues, published 8 and 14 percent of the stories respectively. The privately owned Addis Admass and Reporter (Amharic) gave little coverage for the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia. As can be depicted from the graph above, Addis Admass did not give more space for the event. As a matter of fact, it was not published more than two stories under the specified study frame. Correspondingly, a journalist from Addis Admass media house believes that: "the commemoration of NNPD of Ethiopia is not the right way to bring each nation, nationalities and peoples in to unity and solidarity instead it divides the people in to different ethnic groups and will aggravate animosity among the people (Personal interview, 17/6/2015)." Concurrently, Reporter (Amharic) has given little emphasis to the commemoration of the event besides focusing on other social issues. In line with the coverage of the nation's day, an editor from Reporter newspaper suggests that: We gave a little space/ coverage to this government event. Our media house didn't give a great emphasis before and after the celebration of the day as that of government owned media outlets. Our media focuses on special issues of the event rather than the celebration of the day to the people (Personal interview, 12, /6/2015). However, the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia has entirely become an agenda for the government, media and public in the current ruling system. As a result, the government has given a special emphasis to the event in each year and the celebration of the day becomes more and more prominent from time to time. In order to achieve its own goals, the government of Ethiopia has been using different media outlets to transfer ideological messages of the event to the public since the beginning of the celebration of the event. In light of this, different media organizations are working cooperatively with the government on celebrating major government events like NNPD of Ethiopia. Most of the time, government owned media are the megaphones or conduits of higher political officials. They are expected to broadcast and distribute the information which is given from higher political officials (Scagliusi, 2010). Since, Addis Zemen is one of government owned print media which has given almost full coverage to the event. The publication of newspapers has been started before November 24 and will continue until the mid of December 24.This might indicate the emphasis that was given by higher government officials and different media outlets for the celebration of the event. In line with the event, different media organizations especially, EBC and Addis Zemen favored the celebration of the event and tried to propagate the ideologies of the ruling party for the readers, viewers and listener through setting different agendas. Besides to providing information and entertaining the public, they are highly working on persuading the general public and manufacturing consent in order to achieve their objectives. As a result, the coverage of news stories increased in this period due to the interest of higher government officials and local and international civic society groups. Therefore, it is evident that Addis Zemen provided its readers with more/ enough amount of news coverage for the commemoration of NNPD of Ethiopia. Accordingly, the findings above revealed that there was a significant difference between the newspapers covering the issues related to the # Reporter Amharic Fig. 1 commemoration of NNPD of Ethiopia from 2010-2014.Addis Zemen provided more coverage to the celebration of the event, whereas the privately owned newspapers Addis Admass and Reporter have been given some what a little or less coverage to the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia. One potential reason that contributed for high number of news stories in Addis Zemen newspaper might be related with its nature as a daily newspaper in that it has more space than weekly and bi-weekly newspapers under the study. On top of this, the exposure to media can make certain things popular and this popularity can lead those things to become government, media as well as public agenda. In relation to this, Tuing and Hassim (2009) noted that the frequency, depth and the importance given by the media towards a certain issues is believed to determine the level of reaction or thoughts of targeted audience towards it. Similarly, Rias (2008) contends that the increase in the news coverage is thought to bring about increase in the salience of a particular issues or events. Even though both private owned media outlets gave emphasis to the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia, the degree of coverage was completely different from each other. When we compare the two private print media publications, the bi-weekly Reporter (Amharic) newspaper relatively published more news stories than the weekly Addis Admass newspaper. However, if we take the amount of coverage and analyzed news stories, feature articles, editorial pieces, commentaries and interviews in Addis Zemen, we can clearly see that the celebration of the event from 2010 -2014 has gained large media coverage than the privately owned media outlets. This is due to the reason that after the adoption of the current constitution in 1991, the issue of the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia becomes a big government as well as media agenda. To implement their policies and strategies as well as to consolidate their power, government officials use government controlled media. To do so, they highly use both broadcast and print media outlets for transferring their propaganda to the general public. Unlike to public media journalists, privately owned journalists were not that much aware of the commemoration of the day. In light of this a journalist from Reporter argued that: Most of the time, government media houses focused on the