Hypermediating Journalistic Authority: the case of Ethiopian

private media

Author:
Woldegiorgis, Eden Fitsum
Publication Date:
2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/23992
License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Link to license to see what you are allowed to do with this resource.

Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/100285 in https://

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 Eden Fitsum Woldegiorgis

Hypermediating Journalistic Authority

the case of Ethiopian private media

A thesis in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Doctor of Philosophy

School of Arts and Media

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

December 2021
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As four years of academic journey comes to conclusion, I am filled with gratitude to so
many who have helped me reach the finish line.
I owe so much of my success to my amazing supervisor Louise Ravelli, an insightful
academic, a resourceful thinker and attentive mentor and most of all a compassionate
human being, who has helped me in every way possible throughout this journey. She
took time to listen to my thoughts and read through different versions of my drafts and
gave helpful feedback and scholarly insights and clear directions that have all helped
materialize this dissertation. I am forever indebted to her moral and material support
which make up a huge part of my settling in Sydney and my academic journey. Without
her consistent help, I would not have made it through the first year; I could not have
asked for a better supervisor.
My appreciation also goes to my examiner of four years Peter White for his insightful
comments and all-rounded expertise that have helped in shaping up my study. I would
also like to thank my secondary supervisor Helen Caple and career mentor Michelle
Zappavigna for their helpful comments whenever I needed them. I am lucky to have had
such a vibrant supervisory team of experts. My colleagues at UNSW also deserve a
huge “thank you” for being there whenever I needed assistance while working off
campus. I would also like to thank the SFL community for all the valuable ideas shared;
though brief, I was lucky to have been part of such academic giants.
The constant assistance I received from the Scientia team and the UNSW community
has made my journey so much smoother despite the difficult challenges I faced along
the way. Thank you for always making sure that no constraints stand in my way to
success and for providing solutions to the problems I was dealing with through the
years.
My two daughters, Nael and Amen are also constant reminders of the love that
surrounds me and keeps me going and my parents for the encouragement and support
they provided me all my life. A big round of my appreciation and gratitude goes to
Senait and family, for being my strong support system in Sydney and beyond because of
which I have survived these four years; to Selam and family, who I have been blessed to
have as best friends and family, for always seeing the best in me and being an important
part of my life.
Finally, to the people of Tigray who are currently surviving a genocidal war, though the
unfortunate situation brought destruction to their land, their resilience has been my
impetus and a reminder of my responsibilities.
Ultimately, Tigray shall prevail!

ii
ABSTRACT
This study, situated at the nexus between journalism, technology and society, focuses on
the mediation of authority in the hypertextual environment. It explored the technology-
journalism relationship as deployed in the Ethiopian media context where the private
press is marginalized from access to official information. This particular context is
important to examine the deployment of hyperlinks not only as a natural adoption but as
a survival mechanism as well as a locus of meaning where authority is mediated in
linking strategies. As such, the study selected two private news sites in this media
landscape, Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer, based on their frequent use of
hyperlinks in their news reporting.

With a critical approach drawing upon qualitative and quantitative social semiotics, the
study conducted a multi-stage analysis following the links trajectory, navigational
pathways, link precision, link destination and authorship. Data was collected over two
periods to examine the interplay of the socio-political context in hyperlinking strategies;
three months of initial data and six months of the ongoing Tigray war. Though the
general linking patterns, such as total number of links, showed big gaps over the two
periods, a notable rise for Addis Standard and a dramatic decline for Ethiopia Observer,
in contrast to the global trend, both prioritized external linking.

As the study progressed, in addition to the differential utilization of hyperlinks between

the two news sites as a reflection of their status in the society, the study also revealed
customization of use attuned to material realities. With a relatively strong presence in
the Ethiopian media landscape and better access to sources and events, AS uses a
notable proportion of its hyperlinking to call attention to its original reports while EO, a
diasporic outlet frequently uses external linking to fulfill its information needs.
Hyperlinking is also used by AS to show professional interventions in recycled stories
for contextualization.

Despite the methodological constraints of the study due to different external factors, the
study showed the potential of hyperlinking strategies to shape the content of news. This
was demonstrated by how EO gravitated toward government outlets in the second
dataset establishing the “law enforcement operations” narrative of the government over
that of the atrocities against civilians reported by popular international outlets who
extensively reported the war.

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF ACRONYMS vii
LIST OF TABLES ix
LIST OF FIGURES x
Chapter 1. Research motivation and rationale 1
1.1. Introduction 1
1.2. The impact of technology on journalism 2
1.1.1 Journalistic roles in the network: a reconceptualization? 5

1.1.2 Hyperlinks and journalism 6

1.3. Research Objectives 7

1.4. Contextual Background: the Ethiopian Media 8
1.5. The approach of the study 13
1.6. The data to be analysed 15
1.7. Thesis overview 16
1.8. Conclusion 16
Chapter 2. Situating hyperlinks in journalistic discourse 18
2.1. Introduction 18
2.2. Setting the Scene 20
2.3. Hypertext, hypermedia and hyperlinks 22
2.3.1. The fundamental role of hyperlinks 26
2.3.2. Types and purposes of hyperlinks in journalism 27
2.3.3. Assets of Hyperlinks in journalism 31
2.3.3.1. Non-Linearity 34
2.3.3.2. Diversity 37
2.3.3.3. Interactivity 40
2.3.3.4. Increasing transparency 43
2.3.3.5. Less exclusivity 45
2.4. The role of journalism in society 47
2.4.1. Key journalistic principles 51
2.4.2. Key journalistic attributes 53
iv
 2.4.3. Journalistic Sourcing 54
2.4.3.1. Adversarial sourcing relations 59
2.4.3.2. Competitive sourcing relations 59
2.4.3.3. Sourcing as a practice of meaning-making 61
2.5. The digital environment and its impact on journalism 62
2.5.1. The inadequacy of gatekeeping as a concept 62
2.5.2. The new role of sense-making 65
2.6. Journalistic authority, hyperlinks and the Ethiopian private media 69
2.7. Conclusion 73
Chapter 3. Methods 74
3.1. Introduction 74
3.2. Approaches to hyperlink studies 75
3.3. A social semiotic approach to hyperlinking 77
3.4. Data sources 79
3.5. Data identification 81
3.6. Data Collection 84
3.7. Data Analysis 87
3.7.1. Frequency of linking 87
3.7.2. Navigational Paths: Internal Vs. External links 87
3.7.3. Link Precision: Deep v. Generic links 90
3.7.4. Link Destination 96
3.7.5. Authorship of linked content 96
3.8. Summary 99
Chapter 4. Examining the news matrix 101
4.1 Introduction 101
4.2 General Linking Patterns 102
4.3 Navigational Paths: Constructing news browsing 106
4.3.1 External Linking in context 109

4.3.2 Internal linking as gatekeeping 121

4.4 Link Precision 123

4.5 Link Destination: Examining the news ecology 128
4.6 Conclusion 133
Chapter 5. Analysing the two-fold meaning of hyperlinks 136
5.1 Introduction 136
5.2 The Tigray war: a brief context 136
5.3 Navigational Paths: a shift? 140
v
 5.3.1 Gatekeeping Vs Sense-making 148

5.3.2 Internal linking legitimizing access, professionalism and journalistic

labour 155

5.3.3 Internal links as gateways 157

5.4 Link precision 161

5.5 The News Ecology: Institutionality 162
5.6 Updated Link Taxonomy 165
5.7 Conclusion 167
Chapter 6. Conclusion 169
6.1 Review of the thesis 169
6.2 Limitations of the study and further opportunities 175
6.3 Final observations 177
Bibliography 182
Appendix 195
Addis Standard: Data set 1 195
Ethiopia Observer: Data set 1 199
Addis Standard Twitter Thread Reader (Referenced in Section 4.3.1.1) 202
Addis Standard: Data set 2 203
Ethiopia Observer: Data set 2 215

vi
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ADP: Asimba Democratic Party

AMMA: Amhara Mass Media Agency

AS: Addis Standard

AU: African Union

CNN: Cable News Network

CPJ: Committee to Protect Journalists

EBC: Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporate

EHRC: Ethiopian Human Rights Commission

EPA: Ethiopian Press Agency

EO: Ethiopia Observer

EPRDF: Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front

ESATV: Ethiopian Satellite TVE

GCAO- Government Communication Affairs Office

GERD: Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

IOM: International Monetary Fund

MSF: Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)

MoFA: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

NGO: Non-Governmental Organization

OMN: Oromia Media Network

TDP: Tigray Democratic Party

TPLF: Tigray People’s Liberation Front

UN: United Nations

UNICEF: United Nations Children’s Fund

vii
UNOCHA: United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

VOA: Voice of America

WFP: World Food Program

WHO: World Health Organization

viii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 A 5-Ws taxonomy of news links (Ryfe et al., 2016: 45) 28
Table 2.2. General Hyperlink taxonomy 30
Table 3.1. Data used in the study 85
Table 4.1. General hyperlinking features 103
Table 4.2.Navigational Paths of AS and EO 108
Table 4.3. Link precision in AS and EO 124
Table 4.4. Link destinations and authorship 130
Table 5.1. General Hyperlinking features (Dataset 2) 138
Table 5.2. Navigational paths (Dataset 2) 141
Table 5.3. Link precision (Data set 1 and 2) 162
Table 5.4. Link precision and authorship (Dataset 2) 164

ix
LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1. Different types of hyperlinks (Nielsen Norman Group homepage) 24

Figure 2.2. “Simplified view of a small hypertext structure having six nodes and nine
links” (From (Nielsen and Nielsen, 1995: 1)) 25
Figure 3.1. Zoning of news pages (adapted from Djonov and Knox, 2014). 82
Figure 3.2. Types of hyperlinks 84
Figure 3.3. Internal and external hyperlinks 89
Figure 3.4. Deep Linking (Website) 92
Figure 3.5. Deep linking (Facebook) 93
Figure 3.6. Generic links (Website) 94
Figure 3.7. Generic link (Twitter) 95
Figure 3.8. Hyperlink Taxonomy developed in this study 98
Figure 4.1. Embedded tweet (A) Vs tweets on the Twitter platform (B) 111
Figure 4.2. Embedded content within embedded tweets 116
Figure 4.3. Reflexive tweets 118
Figure 4.4 Embedded tweet from an external source (AS 01) 119
Figure 4.5. A generic link to a social media profile 120
Figure 4.6. A deep link to a post on Facebook 125
Figure 4.7. topical/contextual generic links (EO 08) 126
Figure 4.8. Hyperlink to paid content 127
Figure 5.1. External and internal links as contextualization (AS 64) 151
Figure 5.2 embedded tweet in a recycled story (AS 114) 152
Figure 5.3. Embedded tweet update in real time (AS 58) 153
Figure 5.4. Self-referencing for contextualization 160
Figure 5.5. Updated Link Taxonomy 165

x
Chapter 1. Research motivation and rationale
1.1. Introduction

History is replete with stories of how technology has transformed society; that
technology has become an important component of life to the extent that it is almost
impossible to imagine contemporary society without it. Journalism has been one of the
key industries which has been transformed by digital technologies, having come a long
way since the invention of the printing press in 1440. Journalism is now embedded
within a networked environment, where new communication dimensions continue to be
added, all influencing the nature of news production. The more advanced technology
becomes, the more complex and fluid news production has become, placing journalism
among a network of other knowledge production platforms. Consequently, as the
knowledge repository has expanded challenging pre-existing boundaries, it has also
brought other competing communicators confronting journalistic authority.

Studies of the relationship between journalism and technology have focused mainly on
understanding and foregrounding the transformation of journalism which technology
contributes to. The fault lines here lie in the backgrounded or naturalized role
technology is assumed to play in the transformation of journalistic practices, that is, that
technology is seen just as a standalone tool adopted to improve journalistic production.
The prominence of these narratives of technological transformation are reasonable given
the obvious impact of technology in providing novel ways of production, faster ways of
delivery, and convenient patterns of media consumption.

Of course, technological transformation of the production, distribution and consumption

of journalism is proportionally matched with talks of crises in journalism, such as
disinformation and churnalism occupying the media sphere. Technology takes centre
stage in discussions of revolutionized journalistic production which is fast and efficient
and in narratives about the decline in journalistic quality due to the proliferation of non-
professional content posing as journalism. The dichotomy between the hype and the
gloom surrounding the relationship between journalism and technology is portrayed as a
simplistic phenomenon of innovation that puts technology at the heart of undermining
latent issues of professional reconfigurations and persistent journalistic norms and
practices. However, this view fails to capture that journalism finds new ways of
legitimizing authority just as much as that of restructuring knowledge. In an endeavour
1
to tackle parochial outlooks regarding the relationship between journalism and
technology, this study shifts the focus from technology in and of itself toward a broader
focus the meanings conveyed by its deployment in journalism. Specifically targeting the
use of hyperlinks in hard news writing in online journalism, the study aims to examine
not only their function as structural elements in the networked public space but also the
particular ways in which they have been adopted to address underlying social issues.

The study is underpinned by the overarching argument that hyperlinks are not just
another technological tool adopted to enhance news work, but are semiotic resources
consciously used by journalists to address deep-seated social and practical issues that
might otherwise undermine their legitimacy. More specifically, hyper-links are
examined in the particular context of the Ethiopian media landscape. Their use is seen
as a response to the information deprivation that challenges the viability of the private
press in Ethiopia, as explained further below.

This study is therefore a critical examination of the linking practices of selected news
sites in Ethiopia. It unveils some of the taken-for-granted notions of hyperlinking and
looks beyond their everyday use and manifest content to critically examine the meaning
behind journalistic linking as applied in a specific media context. The next section sets
the scene for the topic and gives the specific context it will deal with.

1.2. The impact of technology on journalism

For better or for worse, technology has had a dramatic impact upon journalism.
Contemporary discussions regarding the relationship of journalism with technology
largely centre on the impact of digital technology either in improving journalism or
contributing to its crisis. Notwithstanding the ambivalences about its consequences, the
technological changes to journalistic practices are undeniable and be they lamentations
or celebrations, the different viewpoints are “unquestionably relevant to understand
journalism” (De Maeyer and Le Cam, 2015: 86).

Generally, the relationship between journalism and technology is surrounded by binary

perspectives; while a deterministic approach views technology as the major force
behind the transformation of journalism, constructivists amplify the role of social and
cultural factors as such. Though they differ on the degree of impact they attribute to
technology, both fail at recognizing that this relationship between technology and

2
society is cyclic rather than unidirectional, that the two influence each other (Tong and
Lo, 2017). At the same time, social constructivist views that bury technology in
everyday routines (Primo and Zago, 2015) should be problematized. The mutual
exclusiveness of the two views according to Boczkowski (2004) offers little in terms of
creating an understanding of the nexus between the two important components of
society: journalism and technology.

Beyond the dichotomy of deterministic and constructivist narratives, looking into the
actual impacts of technology requires multidimensional perspectives. Partly, this is
related to how it facilitates news work, enabling efficient news processing, production,
and dissemination through the introduction of new tools. Long distance reporting, low
budget production and dissemination through digital technologies are some of the
consequences on “the way journalists do their job” (Pavlik, 2000: 229). Technical
limitations no longer constrain news production because digital media combine all
modalities for an enhanced storytelling. However, much more than the technical assets
are available in the digital space, as readers have more options not only for consumption
of diverse content but also for participation. As Van der Haak et al. (2012) summarizes
it;

“In the digital environment in which journalists now work, new facts are
being unearthed daily; more audience feedback is being integrated; more
voices are being heard; more diverse perspectives on the same news stories
are being presented; more stories are available, archived and searchable for
longer periods of time; more men and women of power are being watched
more closely; and more people are engaged more actively with the changes
in the world—by taking photos or making videos of key moments, by
commenting on blogs, or by sharing the stories that matter to them” (p.
2923).
In addition to the emergence of new tools and practices, some technologies also shape
the nature of knowledge adding layers of meaning to news. Conversation with a source
via Skype, for instance, compensates for physical separation with the presence of audio-
visual features. Reich (2008) refers to such technologies as epistemological
technologies. That is, seeing and hearing an actual source, and not just reading about
them or viewing a picture of them, become part of believing; also bringing non-verbal
messages to the communicative event. Digital technologies used by newsrooms
facilitate every aspect of news work by enhancing news gathering, presentation and
packaging news content.

3
The impact of technology also hinges on the structure and organization of the news
industry in that through the World Wide Web, users can access almost any content
globally making distance no longer an issue. This is highlighted with the increasing
complexity of technology, the fact that the contemporary global mediascape is not
simply digital but also networked. This results in the sharing of space and content with
other less formal non-institutional entities, such as blogs or citizen journalists (Singer,
2009).

In the midst of the rosy picture of the impact of technology, some also zoom in on what
they consider the adverse effects of technology. As much as the diverse media sphere
enhances democracy, it increases competition among content providers and compels
them to give in to the demands of the market which affects quality and professionalism
(Kovach, 2005). In relation to this, the emergence of new forms of news production
such as blogs are taken as a liability for prioritizing financial benefits over their
democratic purposes. McNair (2013) refers to this sharing of cultural spaces with other
forms of media production as “the crisis of journalism as cultural form” (p. 77). This
started long before the advent of the internet but has been accentuated with digital
technologies adopted by newsrooms.

Given its impact on established practices and its pervasiveness in journalism,

technology has become an important research agenda, albeit with the diverging
perspectives just discussed. However, as some have noted, despite the increasing mutual
influence, the relationship between journalism and technology largely lacks in
theorization (Boczkowski, 2002; Cottle and Ashton, 1999). New communication
technologies provide new opportunities for enhancing the production of news, but
theoretical efforts should look beneath the surface of such assertions, because
“[j]ournalism has always been shaped by technology” (Pavlik, (2000: 229). Looking
into changes as well as continuities in the digital environment will pave the way for a
more thorough understanding of technology in context. In this regard, in terms of the
epistemological impact of technologies and based on their claim of the resulting degree
of change, Reich (2008) points out three perspectives. Reformists claim a higher degree
of change in the journalistic practices, while traditionalists identify limited changes due
to continuities in the newsroom, and selectivists argue that technology has impacted
some practices more than others. This study is situated between the traditionalist and
selectivist narratives where continuities serve as much purpose as the change brought
4
about by the penetration of technologies in journalism. The following sections describe
some of the specific impacts on journalistic practices.

1.1.1 Journalistic roles in the network: a reconceptualization?

One of the issues in connection with the technology-journalism relationship relates to

the role journalism plays in society. The proliferation of sources of information in the
contemporary media environment reconfigures the flow of information which
traditionally placed journalists at the production end of the process. The usual tasks of
journalists - newsgathering, processing, and presentation - are also being performed by
others in the networked environment. In the context of the intersection of journalism
with technology, this means that a monopoly over knowledge production no longer
exists (Carlson, 2017). According to Kovach (2005: n.p) “[t]he Internet has torn down
all the fences” resulting in the dissolution of journalistic boundaries. McNair (2013: 78-
79) notes that these include spatial-temporal dissolution (the production of instant
news), technological dissolution (convergence), professional dissolution (lowered
barriers or access to entry into public discourse) and generic dissolution (mixing of
content categories or stylistic mergers).

The metaphoric reference to the ‘fence’ directly feeds into the notion of the ‘gate’,
where in the context of these dissolutions, the nature of journalistic roles is increasingly
called into question. The concept of gatekeeping originated as a result of the scarcity of
space in traditional media (Ferreira, 2018), whereas in the contemporary media sphere,
space is found in abundance and the possibility for the inclusion of materials is vast.
Thus, the assumptions that drive the concept, such as a linear information flow model,
are no longer adequate in the new media environment. Traditionally, the role of
gatekeeping has been performed by media tailoring the multitude of potential messages
to fit the available space and time. This “has provided a dominant paradigm for
journalistic news gathering and news publishing in the mass media both for journalists'
own conceptualisation of their work and for academic studies of this mediation process”
(Bruns, 2003: 31). Gatekeeping is directly related to the notion of sourcing, that is, the
raw materials of journalism, as in a traditional environment, journalists must necessarily
be selective in their choice of sources. In a digital, hyperlinked environment, new
sourcing practices can be used, and the gate is potentially left open.

5
The changing environment of new media and journalism in this sense also has
implications for content control. According to Robinson (2007), the participation of
readers in the creation of news discourse gives them increasing control over content,
and undermines the classic sense of gatekeeping. This sharing of journalistic roles
reveals yet another assumption about the nature of the raw materials that undergo
selection. With readers’ participation, there is a constantly evolving story rather than “a
given finite, knowable reality of events in the ‘real world’” (McQuail, 1994: 214). More
importantly, the networked infrastructure on the World Wide Web complicates the
nature of the messages because “the product is fluid: constantly changing, always
expandable, always able to be combined with something new and different” (Singer,
2010: 119).

A further impact of new technology on journalism is in terms of giving rise to a much

more competitive environment, with economic consequences. As easier methods of
production and distribution make it cheaper to create journalistic content, there has been
a great increase in the number and type of outlets available for information distribution,
leading to greater competition for public attention. Kovach (2005) suggests that such
increased competition compels providers to give in to the demands of the market, which
affects quality and professionalism. The competition caused by the co-existence of other
forms of information production is more intense in the networked environment. The
resulting trends become no longer only discursive, but also structural, further
challenging long-standing ideals of journalism as the sole sense-maker of reality and its
relationship with its audiences.

1.1.2 Hyperlinks and journalism

As will be explained in detail in Chapter 2, hyperlinks are essential components of the

networked communication infrastructure. They are fundamental to the interconnectivity
between documents on the web; they are essentially what make hypertext different from
plain text. Structurally, unlike printed text, they provide hierarchical and non-linear
organization of text, and seamlessly merge content from a diversity of production
domains. In news writing, this presents a contextually rich and enhanced news delivery.

Unlike traditional media where only the final product of the news is delivered to news
consumers, the networked news ecology is liquid (Deuze, 2009) and ambient (Hermida,
2010). Here, users can experience aspects of news production in real time in the
6
networked environment and they can have access to some of the raw materials used in
the construction of news (Karlsson, 2011). The new environment provides the raw
materials in the form of links to materials found elsewhere in the same website or an
external one. Such links thus provide context, additional information, and different
viewpoints to the news story in focus. Epistemologically, online media offers not only
rich content with the possibility to link to multimedia materials, but also the potential to
make sense of the available multitude of materials, by packaging them into news texts.
Hyperlinks are thus a particularly interesting feature of the new technological
environment, and worthy of further study.

1.3. Research Objectives

Beyond what the tales of technology told through journalistic content convey as
subjects of research in and of themselves, they reveal broad subliminal issues about the
production and consumption sides of content (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996). Journalism
as a profession is in a state of flux driven by technological advances, and its practices
are constantly evolving, changing, and readjusting. This creates new challenges for
journalism as a profession, with the need to adapt to new ways of communicating and
new ways of meeting the ever-evolving needs of audiences. Thus any study of the
impact of technology on journalism will help cast light on its processes and impact, but
most importantly, a study of journalism innovations is incomplete unless it is related to
the specific social context in which such communication occurs. This study is situated
in the context of media in Ethiopia, and it is hoped that it will contribute to a greater
understanding of the media situation in this country.

Research scholarship in journalism generally lacks diversity, and there are very few
studies of African journalism, although notable exceptions will be referred to below.
Within the dearth of studies, Mabweazara (2016) notes that there is often a blanket
assessment of a ‘digital divide’ as underpinning research in African news rooms. This
focus on a deficit view of journalism risks obscuring the different levels of
technological adoption and appropriations attuned to social, material and political
realities of their specific contexts.

In contrast, this study examines the use of hyperlinks in the context of journalism in
Ethiopia, where access to online sources is particularly precarious. This study argues
that hyperlinks are used in specific ways to legitimize the authority of journalists and
7
their sources in a media environment where private media outlets are marginalized. The
core concern in this study therefore is not about how to construct effective news texts
using hyperlinks but how to decode or denaturalize the extra layer of embedded
meaning in news discourse, achieved through the incorporation of hyperlinks in news.

This study therefore aims to explore the semiotic potential of hyperlinks in legitimizing
journalistic authority in the context of information marginalization in the Ethiopian
media landscape. Hyperlinks are explicated not only as technological assets in how they
facilitate news work, but as meaning-making resources revealing more than what can be
seen from linking patterns alone. The thesis set out to:

• Examine the specific media context of contemporary Ethiopia through a study of

selected sites
• Investigate the role of hyperlinks in contemporary journalistic practice in these
sites in terms of how they contribute to news practices
• Analyse hyperlinking patterns and whether they sustain or change conventional
journalistic practices
• Consider how political alignment might influence the use of hyperlinks in the
selected sites.

1.4. Contextual Background: the Ethiopian Media

Ethiopia is a country officially referred to as The Federal Democratic Republic of

Ethiopia. It is a multinational federation with 10 autonomous regional states and more
than 80 spoken languages. It is one of the oldest independent nations and with a
population of over 117 million, the second most populous in Africa. According to a
2017 data by the World Bank, the adult literacy rate1 has reached 51.8% (WorldBank,
2017) but the country remains one of the least digitally connected in the world.

Most of the research agenda in relation to the media in Ethiopia is occupied with
democratic issues of press freedom and freedom of information. According to the 2020
World Freedom Index, the country ranks 99th of 180 countries, 11 ranks higher than the
previous year (RWB, 2020). According to the Internet Society (2020), currently less
than 15% of its population have access to the internet. This may be due in part to the

1
Adult (15+) literacy rate (%). Total is the percentage of the population age 15 and above who can, with
understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.
8
fact that Ethiopia is one of the last countries in Africa with a stronghold over the
telecom industry; it has only recently taken some steps at partial privatization.

Even more than the digital divide, the Ethiopian media landscape is defined by a hostile
media environment and an antagonistic relationship between the government and
independent media establishments. This prevents the development of viable media able
to play a democratic role. The Ethiopian media context thus offers a unique scenario for
the study of hyperlinks, which are used extensively by a few of the private online news
outlets as referencing tools, to compensate for the lack of access to official information
and conventional sources.

The press more often than not resembles the socio-political situation of a country in
which it exists (Salawu, 2016). Systems set up by colonialism lingered in many sectors
for some years after independence in Africa and according to Domatob (1988) “sub-
Saharan Africa never ceased to be dependent, because the states are still tied by that
umbilical cord, the purse string, to the imperialist powers” (p.153). Despite having the
longest history of independence, with homegrown political and social development, the
Ethiopian media faces similar challenges as in the rest of Africa. It is true that colonial
powers did not have their hands in the establishment of the media in Ethiopia, and after
“the printing machines were introduced into the country in the early 1900s, it ran its
own course” (Meseret, 2013: 332). However, in so many ways, Ethiopia resembles its
counter parts in other African countries especially in its relationship with the
government. When it comes to access to information in particular, keeping the media in
the dark is a way for African governments to reinforce their grip on power (White,
2017) and the Ethiopian government is no exception. In terms of composition, just like
the rest of Africa, “the Ethiopian media environment is characterized by polarisation
between private and state-owned media enterprises” (Skjerdal, 2011a: 63). Except for a
handful of state-owned media, the private media are perceived as antagonistic to the
establishment and as a result are marginalized from access to information. This has its
roots in the history of the country and the political dynamics that are sustained in the
state-media relationship.

The role of the media throughout Ethiopian history had been defined as “willing
mouthpieces for the rulers”2. As Meseret (2013) specifies it, “[t]he monarchy used the

2
Press Freedom in Ethiopia: IPI/IWAN- IFRA Press Mission Report (November 2013)
9
media to build the image of the emperor, Derg3 to preach the gains of the revolution as
well as magnify the persona of the leader, and EPRDF4 to portray the ruling party in a
favourable light” (Meseret, 2013: 333). Private ownership of publications was not
allowed for most of this period as the government had a heavy hand on the printing
press. After coming out of a civil war in 1990, Ethiopia took some notable steps in
liberalizing the media sector, such as, opening up the mediascape allowing the private
press to exist. The right of access to public information was also secured soon after by
the 1995 constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 5. However, the
development of journalism in Ethiopia largely remains a journey of unfulfilled promises;
the media’s anticipated democratic role was cut short due to internal and external forces.

Officially, state media in Ethiopia follow the Development Journalism model as the
foundation of their editorial policy and operate in a controlled environment in terms of
information provision and justify self-censorship as a journalistic practice (Skjerdal,
2010). “[M]uch of the material is presented as protocol news; in other words, it has the
form of official information emanating from the public administration” (p. 106). In the
face of such a media environment, the role of private media is important in providing
critical reports to the public that is consistently exposed to state media operating under a
media policy that directs them to “speak with one voice” (Meseret, 2013: 294).

In this context, original reporting is almost non-existent, due to the lack of access to
information. This results in armchair journalism with little or no contact with sources.
International media often break news before local outlets (Skjerdal, 2014), and local
media commonly quote international media for their local stories (Wazema, 2018). This
situation is still so severe that on 14 May 2020, the Institution of the Ombudsman6
released a statement that this reliance on external journalism could have repercussions in

http://www.freemedia.at/fileadmin/media/Documents/IPI_mission_reports/Report_Ethiopia_Pre
ss_Freedom_Mission_Nov_2013.FINAL.pdf
3
The Military regime that reigned 1974 to 1991
4
Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front
5
Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1995) Available at:
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/63061/how-would-i-cite-the-us-constitution-in-harvard-
style (Accessed 11 April 2021)
6
Institution of the Ombudsman’s Facebook page posted a statement on the implementation of
the state of emergency declared to combat the COVID- 19 global pandemic (Amharic version)
https://www.facebook.com/2314512345473518/posts/2660254750899274/
10
the context of the global pandemic, and that the state should provide information freely
to all media outlets as a result.

Following what seemed like a democratic transition in 1991, the country saw a
“mushrooming” of private outlets, but many have since ceased publication (Skjerdal
and Hallelujah, 2009). Despite the right of access to public information secured by the
constitution, the private press still suffers from marginalized access to government
information, documents and official press conferences (ibid.). One significant factor
was budget; most newsrooms were under-resourced partly because advertising revenues
were low and the circulation figures also remain one of the lowest. The low literacy
rate in the country, on top of the high rural concentration with poor infrastructure and
other accumulated factors, have also contributed to this decline. The financial situation
of the government press has always been steady due to government subsidies and large
subscriptions from government organizations.

In their analysis of 18 years of press freedom, Skjerdal and Hallelujah (2009) find that in
the struggle for survival, the “independent press” had resorted to tabloidization in
addition to aligning themselves with opposition parties. This has resulted in a high
distrust of the private press by the government; they are seen as spreading “hate politics”
instead of contributing to democratization (ibid.). Consequently, the poor performance
of the media in this regard is taken by the government to legitimize the marginalization
of the private media, whereas the private press blames the government’s action as the
very reason for it. When it comes to the question of autonomy, just as much as the state
media’s loyalty lies with the government, private media are rarely free of political
interests. As Skjerdal (2012) points out, the term ‘private media’ is used as an equivalent
of ‘state media’ to refer to ownership patterns and hardly speaks to the notion of
autonomy.

In 2008, the Government Communication Affairs Office was established making the
control of information tighter and institutionalizing the marginalization. No sooner than
it was established, the office was fully engaged in monitoring the information
transaction locally and in the diaspora.
“[D]uring the 2007-08 fiscal year GCAO conducted a total of 5,648 monitors
over 32 programs transmitted by domestic and international broadcasters.
Similarly, it monitored 482 websites three times a day, a total of 20,250 times
throughout the said year. Then it compiled these monitored items into 261
11
 dispatches and sent them to what it referred to as “clients.” Some say these
“clients” include the government’s spy agencies” (Meseret, 2013: 315).

