Media representations of Ethiopian Muslims civil rights movement

Year 2022, Volume: 8 Issue: 4, 340 - 351, 31.10.2022

Yasın Mohammed Alı

https://doi.org/10.24289/ijsser.1147641

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to describe how the pro and anti-government media represented the civil rights movement of Ethiopian Muslims against religious indoctrination. Four online Media, two pro-government Media, and two opposition Media were purposefully selected to achieve this objective. The news and articles presented from April 2012 to March 2013 were rigorously analyzed using steps suggested by Johnson and Christensen (2004). The qualitative analysis resulted in three major themes and six subcategories under the major themes. The three major themes include the Aim of the Muslim civil rights movement, Government interference in religious affairs, and the Representation of Leaders of the Ethiopian Muslims Civil rights Movement. As hypothesized at the onset of the study, the two groups of online Media selected for analysis represented the Ethiopian Muslim civil rights movement in highly different ways. Generally speaking, the selected pro-government media has negatively represented the movement, whereas the opposition media exhibited positive representation.

Keywords

The Ethiopian Muslims civil rights movement, Media representation, Al-Ahbash

References

• Breakwell, GM (1993). Social Representations and Social Identity. Papers on Social Representations, 2, 198-217.
• Central Statistical Agency (2010). Population and Housing Census Report-Country – 2007. http://www.csa.gov.et/
• Creswell, J.W. (2007).Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among the five approaches—the USA, Sage publications, inc.
• Elif, SO (2007). Social Representations of the European Union. Unpublished Master's thesis, METU, Ankara, Turkey.
• Farr, R. (1996). The roots of modern social psychology. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Inthorn, S. (2006). What Does It Mean to Be an EU Citizen? How News Media Construct Civic and Cultural Concepts of Europe. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 3(3), 71-90.
• Johnson, B. & Christensen, L. (2004). Educational research: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Approaches. Boston: Prison Educational Inc.
• Moliner, P. & Tafani, E. (1997). Attitudes and Social Representations: A Theoretical and Experimental Approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 27, 687–702.
• Moscovici, S. (1988). Notes towards a Description of Social Representations.
• European Journal of Social Psychology, 18, 211-250.
• Wagner, W. (2012). Social representation theory. In D. J. Christie (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Wagner, W. et al. (1999). Theory and method of social representations [online]. London: LSE Research Online. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/2640
• Wachelke, J. (2012). Social Representations: A Review of Theory and Research from the Structural Approach. Universitas Psychologica, 11(3), 729-741.
• Yuunus, H.M.(2013)." Ahbashism," Government & Ethiopian Muslim Protests. In LEBMA (Eds). The Civil Right Movement of Ethiopian Muslims: context, Defining futures, & Implications. Belgium.