ceremonial/cultural festivity of the event whereas, we focused on different perspectives, like research findings with respect to ethnicity, cultural shows from newly emerging nations, as well as on the roles of event celebration to the public and the like (Personal interview, 12/6/2015). # c) Type of Media Frames Employed in the Selected Newspapers With regard to media framing, De Vreese (2005) put it in a simplistic manner by stating that framing issues in a particular way is one influential system which the media uses to shape public perception towards their intended goal. Even though inconsistency is its central nature, the idea of framing mainly focuses on emphasizing on the selected issue through leaving other stories. Having this in mind, journalists use different frames in addressing the issue to the general public. Accordingly, in order to frame the event of NNPD dayof Ethiopia journalists were tried to employ different media frame types with respect to the editorial policies of their media house. As a result, the following table shows media frame types that are used while covering the event of NNPD of Ethiopia from 2010-2014 (Type, number and percentage of frame distribution across the newspapers). A single news story may/can use more than one media frame types. Considering this, the above table was analyzed based on a descriptive analysis method especially by using Multiple Response Method. Thus, the basic thing here is "how repeatedly" the news/feature article used a certain frame. That was the reason why the percentage becomes more than 100 percent. # Volume XVI Issue VII Version I As a result, one of the most salient questions of this study was "to examine how the selected media outlets framed the event of NNPD of Ethiopia". After a range of different types of frames were employed in the selected newspapers, the dominant types of frames were selected. Accordingly, development frame was found to be the dominant frame type that has been repeatedly used in the news articles. The table above depicts the predominance of development frame in almost 24 (17.7%) of the analyzed stories followed by mutual benefit frame which occupied 20 (14.8%) of the total coverage with respect to the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia. This is due to the positive portrayal of NNP's of Ethiopia as having a special occasion for development importance. taken positive opportunity that can potentially bring mutual and sustainable economic development to the NNP's in particular and to the country in general. Victimhood frame was the third most commonly used type of media frame holding 18 (13.3%) and empathy frame was the fourth media frame type which contributed 12 (11.8%) of news articles from the analyzed 135 stories under a specified study frame. Rights frame was the fifth most repeatedly used type of media frame which accounted 13 (9.6%) of stories. Attribution of responsibility frame, national image frame, game frame, educative frame, episodic frame, human interest frame and morality frames obtained somewhat a moderate/slight access with (8.8%, 6.6%, 4.4%, 3.7%, 2.9%, 2.9%, and 2.2%) of coverage respectively. The remaining 0.7% of stories used other kind of media frames to cover the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia. With regard to media framing differences, Gibbs and War hover (2002) argue that two newspapers or media outlets may present or frame the same event differently by selecting and focusing on different aspects or angles. Thus, media framing deals with how a given media outlet or newspaper organization shapes an event. In addition to journalistic angles, framing of an issue might be influenced by political, socio-economic and editorial policy of a specific media outlet or organization. For instance, the space allotted for the other hand, when we examine the relative amount of media frames used by the two privately owned Addis Admass and Reporter (Amharic) newspapers in the study frame, we can see some observable variations in the use of media frame types. Accordingly, Addis Admass has predominantly employed educative frame with 87.5% of the analyzed news stories and attribution of responsibility frame (50 %) as the second widely used frame in the news articles. National image and human interest frame which both accounted 25% of the news stories were employed the third media frame type in the news story with respect to the commemoration of NNPD. While, Reporter dominantly used attribution of responsibility frames in 78.6% of its publication and empathy, development and rights frame as the second most important frame types which were employed in the news articles with holding 50% of the analyzed news stories each. It also used victimhood (42.9%) frame as the third media frame type for covering the event of NNPD of Ethiopia. However, when we examine the cumulative average of the three selected newspapers with respect to media frame types, development frame predominantly overweighs other media frame types and followed by mutual benefit frame. This might correlate with Entman (1993) media selection of salience. Thus, as to him: "To frame is to select some aspect of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text in such a way so as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation (p.52)." As a result, this study showed that "development frame" was the most salient (repeatedly used) frame type both in government and privately owned (Reporter) media in the overall analyzed narratives under a specified time frame for structuring the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia. Hence, the following figure vividly depicts the Cumulative Percentage of Frames employed in the Selected News stories with regard to the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia. The Extent of Media Coverage and Framing Types in the Celebration of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day in