The restrictive media situation forced the private media to take a detour in which
perspectives about local news from international media are commonly embedded, and
internet usage patterns are a result of the limited sources of information available to the
private media (Skjerdal, 2008: 92). The internet has been particularly useful in accessing
relevant facts and statistical information from established transnational agencies, such
as, the UN, IMF, World Bank, etc. and international news outlets (Zewge, 2010).
Despite the global trend of using transnational news agencies as sources of foreign news
(Rantanen and Boyd-Barrett, 2004), in Ethiopia, even local news are commonly cited
from these media giants.

Recent developments in the country demonstrate that the longstanding hostility toward
the private media is not going away. Though the country took a big step toward a
peaceful power transition in 2018 with a reformist agenda from within the former ruling
party the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), things remained
the same, if not becoming worse. After a brief relative freedom in the political space
since 2018, the government seems to have already gone back to its old ways. Upon
taking office in April, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made sweeping changes in terms of
easing the tight grip of the government on the media sector. However soon enough, the
much-celebrated political reform took a different turn, increasing the repressive
measures against media freedom, this time even more severely. In 2019, the Prime
Minister received the Nobel Peace Prize for resolving the ‘no war no peace’ state of
affairs that had lasted for almost two decades with neighbouring Eritrea. Yet currently,
he is making headlines for the opposite reasons; waging war against the country’s
Northern region of Tigray, the government of which refused to remain in the newly
formed coalition comprising the different regional states in the country. In more ways
than one, Tigray has become a ‘defying’ state. While regional elections had been
postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Tigray has stood firm on its claim of
maintaining constitutional order in the country by conducting regional elections as per
the schedule.

12
In subsequent happenings following the commencement of the war with Tigray, a new
round of hostilities against the media unfolded in which 13 journalists have reportedly7
been arrested and one killed. The new round of hostilities and intimidation against
journalists are to prevent stories of war crimes and atrocities from being publicized. It is
reported8 that the government blocked all forms of communication to the Tigray region
since the start of the war which made the job of reporters essentially impossible.
Despite the change in government, the restrictions on private media to access
information has remained constant especially during the war. In fact currently, the
restrictions have also been expanded to topic selection whereby any coverage about the
current conflict would be against the rules of the state of emergency9.

A hostile media environment has always characterized the media landscape in Ethiopia,
and most importantly in relation to the current study, private media have always had
from sporadic to no access to official information sources. The point of departure for
this study therefore is that the use of hyperlinks by private media in Ethiopia has a socio-
political context just as much as a technological one. By focusing on hyperlinks, this
study offers a means to examine emerging alternatives which compensate for the
restrictive measures by official sources. The study is then an examination of how the
online media in Ethiopia uses hyperlinks as tools for coping with information
deprivation, not only in providing access to online sources to enable journalists to
sustain their role in the precarious media environment, but also in terms of supporting
their pursuit of legitimacy in this environment.

1.5. The approach of the study

This study explores the meaning-making potential of hyperlinks in news discourse in a

context where access to information is limited and at times, non-existent. It brings a
different perspective to the nexus of journalism and technology as it identifies the
relationship not as a natural trajectory of technological adoption, but as an important
phenomenon to understand the many relationships of the media including state-media

7
Reuters, 2021. “Journalist shot dead in Ethiopia’s Tigray – aid worker, residents” 22 January, accessed,
10 June 2021 https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-ethiopia-conflict-journalist-idUSKBN29Q21I
8
Anna, C. 2021 “Ethiopia seeks to restrict media reporting on yearlong war”, ABC News, 27 November,
accessed, 1 December 2021
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ethiopia-seeks-restrict-media-reporting-yearlong-war-
81405106
9
Salem, S. 2021, “Ethiopia Government Clamps Down on War Coverage”, VOA, 01 December, viewed
07 December 2021, https://www.voanews.com/a/ethiopia-government-clamps-down-on-war-
coverage/6335716.html
13
dynamics. Most importantly, hyperlinking is taken as a response to the growing
adversity the private media in Ethiopia is faced with; a survival mechanism in their
struggle to maintain their journalistic authority as legitimate sources of knowledge. The
study therefore takes Latour’s (1990) aphorism that “technology is society made
durable” and attempts to explain the use of hyperlinks in context.

The study takes the hyperlink as a technological capability, not one which determines
meaning in and of itself but as a technological, meaning-making resource produced by
humans, the selection of which is “non-arbitrary and motivated” (Jewitt, 2009: 30). It is
of the understanding that technology neither makes nor breaks journalism; though it has
the potential to enhance the practice, as already established, the use of it is constrained
by the socio-political contexts surrounding it. The notion of the motivated sign brings
the contextual factor that underpins the study which is that the use of hyperlinks is
influenced by the media context.

As important and pervasive as hyperlinks are in online news more broadly, they are not
in fact very common in Ethiopian news discourse. Yet, what makes them important in
the face of the low internet connectivity in the country is their strong presence in a few
online news outlets. This indicates their role in fulfilling informational needs and
providing an evidentiary strategy. For this study, two news sites which do make use of
hyperlinks have been selected as the focus for examination: Addis Standard and
Ethiopia Observer (hereinafter AS and EO). The nature of these sites and the criteria for
selection are explained fully in Chapter 3.

The not so common use of hyperlinks, therefore, necessitates a qualitative approach to

the study. The small number of news sites and the limited data size all support the
qualitative approach to incline toward an in-depth assessment of hyperlink usage.
Through a multi-level semiotic analysis, the study attempts to explore the use of
hyperlinks in news discourse. The choice of methodology is anchored in the strong
meaning-making potential provided by hyperlinks not only as they combine different
semiotic resources, but also as they function as linking devices to connect different
discursive platforms. Some simple quantitative comparisons are included, as a means of
establishing similarities and differences between the two sites. While quantitative study
of hyperlinks is common, the purpose of this study is to examine, as Costa e Silva

14
(2006) puts it, the discursive implications of linking strategies in online journalism, and
hence a qualitative approach is warranted.

The study is also loosely based on a social semiotic understanding of meaning e.g. (Van
Leeuwen, 2005), where meaning is understood to be closely related to social context,
and where social semiotics is “a form of enquiry” (p. xiii). The choice of social
semiotics as a method of analysis is based on the fact that hyperlinks are part of online
news that are so pervasive and thus naturalized. Any attempt at understanding their
meaning needs a methodology that looks beyond what meets the eye, denaturalizing its
everyday meaning. As Costa e Silva (2016) argues, “a qualitative assessment of links is
necessary if a full understanding of hyperlinks implications is to be provided” (P. 82)
and a social semiotic approach supports this.

1.6. The data to be analysed

The data analysed in this study includes in-text hyperlinks used in online news
journalism as referencing tools. As explained in Chapter 3, the links are collected from
two online news sites, Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer, across two time periods.
The first data period spans three months from January to March of 2019. The second
data period is twice as long, spanning the first six months of the Tigray war, from
November 2020 to April 2021. The second data set, twice as large as the first data set, is
added to test the analytical framework developed in Chapter 3 and to explore more
semiotic features against the backdrop of the war as a contextual factor.

The liquidity of online data makes it difficult to study online texts. Accordingly, in the
context of this study, the in-text hyperlinks that appear as part of the news are frozen in
time and space during the data collection stage. However, as these links connect
spatially-separated entities, such as external websites, there is no control over the latter.
As a matter of fact, linked texts could disappear without a trace.

Through coding and counting, the first analysis identifies navigational paths as internal
if links navigate to other pages within the news site, and external if they navigate
outside of one’s website. Embedded hyperlinks which belong to the news site itself are
also counted as external links because they navigate to another discursive platform,
social media. However, in the detailed analysis their authorship is also considered.

15
Looking into linked entities in terms of the extent to which access is given to the reader,
links are analysed as deep if the links navigate to specific pages giving direct access to
source materials. On the other hand, generic links are links that do not get past the
homepage of a destination site, preventing readers from accessing source materials. By
analysing the destination of external links, the sites they link to and the authorship
behind the links, the study provides a strategy to examine the news ecology.

1.7. Thesis overview

The thesis is organized in such a way that it moves from the technical aspect of links to
their epistemological features by situating them in narratives of journalistic authority.
Chapter 2 explains hyperlinks as assets of the networked communicative infrastructure,
explaining their purpose, manifestation, potential and actual use by citing some previous
studies. The chapter then situates hyperlinks in the discourse of journalistic authority.
Hyperlinks as used in this study are identified and demonstrated using illustrations in
Chapter 3, which explains the selection of data and the methods of analysis, culminating
in a typology of hyperlinks.

The data analysis is divided into two chapters, Chapters 4 and 5, according to the two
data periods. Chapter 4 identifies the meaning-making potential of hyperlinks and
customization of hyperlinks by the two news sites in the first data period. Chapter 5
examines the second data period and extends the analysis of hyperlinks by revealing
more semiotic features and specific uses, as well as giving insights into the specific
newsroom context. The two chapters also reveal how the positions of the news sites and
political leanings come into play to help determine linking patterns and the shaping of
news content. Finally, Chapter 6 summarizes the whole thesis, draws conclusions from
the analysis of the two previous chapters, and identifies the limitations of the study and
recommendations for future research efforts targeting hyperlinks.

1.8. Conclusion

This study is an attempt to situate the relationship between journalism and technology
within wider social and political perspectives. The assumption is that beyond
explaining hyperlinks as technological tools deployed in news discourse, explaining this
relationship in a social context will contribute to the denaturalization of the meaning-
making potential of hyperlinks. By explaining the essence of hyperlinks and their

16
generally accepted and conventional conceptualizations as well as common research
approaches, the study sets the background for understanding hyperlinks as technological
assets used in journalistic practices. However, beyond the technical aspect of the
relationship of journalism and technology, the study sheds some light on this
relationship as the basis for journalistic authority in a specific sociocultural context.
Though the qualitative analysis is based on a small sample of news texts from two
online news outlets, it nevertheless sets an important precedent for the study of
hyperlinks as semiotic resources in contemporary journalistic practice, and provides
specific insights into developments in journalism in Ethiopia today.

17
Chapter 2. Situating hyperlinks in journalistic discourse

2.1. Introduction
Technological transformation as a phenomenon has been widely acknowledged across
different sectors of society and even more visibly in journalism. These transformations
affected all dimensions of journalism internally and externally; “the age of linear,
analogue, top-down, elite-mass journalism has ended, as measured in declining
newspaper circulations, journalistic redundancies and closures of titles, and fragmenting
broadcast news audiences, with predictable consequences on employment and industrial
structure” (McNair, 2013: 76). However, despite the fear that digital technology would
contribute to the demise of journalism, its influence has grown exponentially with new
potentialities for storytelling, new players as well as new methods of structuring the
world contributing to the wider reach (Carlson, 2017).

With new technologies come new ways of structuring knowledge. Contemporary

communication infrastructure has morphed into a network adding new forms of
knowledge production to the already available ones pushing forward new enquiries
about the status of journalism (Beckett and Mansell, 2008). News production in this
new platform happens through constant flow of information potentially creating
collaboration and sharing of information among a wide range of perspectives and
platforms. Hermida (2010) refers to this emergent journalism as ambient journalism, an
inclusive form of news production in which diversity of production platforms converge
“enabling citizens to maintain a mental model of news and events around them” (p.
298).

Amid the optimistic sentiments about new potentialities added to journalism however,
concerns over journalistic boundaries also abound. Structurally, journalistic boundaries
that have for years guarded journalism as a distinct profession with its own norms and
principles guiding its practices, have been dismantled (Kovach, 2005; Carlson and
Berkowitz, 2014). According to McNair (2013), these boundaries are multidimensional.
They range from spatial-temporal dissolution allowing the production of instant news,
to technological dissolution lowering the barriers to entry into public discourse, and to
professional dissolution mixing content categories in the media. With the barriers to
entry into public discourse lowered, boundaries that clearly separated producers and

18
consumers of journalism have blurred filling the world with a multitude of
undifferentiated information. At the same time, this has enabled the rise rise of the
content-generating user, the produser (Bruns, 2003). As a result, the concept of what it
means to be a professional journalist, what they do and the product they use have been
redefined in the context of the changing media environment (Hayes et al., 2007).

Despite these dramatic changes, journalism continues to exist and the thing that sustains
it, journalistic authority, potentially gets lost or becomes invisible. In line with this,
recently there has been a move toward understanding the nexus between technology and
journalism in line with what Carlson (2017) refers to as ‘stasis’ which represents the
view that technology is not an accidental element added in the course of journalistic
transformation but a phenomenon deliberately adopted to sustain journalism in a rapidly
changing environment. Captured in this is the idea that narratives about journalistic
transformation should not be accompanied only by those of technological
transformations but also address questions of the sustainability of journalistic
legitimacy. As such, studying journalistic authority becomes also a study of how
technology, with its new potentialities, is a part of the struggle for legitimacy.

This chapter situates the study of hyperlinks in the perspective of the material turn to
journalism (Anderson and De Maeyer, 2015) underpinned by Actor-Network-Theory in
taking hyperlinks as an embodiment of journalistic sourcing or contextualization to
maintain authority. Actor-Network-Theory represents the conception of the existence of
the social world in a network of relationship and that every entity in the network has
equal standing in terms of creating a social situation (Latour, 2005). As such, it does
not consider the role of technology as subordinate to journalists but both as having the
same agency or importance in the social interaction. However, in so doing, this study
follows the approach of Anderson and De Maeyer (2015) in emphasizing the social
aspect of technology instead of emphasizing the role of innovation, i.e., the approach
emphasizes how technology is influencing, allowing continuities or restructuring
journalistic practices. Given the networked infrastructure, Corrêa and Da Silveira (2017)
emphasize the role of digital devices in the current media landscape and ask “How
would we be able to explain the current media scenario if not giving due attention to the
agency of digital mobile devices?” (Corrêa and Da Silveira, 2017: 168). Similarly,
given the networked infrastructure this study also asks, “How would we be able to

19
explain the current [online] media scenario if not giving due attention to the agency of
digital [linking] devices?”

Therefore, this chapter first discusses technically the nature of hyperlinks in general and
sets the scene highlighting the importance of contextually analysing the relationship
between journalism and technology. It then underlines general features of traditional
journalism in terms of its key principles and attributes as well as sourcing. The
discussion then moves in the direction of the networked environment exploring its
impact on journalism, specifically exploring the shift in some fundamental normative
features. The chapter concludes by bringing the discussion to the Ethiopian media
context with specific reference to why the private media have been selected to study
hyperlinking in connection with journalistic authority.

2.2. Setting the Scene

While this thesis does not aim to provide a history of journalism (but see Wahl-
Jorgensen and Hanitzsh, 2009; McQuail, 2013 for good overviews), nevertheless some
foundational concepts need to be introduced in order to situate the subsequent
discussion. Journalism is seen to have specific democratic roles for a functioning of
society in creating an informed public. However, as ubiquitous as the topic of
journalism as the fourth estate is this discussion is a reductioninist way of looking at the
roles of journalism (Hanitzsch and Vos, 2018). Below, the ideal of the fourth estate is
briefly discussed before going to the next section to deal with the key principles
underpinning journalism, professional attributes, including gatekeeping and sourcing.
These are briefly introduced here in relation to ‘traditional’ or ‘legacy’ understandings
of journalism, particularly in a print context.

The ideal of journalism as the fourth estate is a collective ideology, a professional fabric
that binds journalists together in a shared understanding of independence. However, as
Carlson (2017) points out, drawing a link between professionalism and authority on the
basis of the fourth-estate claim is problematic. On the one hand, it disregards the
different genres contained under the umbrella term journalism; not every news report is
about matters of public concern and that journalism also includes less serious issues
such as entertainment and sports. In this regard, “care should be taken not to reinforce
rationalist models of news consumption” (p. 42). On the other hand, it also blindly
assumes that there is a correspondence between ideals of rhetoric and actual practice.

20
For instance, in undemocratic nations, doing journalism is a constant renegotiation
between theory and practice.
“All journalists learn the fundamental values to represent truthfully what the
public should know about public affairs that affect the wellbeing of the
public and enable the public to form an opinion about those affairs. Though
fear, bad pay, harsh editors, and the daily living a lie and silence about the
corruption in public life may dull the commitment to these values, they
always remain present in the minds of journalists” (White, 2017: 17),
emphasis in original.

The link between democratic normative commitments and the real world in which the
knowledge is deployed may not match for the ideals to be realized. In the African media
debate, the notion of normative commitment in fact comes down to the question of
identity underpinned by two conflicting positions and a third unifying one. On the one
hand, advocates of cultural commitment posit that ethical dilemmas in journalism
should be addressed with ingrown solutions honed by African culture. They suggest that
the answer to journalistic crisis is not an adoption of world journalistic standards, as
these can be fraught with different interests. Rather, they advocate for a commitment to
serving society with a unique ‘African’ touch in full awareness of its challenges and
realities (Kasoma, 1996). As Kasoma puts it, “The world needs journalism with a
human face” (p. 114). As the former deputy chairperson of the board of the South
African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Christine Qunta put is, journalism needs to
bring out African realities instead of resorting to reproducing colonial mindsets (cited in
Skjerdal (2012).

The other side of the argument denounces the idea of an Africa-specific practice and
points out the importance of adhering to universal ethical standards predicated on the
press as the fourth estate (Skjerdal, 2012). This brings to the fore the issue of
independence, because loyalty to cultural values strips it of its commitment to
professionalism.

In the middle ground is the argument of scholars such as Nyamnjoh (1999) who posit
that studies of African media in their application of universal professional standards
should also be mindful of the specific contexts. As he puts it, they should be located “in
African realities and not in Western fantasies” (p. 15). Generally, in addition to the
necessity to contextually analyse the place of journalism in different societies, when it
comes to studying journalistic authority, it helps to avoid parochialism and the isolation
21
of news making from its everyday reality (Carlson, 2017). This study therefore follows
Nyamnjoh’s position, recognising some common principles for journalistic practices
around the world, but also taking account of the specific sociocultural context of
Ethiopia.

2.3. Hypertext, hypermedia and hyperlinks

The form and nature of writing has always been intertwined with the technology that
materializes it, whether that be a quill and ink on parchment or the mechanized writing
enabled by the invention of the printing press in the 15th Century. Since then, different
technologies have continued to be introduced, such as the typewriter and word-
processer, but the latest hypertextual features of the World Wide Web are distinguished
from earlier forms of text production by the inclusion of hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are the
critical element which enable the connectivity of the World Wide Web. In this section,
the concept of hyperlinks and related terms, hypertext and hypermedia are explained,
and their relationship to one another is identified. The section then identifies different
hyperlinks and discusses the kinds which are commonly used in news production, as
they will be used as subject of this study. This review of literature related to hyperlinks
will be used to build up the understanding of hyperlinks as used in this study, and to
map the range and type of hyperlinks under focus.

Hypertext, hypermedia and hyperlinks are somewhat overlapping terms, which

nevertheless need to be distinguished. Hypertexts are the facilities of the World Wide
Web that structure “computer-based non-linear group of texts (i.e. written text, images
etc.)”, (Steensen, 2011: 313). Webpages, then, are hypertexts, consisting of
interconnected blocks of texts, images, videos, graphics, etc. What makes hypertexts
different from pages in a book or a newspaper is not only the inclusion of audio-visual
materials but the unique way in which the different elements are interconnected,
creating a network.

The very inclusion of multimedia materials is in fact what is meant by the term
hypermedia. “Mosaic10 transformed the Web from hypertext to hypermedia, in which
multiple modes of representation constitute the units for hypertextual linking” (Bolter,
2001: 40). However, a number of scholars, such as Landow (1991), use hypermedia

10
Mosaic was an early form of web browser.
22
interchangeably with hypertext because in this medium, anything can be linked;
“hypertext [ ] links a passage of verbal discourse to images, maps, diagrams, and sound
as easily as to another verbal passage” (p. 4). Therefore, Hypermedia is described as the
extension of multimodality in the hypertextual medium and emblematic of the evolution
of this communicative platform.

“From their beginnings as static HTML documents comprised mainly of

text, links, and graphics, web pages have added sound, animations, and
video; they have incorporated user interface, user content, and user-user
interactivity features (including, in the latter category, email, discussion
forums, char, and Voice-over-IP); and they have generally converged with
other online and offline media to produce hybrid genres such as online news
sites, blogs, wikis, photo- and video- sharing sites, and social network sites”
(Herring, 2009: 233)

The interchangeable usage of hypertext and hypermedia is also anchored in the fact that
the ‘text’ in hypertext can represent any of the modes of communication, the static text,
the images, the videos, the graphics, etc.; they basically represent the same thing.
However, whether the term hypertext or hypermedia is used, both of these can be
distinguished from hyperlinks, as they function in different ways. Doherty (2014)
describes hyperlinks as the manifestation of hypertext. It is through the manifested
presentation of hyperlinks that hypertexts become recognizable as the underlying
structure of the web, that is, of the content included or embedded in websites. Similarly,
making a distinction between the two as manifest and covert elements, De Maeyer
(2012) describes hyperlinks as “a concrete embodiment of the vague notion of
hypertextuality” (p. 692).

Visually, hyperlinks are displayed in distinct ways on the computer screen; they are
‘hot’ areas and demand user action. Various “salience-enhancing graphic features” and
mechanisms are used by online content producers to achieve this (Adami, 2015: 138).
As in Figure 2.1, some of these mechanisms include positioning hyperlinks in specific
places easily recognized by users, displaying them in boxes, listing them separately
from other texts, using colour differentiation, underlining, etc. As such, Carr (2010)
metaphorically describes the effect of their strong presence: “The link is, in a way, a
technologically advanced form of a footnote. It’s also, distraction-wise, a more violent
form of a footnote. Where a footnote gives your brain a gentle nudge, the link gives it a
yank” (Carr, 2010: Para. 4). Due to its strong presence on the computer screen, Carr

23
(2010) describes users’ compulsive need to click on hyperlinks, and De Maeyer (2011)

Figure 1.1. Different types of hyperlinks (Nielsen Norman Group homepage)

says that clicking is an action that comes naturally to a user confronted with the
hyperlink. As varied in form as links are, only a limited number of actions can activate
them, such as a click, type and click, or hovering with a cursor to display options to
choose from (Adami, 2015).

The visual elements of hyperlinks are called ‘nodes’, and these condense a whole
window or frame of information (Nielsen and Nielsen, 1995). When displayed on the
computer screen, nodes can be represented by any mode, such as images, texts, video,
or audio, directing attention to the conceptualization of the technology of the web as
hypermedia. Thus hyperlinks are any clickable entity that activates “a changed textual
situation” (Adami, 2015: 140), as illustrated in Figure 2.1.

24
Figure 1.2. “Simplified view of a small hypertext structure having six nodes and nine links” (From
(Nielsen and Nielsen, 1995: 1))
.

Figure 2.2 provides a simple demonstration of the non- linear (non-sequential)

underlying structure of the hypertext. A hypertext comprises a ‘node’ or a “unit of
information” (A, B, C, D, E, F) that contains hyperlinks that navigate from one point to
another on a webpage, either on another page in the same site or externally to another
website. A click on a specific point (anchor) in a node activates a link revealing their
interactive nature and the underlying structure of hypertext. Accordingly, as
demonstrated in Figure 2.2 a reader on node A can access more documents, in three
navigational routes to node B, D, E and further to additional interconnected documents.

Additionally, Adami (2015) refers to hyperlinks as interactive sites/signs, a term which

encompasses the interactive component of hypertext, one of the features that sets it apart
from plain text. She notes that the hypertext involves the functioning of a trilogy made
of the hypertext (node), user actions (that activates the link) and meaningful effects
(resulting pages). Here, the user action, the invisible component in ‘the link-and-node’
concept, exists as an intermediary between the textual/visual forms and the resulting
entity. Adami (2015) highlights that hyperlinks function both “as signs of interactivity
and as sites of action producing certain effects” (p. 138).

It is important to note that the visual presence of hyperlinks does not fully encapsulate
how they are structured at a deeper level. Nielsen and Nielsen (1995) explain hypertext
systems as comprising three levels; the bottom level is the database level where data
25
storage and security issues are handled. It is where data is assembled in bytes and codes,
which puts the locus of control on the machine (Baldry and Thibault, 2006). The middle
level comprises the Hypertext Abstract Machine (HAM) level, the invisible hypertext
structure where the node-link interaction takes place. The upper level, the
presentational level, is the user interface where the interactive hyperlink is distinctly
placed on the computer screen demanding user action. This study focuses on the
presentational level, the meaningful content that confronts and demands some kind of
action from users of hypertext.

Beyond their informatic features, the hyperlink enables navigation through a network of
documents transporting the user from one point in a website to another (Jackson, 1997).
As such, hyperlinks “constitute a path through a virtual space and the reader becomes a
visitor or traveller in that space” (Bolter, 2001: 29). As Bolter (2001) puts it, “[w]eb
pages function as ordinary text, but they also function as places along a path” (p. 28).
Hypertext is then a communicative form made up of spatially separated documents
(hypertexts/hypermedia) that can be traced through electronic links called hyperlinks.
As such, this study is interested in the fundamental role of hyperlinks in constructing a
path in the hypertextual space of journalism.

2.3.1. The fundamental role of hyperlinks

There are many kinds of hyperlinks, and they differ in their nature and the functions
they perform. However, all hyperlinks can be said to have one underlying purpose, and
that is facilitating navigation through the hypertextual space. This navigation through
hypertext defies not only the spatial constraints of traditional texts but also the order set
by the author for creating association among separate documents (Doherty, 2014;
Jackson, 1997; Landow, 1991). In contrast to the hierarchical and linear organization of
static texts, in terms of text organization, hyperlinks enable the non-hierarchical and
non-linear structural arrangement (Bolter, 2001). As such, both Landow and Bolter
highlight hypertext’s democratizing potential as it allows readers to construct their own
reading paths outside of the confines of those set by the author. Additionally, static texts
lead to monologic readings, as the author sets the structural order of the text. Hypertext
transcends this, by facilitating a dialogic reading which engages the reader in selecting
their own reading paths, as not every hyperlink which is present has to be activated, and
as each hyperlink may lead on to other possibilities (Rost, 2002). According to Jackson
26
(1997) links make possible the integration of spatially separated pieces of information
that exist in multiple platforms and systems like never before. Anything can be linked;
not only in terms of modality but in terms of scale. A hyperlink can create a connection
between any kind of web entity; social actors (Park et al., 2004), organizations
(Nisenholtz, 2008; Park et al., 2002) locally or across national borders. These variables
are addressed in the next section.

2.3.2. Types and purposes of hyperlinks in journalism

While all hyperlinks have a shared underlying role in creating connectivity, they also
vary widely in the nature of connections that they can make. In examining the use of
hyperlinks in the context of journalism, Ryfe et al. (2016) provide a relatively
comprehensive taxonomy of hyperlinks according to their purpose. This is driven by
their conceptualization of the hyperlink as an embodiment of the purposes set by their
authors and that users click on links in recognition of the author’s intention. “The
meaning of links lies in the range of recognizable actions that can be accomplished
through the practice” (p. 42). To explore the meaning of hyperlinks based on what they
do, Ryfe et al. (2016) followed the ‘5Ws’ method of ‘who, what, where, when, and
why’ that underlies basic journalistic writing. They use this framework to ask who
creates links (producer), what they link to (linked content), where they navigate to
(destination), when they appear (permanence), why they are created (purpose). These
parameters address different dimension of the hyperlink, as demonstrated in Table 2.1,
and as discussed further below. Ryfe et al’s study provides an initial way into
understanding the potential diversity of hyperlinks, particularly in the context of
journalism.

27
Table 211. A 5-Ws taxonomy of news links (Ryfe et al., 2016: 45)

Question Answers
Who Algorithm
Staff (other than reporter)
Reporter
User
What News section
News story
Web page (general)
Data
Video
Photo
Government document
Academic study
Report (other)
Blog post
Social media content
User comment

Where Onsite
Template
Story
Post
Social media tool
Aggregation tool
Offsite
Template
Story
Post
Social media tool
Aggregation tool
When Permanent
Weekly
Daily
Less than daily
To what end Navigation
Commercial
Social
Citation

Ryfe et al (2016) explain each of these categories as follows.

28
Who: Links are produced automatically by algorithms and by human agents. Algorithms
are programmed to link to the database of a website and are usually permanent links.
Human agents in a news site include staff, reporters or readers. Automatic links are
usually part of the design template of a website used to help users’ navigation; as such,
they are permanent fixtures whose functions are readily recognized by users.

What: When it comes to the linked entity, the ‘what’ is represented by a wide range of
content, including multimedia, news, webpages, websites, and online platforms,
including social media and document repositories.

Where: The question of ‘where’ refers to where the link is placed (or found), whether
that be on a template page, in a story, in a social media post and so on.

When: Depending on the lifetime of appearance on a website, links are categorized

under the ‘when’ as those that change on a less than daily basis to those permanently
exist in news sites.

Why (to what end): In addition to navigation, hyperlinks perform only a limited number
of functions, such as, commercial, social and citation. Under the commercial function
are links that “generate revenue for the organization” (p. 46). Social links allow users to
share contents to different platforms. Citation links, as will be discussed in greater detail
in Chapter 4, serve as reference tools enhancing the credibility of contents, and these
will be the particular focus of this thesis, as elaborated in Chapters 3 and 4. Together,
the ‘why’ has been established as a subset of the ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘where’ categories
that are compulsory for every link, i.e., “[w]hatever else a linking practice does, it
involves a “who” linking to a “what” some “where” on a Web page” (p. 46).

In contrast to the study by Ryfe et al. (2016) that deals with a general category of
purposes, this study only examines journalistic hyperlinks whose specific purpose is
citational. Ryfe et al’s study is important because it begins to reveal specific aspects of
hyperlinks – such as who creates the link, and where it is placed – as well as the
possible role that hyperlinks can play in the context of journalism. In this study, it is the
latter point which is the most important, because it is the use of hyperlinks for citational
purposes which contributes to new aspects of journalistic authority, a primary concern

29
of this thesis. Chapter 4 will build on and adapt Ryfe et al’s taxonomy in order to clarify
the variations that are possible for citational links.

Table 2.2. General Hyperlink taxonomy

Category Type of link

Destination Internal
In-page links
Table of contents
Back to Top
Anchored links
Page turning links
FAQ
Index
Read More
Archives
External
Extra content
Another website
Social media platforms

Link precision Deep (exact page)

Generic (Home page)
Linked content Website
Social media
Blogs
document

Authorship Government
Citizens
NGOs
International organizations

Placement In-page
In-text
Navigation bar
Sidebar

In journalism, as elsewhere, hyperlinks can be placed in any location on a web page;

they can have a different appearance, link different kinds of content, and vary in
purpose, agency and destination. What is of interest for this thesis is the general role of
non-linear connections enabled by hyperlinks, and the specific role of in-text citation
links, and their implications for the nature of contemporary journalism. Hyperlinking is
considered to be aiding the paradigmatic shift of journalism from the notion of a sole

30
provider of information to a distributed form of authority where journalists call on the
expertise of others as a basis for their legitimacy (De Maeyer and Holton, 2016).

Most studies of the journalistic hyperlink do not openly state what link type they refer to
but tacitly talk about a distinctive type of hyperlink placed within a news story
incorporating extra layers, be it a news story or other multimedia files. The in-text
hyperlink, which is the most prominent link type in journalistic writing, is discussed in
most studies as connecting the “raw materials” that make up news stories (Anderson,
2010a) as links leading to contextual background to understand a story (Eveland et al.,
2004). As such, they form the highest form of interactivity because they allow
“move[ment] to related knowledge any time during reading” (He et al., 2008: 122).

