IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MASS COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (RJMCIT )

E-ISSN 2545-529X
P-ISSN 2695-2475
VOL. 8 NO. 1 2022

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News Values in the News of Africa’s Sub-Regions on CNN Africa Mobile Posts

kennedy M.C Obi, Prof. Godwin B. Okon & Dr Sunny J. Mbazie

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Abstract

News flow determinant studies have looked at drivers of international news with focus on individual countries to the neglect of whole sub-regions within continents of the world. The sustenance of that tradition leaves a gap in knowledge concerning differences and similarities in the determinants of news of sub-regions of various continents of the world. In particular, investigation into determinants of news of sub-regions of Africa appear to be relatively an unexplored area of study from cursory survey of available news flow literature hence the motivation behind this study is to unravel the news factors behind the selection of news reported about African sub-regions. The theoretical frameworks employed were gate keeping and agenda setting. A quantitative content analysis was employed. A population of 515 days’ posts yielded a sample of 329 sample of news posts using a three-week constructed calendar. Findings revealed first, the dominant news genre for reporting news of the sub-regions is the hard news. Second, news salience of East, West, North, Southern and Central sub-regions of Africa were, respectively, in descending rank order. Thirdly, news selection was determined by bad news and conflict. The study concluded that uneven coverage of the sub-regions of Africa is manifest and that there was sustained trend of news selection based on appeal to bad news and conflict. It recommended that CNN Africa should endeavour to pursue greater coverage of the less covered sub-regions of Africa. It is also recommended that alternative to editorial writing in the print media should be created for the mobile media for strong media

keywords:

News flow, News Value, News Genre, African Sub-Regions, International Communication, Gate Keeping Theory, Agenda Setting Theory

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