Ethiopia: In the Case of Some Selected Newspapers benefit frame which is the second most employed frame type while covering the event of NNPD of Ethiopia. On celebrating the event of NNPD for government owned media is different from the attention which is given by privately owned print media. # Volume XVI Issue VII Version I As can be seen in the table above, the government owned newspaper, Addis Zemen was dominantly used development frame followed by mutual As it has been indicated in the above figure, the dominance of development frame was observed by taking the biggest share (17.7%) of stories while covering the event of NNPD of Ethiopia. Mutual benefit was the second most frequently used media frame by accounting (14.8%) of news stories written on the celebration of the event followed by victimhood frame which exists in (13.3%) of the news articles. Even though the three selected newspapers framed the event of NNPD through multiple types of frames, their respective dominant frames were divergent. To this regard, Addis Zemen's outstripped frame was development frame which accounted for 77%. This might mean that the newspaper has mainly framed NNPD in terms of bringing a potential or significant development or change among nations, nationalities as well as for the country as a whole. On the contrary, the situation seems to be different in the privately owned Addis Admass newspaper. For instance, the dominant frame in Addis Admass newspaper is advocacy or educative frame (87.5%) which primarily revolves around calling both on the government and the people of Ethiopia should learn from the previous/past mistakes and explaining possible solutions to prevent the probable problems associated with ethnicity. On the other hand, the attribution of responsibility frame is the dominant frame type in Reporter Amharic which accounted (78.6%) and which entails those who were responsible for taking actions associated with the problems of group dominancy or ethnic problems among NNP's of Ethiopia. Accordingly, development frame was the dominant frame that has been employed in the selected newspapers which accounted for 17.7 percent on average. Among the selected newspapers, Addis Zemen was the only newspaper that contributed the largest coverage with 77 percent of news narratives to the commemoration of NNPD of Ethiopia. The privately owned Addis Admass newspaper has ignored the coverage of NNPD of Ethiopia with respect to development frame. However, a bi-weekly, Reporter Amharic newspaper gave 50 percent a slight coverage to the developmental aspects of the commemoration of NNPD. In light of this, development frame was by and large dominantly used in the new articles and has become main frame due to the positive portrayal of the NNP's of Ethiopia as having a special occasion for development importance. With this regard, media conformity between the editorial position of the newspaper and the government policy in a political context reconfigured by the essentials of developmental state is a very strong aspect especially in government owned media outlets (Yeshiwas, 2014). Through peaceful coexistence, cooperation and recognition, nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia have glamorously shined in their peace, unity and equality. The day that realized the equality of all nations, nationalities and peoples have assured the covenant of being brotherhoods have paved great opportunities for better development and for the renaissance of this country. On developing common values, nations and nationalities have paid more sacrifice for better development of the country. They realized their unity in their cooperative hands to accelerate the development of the country and to eradicate poverty (Addis Zemen, December 27, 2007/2014, 74th Vol 087 p. 3). Therefore, it is apparent that Addis Zemen newspaper has mainly framed the celebration of the day as a positive opportunity that can potentially bring mutual and sustainable economic development to the nations, nationalities and people in particular and to the country in general. Thus, celebrating the event of NNPD of Ethiopia together with NNP's of Ethiopia will mount the development need of the country. For instance, the construction and portrayal of GERD by the cooperative hands of NNP's of Ethiopia is optimistically as a key project to development to eradicate socio-economic miseries of the country. Moreover, when we examine the tone of news stories with respect to the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia in the three selected newspapers, a clear difference was revealed between the government and privately owned media outlets. Apparently, the analyzed data indicated that the government owned Addis Zemen newspaper portrayed the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia positively. On top of this, out of the analyzed 113 (100) % of the news stories, 88.8 percent of the news articles were depict the commemoration of the day positively. Such kind of positive portrayal of the event might be related to media ownership and political regulations and power relations. In line with this, Mosco (1996) contend that political economy of mass media research has a critical implication and often associated with media ownership and control, interlocking directorships and other factors that bring together media industries with other media with political, economic, and social elites and with other industries. On the other hand, the privately owned Reporter Amharic newspaper revealed the day positively which accounted 64.3% of the news stories. Unlike Addis Zemen and Reporter Amharic newspapers, Addis Admass weekly reported nothing with a positive tone towards the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia. Therefore, Addis Zemen newspaper favored the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia in its coverage while, Addis Admass chooses silence in covering the celebration of the