In their identification of link types, Ryfe et al. (2016) describe the priority often given to
citational links in journalistic hyperlink studies as “miss[ing] the forest for the trees” (p.
49). In contrast, studies of the journalistic hyperlink such as (Coddington, 2014b; De
Maeyer, 2012; De Maeyer and Holton, 2016), note the ability to show sources as the
major purpose of hyperlinks in relation to journalistic writing. They argue that these
help news organizations in adhering to fundamental principles of journalism.
Hyperlinks are deployed to enhance journalistic practice by ensuring the credibility of a
story and leading readers to original sources of news stories in a move toward
transparency (De Maeyer and Holton, 2016). Overall, this changes the news landscape
through social and organizational connectivity (Van der Haak et al., 2012).

2.3.3. Assets of Hyperlinks in journalism

The special privilege journalism enjoys for its claim to truthfulness and reliability
(Broersma, 2010) is related at least in part to the use of sources in news reports as
evidence of their objective reporting (De Maeyer, 2014). In this regard, though
hyperlinks represent a departure in terms of facilitating interactivity, they allegedly
provide continuity in terms of aiding the principles of objectivity to come alive through
facilitating verification and multiple sourcing (Tsui, 2008). According to Vos and
Thomas (2018), amid the anxiety over the perception that new practices might diminish
journalistic authority, hyperlinking has emerged as a means to recapture it. Coddington
(2014b) refers to this phenomenon of continuity as ‘normalization’ through which
“journalists impose their professional norms and values on their use of [ ] new

31
technologies, but also that those technologies are altering professional norms as they are
incorporated into journalists’ work” (p. 144).

For instance, as evidence for how objectivity is being enhanced in the digital sphere,
McNair (2013) maintains that objectivity in the digital age is not about neutrality, it is
rather about transparency. “It signals, rather, that an honest attempt has been made to
ensure that a given journalistic text can be trusted as a source of accurate information
about an event or issue making the news agenda” (p. 84). This helps journalism regain
the public’s trust establishing its image as pursuer of truth for the efforts it makes
(Bennett, 2013). Hyperlinks also help the public get a grasp of how the news came to be
and the extraneous factors that shape the content of news. More distinctly, links make
readers aware of the sources used in news, the affiliations of the media house and the
writer’s perspectives adding more layers to news content (De Maeyer and Holton,
2016).

Given these wide-ranging opportunities, “[t]he importance of the Internet as a news-

gathering instrument is no longer questioned” (Hermans et al., 2009: 140). However,
the fact that the global media sphere renders possible the inclusion of “many voices and
viewpoints that have become digitally accessible” into journalistic discourse (Heinrich,
2013: 96), is no guarantee that journalistic organizations take advantage of this richness.
Despite the availability of enabling technologies, journalism seems to still be
constrained by different factors that deter their full utilization. Due to the practical
working conditions in which journalists do their jobs, the media may fail to take
advantage of the potential of the web to the fullest.

Media researchers point out that journalists continue to rely on readymade sources, such
as press releases, in a media environment that allows access to a diversity of sources.
Due to the immediacy of the online platform, news gathering continues to be
underpinned by the “unquestioned trust of official sources and the cynical re-purposing
of content from other media” (Manninen, 2017: 212). The implication of this for the
efficiency of news work is that the verification and filtering of elite sources is less
thorough and less time consuming than non-elite ones (Van Leuven et al., 2018: 800).
This suggests that even if the technology of hyperlinking is at the disposal of any online
journalist, the working conditions may not promote a thriving diversity. Despite the

32
richness of data available on the internet, the reliance on convenient sources, such as
wire copy “brings about impoverishment of content” (Severo and Beauguitte, 2018:
172). This tendency for journalists to write a story from the comfort of their office chair
without going the extra length to search for firsthand information also has its roots in
the pursuit of efficiency. In the competitive environment of online news production
where the journalist has to be on the lookout for breaking news, ready material for news
is most welcome and could explain why official sources are favoured (Manninen,
2017).

The aforementioned scenario is a compromise to the quality of journalism, more

specifically to the selection of sources which affects the kinds of contents that come out
as a result. Carpenter (2008) explains source diversity as a measure of quality of a
journalistic product because it enhances “accuracy and the broadness of an issue” (p. 3).
The assumption is that the larger the number of media outlets, the more diversified the
information that reaches the public, making it easier to discern the truth (Shoemaker
and Vos, 2009). In actuality, what is observed is that the larger the number of news
outlets on the web, the less diverse the content of news becomes. According to Davies
(2008), such is the case especially for reporting of international news, which more often
comes as a secondary report duplicated across the board in what he dubs “churnalism”.

If media are to play their democratic role, Kovach and Rosenstiel (2014) explain that
they must possess the ability to provide citizens with meaningful truth; truth presented
with “a framework for interpretation” (Tremayne, 2004: 238). Today’s networked
mediascape can present what seems like an embodiment of a vibrant public sphere that
is participatory, inclusive, and easily accessed (Van der Haak et al., 2012).

In the digital environment in which journalists now work, new facts are
being unearthed daily; more audience feedback is being integrated; more
voices are being heard; more diverse perspectives on the same news stories
are being presented; more stories are available, archived and searchable for
longer periods of time; more men and women of power are being watched
more closely; and more people are engaged more actively with the changes
in the world—by taking photos or making videos of key moments, by
commenting on blogs, or by sharing the stories that matter to them (p.
2923).

The mere abundance of information in the online platform, however, is just an

opportunity to be made sense of and to be made meaningful, because otherwise
33
“[i]nformation overload can be as harmful to democracy as a lack of information”
(Bennett, 2013: 117). However, as discussed further below, the message of hypertext is
situated in the intricacies of its structure as in its content. Therefore, the way a
professional journalist structures news in a meaningful way determines the success of
independent browsing by the hypertext user or the news audience.

2.3.3.1. Non-Linearity
Of all the assets the networked communication infrastructure adds to journalism, the
non-linear narrative structure enabled by hyperlinks embodies the notion of the public
sphere. That is, what is different about the online medium is not the content itself but
the structural aspect of how content is constructed (He et al., 2008). Non-linearity, as a
characteristic of hypertext narrative, provides for the journalist, a unique way of writing
and organizing text for the journalist in a way that has not hitherto been possible in the
print media. As Bolter explains, generally, “where printed genres are linear or
hierarchical, hypertext is multiple and associative” (2001: 42). Yet there is much more
to hypertext’s non-linearity than just its defiance of traditional narrative structure. In the
non-linear associative narrative, hyperlinks enable “the seamless fusion of news content
coming from different production domains, namely digital TV and the Internet, in a
unified abstraction of data” (Messina et al., 2013: 428). As such, hypermedia enables
access to huge readily accessible archives of information through hyperlinks (Fredin
and David, 1998: 36) facilitating an improved storytelling (Pavlik, 2001).

Hyperlinks provide “a basic building block through which complex, multidimensional,

and easily changed documentation and communication system may be constructed”
(Halavais, 2008: 48). Accordingly, hypertext “expands the possibilities for news
delivery” through hyperlinks to more sources (Dimitrova et al., 2003: 402) making
online journalism “a new form of journalism that places stories in a much richer
historical, political, and cultural context” (Pavlik, 2001: 16). Through the insertion of
hyperlinks into online news, readers can easily have a deeper understanding of the topic
by accessing previous reports, can verify information through links to original source
materials, and have a direct form of contact with journalists (Dimitrova and Neznanski,
2006).

The recently compelling focus on hyperlinks seemingly suggests that the message of an
online news story may be found in the structure or the packaging of information. As
34
Massey (2004) explains, a news story on the internet is “part of a larger news narrative
made up of layers of related text and audio-visual content that are hyperlinked together”
(p. 96). News is no longer a monologic text but it is packaged in such a way that it
brings information about information (Deuze, 1999). In other words, through the
integration of separate entities, hypertext potentially gives the tools to make sense of the
information that could otherwise be found elsewhere on its own, showing how a piece
of information fits into the bigger picture. “The additional dimension that audiences get
from the Internet may be knowledge structure rather than factual knowledge” (He et al.,
2008: 122).

Placing this new form of journalism in discourses of actual practices might reveal
otherwise obscured aspects, such as the role of the producer or the journalist. Empirical
studies show that despite the facilities of the web for an enhanced form of journalism, it
is not fully taken advantage of (Dimitrova et al., 2003; Tremayne, 2005). Despite the
non-hierarchical structure of the web, “the contents of many sites are closed and autistic
in order to keep the readers caught” (Rost, 2002: 4). In journalistic practice, the
implication of the contemporary global mediascape is not merely structural; it brings
more profound influences on journalistic discourse, namely the question of diversity.
Therefore, the question of ideals and actual practices is not limited to the issue of
whether journalism takes advantage of the increased potential for external linking, but
extends to that of how journalism enriches its narratives using the multiple sources
available on the web. Even though the hypertextual features of the networked media
environment provides limitless opportunities for interconnections among different
production domains for an ideal journalistic production, empirical evidence reveals that
they remain confined within the bounds of fragmented discourses. As “the idea of
sourcing […] implies that there is someone or something outside of the media outlet”
(De Maeyer, 2014: 535) linking outside of one’s territory is considered beneficial to
journalistic discourse. And yet, findings reveal that external linking is minimal
(Dimitrova et al., 2003). Even in covering political issues which are essentially
controversial and hence “provide [ ] many opportunities to link to external sites”,
hyperlinks usually navigate internally (Tsui, 2008: 77).

As Steensen (2011) argues, the ability to include links within news coverage represents
one of the most powerful functions of digital journalism. However, there are key issues

35
related to external linking in journalism. When a news outlets links to an external
content, they take responsibility for the veracity of the information they give access to,
which means an extra process of verification. The risk of unreliable information and its
implication on credibility that comes with external links makes external linking
generally less common in journalism (Carpenter, 2010; Dimitrova et al., 2003).
According to Tsui (2008), the fear of relinquishing control over contents on the other
end of the hyperlinks or the target text as well as uncertainty over their perpetuity makes
journalists wary of the hyperlinking function of digital media. Furthermore, quality
control becomes even more difficult in the global information infrastructure where
different media systems exist, in which case journalists choose to avoid the risk of
linking to contents that may turn out to be unreliable (Himelboim, 2010).

The motive behind the tendency toward internal linking, however, may go further than
the concern over quality. In a seemingly logical explanation, Himelboim (2010) brings
forth the possibility of losing readers who might be (literally) carried away by external
links. This could result in a decrease in traffic on the originating website and hence loss
of advertising revenue. Building one’s own archives, in this regard, may be taken as a
business strategy adopted by newsrooms to keep readers within the bounds of one’s
own website, and this points to a decline in the use of external links and a rise in
internal links (Tremayne, 2005). Tremayne’s finding also nullifies the argument that the
lack of familiarity of journalists with web technologies prevents them from opting for
external linking. “Ironically, it seems that the more comfortable newspapers grow with
the Web, the more inclined they are not to link to external Web sites and, instead, to
link only to themselves” (Tsui, 2008: 82). Further, Larrondo Ureta (2011) notes that it
does not take more than a grasp of their narrative functions to utilize hyperlinking in
online journalistic writing; Adamic (2008) even compares hyperlinking to the simple act
of clicking. As a matter of fact, according to Jeff Jarvis’ “Golden Rule of Linking” as
cited in Stelter (2008) (“Link unto others’ good stuff as you would have them link unto
your good stuff”), external linking can actually boost site views on the condition that
readers are provided with good materials, this provides motivation to come back for
more. According to the “link economy”, external links can actually add economic value
to online news in addition to their benefits in enhancing readers’ news reading
experience (De Maeyer, 2012)

36
Nevertheless, Dimitrova et al. (2003) explain the general prevalence of internal linking
more as a gatekeeping strategy to determine what information readers have access to
and what they do not. It shows the author’s intention to maintain control over the
discourse and readership (Costa e Silva, 2016). Despite an increase in the utilization of
interactive online features, gatekeeping still remains an exclusive domain of journalistic
practice (Steensen, 2011). In this regard, hyperlinking seems to be granting the
journalist more power to continue their usual role as gatekeepers. As Sereno (2010)
explains, hyperlinking involves goal-oriented selection by the producer which
essentially makes it a mechanism of gatekeeping “that expresses power and authority in
order to promote a particular website or web page over the rest.” The implication of this
is that, in relation to the ‘control’ paradox, even with external links, authors retain
control in hypertext as they are the ones who still determine the kind of information to
link to. “This control is at the heart of the discussion around hypertext and narrative:
control over the narrative and control over how the audience interacts with that
narrative” (Doherty, 2014: 133). According to Jackson (1997), of all the three ways that
users can move through information in hypertext (typing the URL, scrolling and
hyperlinks) only the one enabled by hyperlinks is controlled by the producers. The user
can control their browsing experience through typing the URL of their desired pages
and they can also choose the amount and content of a screen through scrolling. In
contrast, users navigate through predetermined destinations when clicking on a
hyperlink (ibid.).

2.3.3.2. Diversity

The information sphere is characterized by an increase in information dissemination

channels, sources, and a shift in the flow of information from unidirectional to
multidirectional (Heinrich, 2013). Consequently, information is no longer proprietary to
the news media as they share the networked communicative space with alternative
sources of information such as blogs, social media, multimedia platforms (García-
Avilés, 2017). “Instead of having some kind of control over the flow of (meaningful,
selected, fact-checked) information in the public sphere, journalists today are just some
of many voices in public communication” (Deuze, 2008b: 12). As opposed to “the
authoritative approach towards information provision” journalism operates in a more
diverse sphere of information exchange made up of formal and informal information
outlets as well as alternative media (Heinrich, 2013: 90).
37
The shared space and content control thus presents “a dramatic conceptual and practical
shift for journalists” (Singer, 2009: 277). Given that “[j]ournalism’s claim to
truthfulness and reliability is crucial for its existence” (Broersma, 2010: 16), the
reconfiguration of the information sphere influences its social position as provider of
‘truth’. Heinrich (2013) explains the exclusive nature of the journalistic profession:

“Journalism used to be acted out within the borders of a fairly closed

operational system, controlled by a rather limited number of news-producer
elites on one side and a rather limited number of elite sources from
governmental institutions to PR personnel on the other” (p. 93).

This distinct professional territory, as Coddington (2014b) explains, has been a source
of stability for professional journalism and the boundary dissolution “is challenging for
a profession which has jealously guarded its status as a ‘new priesthood’ or ‘fourth
estate’ for at least a century” (McNair, 2013: 78).

Nevertheless, in the networked environment, it is not so much the loss of control over
the ‘truth’ that is at stake, as it is the opening of the media sphere for diverse
discourses. These are often criticised for being replete with inaccuracies (Carpenter,
2008). However, as McNair (2013) argues, dismissing these alternative outlets as being
of lesser quality is to mistakenly declare that journalism is faultless. In fact, journalists
are not immune from the disinformation that continues to plague non-journalistic
sources also (Manninen, 2017). For all practical purposes, however, the media can now
potentially thrive from diverse information outlets in a platform that affords
connectivity, not only in terms of changing the workings of the media but also in
shaping the contents of news. The shift toward a multidirectional news flow that places
alternative outlets on as equal a standing as elite ones could bring depth into
journalistic writing with “further contextualization and background information that
reflects the viewpoints of a heterogeneous public” (Heinrich, 2013: 96). After all, the
blurring of journalistic boundaries brings “[s]ocial media [as] spaces for mediated
witnessing, citizen fact checking, and of course, commentary” (Carlson, 2016a: 915).
Diverse voices, those from established institutions as well as ordinary citizens in the
private sphere, citizen journalists, and the blogosphere converge in the public space
online (Tsui, 2008; Carlson, 2016a). In this regard, the embedding of social media in
the mass media setting as tools for news gathering, promotion and dissemination
creates new spaces in which journalists and audiences can interact (Carlson, 2016a).
38
How then does the hyperlink fit into the discussion of dissolution of journalistic
territories? This is a fundamental question that plays into the broader question of how
journalism could take advantage of the contemporary mediascape to enhance its
practices. More specifically, with no limit on space, hypertext through hyperlinking
helps journalists incorporate contextual background to deliver meaningful information,
and this can promote democracy (Tremayne, 2005). Bennett (2013) notes that the
absence of context renders information useless, and thus the hyperlink has come to the
rescue of journalists because it spares them of the burden of rewriting background
information, as well as incorporaing as many alternative voices available online as
possible (Tremayne, 2005).

In this regard, De Maeyer and Holton (2016) point out that the hyperlink has emerged
as an asset of the Web that can potentially aid the paradigmatic transformation of
journalism where the authority deriving from ownership of information now shifts to
that from affiliations to diverse discursive forms. This shift does not mean that
journalism abandons its fundamental principles; it just means that now better
opportunities are provided for doing journalism than ever before. In fact, journalistic
principles are normatively as important in the digital age as in traditional media, if not
more so (McNair, 2013).

At the same time, these narratives of continuities can be contrasted with a narrative of
fragmentation, where the technology of hyperlinking is said reproduce power
structures that exist offline. Himelboim (2010) explains that hyperlinks can be used to
reinforce traditional hierarchies between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, with more links
to popular newssites and radical organizations. Those with limited resources are less
preferred and less visible in the global network. Thus a comprehensive hyperlink
analysis can actually “provide what appears to be useful information about structural
relationships” (Halavais, 2008: 45) in the information space, and this study aims to
examine both the positive potential of hyperlinks in enabling increased
contextualisation, and their negative potential of creating more fragmented relations
between diverse sources.

39
 2.3.3.3. Interactivity

One can roughly explain links as rich reference tools that take users of hypertext to a
different destination in the web of interconnected documents with a click of a mouse.
Within this simplistic explanation, however, an important component, i.e, the user,
performs the most important action (mouse clicking, hovering, writing and clicking) in
the communication trilogy involving the hypertext producer, the hypertext and the user,
(Adami, 2015). As such, hyperlinking fundamentally alters the relationship between
readers and online content as without user engagement and choices, the content of
online news does not go beyond what is presented spatially on the computer screen
(Jackson, 1997). The ready accessibility of information online is only possible with user
manipulation of the active links put in place to connect different entities online (Fredin
and David, 1998). Hyperlinking brings in interactivity into online journalism in
different ways ranging from browsing for information using active links to opinion
sharing and chatting (Dimitrova et al., 2003).

Interactivity as a concept is contested in terms of how to apply it in the context of

human-to-computer interaction. Schultz (1999) dismisses the idea of interactivity in the
absence of a human agent at the other end of the link on the grounds that a shared
understanding and responsiveness are prerequisites at both ends. If by this assertion we
take human-to-human communication as interactivity, say a reader emailing an editor, a
failure by the editor to respond would disqualify this as a context of interactivity
(Massey and Levy, 1999). In particular, applying this term to online journalism is
problematic. Instead, Massey and Levy (1999) take the application of this term as one
kind of interactivity in online news making, an interpersonal interactivity to indicate a
“mediated conversation” between journalists and readers. Interactivity therefore is the
affordance of online media for user manipulation of content (Jensen, 1998). Categories
of interactivity addressed by McMillan (2005) include Human-to-Human (exchange of
content via the computer with humans at both ends), Human-to-Computer (navigational
features, such as search engines or website surfing, of websites manipulated by a human
on one end) and Human-to-Content (manipulation of web content in order to create
personalized pages or experience web content in personalized ways). This study
examines content interactivity, where readers browse news at their own pace using
interactive elements, such as hyperlinks.

40
In all these different conceptions of interactivity, a sense of user empowerment is
embedded. With its interactive features, the journalistic hyperlink gives readers a sense
of freedom and independence to navigate through the network of information. This
enables user engagement by making them own the process of their information seeking
(De Maeyer, 2012). Costa e Silva (2016) posits that this information seeking is a
personalized one that abandons the narrative pattern designed by the author. In such a
way, hyperlinking represents a major departure from passive mass media consumption
(Picard, 2008) the production, presentation and distribution of which is fully controlled
by the journalist (Karlsson, 2012: 399). Accordingly, “[h]yperlinking lets people
control their own destiny- lets them drive their way through a media experience. It lets
them choose their own path, focus on what interests them, and ultimately consume
media at their own pace—on their own terms” (Picard, 2008: 159). Similarly, Weber
and Monge (2011) explain:

“Instead of a traditional push-model, users are free to navigate between sites

to seek the information they desire and select their own versions of the daily
news. Ultimately, the shift toward the Internet as a primary source of global
news will empower individual users and create a fluid information
landscape” (p. 1062).

According to Massey (2004) taking advantage of the facilities of the web, such as
providing multimedia, connectivity and context within a single story is beneficial to
readers and media producers alike; it empowers readers by enabling them to choose
their reading paths and increases web traffic by making them frequent visitors of the
site. This defies the traditional power dynamics that exist between readers and
journalists. The significant implication of the challenge of the Internet on traditional
media is that;

“While traditional news media have delivered information through a top-

down, centralized model with journalists functioning as gatekeepers of
information, online news media present greater opportunities for control and
ownership as users assume more active roles in their news consumption
experiences” (Chung, 2008: 659).

This decentring of power through personalization, according to Landow (2006) makes

hypertext an essentially democratic medium, although this study will argue in Chapters
4 and 5 that hyperlinking in and of itself does not always support democratic processes.

41
The online medium offers different levels of interactivity in which the news reader
engages in the construction of their own reading paths, if not the construction of news.
This is said to contribute to the sharing of the narrative control between the reader and
the journalist and giving the reader some autonomy to determine their news experience
(Bardoel and Deuze, 2001). In terms of facilitating the interaction of users with content
and hence impacting the reading experience, hyperlinking serves a dual purpose,
providing autonomy and guiding readers in the information space (De Maeyer and
Holton, 2016). This very “paradoxical virtue” helps hyperlinks to cater to the needs of
different kinds of readers, independent readers as well as those seeking guidance
(Tremayne, 2004). Despite navigating through the predetermined hypertextual structure,
as mentioned earlier, there are arguments that readers can take control of their own
reading paths.

Readers are within their rights to choose whether to stay on the page or go deeper in
content by clicking on hyperlinks to access more pages of related content (Sereno,
2010). However, further movement in hypertext is determined by the hypertextual
design. As mentioned earlier, since hyperlinks indicate the underlying hypertextual
structure, the visual realization on the computer screen determines the click or any other
action that facilitates the unfolding of further hypertextual meaning. “If television or
radio must keep viewers or listeners transfixed so that they do not switch channels, the
hyperstory must keep users in an active state of mind so that the choices they make keep
building the story effectively” (Fredin, 1997: 2).

Hyperlinks with their visual spatial forms, require action to be activated which produce
effects (Adami, 2015) or the user’s “travel in hypermodality” (Lemke, 2002). In other
words, the user’s action is not the ultimate meaning but an instantiation of the meaning
of hypertextual interconnectivity. This typically progresses through semantic relations
which are activated through the hyperlinks along the hypertext/hypermedia trajectories.
According to Baldry and Thibault (2006), “[t]he creation of a hypertextual trajectory
leads to the building up of systems of meaning relationships from text to text, from
verbal text to visual image, from page to page, and so on, as one navigates through a
website or across websites” (p. 136). Martinec and Leeuwen (2009) also explain that
new media design construes a semantic relation between meanings and form. This
perspective essentially captures Sereno’s (2010) notion of hyperlinking as a goal-

42
oriented selection. In this regard, as design adds a layer of meaning to representation
(Kress and Leeuwen, 2001) the full essence of meaning in hypermedia is not realized by
“the physical space alone of the page on the screen, or by the spatial arrangement of the
elements in this space” but also “by semiotic-material functional relations and networks
of relations” (Baldry and Thibault, 2006).

2.3.3.4. Increasing transparency

Among the ways in which the internet has reconfigured the communication landscape,
transparency has become one of the most notable impacts (Singer, 2007). Transparency
has unveiled what has been kept from the public for years; news making now takes
place under greater public surveillance. In the networked news ecosystem, not only do
news consumers get the news, but they can also know aspects of the process, including
the different versions that led to the final product. This marks a shift in the truth-telling
strategy of journalism from one of opacity, where the news is produced through a
process limited to journalistic scrutiny in traditional media, to one of lucidity where the
news gathering process is exposed to public scrutiny in the online media (Karlsson,
2011). In fact, the networked environment’s increasing transparency makes journalism’s
former secrecy impossible; not only are there a multiplicity of documents online as an
indication of openness but even news makers are now accessible to readers through
social media platforms. “The subjects of news accounts now can disseminate their own
versions of events, including transcripts that show audiences what journalists chose not
to use” (Plaisance, 2007: 192). All of this provides a sneak peek into the news
production process.

For the most part, news consumers relied on the claim of journalism to normative
commitments because much of the news work was performed largely hidden from sight.
According to the dichotomy of the news manufacturing process, news gathering and
processing happen in the backstage where journalistic norms are used to decide which
events to select and how to package news events before they are presented for audience
consumption at the frontstage (Karlsson, 2011). In traditional media, audiences are
exposed only to the final product of news and mostly they will have to wait for the next
news cycle to find a different angle to a developing story. In contrast, the online media
presents events as they happen in real time changing the conception of journalism from
product to process (ibid.). Consequently, news consumers are aware of the workings of
the media and the products they produce even as they are produced. Therefore, with
43
openness as its feature, the internet offers not only what the news says but the reasons
behind it and the forms in which these facts are presented (Plaisance, 2007).

“Journalism as a profession is in the midst of a paradigmatic transformation,

shifting from the notion of journalists as news authorities distributing
information to the masses to one where the authority of journalists depends
on their ability to convey connectivity and new forms of trust to a public
that is increasingly encroaching on the news process” (De Maeyer and
Holton, 2016: 777).
As such, what makes hyperlinks an especially interesting subject of study is not merely
their ubiquity but their centrality to how journalists operate in the new media
environment. As Neff (2015) points out, through theories of materiality, it is possible to
identify how journalistic operations are mediated through the objects of journalism.
This is especially so in terms of showing the raw materials used in the construction of
news and also the methods to establish the authority of journalism as trusted and
legitimate sources. According to Singer (2010) links to online materials do not just
mean access to more information; they can indicate the outlet’s value system or
priorities in terms of selecting credible information. A link in news provides more than
just information. “It’s really about saying, ‘You can trust me because I’m providing
support for what I’m telling you’” (p. 119). Recognizing the values of hyperlinks
reveals that they work to promote some ideas over others making their argument for
legitimacy transparent. Linking therefore, illuminates what lies beyond the façade of
newsmaking; beyond the manifest news texts.

The networked environment seemingly brings with it a shift in journalistic capital from
objectivity, which has largely provided legitimacy to newswork, to a new norm of
transparency. In realization of the new affordances of this environment, Weinberger
(2009) argues for the need to embrace transparency as a normative standard.

“We thought that was how knowledge works, but it turns out that it’s really
just how paper works. Transparency prospers in a linked medium, for you
can literally see the connections between the final draft’s claims and the
ideas that informed it. Paper, on the other hand, sucks at links. You can look
up the footnote, but that’s an expensive, time-consuming activity more
likely to result in failure than success. So, during the Age of Paper, we got
used to the idea that authority comes in the form of a stop sign: You’ve
reached a source whose reliability requires no further inquiry” (Weinberger,
2009: para. 7).

44
According to Weinberger (2009), objectivity capitalizes on hidden biases; we believe
the claim to objectivity because the biases of a journalist are not visible. Objectivity had
been a stopping point for curbing further inquiry during the age of paper but now that
journalism operates in a different environment, the logic of production has changed:
“objectivity is a trust mechanism you rely on when your medium can’t do links. Now
our medium can” (ibid: para. 11). News production in traditional media is described as a
dichotomy between front stage and backstage processes, as processes that take place in
the newsroom Vs news as a product distributed to the audience (Karlsson, 2010). In this
environment, the invisibility of bias is mostly due to the fact that readers are exposed
only to the final stage of news production; the initial stages are largely performed inside
newsrooms away from the audience’s sight.

The new networked environment with its hypertextual nature does not eliminate biases
but helps illuminate them due to its openness. In contrast to legacy media where sources
are merely mentioned, digital media invites readers to see for themselves and verify the
information given to them by providing the links to source material.

“Journalists have allowed readers to peek past the institutional curtain to see
the working parts of newsgathering. In that glimpse, readers are supposed to
feel as if they participated in the reporting. In this way, journalists hope the
newsgathering seems more ‘‘real,’’ and the news therefore more authentic”
(Robinson, 2007: 317).
Being transparent is also about honesty, letting people know about how information is
obtained and admitting when mistakes occur as well (Plaisance, 2007). Transparency
becomes even more relevant in the new environment because news is no longer the
result of a linear production process. It comes “wrapped in external interpretations, be it
remarks accompanying a link to a news story on Facebook and Twitter or the comments
sections appended to news stories” (Carlson, 2017: 196). While readers’ responses to
the potential provided by hyperlinks are not the focus of this study, it is nevertheless the
case that this is an important part of their overall potential. The emphasis in this study
will be on the structural potential of hyperlinks and what that reveals about the ecology
of news.

2.3.3.5. Less exclusivity

In the networked environment where the barriers to entry have been lowered, more and
more information outlets are continuously added to the news ecosystem. This has meant

45
that the exclusive role of journalism has been shared; it “is no longer the pre-eminent,
all-dominant purveyor of news and information, sitting atop news systems as it has for
the past two centuries” (Waisbord, 2016: 207). Editorial judgement, which had been the
exclusive domain of professionals, can now be outsourced to popular demand, because
readers have a say in determining their story picks (Nisenholtz, 2008) Not only does
this challenge the gatekeeping role of journalists, but it also brings with it multitudes of
communicators as competitors. Consequently, the decentralized information structure
resulting in the dissolution of the different journalistic boundaries is seen as potentially
undermining journalistic authority (Wahl-Jorgensen, 2016). However, despite the
proliferation of alternative outlets in the networked news ecosystem, many agree it may
be too early to dismiss their claim to authority. Though the traditional role of journalism
is shared by other forms of online communication, sholars look into the role of the news
media as different. Hayes et al. (2007) ask, “When everyone can be a publisher, what
distinguishes the journalist?”

With the multiplication of content online, the information base of professional

journalism has expanded, taking onboard even “the accidental eye-witness” accounts as
routine materials (McNair, 2013: 79). Not only has this made available a network of
information at the disposal of journalism but it has also increased its visibility. In the
context of this rich environment and the persistent social standing of journalism,
therefore, Waisbord (2016) is cautious, as is McNair, to label the current media
environment ‘a crisis’ in which the news media is considered just another outlet among
competing forces challenging its authority as a lone provider. Rather, journalism
constructs its legitimacy on its adherence to epistemological rituals and narrative
conventions that guide professional news production as an institutional endeavor
(Carlson, 2016c).

Within the larger context of their adherence to shared professional standards as an

institutional identity, journalists discursively construct their boundaries against
emerging journalistic forms. “An institutional approach centres the role of institutions
as social and political actors with a stake in shaping social and political outcomes” (Vos
and Thomas, 2018: 2003). This approach conceptualizes the existence of institutions in
relation to other institutions setting normative standards to define their practices as
distinct from others. Situating professional journalism in discourses of institutionalism
reveals that it is governed by routinized institutional processes and practices as shared
46
values (Cook, 1998) and its existence in relation to others is also guided by its influence
in setting social rules within which other institutional actors perform (Sparrow, 1999).
For instance, as Twitter became an important way for journalists to find sources and
break news, its discussion within professional journalism “is framed within the context
of established journalism norms and values” (Hermida, 2010: 299).

