LAND REFORM IN NAMIBIA: AN ANALYSIS OF MEDIA COVERAGE

Abstract

The highly inequitable land ownership that resulted from nearly a century of colonization is an important socio-economic issue that must be overcome in order to ensure Namibia's long-term stability and success. The media plays an important role in ensuring that land reform is successfully designed and executed. The media informs the public, sets the public and political agenda, holds the government accountable, and serves as a public sphere. This project analyses Namibia's three primary daily newspapers' coverage of land reform from 2003 to 2013 utilizing interpretive content analysis to determine how the papers are reporting on land reform and related themes. I then compare their portrayals to see to what they are fulfilling their roles. I find that the papers' reporting is mostly event-driven and lacks depth and greater context. Furthermore, the papers offer a mostly one-sided view of issues. While the papers regularly reported on land reform, they generally struggle to accomplish the function that the media fulfills in a democracy.