A Framing Analysis of Barack Obama's Afrocentric representation in the New York Times and Daily Nation

Abstract

This study investigates the framing of Barack Obama's Africanity by the Daily Nation (Kenya) and the New York Times (United States) between 2004 and 2008. America's elections have often riveted interest and research by scholars in the international politics field. While a compendium of available literature examined Obama and his political career from various racial standpoints, few have focused on the media's Afrocentric representation of his identity. This study, carried out within the theoretical framework of media framing, attempts to fill this gap in scholarly research. Framing analysis served as the methodological strategy for this investigation. Four different frames emerged from the analytic exercise. Two of these frames ("Ancestry and memories of a father" and "Positivity": a new idea of Afrocentricity") were contained in both the Daily Nation and the New York Times. The frames "Communalism" and "Obama within the context of African politics" were distinct to the New York Times and the Daily Nation, respectively. The present study contributes to a holistic understanding of a global and multicultural phenomenon such as Barack Obama by investigating the Afrocentric component of his identity.