A study by Vos and Thomas (2018) finds that when the materials used by journalists as
markers of authority, such as the press badges, become irrelevant online and original
reporting is no longer an exclusive territory, professional journalists adjust to the
existing environment in order to sustain their authoritative status. That is, journalists
look elsewhere in performing boundary work as part of their routines, in response to the
challenges to their cultural authority. Coddington (2014a) finds that new forms of
boundary work involve the same elements of news work that historically defined
professional journalism, but that the relative emphasis given to each is reflective of the
kinds of challenges found in the networked environment.
The analysis suggests that journalists assign less importance to the
sociocultural conventions and objects of evidence that have traditionally
constituted professional newswork – documents, interviews, and eyewitness
observation – and more significance instead to the less materially bound
practices of providing context, judgment, and narrative power (p. 678)

The shift toward the less materially bound evidential strategy as a boundary marker is
necessitated by the wider availability of technologies that promote ease of news
gathering and that challenge the formerly unique attributes of professional journalism.
Boundary work in such cases shifts the professional role of journalists from news
gatherers to sense-makers, and this latter role will be seen to be particularly important
elements in the context of news reporting in Ethiopia.

2.4. The role of journalism in society

As is well established, journalism is an integral part of the nexus between media and
society. Through its informative role, it promotes the proper functioning of society by
providing people with information they need to live their life. This is labelled as the
monitorial role in which journalism provides relevant, timely and diversified
information to society (Christians et al., 2010). As a consequence of providing the
window through which society sees the world, journalism creates a shared reality
(Carey, 2008). The consumption of its products enhances collective consciousness
about issues that matter locally, nationally and globally. This shapes not only the social
47
reality but also the identity of audiences as citizens, “making possible the conversations
and deliberations between and among [them]and their representatives so essential to
successful self-governance” (Wahl-Jorgensen and Hanitzsch, 2009: 3).

Due to their significant role in the representation of reality and other useful functions in
society, news media are held in high regard as legitimate sources of knowledge in
teaching society about itself, its surroundings and the world beyond it. This conception
of news media as a “window on the world” (Tuchman, 1978) “[evokes] an image of an
omniscient being looking down upon the public below” (Robinson, 2006a: 21). This
also paints “the heroic image of the journalist defending the truth against the many
dragons of darkness in the modern world” (Dahlgren and Sparks, 1992: 1). Due to this
“towering position” (Waisbord, 2016), many expectations are placed on journalism,
including:

“a watchdog working on our behalf, the fourth estate holding government

accountable, a communal glue, an enabler of deliberative democracy, a
diffuser of new scientific and technical knowledge, a judge of the arts,
…provide[r] [of] an accounting of the day’s news, the first draft of history,
an exchange of ideas, a space for disparate voices, a place where society
makes sense of itself” (Carlson, 2017: 16).
Looking closely at this relatively comprehensive list of attributes may reveal some
contradictory functions, but these do not indicate that the media are there to fulfil these
purposes all at once, only that different functions can be performed at different time, or
across different societies.

Numerous attempts have been made to theorize the role of the press in society, such as
Four Theories of the Press by Siebert et al. (1956) and Comparing Media Systems by
Hallin and Mancini (2004), to mention just two. These studies attempted to find
unifying features to categorize world media systems contingent on the political systems
of their respective countries. However, such studies have tended to lack nuance to
identify differences that exist within a specific country, differences that might even go
down to the organizational level (Meikle and Redden, 2010). Rather, they have tended
to lump global media systems into a few categories, such as, Authoritative, Libertarian,
Social Responsibility or Soviet Communist as in Siebert et al. (1956). Hallin and
Mancini’s (2004) work takes an empirical approach in studying the political and media
systems of a handful of western countries. They produce categories which include the
Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain),
48
North/Central Europe or Democratic Corporatist Model (Austria, Belgium, Denmark,
Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland) and North Atlantic or
Liberal Model (Britain, United States, Canada, Ireland). Considering the gap in
representativeness of their model, they later published Comparing Media Systems
Revisited (Hallin and Mancini, 2004), incorporating more countries in analysing how
their media-politics may or may not be explained using the previous models.

In the specific case of Ethiopian, its polarized media environment would make any
categorization difficult, as is probably also the case for a range of other countries. What
is relevant is neither the theorization of the press in relation to generalized social and
political structures, nor the pursuit of global standards to measure the role of the media.
It is rather the underlying authority that ensures the functionality of journalism, as it is
this which bestows upon the media the right to be listened to (Carlson, 2017: 14),
regardless of the media system in which they exist.

An important definition of journalistic authority comes from Carlson (2017: 21), who
defines it as “a contingent relationship in which certain actors come to possess a right to
create legitimate discursive knowledge about events in the world for others”. Apparent
in such definition and as Carlson further explains, journalistic authority is relational and
is embodied in the interaction among different stakeholders involved in the construction
of a journalistic account. Journalists legitimize their practice in defining and structuring
the complex world and earn recognition from audiences which translates into trust and
hence establishes their authority. This interaction is important because it is one that
determines how reality is defined and perceived by audiences (Lecheler and
Kruikemeier, 2016).

Journalistic authority constitutes a major part of the history of journalism through shifts
and changes in the profession due to different technological, economic or political
factors (Vos and Thomas, 2018). Images, for instance, were adopted in newspapers in
order to reinforce the normative commitment of objectivity as a measure of truth telling
(Boudana, 2011). Despite digital photo editing technologies challenging the conception
of images as representing untampered reality, the power of images establishing and
maintaining the truth claims of still dictates news production (Carlson, 2017).

49
Once again, the transformation of digital to a networked news infrastructure has brought
it up as a prominent topic of study. As a result, studies at the nexus of journalism and
technology have shifted their focus from the discussion of the mere impact of
technology in improving journalistic practices to its bolstering of how journalism lays
claim to its authoritative role in defining the world. The need to redirect research focus
is, in large measure, due to the continuing viability of old news forms in the new
networked communication environment. In light of the potential presented for everyone
to become knowledge producers with emerging forms of news in this new media due to
the advent of social media penetration, Carlson (2017) emphasizes the need for
examining new ways of legitimation and authority relations in earlier forms.
Furthermore, in this day and age, where it is progressively easy to access information
and where potentially everyone is a journalist, sending out messages to the world from
anywhere, it has become increasingly important to navigate through the flood of
information exchanges to make sense of the world.

The essence of journalistic authority is the apparent asymmetry in the relational

dynamics connecting journalists with their audiences (Carlson, 2017). The former enjoy
privileged access to information as a basis for their truth claims either through eye-
witnessing or from sources. In fact, journalistic discourse places such a great
epistemological value to eye-witness accounts from journalists that it is taken as a mark
of quality reporting (Zelizer, 2007).

“Journalists are present where audiences are not. This may be in places off-
limits to most, such as armed conflicts; it may be standing in for us when we
simply lack the time or inclination to attend, such as city council meetings;
or where we want to be present vicariously, such as the sidelines of the big
game” (Carlson, 2017: 22)

This rare presence at news sites and the access to elite sources enhanced their
informative role and hence their relationship with democracy. Journalism built its
legitimacy around its role in creating an informed public which placed it at the epicentre
of the workings of democracy, a conception which largely rested on its pursuit of truth
through normative commitments (Vos and Thomas, 2018).

50
 2.4.1. Key journalistic principles
Throughout the changing journalistic environment, journalism’s claim to the truth as a
basis for its authority and its professional status has remained constant (Singer, 2007;
Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2014). It is this commitment and the adherence to normative
principles, such as objectivity, that earns journalists their place in society. Objectivity,
as a journalistic norm adopted to maintain this commitment has remained one of the
dominant paradigms marking the professionalization of journalism. This has an
historical context in which objectivity emerged as a principle of journalism
conceptualized as “neutral and unbiased reporting” developed in reaction to the crisis
journalism was facing in the early 20th century (Mayo and Leshner, 2000: 69). In
addition to the economic shift in journalism to advertising revenues that shifted the
question of journalism from what the public should know to what is appealing to
advertisers, journalism also adjusted its content to what is suitable to the wire
technology of the time (Tandoc Jr and Thomas, 2017; Schudson, 2001). This shift
marked journalism’s effort at professionalization operating within a routinized and
standardized procedures to shape knowledge.

Objectivity as a normative standard is inherently ambiguous and is often used

interchangeably with other seemingly similar concepts, such as ‘impartiality’, ‘truth’,
‘balance’ and ‘neutrality’ (Sambrook, 2012; Tumber and Prentoulis, 2003). Essentially,
some of the confusions arise from the conflation of outcome with the process;
‘impartiality’ as the means to arrive at the ‘truth’ by avoiding bias cannot replace
‘objectivity’ as an outcome of “identifying facts and evidence” (Sambrook, 2012: 3).
There is no consensus among journalism scholars about what the concept of
‘objectivity’ represents, but fundamentally as “a particular form of media practice, [it]
embodies a neutral attitude to the task of collecting, processing and disseminating
information” (McQuail, 2013). When it comes to its very existence, most social
scientists agree that there is no ‘objective reality’ and the conception of such is
described as “naïve empiricism” by Manning (2001). The total dismissal of objectivity
relates to its conception not only as an unattainable goal but also “as an undesirable
norm” (Boudana, 2011: 385), or “a false religion that has lost its power to deceive”
(Bennett, 2013: 107).

51
Despite the lack of agreement on the term, objectivity as a normative standard provided
rules routinizing news work and served as a source of stability and a measure of truth
(Kovach, 2005). As a form of journalistic writing, objectivity is described as a
mechanism journalists use to maintain distance from their work, especially as a
characteristic of hard news texts. “In a significant proportion of hard news texts, the
author avoids or at least minimizes interpersonal meanings which may act to reveal or
to foreground his/her subjective involvement in the meanings being made by the text”
(White, 1997: 107). The reliance on sources’ accounts for the construction of news and
the declarative style of hard news stories which is devoid of overt opinions are
commonly taken as strategies for factuality and objectivity (Carlson, 2017). However,
“[n]ews production as a perpetual process of authorizing facts through sources”
(Ericson, 1998: 86), the very strategy that is adopted to aid in achieving the
aforementioned news qualities may happen to be counterproductive. It may be allowing
journalists to hide behind their claim of objectivity to propagate their subjective views
implicitly.

Though objectivity as a truth-telling mechanism has been constantly discredited on the

premise that a view from nowhere is impossible, its shaping of journalistic identity is
undeniable (Weinberger, 2009). The conceptual shift in the notion of objectivity from a
normalized feature of news work to a “strategic ritual” has in some ways contributed to
concretizing its meaning and providing a workable conception of ‘truth’ in journalism.
As such, objectivity has been taken as a way of routinizing news work manifested
through formal attributes that are easily recognizable to readers. It is typically a feature
of the genre of journalism called ‘hard news’ in which the author maintains his/her
distance and typically avoids injecting personal opinion into the news text, including the
avoidance of:

“explicit value judgements by the reporter about the morality, competence,

normality, etc. of participants, explicit evaluations of events and entities in
terms of their aesthetics or emotional impact, inferences about the
motivations and intentions of participants and contentious claims about
causes and effects”(White, 1997: 107).

The assumption is that practices which contribute to the perception of objectivity have a
routinizing effect, enabling journalists to defend themselves against mistakes and critics
(Tuchman, 1972). Verification of facts through seeking out sources for comments and
52
interviews, maintaining balance through incorporating all sides of an issue, are all part
of the rituals of news work (ibid.).

Yet while the aforementioned operationalizations describe objectivity as a normative

standard, they do not capture the essence of journalism as a cultural form. For one, the
exclusion of explicit emotional engagement in news does not preclude journalists from
strategically using the emotion of their sources to influence the meaning of news.
Despite the epistemological assumptions that the journalist is emotionally insulated in
news work, emotional outsourcing is a persistent feature in news (Wahl-Jorgensen,
2013). In addition, as a strategic ritual, balancing of claims in maintaining objectivity is
not without criticism. Especially in what White (1997) calls ‘issues stories’ which are
stories usually accompanied by controversy, balance is a mere engagement in delivery
rather than an “intellectual activity” to arrive at the truth (Tandoc Jr and Thomas, 2017)

In scientific reporting in particular when one side of a controversy has the weight of
evidence, the appearance of balance could end up being “a form of informational bias”
itself (Boykoff and M., 2004: 126), as one side is given more weight than it is due. In
other contexts also, getting both sides of an issue can in fact work counter to the very
strategy of balance, because the powerful have the influence to dictate the direction of
news narratives (Boudana, 2011). “Since authorities generate and/or confirm most of
the information in the news, objectivity and authority become confused, with the result
that political climates establish the terms of objectivity” (Bennett et al., 1985: 52).

However, as issues hardly exist value free, transparency or honesty about biases is
suggested as a viable option to arrive at the closest approximation of the ‘truth’.
“Objectivity only demands that if values are to enter into the reportage of empirical
matters of fact, it is better that they do so explicitly rather than implicitly” (Boudana,
2011: 394). In this regard, O'Sullivan (2012) points to the effort at the practical
application of a more workable kind of objectivity focused on a continuous pursuit of
multiple truths not as something that is readily available. It will be seen in later chapters
that the presence of hyperlinks – and sometimes, their absence – can have important
implications for the perception of objectivity in the reporting of news in Ethiopia.

2.4.2. Key journalistic attributes

Traditionally journalists saw themselves as playing a democratic role in providing the
public with important information and partly this conception rested on the claim to
53
exclusivity of the content (news) they produce and the distinctive roles they play in the
selection of facts. One of the most naturalized concepts in journalists’ self-perception
(Singer, 1997) is that of the traditional role of journalists as gatekeepers. Traditional
gatekeeping has been defined as “the process by which selections are made in media
work, especially decisions whether or not to admit a particular news story to pass
through the "gates" of a news medium into the news channels'” (McQuail, 1994: 213).
The first adoption of the term in journalism dates back to the 1940s with David
Manning White’s study of the news selection conducted by a wire-service editor
(dubbed “Mr. Gates”) using personal criteria of what he liked and thought readers
wanted. Given the spatial-temporal limitations of traditional media (page sizes and
number of pages as well as time allotted) limit how much information can be presented,
the gatekeeping role has generally been understood as a necessary mechanism of
filtering information (Ferreira, 2018; Bruns, 2003). Basically, this involved decisions,
on the side of editors, to select what readers would find interesting and important and in
consideration of the available space or airtime.

What started as a simple subjective criterion for news selection evolved into
standardization of the newsgathering process, turning gatekeeping into a method to
avoid uncertainty in deciding what is news (Dimitrova et al., 2003). This gave way to
the assessment of events for particular embedded values governing the decision of
which stories to allow into the ‘gates’ of media and eventually onto newspapers or
newscasts (McQuail, 1994). However, this laid bare one of the fundamental flaws of the
gatekeeping concept which portrays information as arriving ready-made to the gates and
obscuring the fact that news is constructed. On the contrary, news production is a
process of turning facts and information into consumable form of news. According to
Karlsson (2011) in traditional media what is readymade is what comes out the other end
of news work ready for consumption by audiences; after facts and information are
gathered and processed largely out of the sight of the audiences, it is published as a final
product.

2.4.3. Journalistic Sourcing

An important facet of gatekeeping is the question of what it is that is or is not being
allowed ‘through’ the gate. While this includes the selection and news values of the

54
story itself, it also includes the sources that are used to validate the story. Most of the
materials that journalists use to construct a story come from news sources that either
find their way to the news desk or the ones that journalists actively seek. The former
originate from routine channels, such as press releases, news conferences, or any other
pre-planned events and the people organizing them whereas the latter represents the
eyewitnesses in an accident, the experts on an issue, the policy makers that journalists
pursue for interviews, etc. In journalism studies and practice, ‘source’ can sometimes be
used very specifically to mean only the first-person sources of eye-witness accounts and
original quotes. In the context of this study, however, it is used more generally, to mean
the inputs or raw materials for news stories, whether they come directly from people, or
whether they are already textual products.

Generally, sources can be the “people who reporters turn to for their information, often
officials and experts connected to society’s central institutions” (Berkowitz, 2009) as
well as the institutions that distribute news globally to media organizations, news
agencies such as the Associated Press (Rantanen and Boyd-Barrett, 2004).

When it comes to online news, sources are difficult to define because of their wide
spectrum of conceptualization made available due to digital affordances. Generally, in
the online platform, the agency of a source may also be shared among every entity in
the communication process, the sender, the channel and the receiver which could be
taken as sources. As McNair (2013) points out, the gatekeeper, the human entity that
performs the selection of facts to present to the receiver, the technology that performs as
the human gatekeeper and the receiver who has been made able to customize their
consumption patterns, interact on different levels adding content to the networked
infrastructure can all be considered as sources.

The above description of sources however is a general category in communicative

events and is not specific to news consumption. It refers to the final outcome of a
communication content which reaches consumers whereas source in the context of this
study applies to the inputs or raw materials for news stories. As such, sources are
originators of facts as inputs for news. Tuchman (1978) describes news as facts from
sources and according to Sigal (1986) news is a mediated account of sources. Therefore,
in line with this conceptualization, entities to whom facts, used in the construction of
news stories, are attributed to can be taken as sources. In fact, to raise epistemic

55
questions about sources is highly related to questions about the very nature of
journalism especially in the digital age. After all, this relates to the affordances of the
new environment;

what is journalism in the era of Twitter and WikiLeaks, of user-generated

content ranging from 140 character tweets to quasi-journalistic blogs and
video uploads, and of the proliferation of online channels by which means
non-journalists (as well as many professionals, of course) pour terabytes of
content into the public sphere, share it around and spread it, highlight and
comment upon it, their tweets and leaks becoming part of the raw material of
the mainstream news media, but distinct from journalism as it has
traditionally been practiced?

Be they the formal channels of news, such as public relations materials or less
conventional ones, like social media, news sources make up the raw materials for the
construction of news, indicating their strong relationship with each other as well as the
distinct epistemological claim of journalists. What makes it to the news agenda is what
is recounted by news sources with direct or indirect affiliation or experience with the
news event, especially when accidents or unanticipated events are involved. This is
necessitated by the rare physical presence of journalists at news sites;

“Journalists almost never witness airplane crashes. They learn about crashes
from other journalists (via news services or media), from people who were
on the scene, from government officials and the police, from airline or
airport representatives, and from consumer safety advocates; and each
individual has a unique point of view about what happened (Shoemaker and
Reese, 1996: 178).

Even if journslists happen to witness news events, there is a limit to what journalists can
say independent of sources due to the “privileging of the objectivity paradigm and
distrust of direct reportorial experience” (Carlson, 2009: 526) . The only things
journalists are allowed to say independently are things which can seemingly be said
with detachment, such as, quantified estimates and impersonal description of events
(Berkowitz, 2009). Of course, albiet rare, some take observation of news events to be
“the height of reliable news” (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2010: 77) and that ‘being there’
gives a journalist the authority of credence (Zelizer, 2007). However, since journalits’
normative commitment relates to their authoritative status, sourcing is privileged over
any other form of evidential strategy, not least, eye witnessing. The privileging of
objectivity as a normative standard contingent on the very conceptualization of news as
56
an account of sources rather than a direct reflection of reality, supports the reliance on
sources (Carlson, 2009).

Here, as a response to the criticism that the very use of language by journalists maybe
problematic due to the existence of connotations in words, Boudana (2011) offers that
the supply of verifiable data, such as, names of news subjects and numbers as a
solution. In so doing, journalists withhold subjective judgements but supply the inputs
to influence readers’ judgement; for instance, by providing the number of people killed,
journalists may invoke the meaning of a massacre. However, though the generic
restrictions prevent emotional engagement of journalists in news, “journalists rely on
the outsourcing of emotional labour to non-journalists – the story protagonists and other
sources, who are (a) authorized to express emotions in public, and (b) whose emotions
journalists can authoritatively describe without implicating themselves” (Wahl-
Jorgensen, 2013: 130).

The intervention from sources, entities outside of the newsroom, is important but the
limit on direct journalistic contribution makes the journalist-source relationship more
than a mere exchange of information. “News is … not what journalists think, but what
their sources say, and is mediated by news organizations, journalistic routines and
conventions, which screen out many of the personal predilections of individual
journalists” (Sigal, 1986: 29). As such, sourcing in and of itself and as a mark of
professionalism serves to establish the legitimacy of news as a professional product.
News therefore is not a mere chronicle of events but an epistemological endeavour to
garner authority.

Depending on the media context, sources are conceptualized in different ways in

accordance with their relationship with journalists. This conceptualization is important
because it is the selection of sources, how they are prioritized and what they are allowed
and prohibited to say that determine the representation of social reality (Phillips, 2014).
According to Sigal (1986) ‘‘who the sources are bears a close relationship to who is
news’’ (p. 25). It is not only the representational aspects that underlie the relationship
between journalists and sources but as Carlson (2017) points out, from the perspective
of journalistic authority, also the interactive aspects in the relational dynamics that
involves all the actors in the production and consumption of news. Beyond a routinized
process, sourcing is an epistemic argument revealing the rationale behind the selection

57
of some sources and not others. This conceptualization of sourcing attributing facts to
sources becomes protective as well as an evidentiary strategy.

In relying on the account of sources, in contrast to scientific enquiries, journalists do not

have the luxury of a “reflexive epistemological examination” in which they thoroughly
examine their procedures because they constantly work under time pressure (Tuchman,
1972: 662). As a result, “the fast tempo of news work requires efficient practices that do
not squander journalists’ precious allotment of time when working under deadline”
(Carlson, 2017: 127). source selection practices therefore depend, among other things,
on the working conditions of journalists that compel them to strive for efficiency. The
link between the working condition of journalists and source selection, in turn, points to
the practical aspect of news selection which has source credibility at its core (Reich,
2010). In the fast-paced working culture of journalists, constant supplies of facts from
sources or “information subsidies” as Gandy (1980) refers to them, become a staple of
news writing. These inputs are preferred for news because they are packaged to suit the
needs of journalists in routinizing news work because they go well with the demands of
time in the news media (Carlson, 2017). Accordingly, the pursuit of efficiency
essentially makes them resort to those sources with as much stake in the news, such as
PR professionals whose job is to portray their company in a positive light and want to
avoid any risk of misinformation; making it “a delicately negotiated relationship”
(Berkowitz, 2009: 103).

The journalist-source relationship is seemingly symbiotic in which journalists receive

news materials and sources gain public access, and also symbolic which manifests itself
through mutual legitimation. “A cyclical pattern emerges in which the source gains
authoritative status through being used as a source while the news gains authority
through having used this authoritative source” (Carlson, 2009: 530). Appearance in
news garners more appearance for the source ensuring the mutual legitimation as a
symbolic consequence (Gandy, 1980). Furthermore, the authoritative status of sources is
used to legitimize journalism “as a systematic and knowledgeable activity” (Carlson,
2009: 531) highlighting its authority. Conceptualizing this relationship in such manner
however has consequences on how the role of journalism in society is framed.

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 2.4.3.1. Adversarial sourcing relations
One type of sourcing relation relevant to this study is that of adversarial sourcing
relations. These arise where there is an inherent tension between journalist and source,
as is often practiced in the Anglo-American media context, where journalists constantly
hold power to account in search of the truth through independent and investigative
reporting. “Journalists end up in a role of protecting society from corruption, while
officials in government and business take on the task of protecting their own interests at
all costs” (Berkowitz, 2009: 102). This might bring together various social actors and as
such, this relationship is often framed as a power struggle to set the media agenda and
hence shape public opinion (McQuail, 2000).

From the perspective of journalistic norms, the adversarial relationship is conceived as

the ideal kind in that it is mostly based on original reporting (Phillips, 2014). Original
reporting “holds power to account rather than merely reporting on the powerful” and
examines under the surface of tailormade information subsidy provided by PR
professionals (Phillips, 2010: 50). It constitutes the tenets of professional journalism
because journalists do not take for granted what they are told but go out there in search
of the truth; even if they do not uncover it, it shows that they have made a genuine
effort. The boundaries of professional journalism are demarcated around investigative,
accurate and original reporting as it marks its difference from what Davies (2008) calls
‘churnalism’, the recycling of public relations materials or ‘information subsidies’. It
will be seen in later chapters whether such adversarial sourcing relations are evident in
the context of contemporary media in Ethiopia.

2.4.3.2. Competitive sourcing relations

Another aspect of sourcing relevant to this study is that of competitive sourcing
relations, that is, a hierarchy of value among different types of sources. The dynamics of
the journalist-source relationship is dependent upon the professional ideology of
journalism which structures potential sources within set criteria. Accordingly, elite
sources tend to occupy media space more often than ordinary citizens, and can thereby
set the media and public agenda by swaying media narratives. Carlson (2017)
demonstrates this by citing the example of how the pro Vietnam war rhetoric shifted
once political elites started speaking against the war on media. “Sourcing news – who
gets to speak on what – forces attention to a central issue in journalism: the enactment
59
of social power through authorship and representation” (Van Hout et al., 2011: 1877).
For issues that involve multiple potential sources, representataion is not a mirror image
of the reality but an indicator of a constructed reality through foregrounding and
backgrounding of sources. As such, the competitive dynamics of news sources is as
important an aspect of news as the role of the media itself (Anderson, 2014).
The problem with this paradigm of competitive source relations is that it relinquishes
the power to the source without acknowledging the agency of the journalist. Beyond
establishing news production routines, sourcing creates a “system of recurring
discrimination that orders the universe of potential news sources” (Franklin and
Carlson, 2010: 2) which is captured in what Becker (1967) calls “hierarchy of
credibility”. This notion embodies a system in which those in the higher strata of
societal systems are attributed with higher credibility. This system “is built upon the
idea that social hierarchies determine the mechanism by which elites obtain privileged
access to the media” (Atton and Wickenden, 2005: 348). It is a structural aspect of
source selection in which those with the highest “bureaucratic affinity” (Fishman, 1988)
sharing a common organizational structure are given priority.

From the perspective of journalistic authority, however, conceptualizing the journalist-

source relation simply as symbiotic is not adequate. The issue of sourcing goes beyond
simple news gathering routines toward a preference for elite sources which is not only a
question of maintaining the efficiency of news work but that of the pursuit of
legitimating authority (Carlson, 2017). In fact, as “the external world is a world of
potential sources harbouring individual interpretations of reality”, the privileging of one
source over another implies that source selection “is not merely an informational
question” (Carlson, 2009: 527).

This symbolic power to select sources is more than a way of determining who gets to
speak and who is silenced. It works practically to assign differential informational value
to different sources by way of regulating their presence and their contribution in news
discourse. Given that all happenings in the world do not make it to the news, Phillips
(2014) cites Stuart Hall’s notion of definers to elucidate the power dynamics among
different news sources showing that sources are given different positions and emphasis.
As such, ‘primary definers’ are sources who always take center stage in defining the
social world and whose accounts matter as authoritative. Nylund’s (2003) study for

60
example demonstrates that the recurrent portrayal of sources becomes entrenched
attributes of sources; politicians as authoritative sources who have the power to cause
problems, experts as informed sources identifying those problems and victims as
emotional sources affected by the problems. Chapters 4 and 5 will demonstrate how
hyperlinks can be used to give different values to different sources.

2.4.3.3. Sourcing as a practice of meaning-making

Apart from an evidentiary strategy, sourcing has epistemological implications for
journalists; in the context of the construction of news, it is a way of determining how
the world is conceptualized through the account of sources. When it comes to the
strategic selection of sources, some argue that the selection of sources and the
gravitation toward elite sources is not a deliberate act of promoting the views of the
powerful but just the result of adherence to professional norms that allows certain
elements to take centre stage. As clearly argued by Carlson (2017; 2015), the need for
attribution compels journalists to rely on sourcing routines guided by news values
shaping news into a certain discourse template, promoting some sources over others.
The promotion of elite sources and fitting them into entrenched practices merely shows
the culmination of newsroom routines into naturalized patterns of legitimating authority.

As such, source selection is constrained by professional ideologies that “continually

promote the hegemony of the ruling bodies while simultaneously silencing voices
outside the main power structures of society” (Carlson, 2009: 533). As Fishman posits,
such news selectivity,

“is not so much the result of reporters’ personal biases or of their attempts to
protect friendly bureaucratic sources, or of their following orders from
politically motivated editors. Rather, news selectivity is a consequence of
journalists’ protecting their own methods of event detection—methods
which are tightly wedded to the bureaucrat’s methods of formulating
events” Fishman (1988).

However, some do portray source selection as a wilful promotion of elites, part of the
symbolic power of journalists. Here, Reich (2010) forwards an argument that the
preference for elite sources is a strategic selection as a practical aspect of news work to
maintain accuracy of reports by avoiding unreliable sources. More strongly, Ross
(2007) argues that sourcing practices are a strategy to conceal biases.

61
 “The sly deceit concealed within journalists’ use of sources as apparently
independent and authoritative commentators enables the journalist to
masquerade as a mere conveyance of others’ perspectives while actually
peddling a particular viewpoint by the choice of speaker and the choice of
quote” (Ross, 2007: 450).

From this point of view, the tendency to promote the dominant or elite perspective is
not a mere consequence of the adherence to newsroom routines or professional
standards but a deliberate act of promoting the status quo. According to Foucault, it is a
power bestowed upon journalists in constructing news discourse. As quoted in (Phillips,
2014: 41), Foucault argues, “discourse is not simply that which translates struggles or
systems of domination, but is the thing for which and by which there is struggle,
discourse is the power which is to be seized” (Foucault, 1981:52-53). The use of
hyperlinks to select and prioritize some sources over others will be shown in this study
to have important consequences for sense-making in contemporary journalistic
practices.

2.5. The digital environment and its impact on journalism

For a long time, journalism operated in the same manner online as in newspapers and it
did not have a distinct form suited to the online medium. Most online journalism was
shovelware where the virtual content replicated an unmodified version of the print
newspapers (Barnhurst, 2002; Larsson, 2013; Robinson, 2006a). However, as noted in
2.1, the impact of digital technology on journalism has been profound, resulting in a
networked environment that has no physical limits on space, making foundational
concepts such as gatekeeping seemingly irrelevant. This section argues that as a result
of technological changes, the traditional role of gatekeeping has been transformed into
one of sensemaking.

2.5.1. The inadequacy of gatekeeping as a concept

The democratization of information access in the new media environment has led to a
reconceptualization of the concept of gatekeeping based on the role of traditional media
as filters of news. This concept is based on flawed assumptions that render it inadequate
for explaining today’s media environment. It adheres to a linear model of information
flow where the media are the sole mediators of the information that reaches the public.
At the backdrop of the dissolution of journalistic boundaries, this does not make for a
convincing explanation.
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 “A journalist standing by the gate—opening it to allow this “fact” to pass
through but closing it to other information that has not been verified—looks
silly when, on either side of the gate, unfiltered, indiscriminate information
is flooding through” (Kovach, 2005: n.p).
In contrast, news work in the new digital platform is an ongoing process with constant
updating, amending or adding of information. Karlsson’s (2012) study demonstrates
clearly that online journalism is practically liquid in form, in that it is continuously
updated.

“Liquid news starts with a few words and can, although not necessarily,
later be complemented with pictures, videos, or hyperlinks to other internal
or external stories. It can increase in volume or adjust previous statements
without leaving a trace. It facilitates various aspects of user participation
that can affect news stories’ contexts and contents” (p. 398).

How the concept of gatekeeping becomes reconceptualized in a virtual environment in

which the audience increasingly has unlimited access to information is an important
issue addressed in relation to journalistic authority. The online media has blurred the
boundary separating producers and consumers of information and this results in a
constant shifting of roles; anyone with a computer and internet connection can
potentially do just as much as a journalist rendering gatekeeping invalid as a dominant
paradigm. With the proprietary rights of journalism taken away, therefore, the question
becomes as much about the implication of the audience’s increasing open access to
unmediated information as it is about the shift in the role of journalists.

