The Performance of the Nation Newspaper in its Coverage of Presidential Candidates in the August 2017 Elections in Kenya

This study focused on the performance of the Nation Newspaper in its coverage of the August 8th 2017 presidential elections. It could be that the framing of the presidential candidates could have influenced voting patterns. There may be a possibility that the electorate expressed dissatisfaction with the presidential election results due to lack of proper knowledge about the process. Several studies on media coverage of elections have been done in the past but they have not expressly focused on the presidential elections. The general objective of this study was to assess the performance of the Nation Newspaper in its coverage of the August 2017 presidential elections. The specific objectives were to establish the extent to which the Nation newspaper undertook its informational role in regards to voter education; determine the influence of the Daily Nation content on readers views on the various presidential aspirants; establish how the Nation Newspaper framed the coverage of the presidential aspirants. The study used the Media Systems Dependency theory which helped explain the relationship between the media and its audiences. The framing theory was also used to explain how the media packaged and delivered information about the presidential elections. The research adopted a descriptive design which helped describe the coverage as it was. The study population for this research was obtained from Kisumu Central Constituency in Kisumu County. Kisumu County had a total of 539,210 registered voters, purposive sampling was used to select the registered voters of Kisumu Central Constituency. Kisumu Central Constituency has 120,023 registered voters. The researcher sampled respondents from all the six wards in the constituency. The Newspaper sample size was obtained from 77 copies of the Nation Newspaper published between 28th of May 2017 and 12th of August 2017.The Yamane formula for sample size calculation was used to determine the actual sample size for the study which was 399 respondents from Kisumu Central Constituency and 65 copies of the Nation Newspaper. Data collection was done using questionnaires and coding sheets. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the coded information as well as the quantitative data obtained from the questionnaires. The statistical analysis software, SPSS was used for data analysis. The findings were that the Nation newspaper gave more attention to only two candidates and the tone of the articles analyzed were also more negative than positive. General articles were covered more than educative and informative issues. In conclusion it is suggested that the press need to offer balanced coverage to all candidates, work on having positive stories and report on important themes rather than campaign issues.