Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Commun.
Sec. Media Governance and the Public Sphere
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1480755

Competing Frames over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Egyptian and Ethiopian Media

Provisionally accepted
Desalegn Aynalem Desalegn Aynalem 1,2*Abdissa Zerai Abdissa Zerai 1
  • 1 Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • 2 Jimma University, Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a 6000-megawatt project on the Blue Nile, is an epicenter of exacerbated disputes and confrontations between riparian states, garnering the attention of both local and international media. This article examines the salient frames of Ahram Online and the Ethiopian Herald, state run national newspapers in Egypt and Ethiopia, respectively. Guided by Framing Theory, the study employed an inductive qualitative frame analysis method. A total of 289 news stories, collected from the online archives of the newspapers, spanning from January 2017 to December 2022, were analyzed. Findings reveal that six dominant frames and six counter-frames emerge from Ahram Online and the Ethiopian Herald, respectively. The frames and counter-frames emerged are, 'Historic right' Vs. 'Tributary right,' 'National threat' Vs. 'National pride,' 'Power domination' Vs. 'Regional integration,' 'Necessity of binding agreement' Vs. 'Obsession with colonial treaties,' 'Unyieldingness' (for both) and 'Unilateral act' Vs. 'Right to development' frames. This study argues that such polarized and bifurcated depiction of the dam on the media has contributed to conflicting rather than cooperative relationship between the two riparian countries.

    Keywords: Ahram Online, The Ethiopian Herald, Nile, gerd, framing, Competing frames

    Received: 14 Aug 2024; Accepted: 13 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Aynalem and Zerai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Desalegn Aynalem, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.