The changing media situation not only places journalists among other sources of
information, but also challenges its fundamental role of “regulating the flow and content
of information disseminated to the public” (Singer, 2010: 117). The networked
environment also puts to the test journalism’s established claim to being “the primary
sense-making practice of modernity” (Hartley and Hartley, 1996: 12) or authority in
knowledge construction (Carlson, 2016b). Moreover, the affordance of interactivity in
the online media has implications not only for content selection but also control, and
this makes gatekeeping as part of news work questionable. The concept is further
undermined by readers’ increased contributions to the content of news discourse: adding
their own comments, sending in images, and so on (Robinson, 2007). With readers’
participation, there is a constantly evolving story rather than “a given finite, knowable
reality of events in the ‘real world’” (McQuail, 1994: 214). The networked
infrastructure on the World Wide Web complicates the nature of the messages even
63
further; “the product is fluid: constantly changing, always expandable, always able to be
combined with something new and different” (Singer, 2010: 119). Especially in
developing stories, information could come from different directions adding more facts,
correcting or completely changing existing ones.

The incorporation of different content production platforms, such as social media and
blogs, has continually become a feature of professional journalism contributing to this
content fluidity. Twitter has become a quick way to distribute breaking news (Hermida,
2010) and blogs have also been used by professional journalists for news tips and as
sources enabling them to influence news agenda (Coddington, 2014b). These non-
conventional production platforms not only change content production, they also
restructure power relations among audiences. Unlike traditional media, social media
promotes horizontal communication where ordinary citizens are able “to bypass
traditional mass media and directly communicate with each other” and with elites
(Paulussen and Harder, 2014: 543). Most importantly, the affordance of the online
environment allows direct access to information for readers without the intermediary
role of professional journalists. The ever-increasing presence of elites on social media,
especially Twitter, communicating directly with audiences (followers), sometimes
larger in number than that of a media organization, challenges the idea of the ‘gate’ all
together.

“This disintermediation has meant that, online, the gates are [ ] located with the
information providers (ultimately, with anyone who publishes a website with
potentially newsworthy information), and with the end user (who in navigating
the web constantly acts as their own gatekeeper), but no longer necessarily with
the news media organisations” (Bruns, 2003: 32).
The exclusive access of the media to information and their intermediary role is no
longer intact in the context of dissolution of territories. “What is truly novel about the
digital society is that information that was once received, evaluated, and published only
by the mass media is now also received directly by the whole of society, without the
need of a journalist as intermediary” (Elías Pérez, 2010: 51). When sources make well
packaged information ready for consumption, news consumers no longer necessarily
rely on information that passes through the traditional gates but enjoy their own direct
level of access to information, challenging the media’s authority as providers of
exclusive information.

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Nevertheless, while gatekeeping in its classic sense does not exist in the new media
environment, it is still a necessary part of news making; if there was ever a time when
the role of journalists becomes important, it is in this new regimen of content production
and dissemination. This new environment highlights the need for an increased
professional intervention by the journalist instead of a diminished one.

“[A]fter all, institutionalized forms of journalism guarantee a certain product

quality, reduce the complexity of social communication and the work
necessary to create it, and offer society a shared meaning in the form of
content that reaches mass audiences” Quandt and Singer (2009: 132).

Looking further into the reconfiguration of the role of journalism in the new
environment therefore reveals assets of the new information infrastructure that aid this
shift. Within the turn to the objects of journalism, especially online, some of the taken
for granted notions of journalism re-emerge as the medium’s affordances change. As
such, journalistic norms, roles and authority are viewed in a different light with equal
emphasis to the role of technology and the agency of journalists working in tandem in
news work. This is because focusing solely on the objects of journalism “risks dis-
empowering journalists as agents of change in the evolution of their profession”
(Domingo, 2015: 69). As such, the next section discusses specific ways in which the
hypertextual environment avails information and facilitates access to the discursive
platform to readers as part of the communication matrix with implications for the
gatekeeping process.

2.5.2. The new role of sense-making

In the contemporary environment therefore, journalists’ claim to exclusivity of access to
information no longer holds true, as the media shares the virtual space with multiple
platforms and sources. Among these are social media and user-generated content whose
importance has increased in providing useful information as inputs for news. Especially
with the ubiquity of mobile technology, audiences can provide rare footage of events
and this is increasingly taken up by journalists as part of news reports. This change in
production also has its implications not only on the professional product with non-
professional content penetrating journalism but also on the profession itself. “If
transparency for the news media means an unthinking process of shoveling everything
onto the plates of audiences, journalists would be abdicating their gatekeeper role and
most likely undermining the journalistic enterprise in the process” (Plaisance, 2007:

65
193). The digital media with its “new regimes of content creation” (Boczkowski, 2002:
270) is moving from institutional authority to distributed and networked authority
(Hermida, 2012). In this regard, what is exclusive for journalism may not be the access
to information sources but their role as sense makers of the vast information available to
them. “This means journalists must learn how to navigate these platforms, and at times
engage with these individuals in order to access this content” (Johnston, 2016: 900).
However, the increasing engagement of audiences in the news proess does not indicate
an abandonment of the gatekeeping role of journalists but rather signals the shifting role
to that of sense-making. In this regard, “the value of the gatekeeper is not diminished by
the fact that readers now can get all the junk that used to wind up on the metal spike; on
the contrary, it is bolstered by the reader's realisation of just how much junk is out
there” (Singer, 1997: 80).

As a result, the role of journalists shifts from deciding the information needs of the
public to making sense of the already available information (Cassidy, 2007). Sense
making is a process of creating a shared sense of reality in which events “are filtered,
framed, communicated, and made available to society for construction and enactment”
(O'Connell and Mills, 2003: 4). Here, the media still sustain their intermediary position,
it is only their role in the processing of information that is reconfigured. The
sustainability of journalism in an environment in flux therefore depends on “the
reassertion and restrengthening of what have traditionally been regarded as defining
practices in the spheres of information management” (McNair, 2013: 76).

A survey on the shift in gatekeeping reveals that journalists themselves believe their
role to be even more vital not in selecting but in making sense of the vast collection of
materials (Singer, 1997). A survey of journalists on the shift in gatekeeping reveals that
journalists believe their role to be even more vital not in selecting but in making sense
of the vast collection of materials (Singer, 1997). A study of six online newspapers in
Colorado as compared to their print counterparts (Singer (2001) found that the online
versions became much more local in focus than their print counterparts, despite the
former’s potential to connect audiences with global events. Thus, sensemaking turned
out to be narrowing down the focus in order to make news consumption more
meaningful. Singer describes this as a market strategy in giving audiences unique
products, in order to distinguish themselves from every other potential global reporter.
That is, as every newspaper can potentially bring global content to their communities,
66
crossing borders would only result in a duplication of content. Singer highlights the
concern that the strategy to localize the content of online newspapers limits the
understanding of the audience about the world outside of their immediate reach. This is
contrary to the principle of global journalism that continually advocates for a global
outlook in representing the world beyond one’s territory, which is the kind of
journalism suited for the highly globalized world (Berglez, 2008). Nevertheless,
journalists invoke their authority with an increasingly local focus to news, bringing a
unique edge to their professional role.

Professional intervention in some form or another is needed to bring order to the

informational chaos. According to Schudson (2015) the power of news, as a
professional product, primarily lies not only in its amplification of issues but also in its
framing and explaining the relevance of issues. Thus, what makes professional news
different from other products is not only the fact that it brings important issues to the
attention of the public but that it situates it in a sphere of other happenings, making
sense of the world in an accessible way for the audience. In line with this, what Singer’s
(2001) study reveals is that by narrowing the informational sphere, the journalists make
the news consumption of their readers more meaningful. More specifically, through
niche reporting, a news site can not only bring relevance but can also establish its
authority as distinct from other outlets; the journalistic intervention makes meaning
more accessible and unique.

To summarize, this sense-making role of journalism bestows an authoritative status to

journalism and in order to maintain this status in a changing environment, journalists
are continually adopting technology into their newsroom practices (Robinson, 2007).
Since the conditions of access have been altered by technology, anyone can publish and
distribute content challenging “the notion of the institutional press as the exclusive,
privileged, trusted, informed intermediary of the news” (Bowman and Willis, 2003: 47).
The lowered barriers to entry “make[ ] traditional models of gatekeeper oversight
untenable” (Metzger et al., 2010: 414). In this way, journalism’s symbolic power comes
not from its ontological property as a source of information but from its epistemic status
in representing the world in the most sensible way (Singer, 1997).

It is clear that while the notion of gatekeeping has fundamentally changed in the new
media environment, it nevertheless still exists. This is seen in light of some empirical

67
studies revealing that idealized transparency tools such as hyperlinks are used for such
purposes, specifically to limit the navigation of audiences in an interconnected web
environment. In a study of 15 online newspapers, Dimitrova et al. (2003) find that
unlike the potential of hyperlinks to link to any platform outside of the jurisdiction of
one’s own site enhancing transparent practices, the outlets mostly link internally, to
previous stories in their websites. This is explained as an indication that even in the
abundance of information, journalists are not yet ready to give up control of readers
news consumption. Instead, the incorporation of hyperlinks into news discourse is
conceived as a means of reclaiming the authority that has been challenged by new
technologies changing established ways of doing journalism (Coddington, 2014b). In a
study of news websites, Tremayne (2004) confirms Dimitrova’s findings of the use of
hyperlinks as gatekeeping mechanisms. He adds some nuances that the navigation
routes of links, whether internal or external, depend on the type of stories. For example,
news about accidents or events (event stories, White (1997) are the least connected due
to their nature as sudden or non-premeditated stories; they are most likely constructed
from new facts and do not necessarily use archived materials.

However, as a journalistic practice, gatekeeping is not only a mechanism of determining

the news diet of audiences but also a way of protecting one’s reputation by linking to
what is deemed reliable and trusted. News websites avoid external links that direct
readers to content produced by other producers to deflect responsibility for its veracity
(Carpenter, 2010). But this is not entirely out of self-interest, such as financial gains;
they also use hyperlinking as a protective strategy. According to Tremayne (2005)
journalists are observed to be highly selective of their linking choices especially for
delicate issues such as news related to health. As such, the gatekeeping mechanism
online somehow relates to Tuchman’s (1972) conceptualization of news selection as a
“strategic ritual”, a cautious attempt to provide recognizable patterns of news work. It
creates a shared concept of journalistic boundaries where audiences know what to look
for as they go news browsing. Moreover, this explains sourcing patterns as well as
linking patterns as a bulwark against inaccuracies and unprofessional practices at large.
By extension, this resistance toward certain sources which translates to cautious linking
practices also relates to the economical aspect of news organizations. Well established
news organizations which have the financial means to do their own reporting by sending
out their reporters to the field rarely open their gate to content from other news media
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and are largely “self-contained, often self-referential, and elitist” (Beckett and Mansell,
2008: 98). This is unlikely to be the case in the Ethiopian media context, where access
to official sources is actively limited by the government, and where economic resources
for independent reporting are scarce as explained in the contextual background given in
Chapter One.

The current study follows De Maeyer and Le Cam (2015) in pursuing the hyperlink’s
relevance “as an expressive tool in itself” (p. 87, emphasis in the original). Here, the
hyperlink is taken into the discourse of a shifting journalistic capital (Hellmueller et al.,
2013) that promotes transparency instead of objectivity in an increasingly
interconnected world. This kind of journalism is the journalism that seeks to establish
the legitimacy of its utterances not through an inventory of their adherence to normative
standards but by allowing the critical examining of its procedures through letting the
audience into the news gathering process using the interactive assets of the networked
environment (ibid.). The relevance of this study lies in particular in the examination of
the changing role of journalists in the online environment in which the viability of
classic gatekeeping is in question. It examines the new role of journalists in sense-
making of the vast source materials incorporated into news discourse through
hyperlinks by way of laying claim for their legitimacy. Hyperlinking therefore is not
considered as a random activity or a natural trajectory of technological adoption but as a
purposeful and meaningful addition to news work, or in the words of Ryfe et al. (2016)
as “manifestation[s] of intention” (Ryfe et al., 2016: 41). This further consolidates the
conceptualization of the hyperlink as “an instrument of control” making it potentially a
closed structure (Costa e Silva, 2016: 87). As such, it can work to keep readers inside
one’s website, a control mechanism that works in defiance of the dissolution of
boundaries.

2.6. Journalistic authority, hyperlinks and the Ethiopian private media

The changing media environment brings with it narratives of gains and losses in which
the questions of journalistic authority surfaces among others. On the one hand, due to
the lowered barriers to entry, emergent forms of news production continue to encroach
the highly guarded boundaries of professional journalism with implications for its
legitimacy. On the other, the new environment has potentially opened up journalistic
discourse to a wide range of alternative information sources with an opportunity for

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journalistic organizations “to represent in their coverage the many voices and
viewpoints that have become digitally accessible” (Heinrich, 2013: 96).

The traditional role of gatekeeping has important consequences for other aspects of
journalism especially when emergent forms of production continue to occupy the same
communicative platform. New forms of information production challenge long-standing
conceptions of news as a professional product with exclusive actors and boundaries.
Normative commitments once held in high regard as a measure of news are now
questioned and at best redefined, constituting a paradigm shfit in the profession.

Nevertheless, in contrast to other professions whose authority thrives on jurisdictional

control over a body of knowledge, journalism has relied on its normative commitment
in portraying reality (Carlson, 2017). What they know, the news, is mostly the account
of sources and how the news is presented; this is what constitutes professionalism which
serves as the basis for journalistic authority. For the most part, the claim of adherence to
professional standards such as objectivity has compensated for the lack of the traits of
professionalism. “Objectivity is a concept with deep philosophical roots, for it pertains
to the ontological question of what is true and the epistemological question of how
people know it to be true” (Tandoc Jr and Thomas, 2017: 34). Essentially, news is not
only a social representation but also a formal appeal for legitimacy and any changes in
form reflect journalists’ self-perception (Carlson, 2017). The veracity of news therefore
depends on the ability of the journalist to portray it as true for the audience at the
receiving end of news work. As such, the epistemological position of the news captures
not only the representation of reality but also how audiences are positioned in respect to
journalists and the relationship of these constituencies (Matheson, 2004). The
establishment of professional norms and the recognition of them by the public is
therefore a precondition for journalistic authority (Tong, 2018).

The normative commitment and its epistemological consequences are therefore

translated into the selection of sources. A sociological perspective on news production
provides an insight into “how the news gets made at the main point of contact between
journalists and non-journalists” (Carlson, 2009: 526-527). It reveals how the ideological
paradigm shapes newsroom practices and further puts in place norms that guide content
production and overall news culture. However, this is as much a quest for
epistemological authority as an effort to maintain efficiency in news work explaining

70
the drive behind source selections (Carlson, 2017). Who is invited to speak as a source
in news then becomes an important question both in itself and as a question of
journalistic legitimacy.

The Ethiopian online media, specifically the private media depend highly on online
sources as their evidentiary strategy, due to the information marginalization against the
private media as described in Chapter 1. In the Ethiopian media, other means for
legitimizing the authority of utterances by private media are used, mostly
technologically-mediated (Skjerdal, 2014). In recent years, following the political
reform and subsequent turmoil, citizens started using social media platforms to voice
political grievances. Many are also monetizing audio-visual content, diversifying the
content repository; currently, YouTube channels have become by far the most popular
platforms (Berhane, 2019). Blogs became a popular form of resistance or activism that
occupied the political sphere after the contested 2005 parliamentary elections, prior to
the coming to power of the current prime minister. Despite the generally low
connectivity in the country, the presence of diversified information outlets in the
networked public sphere can be considered resources or competing forces; either way,
they vie for the attention of the public and challenge the authority of professional
journalistic content.

Therefore, it is in this context that the current study examines the struggle for survival
and legitimation of professional journalistic content that uses hyperlinking for sourcing
and contextualization. It attempts to find meaning in the deployment of hyperlinks as
sourcing for legitimizing news work in the precarious media landscape of Ethiopia.
Presumably, the target audiences of Ethiopian journalism are not far from the kind
described by Deuze (2008a), not as taking in information on issues of general interest,
but as ones who are selective about their information consumption “scanning all kinds
of news and information sources for the topics that matter to [them] personally” (p.
848).

As discussed in Chapter 1, the media in Ethiopia is highly polarized with state media on
the one hand and the private press on the other, operating in complete opposition to
each other. Government-owned media are subsidized by the state and have easy access
to official information, whereas the private press struggle financially and are
marginalized from access to information. Most private media rely on second-hand

71
information by recycling reports of government and foreign outlets in response to the
marginalization (Skjerdal, 2014). Thus, the Ethiopian media presents an interesting case
for the use of hyperlinks. Hyperlinking is not widely practiced but the ones that do take
it into their everyday news practice, even though they are only a handful, can be used to
explore the media landscape in the country.

What makes the case of the Ethiopian private media an anomaly is that the absence of
information subsidies does not necessarily indicate adherence to professional practices
but may best be explained by a deficiency model; it is not information subsidies but the
lack of them that steers journalistic practices away from original reporting. Meaning,
since they do not get easy access to official information, they rely on their own
reporting but that does not necessarily involve the laborious work of going out there in
search of news. As a result, churnalism becomes a common feature of these outlets. The
practice of churnalism represents a case where PR professionals looking for media
representation converge with journalists waiting for materials to fill their news spaces.
Accordingly, the absence of information subsidies in media reports may be an
indication of journalists’ professional practices or the presence of original reporting as
journalists pursue sources instead of accepting information handouts uncritically. The
apparent factor in this explanation about the journalist-source relationship and its
implication for journalistic practices is the easy access to information which is lacking
in the Ethiopian media context. The Ethiopian government uses state media as its usual
channel for disseminating news to the public while it marginalizes the private media
from access to public information and constantly intimidates them for not following in
the footsteps of its affiliates (Melisew, 2013; Skjerdal, 2014). As a result, information
subsidies are channelled only to state-run media and affiliates and adversarial
relationship is unthinkable in this relationship. This situation forces private media in
Ethiopia to recycle second-hand materials from other media locally or internationally to
fill their news cycle.

“In terms of breaking news, local online channels are habitually beaten by
international news sites, which are much better equipped to bring speedy
and confident reports. At the same time, much online production concerning
Ethiopia has been relocated from the local media houses to independent
diaspora channels edited from Europe and North America” (Skjerdal, 2014:
99).

72
In other words, as a way of compensating for information marginalization and for
minimal budgets, the private media in Ethiopia resort to what Phillips (2010) calls news
cannibalism, relying on second-hand information from the aforementioned outlets. It is
with this backdrop in mind that the study makes hyperlinks its focus. Hyperlinks will be
studied not only as an asset of technology but as a response to the difficulties private
online news outlets face, as they continue to do their jobs in such a media landscape.
Journalism can be valorised “… by highlighting not necessarily the content produced,
but the difficulty and scarcity of the journalistic work that produced it” (Coddington,
2014a: 679).
As news stories simultaneously present arguments for their legitimacy (Carlson, 2017),
the selected online sites are studied for how they establish the legitimacy of their stories
using hyperlinks. In particular, the use of hyperlinks as boundary markers is studied by
tracing link destinations and as indicators of the role of journalists either as original
reporters or duplicators. Conducted against the backdrop of information marginalization
in the Ethiopian mediascape, the study takes hyperlinking not only as a new normative
capital in bringing transparency, but argues that the use of hyperlinks is a response to
the hostile media environment.

2.7. Conclusion
This chapter has focused on explaining hyperlinks as important assets of online
journalism. Their contribution to online news is discussed in light of their role as
connective elements linking separate documents to construct a meaningful text for the
reader. Hyperlinks are also discussed in terms of their interactive features giving readers
a meaningful news browsing experience through different evidentiary strategies using
their non-linear narrative structure. It situates these assets of the hypertextual
communication infrastructure in the narratives of journalistic capital to allow for a better
understanding of the technology-journalism relationship, finally bringing the case of the
Ethiopian media landscape into the discussion. Chapter 3 will now present the
methodology underlying the current study.

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Chapter 3. Methods

3.1. Introduction

The previous chapters have introduced the general role and nature of hyperlinks in
contemporary communication, their more specific role in journalism, and their
relevance to an understanding of the contemporary media environment in Ethiopia. In
this chapter, I identify the journalistic data used for this study, in terms of data
collection and analysis, and develop a set of analytical categories building the taxonomy
of hyperlinks for this study which are used as the basis for chapters Five and Six.

As subjects of this study, hyperlinks are examined as semiotic resources in online news
writing. When it comes to methodological approaches, most news link studies are
conducted through primarily quantitative approaches including content analysis
(Tremayne, 2004; Dimitrova et al., 2003) and network analysis (Himelboim, 2010; Kim
et al., 2010). However, the fact that linking practices constantly evolve makes difficult
both the replication of studies and the generalizability of findings (Anderson, 2010b)
accentuating the inadequacy of quantitative methods to capture the actual meaning of
links. Besides, “different kinds of links may mean different things, and the same link
may mean something different in different contexts” (Ryfe et al., 2016: 43). Further,
depending entirely on such methods can compromise an understanding of meaning, as
they are oriented toward a reductionist exercise of merely quantifying data (Costa e
Silva, 2016). While this study makes use of basic quantitative comparisons, it favours
close qualitative analysis of selected examples, in order to focus on questions of
meaning, and does not use large-scale quantitative approaches.

Additionally, it is important to note that the level of adoption of online tools such as
hyperlinks can vary considerably by website or by country, (De Maeyer, 2014). This
highlights the need for contextually sensitive methodological approaches. The focus on
the Ethiopian media context in the current study thereby brings this specific context to
the academic spotlight, and further underscores the importance of close, qualitative
analysis. This study aims to explore the interaction of journalists with the raw materials
they use to construct news stories through their linking practices and the meaning
conveyed in these dynamics as semiotic practices of journalists making a case for the
legitimacy of their narratives. This chapter proceeds by reviewing common approaches
74
to hyperlink studies, and then explaining the data source, collection and categories for
analysis. The chapter concludes with a summary of the core categories used in the study
as presented in Chapters Five and Six.

3.2. Approaches to hyperlink studies

There are two key approaches to the study of hyperlinks; the literal, considering
hyperlinks as technological tools, and the interpretational, considering hyperlinks as a
“newly emerging social (or communicational) channel” (Park et al., 2004: 50). The
literal link studies focus on hyperlinks as the subject of studies; “hyperlinking as an
interesting phenomenon per se” addressing the question of how information is
organized within the underlying structure of the networked communication ecosystem
(De Maeyer, 2013: 4). In this research stream are found studies that examine the
structural aspects of the web analysing “the science of networks that explores the web at
large and the hyperlink structures that constitute it” (De Maeyer, 2011: 4). Literal link
studies have revealed networking properties that help to explain the regularity of
patterns in the networked communication sphere (De Maeyer, 2013).

This approach to the study of links is also referred to as an external approach, analysing
the role links play as structural elements in the networked public sphere (Costa e Silva,
2016). Accordingly, it assesses the social significance of links by examining the
destination of links. The destination of a link gives insight into the relationship
constructed between different domains of knowledge, specifically identifying the
sources of information that news outlets use across geographical boundaries. This
approach also identifies the connotation of the linking patterns; linking as a
manifestation of political affiliation or ideological alignment. Further, linking frequency
is identified as a marker of influence, for example, a highly linked blog is perceived as
being more influential (ibid.).

Through a similar endeavour, more aspects of the hypertextual medium are discovered,
such as how diversified web content is. Park et al. (2004) analysed a network of Korean
politicians on the web discovering that “the network has become denser, more highly
integrated, centralized and interactive over time” (p. 403). The implication of this is that
as connectivity increases, more websites, through hyperlinks, join the communicative
network. More importantly, as there are no limits to what kind of platforms or content

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hyperlinks link to, this approach focuses on identifying the destination of hyperlinks
addressing questions such as whether the public’s content consumption is diversified or
fragmented (Reese et al., 2007). Himelboim’s (2010) study of hyperlinked networks of
news organizations also revealed another interesting fact about the patterns of the
information flow on a global scale. Specifically focusing on the navigation pattern of
external links (links that navigate to other websites), Himelboim revealed the
preferential attachment toward well-established and influential organizations.

On the other hand, the interpretational approach to the study of hyperlinks examines
hyperlinks as a proxy for explaining events in the social realm. Such studies reveal that
hyperlinking is not a random activity (De Maeyer, 2013). Jackson (1997) explains that
links are predetermined by their creators as reflections of the purposes they are set up
for and as tools for determining how content is accessed by users. He states:

“There are no natural or automatic links between information. (Even search

engines use algorithms that must be designed and programmed.) Instead,
every link is planned and, most often, specifically created by the web
designer. Thus, the presence of a link reflects a communicative choice made
by the designer. A link, therefore, is strategic. The possible variations for
structure are shaped by communicative ends, rather than technological
means. The use of the link in the creation of Web structure enables the
designer to control the potential ways a user can move through information”
(Para. 27).
This notion of the hyperlink as an indication of the producer’s intentions leads to the
problematization of the essence of hyperlinks which then are targeted not only as
technological tools but as social phenomena that can explain the dynamics and
interconnections that exist in society. More specifically, in the context of the news
process as is the focus of the current study, hyperlinking as a sourcing mechanism can
give an indication about power dynamics and representations in news (De Maeyer,
2014). “The links act as a kind of control, as the author arrogates the power to direct
readers’ attention to the sources he considers reliable” (Costa e Silva, 2016: 86).

Through the strategic use of hyperlinks, particular ideas and actors are promoted and
given priority, and connections among different entities are built, all of which contribute
to the shaping of the public sphere (Turow, 2008). Literally, the presence of a link is an
indication of the existence of a relationship between different points on the web.
However, despite the richness of linked content on the internet, what is particularly
interesting is not so much the construction of the networks themselves, rather it is the
76
motivations which drive such structures (Halavais, 2008). Accordingly, two websites
would not be linked without some kind of meaningful relation because “hyperlinks are
not random” (P. 46). Weber and Monge (2011) explain that “[t]he movement to sharing
of content, …, represents a conscious intention to connect two Web sites, and a clear
exchange of information between two Web sites” (P. 1063). A study by Park et al.
(2002) examined interorganizational relations as demonstrated by shared hyperlinks
among websites and finds that inbound links are indicators of the perceived credibility
of a website and hence, the more inward traffic flows. Therefore, as hyperlinks indicate
premeditated relationships, any attempt at understanding hypertextual structure must
start with understanding the meaning of individual hyperlinks, and then on a larger
scale, how they collectively represent social behaviour (Halavais, 2008).

In the case of news production, limiting the access to information within one’s website
or providing hyperlinks to internal content is considered “a conscious gatekeeping
decision” in which news producers engage in the filtering of information or limiting
further exploration by readers (Dimitrova et al., 2003: 409). Therefore, meaning is
constructed through the intricacies of the network and hyperlinks add semantic value to
content (Halavais, 2008). In other words,

“[t]he stronger the presence of the hyperlink in online platforms and arenas,
the more layers of social and political meaning it encompasses, since the
hyperlinks announce to everyone who shares the same online space which
players and ideas are worthier than others, and which ideas or players
maintain some kind of relationship with each other” (Sereno, 2010: 2).
Considering their purpose beyond their technical capacities, it is clear that hyperlinks
can play significant social and political roles, and therefore are a relevant focus for this
study, not least to address issues of change but also of continuity. This study is
primarily interpretational, using the framework of social semiotics, as described in the
next section.

3.3. A social semiotic approach to hyperlinking

Despite the affordances of the networked media environment, studies have revealed that
external linking is not a common feature in journalism. Some of the reasons why news
organizations resort to internal linking, as specified in chapter two, include fear of
losing readers and issues of credibility as well as that of efficiency that comes with the
extra burden of verifying information from external linking. The gatekeeping
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perspective has been used to conceptualize this inclination toward internal linking
referring to “the ability of journalists and news organizations to “maintain and manage”
the discursive “gates” by which certain voices are included in or excluded from public
discourse” (Anderson, 2010b: 4). However, Anderson also points to the fact that news
organizations have no problem using external sources in more conventional ways (such
as direct and indirect quotes), and the issue of external linking patterns goes beyond
gatekeeping perspectives to hinge on broader issues that extend beyond the newsroom.

This study therefore takes a social semiotic approach to critically examine hyperlinking
as a semiotic practice the meanings of which are not only situated in their technical
capabilities but in their deployment in a social context. The meanings constructed
through the choice of semiotic resources “may not be communicated so much overtly
but in a more subtle way that requires analysis to be careful in order to reveal its precise
nature” (Machin and Mayr, 2012: 30). This explains the need for a critical approach
which takes a panoramic view of a communicative event to situate hyperlinking in
journalistic discourse in the Ethiopian context. “A critical perspective on any social text
is a way of standing outside of it (no pun intended) and understanding it in greater
detail” (Ravelli and McMurtrie, 2016: 5). The selection of this approach is anchored in
the need to denaturalize the use of hyperlinks that comes with their ubiquity in
contemporary media landscape. As De Maeyer (2012) posits, “[a]t the core of its
architecture, the humble link is now so entrenched in our habits that we barely notice it:
clicking is natural” (p. 2). Therefore, in this study, its prominent presence is
problematized, and its semiotic property is examined as deployed in news construction
in two Ethiopian news sites.

Within the social semiotic approach, there have been a number of studies of hypertext
as a locus of meaning enabled by different semiotic resources in which hyperlinks have
been a part. These studies have so far analysed the networked environment as a digital
technology for allowing interconnection between documents and websites, as a
multimedia environment hosting different communication channels and as a text with a
meaning-making potential (Djonov, 2012). Some notable ones that explored the
meaning potential constituted in this medium assessed the interplay of multiple semiotic
modes with hyperlinks (Lemke, 2002) and hyperlinks themselves as interactive
site/signs where meaning is made not only visually but also through their interactive
affordances (Adami, 2015).
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This study takes a social semiotic position that signs are present with meaning potentials
in any form of human communication. In this perspective, “[a] sign is something that
represents or stands for something else in the mind of someone” (Cullum-Swan and
Manning, 1994: 466). As such, beyond its manifest expression, a sign also represents
something residing in the mind of the sign maker and thus the meaning in a sign is
never exhaustive. This anchors the need to conduct an empirical study to explore
hyperlinks in action in a particular social context.

As Van Leeuwen (2005) notes, sign making is an exercise where social, cultural,
historical, psychological contexts are at play in the representation of objects; therefore,
it is a motivated activity. “It seems obvious that contextual conditions are represented in
texts as to what is taken for granted, what stands out as salient, and in terms of voices as
well as power relations, etc” (Selander, 2017: 70). It is in such conceptualization of the
hyperlink that it is taken not only as a semiotic resource that structures journalistic
discourse but as will be shown, one that stands in for legitimizing journalistic authority.

3.4. Data sources

As discussed in Chapter 2, the study is conducted on the manifested content of

hypertext, the presentational level, the hyperlink presented in a recognized form on the
user interface as part of a news text. Hyperlink, as a citational tool, or as a journalistic
form of evidence, is not a common practice among online news sites in Ethiopia. Some
of the most prominent online newspapers do not utilize in-text hyperlinks. Tagging as a
mechanism to keep readers inside the boundaries of a website leading to archived
stories seems to be the most advanced form of hyperlinking practised by the majority,
such as The Reporter Ethiopia and Capital news sites. A tag is typically given at the end
of news stories for easier navigation through news archives for related content;
basically, they are key words that are used to categorize similar content. According to
Ellis (2015), tags anchor news stories as they help readers have access to entities, such
as names, places, or topics mentioned within a story; hence their purpose is internal in
contrast to SEOs11 whose purpose is boosting the visibility and findability of news sites
in the networked media environment. However, the motivation behind selecting
Ethiopian news sites for this study relates to the overarching question the study attempts

11
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a way improving an organization’s site to boost their ranking on
search engines.
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to address. The study hypothesizes that hyperlinks are used as survival mechanisms
providing news sites sources of information or contextual materials for news sites in a
media environment where the private media are marginalized from access to official
information. As such the study explores the semiotic potential of journalistic hyperlinks
as survival mechanisms.

