The role of religion in the abortion debates in Malawi news media

Bc. Horace Yohane Chuma, BA

Master's thesis

Abstract:

In this research, I show how religion plays a role in the abortion debates in Malawi news media. There is an ongoing debate in Malawi, which is largely prevalent in various media whereby religious leaders on one hand, representing faith communities, advocate against legalization of abortion in the country, thereby adopting a pro-life position. On the other hand, civil society organization leaders and other participants in the media debates, advocate for a change in the current penal code, which criminalizes abortion; they want a new law to allow women to have access to safe abortion facilities to prevent deaths from unsafe abortions. They therefore adopt a pro-choice position. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the abortion debate coverage in the three major Malawian news media outlets from 2013 to 2017. In the final analysis, the research reveals how both sides of debate uses frames like hypocrisy, human rights and the religiosity or secularity of Malawi in order to influence public opinion, thereby creating a sharp conflict, which is very dominant in the media.

Abstract:

In this research, I show how religion plays a role in the abortion debates in Malawi news media. There is an ongoing debate in Malawi, which is largely prevalent in various media whereby religious leaders on one hand, representing faith communities, advocate against legalization of abortion in the country, thereby adopting a pro-life position. On the other hand, civil society organization leaders and other participants in the media debates, advocate for a change in the current penal code, which criminalizes abortion; they want a new law to allow women to have access to safe abortion facilities to prevent deaths from unsafe abortions. They therefore adopt a pro-choice position. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the abortion debate coverage in the three major Malawian news media outlets from 2013 to 2017. In the final analysis, the research reveals how both sides of debate uses frames like hypocrisy, human rights and the religiosity or secularity of Malawi in order to influence public opinion, thereby creating a sharp conflict, which is very dominant in the media.

Keywords

Malawi, pro-life, pro-choice, religion, frames, system theory, communication theory, media dependency theory.

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 30. 5. 2018

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 25. 6. 2018
• Supervisor: doc. Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, Ph.D.
• Reader: Dr. Zuzanna Brzozowska, M.Sc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
Sociology / Sociology (Eng.)