day in a positive way. Addis Admass newspaper portrayed the celebration of NNPD of Ethiopia negatively. This highly contradicts with the government owned, Addis Zemen, which presents the event only in positive ways. In accordance with the tone, the theory of political economy of mass media argues that the structure of industry influences content and the presumption of the theory is that media content is influenced by a combination of media owners (individuals or corporations), advertisers, competitors/other media, government regulations and viewers and readers. In the case of media ownership, private individuals decide what information should be provided to the public based on what earns them the most money (Andrejevic M, 2007 cited in Hailu 2014). Hence, Addis Admass portrayed the day negatively due to the reason that it has a relative media freedom than Addis Zemen. # IV. Conclusions and Recommendations a) Conclusions The findings of the result indicated that the selected print media outlets framed NNPD in a different way. In light of this, the findings of the study revealed that the daily newspaper, Addis Zemen, published significant number of news articles on the celebration of NNPD. One of the most suggested reason for its high coverage is because it is daily and government owned media, it has more space to cover and entertain issues than the bi-weekly (Reporter) and the weekly (Addis Admass) newspapers. Moreover, the findings revealed that development frame is found to be the most frequently used/employed frame both in Addis Zemen and Reporter newspapers in the coverage of NNPD of Ethiopia. # b) Recommendations Based on the content analysis and interpretation of the selected news stories in the selected newspapers, the following recommendations are forwarded: It is clear that journalists are influenced by political and other related factors while they frame an issue. Such pressures from political and other leaders might directly or indirectly put an influence on journalists to frame an issue from different angles. Thus, to avoid such problems and to build a dynamic nature of media house, the government and other concerned bodies should respect the editorial independence of the media houses. With reference to journalistic professionalism, journalists who are working for government owned media usually write and report their news stories through supporting the views and ideologies of government officials. They are not working based on the editorial policies of a specific media house. In line with this, journalists who are working for the private media house are also work to full fill the interest of a specific business organization. Such kind of situations let the journalists to work out of the ethical standards of journalism. In order to avoid such problems, journalists should be always governed by journalistic ethics and they should not be servile or partisan. Moreover, journalists framing of an issue from different angles can affect the attention of the readers/audience. For instance, if the journalist is going to cover contradicting issues that can create ethnic conflict among NNP's, the framing of the issue will affect the perception of the public. Thus, in order to be impartial and to provide balanced information, journalists should consider the interest of the audience while covering the issues like the commemoration of NNPD of Ethiopia. Even though media are shaped by the existing political ideologies and editorial policies, it has to be holistic and present fair, balanced and serve the public interest. Furthermore, private as well as government media houses should provide fair and accurate information to the readers/audiences even though they are working to fulfill the objectives of a certain organization. Abbreviations NNPD-Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day EBC-Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation FDRE-Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia GERD-Great Ethiopian Renascence Dam V. Acknowledgement ![Journals Inc. (US) The Extent of Media Coverage and Framing Types in the Celebration of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day in Ethiopia: In the Case of Some Selected Newspapers * The total number of news stories equals to 135(n=135)](image-2.png "") ![Journals Inc. (US) sThe Extent of Media Coverage and Framing Types in the Celebration of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day in Ethiopia: In the Case of Some Selected Newspapers](image-3.png "") table clearly shows the frequencydistribution of stories published on the selectednewspapers regarding the celebration of NNPD ofEthiopia from 2010-2014Table1: Name of NewspapersFrequencyPercentagePublicationAddis Zemen11383.7%Addis Admass85.92%Reporter (Amharic)1410.37%Total135100% 2Type of Media Frame Addis ZemenAddis AdmassReporter AmharicTotalNo. ofPercentNo. ofPercentNo. ofPercentNo. ofPercentstoriesstoriesstoriesstoriesGame frame415.9%112.5%135.7%64.4%Episodic frame314.2%NDND114.3%42.9%Human interest frame28%125%17.1%42.9%Morality frame28%NDND17.1%32.2%Empathy frame1440.7NDND250%1611.8%Attribution frame930%150%278.6%128.8%Educative frame415%187.5%NDND53.7%National image frame726.5%125%17.1%96.6%Development frame2177%112.5%250%2417.7%Mutual benefit frame1867.3%112.5%135.7%2014.8%Rights frame1239.8%NDND%150%139.6%Victimhood frame1654.9%112.5%142.9%1813.3%Other type12.7%NDNDNDND10.7%Total113370%8237.5%14378.5%135100%*ND refers to no data** © 2016 Global Journals Inc. (US) sThe Extent of Media Coverage and Framing Types in the Celebration of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Day in Ethiopia: In the Case of Some Selected Newspapers The authors would like to thank the staff of Ethiopian National Archives and Library Agency as well as the Ethiopian Broadcast Authority for their help in providing the newspapers necessary for the study. 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