Therefore, the news sites for this study are handpicked and only those that use in-text
hyperlinking are selected. Originally, based on their hyperlinking practice, the websites
for this study were four but after applying some criteria for selection only two of them
(Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer) were selected.

Selection Criteria:

1. Online journalism sites that primarily engage in hard news reporting

2. Sites that write their own stories (not aggregators); this is because hyperlinking
practices which are taken by the original sources cannot be taken to be that of
the website under study.
3. News sites that use in-text hyperlinks. Here, tags at the end of stories (explained
in section 4.5), and navigational links on sidebars are also not counted as such,
as they neither appear in the content zone (as demonstrated in Figure 4.1) nor
provide insights into sourcing practices.

Accordingly, Ethiopia Insight was excluded from the study because their website is
primarily engaged in news analysis which does not include breaking stories to the
public. In a given month, they post two stories on average which shows that their
primary purpose is not hard news reporting. The fourth one, Nazreth.com, does not use
hyperlinks; the only hyperlinks found in the news site are in cannibalized stories from
international outlets reporting about Ethiopia. The focus of the study on news, therefore,
forced the exclusion of Ethiopia Insight and Nazreth.com and in accordance with the
above criteria, Addis Standard (AS) and Ethiopia Observer (EO) have been selected for
this study. Besides the above criteria, the outlets selected needed to be run in English
(though EO occasionally publishes in the local language Amharic, but this is usually for
non-news related items, such as, feature stories).

Both Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer are online news outlets with their editors-
in-chief residing abroad. AS is an English online news outlet run by JAKENN

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Publishing P.L.C. It started as a printed monthly magazine in 2011, but it was difficult
to sustain it due to fear of confrontation with the government (refer to Chapter one for
the Ethiopian media context) and now runs only an online news site. EO is also an
exclusively online news outlet that has been in the Ethiopian media landscape since
2011.

In the context of this study, ‘Ethiopian media’ means news sites that exclusively report
about Ethiopian affairs – as opposed, for example, to an international news site such as
the New York Times or The Guardian UK, which may report on Ethiopia as just one of
its many areas of interest. As a matter of coincidence, both the editors-in-chief of the
selected news sites AS and EO live outside of Ethiopia. AS has staff living in Ethiopia
doing their reports, and also repurposes some stories from other websites. EO has only
its editor-in-chief who writes all of the stories, apart from sporadic inclusions of reports
from freelancers based in Ethiopia.

3.5. Data identification

Any linked entity can be labelled as a hyperlink in the hypermedia environment

(Adami, 2015) and there are different types of hyperlinks (Ryfe et al., 2016). As is
generally agreed, the selection of data must be grounded in the objectives of the
particular study which makes it very important for a researcher to identify the type of
hyperlinks used as subjects of research. Given the diversity of links, if the focus of
research is the organization of information in websites, a researcher would take
navigational links (Djonov, 2005), whereas blogrolls would make an apt signifier if the
main purpose of research is the study of social relationships or ideological affiliations as
manifested in blogs (Adamic, 2008). Even within blogs, two broad categories of links
exist, long-lasting as in blogrolls displaying affiliations and in-post hyperlinks that are
used as indicators of sources (Costa e Silva, 2016). Similar categories exist in news sites
in terms of their transience; navigational links, for example, are permanently displayed
on the upper half running across a webpage, whereas in-text hyperlinks (Nielsen, 2016)
are part of specific news stories, and thus every news text has its own hyperlinks. The
strategic selection of news texts as opposed to other journalistic outputs is driven by the
overarching purpose of the research which is to examine how hyperlinks augment
journalistic legitimation in the changing environment. The study aims to examine the
paradigmatic transformation from an authority built on providing news as a professional
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product to one contingent upon establishing connectivity in the networked public
sphere. Figure 4.1 is a news page from the website of Addis Standard, one of the news
sites used in this study. It demonstrates the different parts (zones) in which different
hyperlinks are located in a news page. This study includes hyperlinks that appear in the
content zone of the news pages where the news texts are located, and excludes
navigational links found at the top and bottom section of the pages. Tags at the end of
stories and navigational links on sidebars are also excluded.

Figure 3.1. Zoning of news pages (adapted from Djonov and Knox, 2014).

Within the content zone of the news page, multiple types of links are found. Excluded
are those links within headlines, by-lines, photographs, graphics, etc, as these merely
provide attribution. The focus of this study is on hyperlinks which create connections
between pages, both within the websites and outside. These are called here ‘citational’

82
links, as they indicate the journalistic and other sources used in the construction of
news.

As noted, citational links transport the reader to a linked destination, whether to another
page inside the website or to another website. These citational links have two further
subcategories: in-text hyperlinks and embedded hyperlinks. As shown in Figure 4.2, the
in-text hyperlink (a) is part of the news text appearing within one line but is displayed
distinctly from the surrounding content with colour differentiation. The embedded
hyperlink (b) appears in between paragraphs, and shows an extract of a twitter feed,
boxed off as a separate entity. Both types of hyperlinks are easily identified through
their “salience-enhancing graphic features” that are recognizable to web browsers
(Adami, 2015: 138). Embedding tweets is practised only by AS but since it represents a
link in and of itself, it is included in the study. An embedded link which is a tweet, in
contrast to in-text hyperlinks, brings with it further active links including hashtagged
keywords (#) creating “a virtual community of interested listeners who are actively
following this keyword or who may use it as a search term” (Zappavigna, 2011: 791).
However, in this study, it is only the embedded tweet as a whole that is taken as data,
not the individual hashtags within. Social media icons used by the user to show ‘likes’
and to share content, have been excluded from the data, unless these occur inside the
story section of the inside page as part of the news story.

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Figure 3.2. Types of hyperlinks

3.6. Data Collection

Since the focus of the study is news texts, news stories are collected from the inside
pages of the two websites by going directly to the World News (Addis Standard) and
NEWS & POLITICS (Ethiopia Observer) sections. The data comprises two sets from
each outlet; the first set of data spans three months, January, February, March 2019 and
the second set, which is relatively larger in size, includes news texts from November 4,
2020 to April 28, 2021, six months into the Tigray war. The two data collection periods
are picked for different purposes but also to bring a comparative nuance to the study.
The first data was chosen because it is the time when the Ethiopian Communication
Affairs Office (GCAO) was replaced by the press secretariate at the Prime Minister’s
office. The GCAO was first established in 2008 upon the dissolution of the Ministry of
Information with the aim to centralize the control of information (Meseret, 2013) a

84
decade of which saw restriction of access to information on the private media (Melisew,
2013). When the current regime came to power following a popular uprising, it
promised a lot in terms of reforming the governance system including its relationship
with the media12. This particular context is important because it serves to explain some
of the linking patterns of the two news sites due to its implications on the information
flow. The second dataset on the other hand coincides with the start of the Tigray war, a
region in the North of Ethiopia in early November. The war resulted in a total
information blackout which may again notably affect the flow of information especially
on how the raw materials for news are obtained.

The first set of data therefore comprises 48 news stories for Addis Standard and 31
stories for Ethiopia Observer; and the second set comprises 155 news stories from AS
and 36 from EO.

Table 3.1. Data used in the study

News sites First set Second set

(January, February, March) (November-April)

Addis Standard 48 155

Ethiopia Observer 31 36

Data has been collected in two stages according to the different research questions the
study aims to address. The study focuses solely on hard news stories which have been
distinguished from news analysis or op-ed by the label “NEWS” on the respective
websites. In terms of their subject matters, hard news stories are characterized by
“prototypical ‘news’ events, i.e. accidents, natural disasters, crimes, stock market
crashes, election results, medical breakthroughs and acts of warfare” (White, 2009: 30).
According to White’s (1997) earlier categorization of this genre of journalistic stories,
the data includes both Event Stories and Issue Reports; while the former represents “a
material event” that disrupts the status quo, the latter is based on “a communicative

Mumo, M., 2019, “Under Abiy, Ethiopia’s media have more freedom but challenges remain”, CPJ, 21
12

April, accessed 12 August 2021, https://cpj.org/2019/04/ethiopia-abiy-ahmed-press-freedom-reform/

85
event” that involves deliberations or utterances by the public or elite sources (p. 102).
Headlines can also be used to identify hard news stories, specifically by the use of
tenses. Hard news stories are typically identified by their use of the present tense in
their headlines, which according to Fowler (1991) is a defining characteristic of the
news headline register. The headline of hard news is known for its ‘atemporality’, i.e., it
uses the present tense for past or future actions as it relates to the foregrounded action
which is the main subject of news (Chovanec, 2003).

To illustrate, in the examples below, Example 3.1 is a headline written in the simple
present tense, indicating a hard news story; whereas Example 4.2 uses a sentence
fragment to indicate an Op-Ed.

Ex. 4.1. 33,000 Severely Malnourished Children Currently Inaccessible In Tigray At

High Risk Of Death: UNICEF. (AS 11 June 2021)

Ex. 4.2. Beyond Tigray, Condemning Political Violence and Conflicts throughout
Ethiopia 12 June 2021

An important additional component of the data selection is sampling, or the span of the
data, and this should also be best suited to the purpose of the research. In dealing with
media texts, the cyclic nature of news must be considered and the sampling be
accounted for accordingly. In this regard, the most common sampling technique for
news stories is the constructed week method (Bell, 1991; see also Bednarek and Caple,
2012: 13). This method involves collecting data from each day of the week for seven
weeks which results in a week in which all the days of the week have equal chances of
selection. What makes this method a preferable sampling method in news analysis is its
ability to account for the systematic variation of days of the week (Bell, 1991).
However, the news sites under study here are not updated regularly; i.e, the number of
news items per week ranges from as little as two to six. Therefore, since the study is not
intended for large scale quantitative analysis, it takes a three-month span for the first set
to obtain a representative range of examples. A six-month data span is used for the
second set, because of the unfortunate turn of events in the Ethiopian political context
which brought about the Tigray war. The war coverage is predicted to present active
news days with frequent news updates in contrast to the previous set.

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When it comes to data gathering, web archiving tools such as the Wayback Machine
(https://archive.org/web/) are useful tools for accessing webpages with their original
presentation, especially for studies aiming to analyse website designs. However, this
study only focuses on news texts, the collection of which can be done directly from the
archives of the websites in the news sections and copy/pasting every story within the
data period into a word document. This method, though manual, preserves the active
hyperlinks intact for later use and is appropriate for a dataset of manageable size. The
original texts are presented in Appendices A, B, C, and D. News items are coded with
initials ‘AS’ (Addis Standard) or ‘EO’ (Ethiopia Observer) and the number of the item
in sequence, i.e. AS 01, EO 01, etc.

3.7. Data Analysis

This section quantitatively explains some of the linking features, such as frequency,
navigation, precision and destination and at the same time qualitatively maps out the
semiotic resources in them in relation to how they serve as an argument for the
factuality of their utterances and the legitimacy of the sites. That is, these categories are
first quantitatively analysed through coding and counting, laying the groundwork for the
second stage of analysis which is the social semiotic analysis of the meaning of
hyperlinks. Beyond the literal meanings of the links, the analysis examines how linking
is implemented as a semiotic practice bolstering the legitimacy of the news sites’
authority.

3.7.1. Frequency of linking

In the descriptive quantitative analysis stage, the frequency of link usage of the two
news sites is assessed in totality and in individual stories. The purpose of this simple
quantitative analysis is to examine some defining characteristics of the news sites that
are used as a backdrop to understanding the qualitative semiotic analyses, as well as to
enable some comparative analysis between the two sites. These results are reported in
Chapter Five for the first data set, and Chapter Six for the second.

3.7.2. Navigational Paths: Internal Vs. External links

It is widely discussed that the barriers to entry into news creation have been lowered
due to the widely available production technologies that have traditionally been
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domains of mainstream media. As a result, blogs and social media crossed the personal
realm to become part of the wider public sphere allowing a wider consumption of their
products and participation. The concept of the metaphorical gates guarded by traditional
media and the normative commitments that defined journalism are challenged and
journalistic authority is diminished (Bruns, 2003; Singer, 2005).

After describing the frequency of links, the analysis progresses to the examination of
the link pathways, whether links direct readers to archived news stories inside the same
site (internal links) or to an external destination (external links). In contrast to Ryfe et.
al.’s (2016) notion of the “where” discussed in Chapter 2, this analysis targets the
navigational pathways which the links take; where links direct readers to in contrast to
where links are placed on a website.

Figure 3.3 illustrates both types of hyperlinks.

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Figure 3.3. Internal and external hyperlinks

89
Figure 3.3 presents a snippet of a news story in Addis Standard with hyperlinks of
different navigational paths. As demonstrated, the first link (a) directs to an external
destination, a YouTube page, the second (b) is an internal link that navigates to an
archived news story in the same website, Addis Standard and the third link (c) is an
external link to another news site. The figure also demonstrates that news websites also
link to platforms other than websites, such as social media.

The navigational paths of the hyperlinks in the two websites have been counted and
tabulated for further analysis. Since the span for the first and the second sets are
different, this is done separately for comparative analysis between the two sites and
within the different datasets from the different data periods, but the parameters used for
the different datasets remain the same.

At this stage, only the navigation paths of hyperlinks are known, whether the news
organizations use external links (connecting to outside content) or internal links (self-
referencing). However, in the context of this study, links are examined not only for the
paths they construct in creating connections between texts, but for the extent to which
the news sites use external materials in their news texts.

The distinction between internal and external links is important because, unlike
analogue media, online media provides the affordance of linking to source materials in
any form. External linking therefore is taken as ideal type of hypertextual news writing
allowing independent verification (Tsui, 2008). In this regard, those links that navigate
outside of the news website, external links, provide further dimensions for analysis.
Therefore, the study does not examine internal links further, “as the idea of sourcing
itself implies that there is someone or something outside of the media outlet” (De
Maeyer, 2014: 535). Only external links are pursued further.

3.7.3. Link Precision: Deep v. Generic links

Following De Maeyer’s (2014) operationalization of link precision, external hyperlinks

are sub-categorised further, according to whether links allow full access to raw
materials of news or not. Depending on the access journalists allow their readers or the
precision of the links they use, external links are classified as those that direct readers to
the exact source or contextual materials used in the news text (Deep Links), and those
that link to the home page of a destination website, merely serving a referential role
90
indicating the location of content referred to in the news (Generic Links). While deep
links navigate to inside pages of the destination website allowing readers to follow the
source of news to its destination, generic links do not go further than the homepage
limiting the access of readers into the raw materials for news. For hyperlinks used to
link to other platforms than websites, such as social networking sites, deep links can be
identified by their linking to specific posts (Figure 3.5) in contrast to generic links
which direct readers to merely the profile page as shown in Figure 3.7.

Deep links in online journalism are identified by a match between the subject being
reported or the person quoted in the source text with those found in the target text. Here
the source text represents the news text from which a hyperlink springs to navigate to
another website or target text. The matching of content is carried either by the deep
links themselves or the words in their vicinity, such as within the same sentence or same
paragraph. Accordingly, deep links lead to webpages or other platforms that contain the
same facts, key words, subjects and topics as in the source page. They are links that
evoke a strong intertextuality between documents and separate locations on the web. As
demonstrated in Figure 3.4., for instance, the hyperlink navigates to a news page in ‘The
Reporter’ which is one of the leading newspapers in Ethiopia. The link anchors the
name of the linked news site, but the depth of the link can be seen in the matching
content between the words near the anchor (the CEO of Tourism Ethiopia, Lensa, on the
post since 2018, was harshly criticized) and the title of the news in the destination (ETO
chief receives backlash from sector).

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Figure 3.4. Deep Linking (Website)

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Figure 3.5. Deep linking (Facebook)

93
Figure 3.6. Generic links (Website)

94
Figure 3.7. Generic link (Twitter)
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3.7.4. Link Destination

Beyond the pathways hyperlinks construct, an analysis of the destination of links

reveals the type of materials that go into news construction. Since the online platform
offers the affordance of linking to any source materials found online, the decision as to
which one to link to is up to the news producer. Therefore, beyond the mere count of
links, a more detailed analysis of destinations (target entities) is needed to understand
the news gathering process. This gives greater insight into relationships constructed by
journalists outside of their organizational and professional territories. The target entities
of deep links include websites and social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
and blogs). Document links such as pdf files are also included as a type of deep link, as
they also provide a specific rather than general destination for the link.

Link destination relates to the platforms (the people or the organizations are located)
that journalists turn to for materials to use in their news construction. Sourcing patterns
are a reflection of the epistemic strategy of journalists for the legitimacy of their news
anchored in their normative commitments to professional standards (Carlson, 2017). As
such, the inclusion of non-conventional sources or new forms of production is met with
fragmented views of those who believe that they represent new forms of journalism
(Robinson, 2006b; Matheson, 2004), others that consider them as new forms of
production ‘normalized’ into traditional norms (Singer, 2005; Haas, 2005).

3.7.5. Authorship of linked content

So far, the categories used in this analysis represent the link-node relationship and do
not reveal anything about the ownership/authorship of the linked entities or the
producers of the linked content. Therefore, the last analytical category identifies the
people or the organizations behind the linked content used in this study. Accordingly,
the larger category of Websites is further subdivided into categories of mainstream
media (international and local), international organizations (government and NGOs),
local government agencies and private companies. Beyond the generic categories, each
link is further identified by the specific authors, such as, the name of the media house,
the organization, as websites are typically set up for organizational purposes. A social
media account on the other hand can be owned by individuals; therefore, an additional
category (personal) is added to the social media authorship category to account for
96
those cases where links are made to an individual’s personal social media account.
Moreover, a news site making a reference to its own post on social media (self-
referencing) is also labelled (self).

The analytical category is mapped out into a link taxonomy as demonstrated in Figure
3.8.

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Figure 3.8. Hyperlink Taxonomy developed in this study

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3.8. Summary

This chapter has provided an overview of approaches to hyperlink studies, identifying

the approach of the current study as being interpretational, and specifically a social
semiotic one. The collection of data from Ethiopian news media has been described,
resulting in two data sources, Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer, across two time
periods. The identification of the relevant hyperlinks has also been described, as well as
their categorisation.

Initially, hyperlink usage is assessed in terms of the frequency of hyperlinking in news

writing. Then, the hyperlinks are analysed in terms of whether they connect the news
sites with external destinations or merely link to internal pages. External links are
assessed in terms of link precision, whether deep or generic, marking the distinction
between those that signal the source of information used in the news and those that play
merely a referential role. Finally, the analysis identifies the kinds of materials or
platforms news stories link to and the authorship of the content of the raw materials that
construct the news. Figure 4.8 summarizes the analytical framework as a taxonomy, and
Chapters 5 and 6 present the results of this analysis for the respective data collection
periods.

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100
Chapter 4. Examining the news matrix

4.1 Introduction

In online journalism, hyperlinks represent links to source materials used by journalists

to construct news stories, allowing journalism into the networked information
infrastructure. They are connective devices linking journalism to other discursive areas
that impact the public’s life. Their functions, among other things and most often
considered fundamental, is to serve as evidential strategies or sources whereby
journalists support their reportorial claims. Other functions of hyperlinks as objects of
journalism also include providing contextual and other information into news discourse
(De Maeyer, 2014). Through hyperlinks, readers access not only the final version of
news readily delivered to them, but also experience aspects of the newsgathering
process through access to the raw materials that give the news its shape and meaning.

These other functions of hyperlinks are important because they add layers of meaning to
the news as they mediate the journalist-source interaction. Therefore, “[to] understand
how news takes shape, then, it is important to understand the effect of the news
environment” (Berkowitz and Beach, 1993: 4). Studying the news ecology reveals
broader perspectives beyond the newsroom, the relationships journalism forms within
the networked news environment; as such, hyperlinks entail the most visible expression
of the news ecology (Sjøvaag et al., 2019). An account of the multiple interactions of
journalism and their positioning in the relational dynamics promotes a comprehensive
understanding of journalistic authority (Carlson, 2017).

As structural elements, hyperlinks map out the relationships and interactions journalism
establishes with other information production entities, not only those discursively
associated with it but with others that are situated outside of the sphere of journalistic
practice. Through hyperlinks, readers access not only the final version of news readily
delivered to them, but also experience the newsgathering process through access to the
raw materials that give the news its shape and meaning. The added layer of meaning
allows more analytical insights peripheral to the actual newsgathering process for
examining how news sites legitimize their authority in the new medium. Afterall, news
writing is not simply about content production but also simultaneously an argument for
the legitimacy of journalists’ accounts of the world among that of other competing
sources of information occupying the networked public sphere.
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4.2 General Linking Patterns

This chapter comparatively explores the use of hyperlinks in Addis Standard (AS) and
Ethiopia Observer (EO) in a multilayered analysis that targets questions concerning how
hyperlinks establish the authority of the news sites as legitimate sources of information.
It is organized in such a way that it builds up in complexity, starting from a general
exploration of the nature of hyperlinking in the two Ethiopian news sites used for the
study. It then moves to the social semiotic analysis with the application of the analytical
framework developed in the previous chapter. This move from the material features of
hyperlinks to their semiotic potential is a strategic one. Through the analysis of the
overall news work of the sites including how often they post stories and their linking
patterns, such as the total number of links in the data period and average linking per
story, the study will draw out some recurring patterns. At the same time, it situates the
analysis in the wider context of the Ethiopian media landscape explicating the semiotic
choices of the news producers.

Given the limited dataset, statistical analysis is not the intended activity here but the
general comparative insight helps put trends into perspective in terms of understanding
the semiotic choices of the two sites. Recurring networking patterns are used to set the
scene for the semiotic analysis. The study attempts to identify some of the linking
features in the two websites including their preferred link destinations (Internal linking
Vs External linking), link precision (Deep linking Vs Generic linking), link destinations
in terms of platforms (websites and social media) and authorship (mainstream media:
state, private, international), organizations (international organizations, government
agencies, private companies, civil society, private citizens, own profile).

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 Table 4.1. General hyperlinking features
Addis Standard Ethiopia Observer

Total Number of News 48 31

Stories

Average stories per week 4 2.5

Total Number of 107 97

Hyperlinks

Average number of links 2.2 3.1

per story

Highest number of 7 12
hyperlinks per story

Unlinked stories 12 1

Recycled stories 12 14

News stories, as explained in chapter 3, include only those in the hard news category
and does not include other journalistic genres, such as opinion, editorial, commentary,
etc. As evidenced in the number of news stories covered by the two news sites in Table
4.1, the news cycles for both are not very frequent. As a result of the manageable data
size, data collection has been conducted through manual coding and counting and the
general hyperlinking features are laid out in the Table. The analyses and the subsequent
conclusions about their semiotic potential drawn from it are, therefore, only limited to
the dataset of this study and are not generalizable.

As shown in Table 4.1, in the three months data period (January-March 2019), AS
published 48 news stories on their websites while EO published 31. If considered in
terms of distribution, roughly, AS’s news cycle run, on average, four news stories per
week while EO covered less than three. Some days saw more than one news story in

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both sites, albeit more frequently in AS than EO. For instance, during the data period,
AS posted more than one story during a given day only on 12 days whereas EO had
only three days of multiple news posting. While AS posted as many as four news stories
with some no-news days, the highest number of news posted in EO is only two.

The less frequent update of the news sites may be attributed to the contextual factors
that challenge the practice of journalism in Ethiopia. Due to the problem of access to
information, despite constitutional provisions, private news organizations face constant
challenges in their news gathering because they are the least favoured outlets by official
sources (Melisew, 2013; Skjerdal, 2014). Tsedale Lemma, editor-in-chief of AS in a
speech she gave in Oslo, Norway under the title Access to information: How does it
(not) work in Ethiopia?13 describes that government offices are especially hostile to
information requests from private media organizations. She also shared that control of
the information flow in the country by the now defunct Government Communication
Affairs Office’s (GCAO) put the private media at its mercy for access to any
government institutions or related events. Its influence also extends to the African
Union, a continental body hosted at the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, that demanded
accreditation of journalists by the GCAO to gain conference badges to attend their
functions which ended up being a privilege only for state owned media outlets. The
office is now replaced by the press secretariate at the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s office
with basically the same function. What is different about today’s local media landscape
is the increasing digital presence of different government ministries and their staffers.
Along with other establishments and their personnel, this promotes disintermediation
for non-state media who do not usually get easy access to official information, with a
similar impact for the public at large. Since the establishment of the press secretariat at
the end of 2018, the government has become relatively active in briefing the public
through different social media platforms owned by it and affiliate ministries.

These same constraining factors can be traced in the linking patterns of both news sites.
When it comes to link density within the sample news stories in the two news sites,
despite having smaller number of stories in comparison to AS, EO used higher number
of links in the three-month period. The data in table 4.1. shows that one fourth (12) of

13
“Access to information: How does it (not) work in Ethiopia?” a presentation by Tsedale Lemma, Editor
in Chief of Addis Standard, Ethiopia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5bsjV53lIg&t=221s
Accessed July 2021
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the 48 stories in AS do not have a single hyperlink while EO has only one unlinked
story of the 31 stories in the sample period. In addition to being more densely linked,
EO also had the highest number of links per story (12) in contrast to AS whose highest
linked story has only seven links. EO is also higher in its average links per story which
is 3.1 as compared to AS which used 2.2. The presence of links almost in every story
and having highest average links per story may be telling just how much EO is reliant
on online outlets as its information base which helps explain some specific linking
choices. However, more nuance is added in the subsequent analytical stages to qualify
this.

Some of AS’s sources are channelled PR statements from embassies and recycled
materials directly picked up from the websites of international organizations. For
instance, of the 12 unlinked stories included in the dataset, eight of them (AS 02, AS 20,
AS 27, AS 29, AS 33, AS 38, AS 40, AS 45) are from information subsidies of
embassies and international organizations, two stories (AS 20, AS 29) are recycled
stories from international organizations, IOM and UNIFSA respectively. Two of AS’s
remaining unlinked stories are original stories one constructed from tips of anonymous
sources (AS 05), and another is done by AS staff (AS 23). On the other hand, almost
half of EO’s news stories in the first data period (14) are recycled from other news
outlets and 12 of them have links to the original reports while two merely mention their
sources. As some of the stories on EO clearly indicate how stories have been obtained,
others just give facts and not mention the newsgathering process. The difference
between the first and the second evidentiary strategy lies in their level of transparency,
i.e., “residents told Deutsche Welle Amharic (link)” (EO 33) Vs “reports say” (EO 05)
without linking or specifying where the reports came from.

Though journalists may not always be transparent about their newsgathering process
(De Maeyer, 2014), AS indicates original reporting by putting initials of the site (AS) at
the end of every story produced by their staff and attributing recycled stories to their
sources with their names given at the end. Accordingly, in terms of their origin 12 of
AS’s news stories originate from external sources either as information subsidies or
recycled stories. Five of the recycled stories also come with hyperlinks used in the
original stories taken into AS’s stories as they are. In contrast, none of EO’s recycled
stories come with hyperlinks.

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AS has reporters on the ground in Ethiopia doing their own reporting talking to sources,
attending courtrooms, etc. and they tout their originality through providing by-lines of
their reporters. This may also explain why AS had relatively higher news count than
EO; AS not only relies on others’ reports but produces its own reporting too. The
difference in news routines between the two sites are highlighted further into the
analysis through their linking patterns and the link destinations explaining their semiotic
tendencies.

4.3 Navigational Paths: Constructing news browsing

Hyperlinks give news producers ways to determine the possible information diet of
readers by how they design interconnections among information sources and how they
allow readers to access them. As such, the concept of gatekeeping has been drawn into
the study of hyperlinks to explain linking patterns of news sites as a business strategy to
drive traffic and as an editorial decision to prevent unreliable information. In addition,
news production involves information selection as a strategy to legitimize authority.

One of the ways in which readers are allowed access to the networked information
infrastructure is through the pathways they construct by way of either keeping readers
within the bounds of the website or letting them navigate outside of the boundaries of a
website to external content. Beyond their material features, hyperlinks, as identified in
chapter three, are used as gatekeeping mechanisms. As specified in chapter three, the
concept of gatekeeping has been prominently drawn to explain the role of hyperlinks in
news websites as a determining factor in news consumption.

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The most interesting feature of new media and perhaps one that has been prevalent as a
subject of hyperlink research is whether technology has been adopted to the fullest in
journalism, especially regarding the hypertextual nature of the World Wide Web. This
discussion mostly revolves around the non-linearity of hypertext which is manifested by
the use of hyperlinks. The networked communication infrastructure allows
interconnections not only between different elements on a webpage but among
webpages as well as websites. It offers “navigation options for leaving a website
(website-external) and those connecting its webpages (website-internal)” (Djonov,
2005: 116 emphasis in original) . These affordances marking the basic difference the
online medium has with traditional media are used by online news producers to direct
readers to the raw materials used for constructing news.

Navigational paths (internal Vs external linking) refer to spatial features of

hyperlinking. It is a news production decision to direct readers to other pages within the
bounds of one’s news site or leading them to other pages on other external sites. As both
paths have different purposes, the decision to link in either directionality is a strategic
choice by the producer which conveys more meaning than through content. The
decision to maintain the archival function of hyperlinks linking exclusively to one’s
own site or linking to other websites ultimately determines the flow of web traffic
(Tremayne, 2005) and the structure created on the web through such linking strategies
(Costa e Silva, 2016). However, the decisions also have discursive implications as they
are related to different purposes that news producers attempt to achieve. “Typically,
source documents and expert opinions will be found on external websites, while the
story context can be provided, at least partially, by past coverage in the same
newspaper” (Dimitrova et al., 2003: 410). By directing readers to other related websites,
news producers can also achieve adding further context to news stories (Chang et al.,
2012).

The reading paths frequently constructed also reflect the nature of the website by
determining a website’s closedness or openness to outside content and its tendency
toward “a more varied directionality” (Adami, 2015: 148). In relation to news
production, this means link destinations determine the extent to which authors are
willing to invite others to contribute to the meaning of texts (Costa e Silva, 2016). The

107
mere binary of haves and have nots, however, does not reveal much about how links
contribute to the meaning of news.

In this study, as established in Chapter 3, links to the social media profiles run by the
news sites themselves are counted as external links. This is because even though they
are under the same ownership/authorship, in terms of diversity, social media platforms,
such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube bring interactive elements to the news and they
navigate externally into a different platform. The analysis of the navigational pathways
is given in Table 4.2 below.

Table 4.2.Navigational Paths of AS and EO

News Site Internal links Total no. of External links

internally linked
stories

Addis Standard 35 (32.7%) 19 72 (67.3%)

Ethiopia Observer 5 (5.2%) 4 92 (94.8%)

As shown in Table 4.3, both news sites are mixed in their directionality, but both also
have a higher tendency toward external linking than to their own pages. Their difference
lies only in the proportion they incline toward internal vs external linking. In terms of
frequency of use, unlike the findings of many studies that revealed the dearth of external
linking in news websites, both news sites link externally within the data period more
commonly than they link to their own websites. While 94.8% of EO’s links navigate
externally, 67.3% of AS’s links navigate externally. In addition to the difference in the
proportion of external linking that exists between the two sites, the gap that exists
between the two directionalities within the sites is higher in EO than it is AS. Almost all
of the hyperlinks used in EO except only five percent navigate externally to other
websites but almost a third (32.7%) of AS’s links navigate internally with 19 (almost
40%) of its stories having one or more internal links.

