Source Affiliation and Framing of the GMO Debate by East Africa's Nation Media Group

Abstract

A content analysis of the East African Nation Media Group newspapers' framing of the GMO debate from 2010-2013 adds to the global studies literature on the transatlantic debate on GMOs. The GMO debate has been described as polarized between European and U.S. political approaches and further as influencing the way that Africans respond to this inherited debate. However, newspapers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have unique approaches to reporting on GMO adoption and regulation that do not ignore transnational influences but does not necessarily correspond with characterizations of an "inherited" debate. In journalists' reporting on GMOs in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, they encounter transnational networks of donors, foundations, governments, researchers, farmers and others spanning from the Global North to East Africa. Each approach is described as benevolent--a panacea for hunger and malnutrition or a preservation of Africa's biodiversity and traditional indigenous agricultural practices. This misses the skewed power balance in these transnational networks, which privilege experiences in the Global North and outline the socioeconomic conditions that have led to poverty in sub-Saharan Africa in the first place. This work describes how journalists at the Nation, the Monitor and the Citizen frame this debate and contributes to understanding how East African journalists deal with transnational forces in their reporting.