Both sites tap into the “opportunity for putting current events into context” and how the
target sites influence the news content and the legitimacy of the news sites’ authority is
left for further analysis in later sections. At this stage, we can only note that the two
sites do not have strict gatekeeping strategies. However, as linking choices depend on
editorial decisions of what content to make available to readers, the predominance of
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external linking does not automatically translate into lesser control over media content.
Within the hyperlinking literature, it is explained that the influence of news editors goes
beyond “jurisdictional protectionism” keeping readers within their website through
internal linking (Chang et al., 2012). As such, link destinations determine not only the
kinds of contents readers consume but also whether readers stay on site or navigate to
another linked source.

4.3.1 External Linking in context

External linking spatially displaces readers as it makes a link to a source outside of a

news site. It is arguably associated with the loss of readers which makes website editors
cautious about their linking strategies. External links as specified earlier are links that
take the reader to an external destination outside of the website that they are browsing
This fact has been used to explain why many news producers are cautious and apply
strict gatekeeping mechanisms, such as, using internal linking (Dimitrova et al., 2003;
Tremayne, 2005) and this very mechanism stands in stark contrast with the dominant
external linking in the news sites of this study.

4.3.1.1 Embedded Tweets

Looking into the particular ways in which hyperlinks have been used and the meanings
they convey, the analysis in this section reveals that the news site AS mitigates the loss
of readers in their own unique way by bringing external content to readers instead of
sending them away. Here, external links refer to spatial dimensions and not the
authorship of the link destination which means a navigational path from AS to AS’s
twitter account is lablelled ‘external’. Accordingly, AS’s embedded tweets are included
under such label because the destination site linked to them are not only external, but
they also belong to a different discursive domain, Twitter. However, in terms of their
informational value, embedded tweets are represented by more information than just
anchor texts. Embedded tweets, in contrast to external hyperlinks within sentences give
instant access to intended information as they bring to the reader the linked content
without the need to transport the reader to an external destination. As such, they not
only instantly fulfill the informational needs of the reader, but also keep the reader in
the website and on the page.

An embedded tweet, just like hyperlinks, is a way of linking spatially separated content
in the networked public sphere. What is different about the latter is that the reader is
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directed away from a page to access a linked content. This is true even for internal links
which still keep the reader within the website but away from the immediate page.
However, when it comes to embedded tweets, though they represent active links to a
spatially separated content, they keep readers on the page insofar as readers choose to
simply consume the content, but if they click it, they are transported to an external
destination. The destination of an embedded tweet is not only spatially but also
discursively separated because it does not “share a basic normative framework”
(Sjøvaag et al., 2019: 509) with journalistic content.

Figure 4.1 shows an embedded tweet as used in AS 47 as an example. As can be seen,

it presents a lot more information than a hyperlink which only gives a clue or a
“promise” (Pernice, 2014) of what lies on the next layer of the networked information
infrastructure. Readers are within their rights whether to stay on the page and read the
intended content as is or click on the tweet and go to AS’s post on the Twitter platform.
If they choose the latter, the reader gets to experience all the functionalities of the
platform, such as, read all the conversations around the news or related topics further
enhancing their understanding of the issue. In addition, in this particular example, an
external route affords a wide range of information from different entities brought
together in a thread reader14.

14
The thread reader is included in the appendix
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 A B

A B

Embedded
Thread

Figure 4.1. Embedded tweet (A) Vs tweets on the Twitter platform (B)

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The way the Twitter post is embedded within the news brings the intended content to
readers rather than opening the gate for them to browse away to the Twitter platform.
As shown in Figure 4.1, the embedded Tweets (A) have all the key components of
Twitter, the feature of “findability” (Zappavigna, 2011), such as hashtags15 and other
active links within (tags and hyperlinks leading to other Tweets by Addis Standard). As
such, the reader can still read the contents of the Tweet on the spot or navigate away to
the Twitter account of the website to see the original post and experience the interactive
elements and other previous Tweets.

While the blue hashtags navigate to Twitter posts with the same key words by different
users, a click on the white spaces or the linked text, “see Addis Standard’s other
Tweets” in the embedded Tweet, other than the distinct clickable areas, navigates
externally to the specific Tweet on the Twitter platform. This external route affords the
reader a wide range of options to access a network of diverse discourses and interactive
opportunities with relevant people and organizations (usernames that follow the @
character) and to be a part of the conversation and a virtual community linked by the
hashtag. In this regard, embedded Tweets instead of the linked ones (as used in Ethiopia
Observer) present a “paradoxical virtue”, to borrow from Tremayne (2004). Readers
looking for quick and relevant facts can stay on site and read what is presented, whereas
those after more information can ‘travel’ to the Twitter platform and access its other
functionalities. What the news producer achieves by embedding tweets is not only the
ability to keep readers in the news site but also providing more information than a
simple hyperlink anchor does.

The importance of incorporating Twitter into news work perhaps lies, more than
anything, on the extraneous factors it brings into news discourse as it is “a shift from
searching purely for content, to searching what other people are saying online and
forming communities of shared value” (Zappavigna, 2011: 789). In addition, by
clicking their way into Twitter, readers also gain access to further content shared by the
embedded source and the interactive elements, such as comments, likes, and retweets.

AS 47 provides a good example of what the news producer can achieve by using
Twitter as part of their news source. It provides a brief description of what lies in the

“Hashtags” enact social relations and are a way for users to affiliate around certain values (Zappavigna
15

M., 2011)

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links provided in the news under a headline “#ET302 CRASH: THE WORLD
MOURNS WITH ETHIOPIA. CHRONICLES OF EVENTS”. The news includes an
embedded tweet which converges different sources together giving constant updates in a
thread reader combining a wide range of sources, such as,

• a tweet expressing condolences from the Prime Minister of Ethiopia

• an online news from Fana Broadcasting Corporate a private local media

confirming the news (in the local language)

• another news update in English from the same outlet

• a press release from the Ethiopian Airlines

• news update from the BBC

• an update from the Airlines identifying casualties by number and citizenship

• another BBC update that includes updates from Boeing media room

• The Reporter Ethiopia’s update on new facts about events before crush

• the declaration of a day of mourning by the House of People’s Representatives

• Accident Bulletin released by Ethiopian Airlines

• a couple of stories about the grounding of 737 Max airplanes by a few airlines
following the crash (Russia Today),

• update on the arrival of a rescue team from Israel and China, a tweet from the
airline on the retrieval of devices from the crash site

• A story on The Atlantic on “The Western Erasure of African Tragedy”

demonstrating a shift in the media frame

• A CNN story that the black boxes have been found amidst the grounding of
planes

4.3.1.2 Embedded Authority

The visual nature of hyperlinks signals to the reader the presence of a linked text the
activation of which demands their action. Through formal differentiation from the rest
of the news text, readers are made aware that there is an underlying content beyond the
manifest news text displayed on the computer screen. In-text hyperlinks are used by
both news sites linking to destination internally in the same website and externally on

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different websites and other discursive platforms, such as, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
etc.

Embedded tweets have an even stronger visual appeal than simply linked in-text
hyperlinks in their placement as distinct elements between paragraphs in news texts.
Since AS also uses Twitter as in-text links within sentences in contrast to embedded
tweets between paragraphs. The latter indicates an editorial choice to give immediate
access to a linked content without leaving the page. Not only in terms of immediacy but
also in its informational value, an embedded tweet is more loaded with information than
a simple in-text hyperlink; it shows who is saying what, when and the kind of content
they share. Since the reader has the option to read embedded tweets without leaving the
page, the news reading is not disrupted. This may indicate that more value is attached to
embedded tweets as they are a good way to retain readers by fulfilling their information
needs.

In AS, the embedding of Twitter as a legitimizing strategy can be seen in its functional
deployment as a design element. In addition to its role as a discursive and gatekeeping
mechanism, an embedded tweet functions as a design element distinctly placed in news
texts breaking the cascade of paragraphs. Particularly in the absence of the usual
journalistic resources, such as photographs, they serve a surrogate role as they also
sometimes come with images. Moreover, the text boxes bordering the embedded tweet
serve as demarcation between the journalistic professional order and social media
indicating the discursive distinction with journalistic content. At the same time, they are
salience enhancing mechanisms showing the importance of their content.

AS takes advantage of the affordances of embedding as a mechanism to direct the

attention of readers toward their stories as explained in the following sections.

4.3.1.2.1 Integrative

AS’s strategy of keeping readers in the news site, as explained, is done through bringing
intended content to readers without disrupting the news reading process. One of the
ways, as demonstrated in both tweets in Figure 4.2, is by integrating external content
into the embedded tweet. This content could be of any mode including, images or video
as in Figure 4.2 (A) and it could also be another tweet from another twitter account as in
(B). Both keep the reader inside the website and on the page by doubling down on the
content provision; more is added to the already embedded tweet to keep the reader
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engaged. The video from ETV news embedded in (A) can be played and other contents
can be read in the same way, while the reader stays on the page. Integrative is the kind
of embedding that gives more information to the reader without the need to leave the
site.

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Figure 4.2. Embedded content within embedded tweets

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4.3.1.2.2 Reflexive

While the integrative embedding is a way to keep readers in a website by bringing

pieces of information that are otherwise located elsewhere, AS also embeds tweets from
other sources as in Figure 4.3. What these embedded tweets from external sources have
in common is that they belong to elite persons or organizations. For instance, the
embedded tweets from Harun Maruf, a verified16 VOA journalist (A), and the Office of
the Prime Minister (B) bring the elite perspective through ownership of the tweets. In
addition to the facts these accounts provide, they also lend themselves to the conferral
of authority to AS’s accounts. In addition to their journalistic labour of producing
stories (Coddington, 2014a), journalists also “argue for their role as authorized knowers
through their access and connection to these powerful sources” (Carlson, 2017: 134).
Not only for the information they provide readers, but the embedded external sources
are there for the legitimation they provide AS with their eliteness as a news value and
the authority attached to it.

When it comes to the quest for legitimacy, AS doubles down on the embedding by
adding other legitimizing factors, such as an indirect self-referencing. For example, as
shown in Figure 4.3 (A), the embedded tweet shares AS’s story as a reference for the
claim made on the post. The incorporation of Twitter marks the shift from institutional
authority to distributed and networked authority (Hermida, 2012). However, in addition
to its frequent self-referencing by embedding its own tweets, this example also shows
an extension of its legitimizing strategy through indirect self-referencing.

16
A verified account with a blue badge next to the account holder’s name indicates that the account of
public interest is authentic
https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/about-twitter-verified-accounts, Accessed August
2021.
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Figure 4.3. Reflexive tweets

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AS 01 is another case in which an embedded tweet is used as an argument for the
legitimacy of journalistic accounts as demonstrated in Figure 4.4. The embedded tweet
from Fana Broadcasting Corporate which broke wrong information is accompanied by a
news text ‘“Kassahun Gofe has not been appointed to the Press Secretariat. Not true,”
our source clarified’.

Figure 4.4 Embedded tweet from an external source (AS 01)

Here, by exposing Fana BC’s wrong information through embedding its tweet, not only
is it conveying the veracity of their own reports by exposing journalistic deviance by a
rival, per se but also helping their readers to decide right then and there not to browse
away. Their truth claim is also bolstered by the source they used for their ‘accurate’
accounts, “a source close to the office of prime minister”. In a way, the case for the
legitimacy of their report invokes a kind of dialogical utterances, such as, “you should
believe our accounts instead of the news by Fana Broadcasting Corporate because they
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are not accurate”. The insider tip or exclusive access to elite sources that AS uses to
discredit the account of the embedded tweet helps to demarcate their boundaries around
credibility and against inaccuracies.

The above two cases of embedded tweets demonstrate that through its reliance on
external sources for its content, AS frequently positions “itself as an authorized way of
knowing” (Carlson, 2017: 135) by strategically pointing to itself.

4.3.1.2.3 Camouflaging

Ethiopia observer links externally more frequently than to its own pages; in fact,
internal linking, as compared to AS, is minimal. However, it uses a different mechanism
to still keep readers within its website, specifically by camouflaging generic linking as
external linking giving the reader a sense of freedom at browsing but denying them full
access to the exact content. By quoting the content from the destination website, they
save the reader the trouble of looking for the particular content on an external
destination. But at the same time, they demand blind trust from the reader instead of
being transparent about their news gathering denying the reader a chance to see how the
news came about.

Figure 4.5. A generic link to a social media profile

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4.3.2 Internal linking as gatekeeping

Given the unlimited potential for interconnectivity allowed by the networked

information infrastructure, other studies have found that external linking is rare (Chang
et al., 2012; Dimitrova et al., 2003; Tremayne, 2004). From the gatekeeping
perspective, as already established, links serve as a control mechanism allowing or
limiting readers’ browsing experience in the networked media. News producers make
decisions about what facts to include in the news but also to which materials to direct
readers’ attention in support of their facticity by determining the link destinations as “an
additional gatekeeping decision” (Dimitrova et al., 2003: 402). Internal links are
therefore a way of drawing the attention of readers to materials found in one’s own
websites and to previous stories by formulating a connection to bigger events. By
alluding to previous events using internal links, not only do the news sites keep their
readers inside their territory but also establish their authority as knowledge hubs.
Internal links give context to a news story by connecting it with a previous happening
while through an external link expert opinions and source materials can be brought in
promoting further understanding of a news event (Dimitrova et al., 2003). The latter is
taken as an evidential strategy to bolster the facticity of news reports; “hyperlinks are
said to improve the credibility of news stories, by providing links to context, facts and
sources” (De Maeyer, 2010: 2).

In terms of count, internal links have higher presence in AS than EO and through a
close qualitative semiotic analysis, some notable patterns emerge in their use. As can be
seen in Table 4.2, almost a third of AS’s hyperlinks are internal, notably different from
EO which has only 5.2% of its links navigating internally. As explained earlier, AS’s
embedded tweets, which are seemingly external, are strategically used as mechanisms to
direct readers to AS’s own news reports. Even while using other’s tweets, AS finds a
way to direct readers to their stories bolstering their argument for legitimizing their
authority as much as the information they provide. AS also uses internal linking
strategically to project their image as a credible provider of information, especially
evident in their tendency to link some stories internally more than others. For instance,
in their court reporting they use internal links to their own news archives and rarely cite
anyone else. In fact, five news stories (AS 10, AS 32, AS 34, AS 36, AS 39) with
exclusively internal links are found in the dataset and their common denominator is that

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they all constitute court reporting. Original reporting is invoked in these internally
linked stories through descriptive anecdotes of the courtroom scene as in:

“On his part Ermias (struggling with his tears) told the court that the police
have arrested him last week on Wednesday after calling him in (for the
fourth time) to give witness testimony through the attorney general’s office
about the purchase of the hotel.” (AS 08: 15 January 2019)
In addition to the invoked eyewitness accounts from attendance in the courtroom, the
case for original reporting is also established by AS’s use of a copyrighted photo which
indicates that one of their reporters had direct access to the source. They also present
some objects of evidence, such as court documents and proclamation in support of the
main topic of news. Given that such access is rare, AS uses such opportunities to boost
their authority in addition to keeping readers inside their website. AS 08 is a typical
example where internal links are used preventing readers from going away from the
news and additionally, an embedded tweet is also used to strengthen this. The same is
true in AS 16 which is also a story of court reporting which used two internal links and
AS’s embedded tweet (see Appendix). Given that a higher degree of accuracy is
demanded from court reporting and fairness of facts (Gregory, 2005), from an epistemic
point of view, original reporting is an evidence of journalistic diligence in accurately
recording facts (Carlson, 2017) which reflects favourably on AS’s professional
reputation.

Internal linking also supports AS’s claim to exclusivity especially in topics related to
the Oromo protest17. Addis Standard prides itself as the hub of knowledge or coverage
about the subject because at the time many outlets shied away from the topic for fear of
state intimidation, AS continues to report extensively on the topic18. Internal links in
this case are used as gatekeeping mechanisms not only in preventing readers from
leaving the site but through using richness of information as an incentive to make them
stay within AS. In comparison to EO, AS enforces more gatekeeping mechanisms
using a more frequent internal linking supported by their original reporting and
exclusive reporting. The authority of AS therefore lies in what they can provide readers
through their journalistic labour. In contrast, EO highly relies on external content and
17
Oromo protest is “a non-institutional and anti-authoritarian movement calling for an end to decades of
systemic exclusion and subordination of the Oromo” in Ethiopia
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/11/21/the-oromo-protests-have-changed-ethiopia Accessed
October 2021
18
Arts TV World interview with Tsedale Lemma, Editor-in-Chief of Addis Standard on the subject of
media partisanship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBVxlTA7Ygw Accessed August 2021
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hence does not apply strict gatekeeping perhaps contingent on its lack of access to
information.

4.4 Link Precision

Links are used to boost readers’ in-depth understanding of issues by drawing the
connection to other stories and to the wider news ecology. The mere presence of
hyperlinks signals a relationship between source and target texts providing “a system
for automatic referencing which enables the reader to confirm information or access a
range of different types of documents” (Costa e Silva, 2016: 85). However, beyond the
navigational paths they construct, this depends on the precision or depth of a link. As
established in Chapter 3, depth refers to how far a link travels from the news text taking
readers to an intended destination, whether it navigates to a generic homepage or to an
inside page. This section discusses the different in-text hyperlinks varying in depth and
precision with illustrations of the different ways in which they are used in the two sites.

An empirical study of hyperlinks by De Maeyer (2014) finds that in-text hyperlinks are
not automatically equated with the purpose of journalistic sourcing as they also serve
other purposes such as providing context to a news story. Depending on the depth and
precision of content links allow readers to access the raw materials for news, links can
be classified as Generic or Deep. In terms of their navigational route, while the likely
destination of Generic links is the homepage of a target website or the profile page of
social media, Deep links navigate directly to interior pages of a website (Nielsen, 2002)
or to specific posts in social media. In this regard, a link to the homepage does not target
a particular topic as the “home page is home to the other pages in a website” (Baldry
and Thibault, 2006: 118). A Deep link, on the other hand, is more focused in this way as
it targets a particular page inside a website. In terms of their citational role, the precision
in the context of this study refers to the extent to which readers are given direct access
to the raw materials used in constructing news stories. This direct access to source
materials gives readers a chance to assess the facticity of journalistic reports
(Coddington, 2014b).

Deep links indicate a correspondence between content in news and linked content or
destination or in other words deep links are pathways to source materials. These are
ways to allow explicit “shared authorship” with strong intertextuality (Costa e Silva,
2016). This co-authorship is an indication of the value system of journalists as it shows
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who they deem reliable enough to include in their narratives. “Understanding whom
journalists cite in news stories indicates whom they value. Furthermore, those who are
cited have the ability to gain power as their voices and opinions are published”
(Walejko and Ksiazek, 2008: 146).

Deep linking is therefore a way of giving readers direct access to source materials when
the content of a linked material is used as an input in the construction of the news story.
In this way, the news producers allow their readers to verify if the news matches in
content with what is included in the destination website or social media post. Deep
linking can be taken as a transparency tool for it provides readers the raw materials that
give shape and meaning to the news. Beyond serving citational roles, deep links “could
take the performance of responsibility to a further level by directly allowing readers to
see for themselves” (De Maeyer, 2014: 537).

Link precision as applied to links to social media takes a deep link to be one that leads
to a specific post whereas a generic link takes the reader to a social media profile. While
both types of links are found in the dataset for EO, all of AS’s links to social media are
deep in that they are only used to direct readers to specific posts. External links are
examined for their precision and the results are given in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3. Link precision in AS and EO

News site External links Deep Links Generic Links

Addis Standard 72 66 (92%) 6 (8%)

Ethiopia Observer 95 62 (65.3) 33 (34.7%)

Given that the two sites belong to the category of media establishments that lack the
privilege of access to official information, the tendency to link externally may be
expected. However, this study demonstrates that external linking is no guarantee for
link precision, as evidenced in the presence of generic links in both, albeit higher in EO
than in AS. While the study finds that generic linking is not a preferred kind of linking
in AS making up only 8% of its external links, a third of EO’s links (34.7%) are found
to be generic.

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Figure 4.5 also shows a generic link represented by the link anchor “Facebook” that
leads to a Facebook profile of a Slovakian member of parliament. Here, though the
quote is apparently taken from a Facebook post, as clearly indicated, the hyperlink that
accompanied the post in the news story does not lead to that specific post, rather to the
profile page. In contrast, Figure 4.6. shows a link anchor “video appearance” which
leads to a specific post with a video based on which the news story (EO 15) is
constructed. The content of the news story matches what is being said in the video
(originally in Tigrigna language).

In the video appearance, Arena Tigray Party’s spokesperson, Amdom Gebreselassie was
talking about how three members of Arena were still incarcerated in Tigray region, despite
the law passed to grant amnesty to political prisoners in the country on July 2018.

Figure 4.6. A deep link to a post on Facebook

Within the dataset, three kinds of generic links are identified; one is targeted to serve a
generic purpose out of necessity because the link is intended to merely identify people
or places mentioned in the news story. By following the link to the profile of a person
(social media) or to the homepage of a website, readers gain some extra knowledge
about the news or related issues. As Figure 4.7 demonstrates, the hyperlink “the Africa
Institute for Strategic and Security Studies” directs readers to the homepage of the
research institute. Though the story is all about Dawit Wolde Giorgis’ speech at an
event, the navigation to the homepage of the institute the speaker represents does not

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add direct value to the development of the news story but gives context of who the
speaker is.

The second type of generic link arises because the news producer fails to or chooses not
to give access to the source materials used in the news. In such case, despite the fact that
the news producer has taken excerpts or quotes from the linked source, the reader does
not get a chance to verify the information given to them. Figure 4.5. is such kind of
generic link where the author uses an excerpt from the linked content but does not allow
readers to read for themselves. No such examples exist in AS but EO used this type of
generic link five times during the data period in linking to social media posts. Given the
ease of linking to social media posts and the generically linked social media accounts
are public profiles, the fact that quotes are taken but not linked to demonstrates also a
failure to accommodate the full potential of the medium. This failure might also affect
the credibility of the site because the authority of the news site in this case comes from
opacity resting on the eliteness factor not the ability to show. Transparency gives the
reader an antidote for a biased report lending itself for reliability (Weinberger, 2009).
Major Dawit Wolde Giorgis, currently head of the Namibia-based the
Africa Institute for Strategic and Security Studies, called into question the
Ethiopian constitution that redefined citizenship, politics on ethnic

Figure 4.7. topical/contextual generic links (EO 08)

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 grounds from 1991 onwards.

The third type of link navigates to content behind a paywall. Such a link as in Figure 4.8
is virtually a deep link as it connects to a book on Amazon which has apparently been
used in the news. It is named ‘generic’ here only because it does not go further as to
allow the reader into the contents of the book but in terms of pointing to a specific
content, it serves as a deep link. What’s different is, the reader is only made aware of
where facts for news came from but not given instant access to the intended content. In
this particular example we can only speculate that the journalist might have referred to
the book in some form or another and by providing a link to the paid content, they are
providing the only means possible to direct readers to a source.

Figure 4.8. Hyperlink to paid content

A point worth mentioning regarding external linking is that large number of links within
a news story is not an indication of link precision. A case in point here is EO 04’s story
where the highest number of links (11) within a single story are used without a single
deep link. Connectedness does not indicate richness in terms of the diversity of content.
In this particular story, though the writer apparently had interviews with a couple of
sources who are company owners, these are not reflected through links which have been
used exclusively to show the company profiles linking to the homepage of their
websites.

Link precision as applied to social media also raises the question about privacy. Unlike
websites, link precision in social media could be determined by the privacy settings in
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place by the target accounts or ordinary citizens, i.e., Facebook and Twitter. The reason
is that individuals are at a liberty to choose who to align with in terms of viewpoints and
at the same time they can determine who can view their activities and to what extent.
They can disable some and allow other functions in their engagement in social media,
such as ‘reply’ and ‘retweet’. Twitter also allows individuals the choice to protect their
Tweets which entails that they can be ‘followed’ only upon their approval of ‘follow’
requests. The same is true for ‘friend requests’ on Facebook for individuals, but for
users whose ‘Friends’ are 5000 or more, anyone can ‘Follow’ their activities without the
need for approval, as they are then considered a public figure.

In contrast, the very purpose of adapting social media for organizations is to boost their
visibility (Macnamara and Zerfass, 2012) which renders privacy settings unnecessary.
This study demonstrates that the presence of links does not always serve citational roles
also confirming De Maeyer’s (2014) findings that not every link in news represents a
source. However, though only a limited dataset is involved in the study, citational links
are used in higher proportion in both news sites. This could perhaps be taken as a
demonstration of their heavy reliance on online sources for news gathering purposes.
When it comes to social media linking precision, while Addis Standard uses an all-deep
linking strategy, Ethiopia Observer on the other hand uses a mix of both deep and
generic links.

4.5 Link Destination: Examining the news ecology

Link destination marks social significance by pointing to sources or external materials

deemed important by the news sites as authoritative and worthy of attention. “News
sources define not only what’s worth knowing, but who is worth listening to” (Carlson,
2010). Journalism has always claimed legitimacy based on their privileged access to
information. Though this authority has been challenged in connection with the changing
media landscape, the significance of sources in the production, dissemination and
consumption of news has been kept intact (Nielsen, 2016). Hyperlinks as evolving
sourcing practices have brought new possibilities for access to information for
mainstream and alternative media with some continuities in sourcing trends of
traditional media (Franklin and Carlson, 2010).

Considering the fundamental role journalism plays in facilitating the public sphere,
Reich (2010) argues that through access to the media sphere, sources gain the power to
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influence the shaping of media discourse and to counter narratives in addition to
determining the angle of importance in factual information. The qualitative disposition
of the current study does not allow conclusiveness over quantification of sourcing
patterns and the power dynamics within. Under different circumstances, such as from a
larger dataset, one would be able to infer from the linking patterns how the two sites set
their boundaries by looking into the proportion of the kinds of linked sources.
Such a conclusion is difficult to draw from a limited dataset, but specific ways in which
hyperlinks have been deployed gives an insight into where information to the news sites
come from and how they are used shaping the news.

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 Table 4.4. Link destinations and authorship

Addis Standard

Website Social media

State Private Int’l Gov’t Int’l Private Organizn Personal Mainstream self
media media media19 inst. org Co. media20

Deep 7 1 10 2 10 - 3 8 9 14

Generic - - - - 5 1 - - - -

Ethiopia Observer

Deep 3 8 19 - 6 3 3 4 7 -

Generic - - - - 2 26 - 7 - -

19
International media refers to all foreign owned news organizations including those that work through their local correspondents in Ethiopia
20
Mainstream media is a combination of all State media, Private Media, international media organizations whose main purpose is the production of news
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As illustrated in Table 4.4, links are identified within the ‘Websites’ category according
to authorship, based on general groups, State media, private media, international media,
government institutions, international organizations (Government and NGOs), and
private companies. The linked social media belong to individuals (personal, including
public officials), organizations (government, private, international), those that are run by
mainstream media (including all the different media included under the website
category) and social media accounts run by the sites themselves (AS and EO) labelled
as ‘self’.

In terms of link count, the fact that the two news sites link more often to mainstream
media than any other entities may indicate their gravitation toward a similar
organizational structure which “lends itself to easy transfer while groups or individuals
outside of such institutions find a harder time gaining entry into news discourse”
(Franklin and Carlson, 2010: 3). A general observation tells that the two sites also go
outside of their discursive and organizational boundaries in linking to social media and
other organizational entities. However, even more important than link precision, it is
how much of the linked content goes into the core of the construction of the news that
determines the influences sources or links have over the news.

While both use more deep links than generic, differences arise in the extent to which
hyperlinks constitute the core or the nucleus of the hard news reports. In the generic
structure of the hard news story, the nucleus constitutes the headline plus lead of the
news story where “the (news) text’s core informational and interpersonal meanings” are
located (White, 1997: 111). Sources attain the power to provide information and hence
define the world through their presence in news items (Franklin and Carlson, 2010).
Source selection is heavily guided by the perceived credibility of sources (Manning,
2001; Tuchman, 1978). Therefore, link destinations can reflect the perception of
journalists and their value system.

For EO, the links may not necessarily be physically located in the lead but their reports
are mainly dependent upon publicly available online documents. Some of their reports
depend entirely on recycled material which are sometimes accompanied by other links
to contextual material. These reports are what Phillips (2010) refers to as a “cuttings
job” where old material accompanied by different quotes is repurposed as a new story.
For instance, EO 01 is a story done entirely from a YouTube video by Dimtsi Weyane,

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a mainstream media that belong to a regional party, EO 02 also is a similar case which
brings a story (primarily linked to Walta Information centre) but with an additional
hyperlink to contextual materials.

For AS on the other hand, despite the availability of hyperlinks in their reports,
hyperlinks hardly provide inputs for constructing the core facts of AS’s stories. It
continually relies on either its own reporting or unidentified “sources close to the
matter” as well as information subsidies sent directly to it. However, some observations
can be made by looking at the destinations and authorship of the links in both sites. AS
links most frequently to international media outlets especially those with local
correspondents in Ethiopia, such as, Deutsche Welle, BBC and VOA. The number of
links to international media outlets is even higher in EO followed by those to private
media. As EO linked to private media eight times in the data period, AS linked only
once, perhaps due to the fact that they are constrained by the same contextual factors
and are basically competitors. Therefore, they would basically be having similar levels
of access to information and to cite a private outlet would mean duplication or
undermining one’s own authority as providers of legitimate information.

The differences in linking between the two sites suggest that linking practices reflect the
respective positions of the publications in the society. AS is legally registered in the
Ethiopian media landscape with reporters on the ground working on stories, gathering
information, attending events, courtrooms, and talking to sources; they are better
positioned in terms of access to information. They also get tips from anonymous
sources in government offices as indicated in some of their stories. EO on the other
hand almost entirely depends on online sources for the construction of their news
stories.

When it comes to their news ecology, at a glance, the lesser linking (only one) to
government media in the linking patterns in Ethiopia Observer could be explained by
the sceptical outlook of diasporic media towards the government and hence its
information subsidies. In his article, “Journalists or Activists? Self-identity in the
Ethiopian diaspora online community” Skjerdal (2011b) explains that diasporic media
are a response to the political grievances of the Ethiopian community so much so that
professionalism is replaced by “activism”. This presumed bias against the government
could be influencing the linking choices of Ethiopia Observer making them shy away

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from affiliations with such outlets. However, as explained earlier, conclusiveness at this
stage without additional evidence would be difficult and more details emerge in the next
chapter making a different turn in reconsidering the media dynamics.

However, in the case of Addis Standard, since they operate in the same media
landscape, they might choose to take advantage of the privileged access to information
and adequate resources enjoyed by state owned media. In fact, it is not a matter of
choice because only two government news agencies (Walta Information Centre and
Ethiopian News Agency) operate on the ground in the Ethiopian mediascape being
invited to official state briefings (Zewge, 2010). Though collaboration among news
organizations, state and private, is non-existent (ibid.), AS takes advantage of the online
media to link to the pages of state media or the news agencies to corroborate their
reports.

4.6 Conclusion

The analysis of a three-month data set from Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer, two
Ethiopian news sites, followed the link trajectory as an analytical framework to analyse
the deployment of hyperlinks in news work and the meanings they convey therein. The
two sites, in contrast to the findings of many other studies, link externally more
frequently than internally. In the face of the information deprivation that private media
in Ethiopia are suffering, it is expected for the two news sites in this study to use
alternative information sources to fill their news cycle. However, looking closely into
the different strategies the sites use to establish their authority, it is found that links only
play a subsidiary role in this regard, particularly in AS.

Embedded tweets (even that belong to AS in terms of authorship) which exist outside of
the discursive boundaries are used to call attention to AS’s journalistic labour.
Embedded tweets serve as a gatekeeping mechanism to keep readers in one’s site and
AS has incentivised this mechanism by offering original and exclusive reporting. A
further subdivision of different types of external linking in terms of their purpose has
been identified. The first one, integrative embedding uses double embedding where
external content of any mode is embedded within the embedded tweet. It is the kind of
embedding in which the reader does not need to navigate away as the intended content
comes to them. The second type of external link, reflexive embedding, also brings in
linked content, but originates from an external elite source. This not only calls attention
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to the news text but also confers authority to the news site due to the status of the
source. In terms of their target, integrative embedding aims at fulfilling the information
needs of the reader by providing information within information whereas reflexive
embedding legitimizes AS’s content by virtue of including elites as sources providing
the information within the tweet. While both integrative and reflexive links are used by
AS, EO never uses embedded tweets but external generic links camouflaging as deep
links to keep readers in their site; they bring the intended content in the form of a quote
but do not give access to the actual content in the external destination.

While internal linking by AS is a gatekeeping mechanism, its common use in court

reporting and exclusive reporting is also a way to make a case for the reliability of its
news and the site as a whole. AS uses internal links not as a restrictive measure but as a
way of rewarding readers with a product of their journalistic labour, for trusting AS
enough to stay and browse their archives.

EO on the other hand establishes its authority through link precision, especially generic
links to social media posts, accompanied by quotes taken from the destination website,
In this way, EO keeps readers inside their website. As such, as AS embraces the
facilities of the web to be transparent about their news gathering, EO’s news work
remains partly opaque. This resembles adherence to the old trust mechanisms instead of
being transparent about their news gathering process. As much as it could be a
reflection of their own preferences in routinizing journalistic practices, it may very well
also be due to practical factors which limit EO’s resources, such as the inability to
provide access to paid content.

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135
Chapter 5. Analysing the two-fold meaning of hyperlinks

5.1 Introduction

Chapter 4 applied the analytical framework developed in chapter 3, following the

hyperlink trajectory to identify the semiotic potentials of hyperlinks used in news
reporting in the context of the two Ethiopian news sites, Addis Standard (AS) and
Ethiopia Observer (EO). It established the semiotic function of hyperlinks in this
context demonstrating that, beyond their apparent deployment as connective devices,
these also enable journalists to use them to legitimize their authority in producing
knowledge. In addition to the meaning in the actual content of the news, the use of
hyperlinks draws attention to some stories more than others, especially original stories
more than recycled ones from other news outlets. The current chapter extends this
analysis in that it aims to look further into the deployment of hyperlinks in a bigger
dataset (six months) within the same media context but in a different socio-political
context.

5.2 The Tigray war: a brief context

This chapter is added at the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ethiopia which started on
November 4, 2020 following what the government of Ethiopia claimed to be an attack
on the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) by the
Tigray People’s Revolutionary Front (TPLF). The war started under a complete
information blackout; the government cut down the internet, mobile phone and landline
telephone services to the Tigray region making it virtually impossible for journalists to
do any coverage of the conflict. As a result, major news outlets, including international
news organizations, ran their conflict reporting under the disclaimer that they could not
independently verify their stories (Salem, 2020). On November 4, AS also expressed
“its deep regret that due to the blockade on internet, mobile and landline
communications, its journalists are unable to provide an inclusive news on the ongoing
military engagement between forces of the federal army and Tigray regional state”
(Addis Standard, 04 November 2021).

Newsgathering efforts in relation to the Tigray war have been severely hampered by the
information blockade. This has affected all news organizations, including international
media outlets even though they have the financial means to deploy correspondents in
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different regions in Ethiopia. In addition to the lack of access to official information that
influences the everyday workings of the private media in Ethiopia, the blockade on all
forms of communication following the declaration of the Tigray war added more
pressure on the already volatile context. What’s more, the detention and intimidation of
journalists in the private media became common as the war commenced (Jeffrey, 2021;
Dahir and Walsh, 2021). In fact, one of AS’s journalists was also among the detained at
the beginning of the war (Mahlet, 2020).

Despite the claim by the federal government of Ethiopia that the “law enforcement
operation” aimed at the Northern city of Mekelle (the capital of Tigray regional state)
would only take three weeks, the conflict expanded to larger areas outside of Tigray into
neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions. In the wake of the protracted war, media
coverage had largely been divided between government narratives of the “law
enforcement operations” and those of atrocities committed by the Ethiopian military and
its allies against civilians in Tigray. Amid this battle for narratives, some of the initial
reports of what was actually happening on the ground in Tigray started to emerge
through international outlets, such as CNN which have been at the forefront bringing to
light some of the stories local media had no access to. Since the region had essentially
been disconnected from the rest of the world, these sporadic reports provided initial
facts of what is now largely known to the world about the war.

A search result for Ethiopia on google currently returns thousands of documents and
stories about the ongoing war in the Northern part, specifically, the Tigray region.
Despite the information blackout, some of the major international media organizations,
CNN aljazeera21, The Guardian22, Associated Press23, The New York Times24 etc,
among others, have managed to produce stories on the ongoing war. This has created an
abundance of information for those media outlets that rely almost entirely on online

21
O’Brien, A. 2021 “UN: Ethiopia's Tigray facing world's largest hunger crisis”, Al Jazeera English, 30
September, accessed, 20 October 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsbpN-v6s5M
22
Burke, J. 2020 “Ethiopia’s PM says airstrikes launched against targets in restive Tigray: Fears of civil
conflict escalate as Abiy Ahmed says operation will continue until ‘junta made accountable by law’”, The
Guardian, 07 November, accessed 21 August 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/05/ethiopian-military-claims-to-be-at-war-with-tigray-
leaders
23
Anna, C., “EXPLAINER: Why Ethiopia’s deadly Tigray crisis is growing”, AP News, 05 March,
accessed 25 August 2021
https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-news-why-in-crisis-tigray-d9259c207949e3110018161fbf3c87fd
24
Walsh, D., “Ethiopia’s War Leads to Ethnic Cleansing in Tigray Region, U.S. Report Says”, The New
York Times, 26 February 2021 (updater 14 October 2021), accessed 21 August
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/world/middleeast/ethiopia-tigray-ethnic-cleansing.html
137
sources. It is therefore interesting to see how the two news sites of this study responded
to the changed reporting conditions and to examine if this affected their hyperlinking
practices. This chapter uses the same methodology as established in Chapter 3 to create
a new data set, this time consisting of six month’s news reporting (November 2020 to
April 2021) by AS and EO, specifically addressing their semiotic properties in the
navigational pathways, their link precision, and destinations.

The purpose of this chapter is to test some of the semiotic potentials of hyperlinks in
news as used in news reporting during the Tigray war by AS and EO. Using a bigger
data set allows the application of the analytical framework to be assessed and to look
further into how the media context comes into play influencing hyperlinking practices
during this unfortunate time. Moreover, the expanded data also helps to situate the
journalist’s role in structuring the facts to create a meaningful news text.

Table 5.1. General Hyperlinking features (Dataset 2)

Description of linking Features Addis Standard Ethiopia Observer

Total number of news stories 145 34

Average stories per week 6 1.4
Number of unlinked stories 23 26
Stories from other sources 46 (31.7%) 15 (44.1%)
Total number of hyperlinks used 377 11
Average number of hyperlinks per 2.6 0.5
story
Highest number of hyperlinks per 13 3
story

There have been big gaps in the news update and linking patterns of the two news sites.
Table 5.1 summarizes the general hyperlinking features in the second dataset used for
this study constituting news reports of the first six months of the ongoing Tigray war
(starting from the beginning of November to April). During this period, the two news
sites have clear differences in their news updates and linking patterns. Despite the
information blackout that could have affected both news sites alike, AS maintained its
steady routines publishing stories, even running more frequently than in the first dataset
(Table 4.1). In total, AS ran 145 stories during the data period while EO posted only 34
stories in six months. This is three times less than their counterpart and apparently low
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in comparison to the first dataset, with 31 stories in a period of three months. The
average story per week on AS has shown an increase from four in the first set to six in
the second, while EO’s average per week declined from 2.5 to 1.4. Given that the data
period is twice as long as the first one, the marginal difference in EO’s news count in
the two data periods (31 Vs 34) is a point to ponder. The low story count in general has
been attributed to the difficulty in accessing official information in the Ethiopian media
landscape; however, to account for the differential frequency of news updates between
the two news sites, one needs to look further into wider contextual factors. This chapter
will take on this point at a later stage.

The minimalist approach of EO, however, is not only limited to the slow news update
but also to its linking patterns. In the first six months since the start of the war, only
eight of EO’s stories had at least one link leaving 26 stories unlinked. Though it might
be difficult to pinpoint the reason behind the decline, it cannot be assumed to be the
result of the decline in story count because even with less stories, there had been more
links in the first data period. In the second data period, the total number of hyperlinks
used in this period were 11 which is notably low compared to AS that used 377
hyperlinks in 122 of its stories. Even with 23 unlinked stories, AS maintained a steadily
increasing linking pattern. In addition, while the hyperlinking frequency in AS showed
a slight increase from 2.2 per story in the first dataset to 2.6 in the second, EO’s on the
other hand had a sharp decline from 3.1 to 0.5.

With the decrease in the number of stories in EO in the second dataset, the number of
hyperlinks used also apparently decreased but the sharp decline even with a slightly
higher story count in the second dataset further adds to the need to go beyond routine
newsroom dynamics to understand the processes at stake. The same is true with other
features of the linking patterns; EO had as high as 12 hyperlinks in one story in the first
dataset which is minimized to three in the second. From the frequency of link usage in
the first dataset, the importance of links to the news writing process is easy to
understand because it had only one unlinked story. However, in the second dataset,
three quarters of its stories do not have a single hyperlink.

In terms of its evidentiary strategy, the linking patterns of EO show a major shift in the
second data set. EO’s sourcing shifts from linking to merely mentioning sources. That
is, except for mentioning the source of information (as is conventional in journalistic

139
practice), no hyperlinks are provided for the majority of the stories, even for cases in
which the source of information is publicly available, such as Facebook pages, or those
that are owned by public figures and are open for access by anyone. For instance,
instead of linking to the message directly, their evidentiary strategy only describes the
kind of material and the source of their information, but without a link: “In a recorded
message on the Facebook page of a media outlet affiliated with TPLF, which was
disrupted following the military clashes” (EO 60).

In this particular case, the Facebook page of Dimtsi Weyane, a regional TV channel,
had been taken down, making it impossible to back up the information cited. Thus two
factors are important here: firstly, the original source is no longer available to the
journalist, due to the impact of the conflict, and thus, it is impossible for readers to
verify this information for themselves. Secondly, there are also cases in which facts are
given without specifying how the information had been obtained, as in, “The gunmen
have not been identified, but the forces fighting the federal army in the region might be
behind the attack, it was said.” (EO 62). This again points to the impact of the war on
reporting conditions but on a larger scale, when the regional government retreated out of
the major towns, especially the regional capital, all the media establishments were
deserted. No information was being communicated from the side of the TPLF as one of
the warring parties; so, basically, official information, albeit minimal, was essentially
one-sided. Any further information was coming from international humanitarian
organizations, such as, international and local NGOs (Ethiopian Red Cross Society,
International Committee of the Red Cross, Catholic Relief Service) as well as different
United Nations, such a s (UNICEF, UNOCHA) and non-UN agencies (WHO, WFP,
MSF).

To sum up, just like its decline in story count, EO’s linking patterns have also notably
declined with only 11 hyperlinks in the 34 stories run in the second dataset, in contrast
to 97 links in 31 news stories in the first dataset. However, the decline in links is not the
result of the decline in story count because even with less stories, there had been more
links in the first data period.

5.3 Navigational Paths: a shift?

Links make the news gathering process transparent showing news readers where facts
for news come from. This transparency allows the reader to see not only how the
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content of the news came about but the values given to each material through the way
they structure facts to make sense of the world for them. Beyond the linking frequencies
of the two sites, changes can also be observed in the navigational patterns of the two
sites. In the previous chapter, the study found that the two sites, contrary to the global
trend, prioritize external over internal linking. In the second data set, the two sites
remain consistent with their prioritization of the external navigational path as
summarized in Table 5.2, but the frequency to which they continue with this trend calls
for a close analysis.

Table 5.2. Navigational paths (Dataset 2)

News site Internal Link External link

Data periods 1st data set 2nd data set 1st data set 2nd data set
Addis Standard 35 (32.7%) 98 (26%) 72 (67.3%) 280 (74.3%)
Ethiopia Observer 5 (5.2%) 3 (27.3%) 92 (94.8%) 8 (72.7%)

In line with the larger dataset this chapter covers, AS’s external linking shows a major
increase while EO’s went in the opposite direction. While EO’s external linking still
remained higher than its internal linking, only a handful of external links (8 in six
months) appear in the second dataset; it has more unlinked stories. For AS, with 74.3%
of 377 total links navigating to sources located outside of AS’s territories, the trend of
external linking slightly increased from the first dataset. Though this is not a
longitudinal study, the increase in the number of hyperlinks by AS from the first dataset
to the second confirms the hyperlinking literature, but contrasts with it in terms of how
external links in AS also increase over time. According to the hyperlinking literature,
the use of hyperlinks and the external linking trend, are inversely proportional; as the
former increases, the latter decreases and at times dramatically (Tremayne, 2005;
Barnhurst, 2010), whereas in the case of AS both features increased over time.

The case of EO raises important questions because the dramatic drop in hyperlinking
and news updates in general from the first to the second data set presents a departure
from the common hyperlinking trajectory and from the site’s own trends. While we
cannot be sure what the cause of this actually is, we can infer that it is highly likely due
to the conflict and ongoing communication restrictions, providing clear evidence that
the government’s practices have had a detrimental effect on the frequency and openness

141
of news reporting in Ethiopia. The twist here is that while the information restrictions
contributed to the low news update and passive news routines with low number of
linking by EO, AS’s story count and linking patterns have increased in all directions
drawing in the additional context of the media organizations and their routine practices
to explain the gap. AS has certain privileges over EO by virtue of having staff on the
ground who deal with everyday Ethiopians by way of establishing contacts with sources
and regular flow of information. Furthermore, through extensive coverage of certain
topics, AS has claimed a de facto jurisdiction (Cf. Chapter 4) especially related to the
topic of Oromo political movement.

While the comparative insight into the media context makes a valid point under normal
circumstances, the discrepancy in routine practices especially EO’s less active news
cycle in this situation demands a look further into the media context. Given the
dependence of EO on online materials, the low news count while so many stories were
being published by international media outlets despite the complete blackout indicates
that it is something other than the question of access. Beyond what emerges out of the
data, it needs contextual nuances to explain why two news sites which are faced with
more or less the same material reality can show such a big gap in coverage of the Tigray
war in particular and news count in general.

The private media have always been at odds with the government, as mentioned in the
contextual background of this study, due to their inability to withstand the financial
pressure, the private press resorted to erratic behaviours that resulted in the persecution
by government. This, according to Meseret (2013) had its roots in the foundations that
were laid for the media by the EPRDF government upon taking control of power which
were hostile as they started by firing veteran journalists accusing them of being
“sympathizers of Derg25” (p. 236).

The grievances of the members of the Derg comprised the impetus behind most of the
private publications that joined the media market influencing their professionalism as a
result. Historically, the media have been used as weapon against adversaries serving the
rulers’ interests as observed in the shifting of loyalties of state-run media that formerly
served as mouthpieces of the TPLF/EPRDF26 turning against it, specifically the TPLF

25
The military regime that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991.
26
This labelling of the previous regime as TPLF/EPRDF is controversial because it was a coalition of
four political parties, namely, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Amhara Democratic Party
142
(currently in full-blown war with the federal government). Just as the EPRDF
government used broadcast media which was not allowed for private ownership at the
time, to portray the Derg regime in a negative light by way of consolidating power
(Meseret, 2013), so has the current leadership been using the media to demonize the
TPLF’s 27 year rule of Ethiopia and its current leadership in the Tigray region since it
took office in early 2018. This was also observed in some media in the diaspora who
also joined forces in creating such adversity against the TPLF so much so that even
ESAT, the leading broadcast media in the diaspora formerly ardent critique of the
government now-turned government sympathizer especially since the start of the Tigray
war.

Professionalism was replaced by the struggle for power as the media scene was used as
a battle field for the excluded journalists and politicians to settle political scores with
the government (Stremlau and Gagliardone, 2015). The decline in the number of private
media also gave rise to alternative outlets, such as the diasporic media run by Ethiopians
in exile who left their country due to the harsh political situation in the country.
Therefore, the practice of journalism in the diaspora community embodies a response to
the political repression of the country. Skjerdal’s (2011b) study “Journalists or
Activists? Self-identity in the Ethiopian diaspora online community” finds that media
messages and formats are shaped by the grievances the diaspora community feels
toward the incumbent in the homeland. Consequently there is an apparent shift from
public service to catering to the needs of the financiers, replacing professionalism by
what Skjerdal (2011b) calls activist journalism. In fact, Lyons (2007) explains that the
identities of the diverse diaspora communities with ties to Ethiopia are shaped by the
power struggle that dates as far back as the beginning of modern Ethiopia and continues
to encroach contemporary politics.

“These conflict-generated diasporas provide key financial support and

contribute to the framing of conflicts through their control over media
outlets and other institutions where political strategies are debated and
leaderships and strategies legitimised” (Lyons, 2007: 539)

(ADP), Oromo Democratic Party (ODP), Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM)
that made up the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). However, many describe
the TPLF as “the nucleus of EPRDF” (Meseret, 2013) and especially insofar as the historical context of
the establishment of media corporations goes, such as Fana Broadcasting Corporate is concerned, it
played a major role as it was first owned by the armed struggle of the 1974 by the TPLF.
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This alignment of the private media and the diaspora toward the opposition and the
government on the other side of the political spectrum make up what today defines the
polarized Ethiopian media system. However, the media scene has recently become more
complex with the dynamics of two additional political interests, ethno-nationalist and
Pan-Ethiopianist turning the media situation into an extreme case of polarization
(Alemayehu, 2020). A recent study into the “Ethnification of the Ethiopian Media” by
Skjerdal and Alemayehu (2020) also reveal these ethnic tendencies by the media that
have taken centre stage especially after the coming to power of Prime Minister Abiy
Ahmed. While Skjerdal and Alemayehu use such labelling to refer only to the divisive
inclination of some media in Ethiopia and to advance ethnic politics, Tsedale Lemma27,
editor in chief of Addis Standard also points out that ‘ethnic media’, the label usually
used with a negative connotation is “repressive” at best. She argues that the content of
media outlets should be judged on how they represent issues in a multiethnic country,
not on which language they use or which ethnic group they represent.

Coming back to the Tigray war, one can find the discrepancy in representation
somewhere in the arguments about the ethnic affiliations of media outlets and its
influence on the ideals of professionalism they exercise. Skjerdal and Alemayehu
(2020) argue that one of the ways in which ethnic agendas are advanced is in how the
media choses to cover some stories and ignore others. “Unless the story meets the
interest of the ethnic group of the owners, there is less probability of getting covered”
(p. 55). After the total blackout in the Tigray region during the first couple of months, a
series of stories about atrocities emerged upon the Ethiopian government’s declaration
of total win over the TPLF28. However, some outlets including EO resorted to
propagating the government’s narrative totally ignoring the atrocities against civilians;
any impact of the war covered is from the government’s perspectives. EO’s stories
made no mention of the rampant rape29, the massacre30, the destruction of livelihoods31

27
This was an interview on Arts TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBVxlTA7Ygw&t=882s, viewed
08 August 2021
28
Marks, S., 2020 “Ethiopia Claims Victory in Tigray Conflict After Shelling Restive Region’s Capital”,
New York Times, 28 November, accessed 17 August 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/28/world/africa/ethiopia-tigray-Mekelle-assault.html
29
Stories about the rampant rape have been reported in many outlets and the following are only a few:
• Murdock, H., 2021 “Hundreds of Women, Girls Brutalized by Soldiers in Tigray War” VOA, 07 July
2021 accessed 02 September 2021 https://www.voanews.com/a/ethiopia-tigray_hundreds-women-
girls-brutalized-soldiers-tigray-war/6207953.html
144
in the second data period of six months. In fact, the big controversy since the start of the
war, the presence of Eritrean soldiers has hardly made it to one of EO’s stories.

Moreover, another manifestation of the ethnic element is found in the kinds of sources
they use (Skjerdal and Alemayehu, 2020) during the same period. Except for
undisclosed sources used, such as a generic “local reporters”, “residents” “regional
administration”, EO frequently cites the accounts of government propaganda machinery
such as local media EBC, Addis Zemen, Radio Fana, etc; international media such as
DW, VOA both of which have been accused of biased reporting in particular relation to
the Tigray war. Jason Patikin, recently resigned from his job as a freelance journalist in
the VOA calling out the consistent biased reporting of the Tigray war, largely inclining
toward propagating pro Ethiopian government propaganda and ignoring atrocities
committed by government military forces. He is one of thirteen professionals in and
outside the VOA who voiced their concerns that the biased reporting stand against the

• Nunis, V., 2021 “Ethiopia using rape as a strategy in Tigray war – Amnesty” BBC, 11 August,
accessed 02 September 2021 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58167818
• Akinwotu, E., 2021 “Like I wasn’t a person’: Ethiopian forces accused of systematic rape in Tigray”
The Guardian, 11 August, accessed 02 September 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2021/aug/11/like-i-wasnt-a-person-ethiopian-forces-accused-of-systematic-in-tigray
• Marks, M. and Walsh, D., 2021 “‘They Told Us Not to Resist’: Sexual Violence Pervades Ethiopia’s
War” The New York Times, 01 April, Accessed 02 September 2021
htts://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/world/africa/ethiopia-tigray-sexual-assault.html
30
Stories of massacres that took place in Tigray
• Burke, J., 2021 “Ethiopia: 1,900 people killed in massacres in Tigray identified” The Guardian,
02 April, Accessed 23 August 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/02/ethiopia-
1900-people-killed-in-massacres-in-tigray-identified
• “Evidence suggests Ethiopian military carried out massacre in Tigray” BBC, 01 April, accessed
06 April 2021 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56603022
• Lucy K. and Bulos, N., 2021 “In an out-of-sight war, a massacre comes to light” LA Times, 19
March, accessed 06 April 2021 https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-
19/ethiopia-tigray-war-massacre-bora
31
Widespread looting and destruction
• Beaumont, P., 2020 “Diplomats back claims Eritrean troops have joined Ethiopia conflict: US
official among sources saying soldiers from Eritrea are fighting in operations against Tigray
People’s Liberation Front” The Guardian, 09 December, accessed 06 September 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/08/diplomats-back-claims-eritrean-troops-have-
joined-ethiopia-conflict
• “'Slaughtered like chickens': Eritrea heavily involved in Tigray conflict, say eyewitnesses:
Despite denials by Ethiopia, multiple reports confirm killings, looting and forcible return of
refugees by Asmara’s forces” The Guardian, 21 December, accessed 23 August 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/dec/21/slaughtered-like-chickens-
eritrea-heavily-involved-in-tigray-conflict-say-eyewitnesses
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ethical standards of professional journalism32. This could also be due to the
undifferentiated loyalty with which Ethiopian journalists especially those in the
diaspora carry their work with. Having to escape harsh political conditions in the
homeland some have found their way into the newsrooms of the language departments
of such media organizations (ibid.). EO does not openly align with a certain ethnic
group per se but from the total disregard of these widespread topics that comprise the
facts of the war, it gives some indication of where EO belongs in the narrative
dichotomy.

The linking patterns and the navigational pathways give an insight into how news
stories during the war have been constructed in connection with external sources and
previous stories covered by the respective news sites. The rise in the average use of
hyperlinks per news story is an indication of the increasing reliance of AS on external
sources as news inputs, especially in the context of the ongoing war in which the
information transaction has presumably been affected due to the complete information
blackout. However, the increasing reliance on external sources, is not a mere quest for
information because notable also is the rise in internal linking. As can be seen from
Table 5.2, a quarter of AS’s links are internal navigating to other pages of the website.
In addition, as shown in Table 5.4, 58 of the external links (20% of links to social
media) belong to AS (Facebook (14), Twitter (39) and Blog (4)) in terms of ownership/
authorship. They have been labelled ‘external’ due to their existence in different
discursive platforms outside of the spatial and professional territories of the news site.
Given that AS’s social media spaces are run by their staff and any information
disseminated through them is owned by AS, internal linking is aimed at something other
than the fulfillment of their information needs. The typical purpose of internal linking is
the pursuit of context (Dimitrova et al., 2003) and a navigation to AS’s social media
account under the same authorship/ownership fulfills the same purpose, as both
essentially are used as tools for self-referencing.

While AS frequently references its social media pages especially Twitter, such practices
are estranged in EO. As shown in Table 5.3, In fact, the frequency of linking to its own
social media posts by AS has grown proportionally with its growth in external linking

32
Turse, N. 2021 “Propaganda Machine: Voice of America is Accused of Ignoring Government
Atrocities in Ethiopia” The Intercept, 21 May accessed 23 August 2021
https://theintercept.com/2021/05/21/voice-of-america-ethiopia-bias/
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making up 14.9% of its total external links. When compared to the first data period
though, the self-referencing show a slight decline; previously, 19.4% of the external
links of AS were those navigating to their social media posts.

In a global context, external linking is not a favourable way of linking in a competitive

media environment because it results in the loss of readers. As such, with their
inclination toward external linking more frequently than internal linking, the two news
sites present a departure as indicated in the previous chapter. However, comparing the
two news sites, internal links are more prevalent in Addis Standard; in fact, linking
news stories to the archives of the news site to link news to previous reports by AS
seems to be a common practice. On the contrary, such links are notably low in EO in
both data periods, even more so in the first data period where they make up only five of
the 97 hyperlinks used in the news site. In the second dataset, only three of the eleven
links are internal.

The previous chapter consolidates Dimitrova’s (2003) notion of the use of hyperlinks as
a gatekeeping mechanism and adds some nuances on how it is adopted to the specific
context of the newsrooms and to the purposes of the two news sites as manifested in
different features. Choice of navigational paths is a manifestation of the decision to keep
readers in their news site through internal links or send them outside one’s site via
external links and the prioritization of the latter over the former suggests that both sites
are less controlled. However, both sites are shown to have their own ways of controlling
readers’ browsing through their linking strategies.

This section maps out additional ways in which hyperlinking manifests itself as a
gatekeeping mechanism in AS and EO. The previous chapter showed the difference in
the ways the two sites allow news browsing using hyperlinks as incentivised Vs
restrictive respectively. In addition to using internal linking, AS also use embedding, an
alternative to external linking, to bring linked content to readers as a way to keep them
in their site; an incentivised reporting that avails information for readers to stay on site
and leaving open the option to leave at the same time. EO’s gatekeeping mechanism,
on the other hand, is manifested through providing excerpts from an external destination
which is essentially similar to AS’s in terms of keeping readers on site. The difference
is while AS provides content with an active link embedded in the news text, EO’s
reference resorts to static text in the form of a quote accompanied by a generic link that

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does not make the actual content accessible to readers. Analysis of this new data set
reveals that even though the majority of the information for the two sites comes from
online resources, AS and EO displayed major differences in terms of their role,
evidentiary strategy as well as the transparency of their news gathering process.

5.3.1 Gatekeeping Vs Sense-making

News is a reflection of an account of sources as well as that of the journalist’s privilege

of access to them (Carlson, 2017). Through their news accounts, journalists show not
only their ability to gain access to sources of certain status but their ability to chronicle
a meaningful news text from diverse accounts. In the online environment where there is
a vast collection of materials and on which news outlets, such as, AS and EO are highly
dependent, the role of journalists “becomes less about selecting stories for
dissemination and more about bolstering the value of what they disseminate so that it
rises to the crest of the information tidal wave” (Singer, 1997: 72). Their authority as
legitimate sources in the online environment and their ability as journalists to sift
through the vast collection of online resources depends on how journalists construct
their role; either as ones deciding the information diet of readers or as those making
sense of the available resources. This role difference between AS and EO is conveyed
in how they use hyperlinks to facilitate news browsing for their readers as discussed and
demonstrated in the next sections.

When it comes to news composition, a mix of original reporting and information

subsidies as well as recycled materials constitute the reporting of both the sites in the
second data set as in the first one. In AS, as identified in the previous chapter, some
stories clearly attribute their sources either as dispatch or statements sent directly to the
news site, and those of the site’s original stories are labelled with their initials at the end
(AS). Though this clear distinction is largely missing in EO, the origins of stories are
discursively indicated, such as, “Speaking on Tigray region’s television” (EO 32).

In comparison to the first data set which had a quarter of its stories (12 of 48 stories)
recycled from other sources, in the second data set, the proportion of AS’s recycled
stories is slightly higher (45 of 145 stories, 31.7% of the total) which still means that the
majority of its stories result from original reporting as indicated by its labelling. On the
other hand, in both data periods, the composition of the news stories used are more or
less proportional in terms of their origin in EO; while 14 of the 31 stories (45.2%) of
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EO were recycled in the first data set, in the second one, 15 of the 34 stories (44.1%) are
recycled. In the absence of textual clues that indicate original reporting, EO’s recycled
stories have been identified by their reference to other news outlets as sources in
connection to the main topic of the news. Accordingly, the following lead from EO 42,
for instance, indicates that the story has been recycled from the Ethiopian Broadcasting
Corporation (EBC).

“The Ethiopian military has seized the towns of Axum and Adwa, state
media announced. Tigray special forces battling the federal defence forces
in both areas had surrendered, the state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting
Corporation reported on Friday. (EO 42, November 20, 2020)
However, the rest of the stories remain unidentified for lack of attribution.

The difficulty to access sources offline along with the relative ease of access to online
resources have made the reuse of online materials common, so much so that desktop
reporting or “armchair journalism” has been described as the modus operandi of most
news sites in Ethiopia (Wazema, 2018). Recycling, the easy pick-up of stories from an
external destination, is in fact a common feature of online news writing enabled by the
publishing technology available in newsrooms (Phillips, 2010). As EO recycles already
published materials and sometimes repurposes them to fit their news (writing a news
story out of a TV interview program), AS additionally receives information subsidies
from different organizations including embassies who want to communicate with the
public through the media. Both AS and EO also include news reports repurposed from
non-media organizations, such as non-governmental organizations like Amnesty
International.

Since both EO and AS depend highly on online sources, potentially, the same sources
are available to them. Depending on the availability of information, the extent to which
online materials are used ranges from the duplication of the material in its entirety with
all its features intact, including hyperlinks, to using only parts of an online source with
some interventions from the news site, such as inserting one’s own hyperlinks. In terms
of how online materials are used by the news sites to fill their news cycle and also serve
as evidential strategies, the extent ranges from recycling with little to no intervention by
the news sites to adopting them to their news texts by integrating internal content in
different ways. While a passive non-interventionist reuse of online materials as a way to
fill the news cycle largely describes the online news routine of EO in both data periods,

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as will be discussed further, an evolution of sorts by AS from simple recycling to
repurposing with substantive intervention can be noticed. Interventions here refer to
providing additional references to make sense of events in a larger context. However, as
will be discussed, these interventions do not merely serve evidential strategies but
legitimize AS’s authority, by not only providing but also sense-making of recycled
news, through linking them to AS’s previous stories.

The role of the media in providing credible and professionally processed information
depends on its ability to make sense of raw data scattered all over the internet (Singer,
1997). Moving from simple duplication of hyperlinks used by a recycled story, AS in
this data set inserts its own hyperlinks to put events into perspective and give context to
stories. AS’s strategic use of hyperlinks therefore calls attentions to AS’s
professionalism as provider of original stories or the values AS adds to recycled stories.
This section includes the discussion of how hyperlinks are used in recycled stories by
AS.

AS 64 (see Figure 5.1) is an example where a recycled story is enhanced by a

combination of external and internal links. The story is based on a recycled statement
from “The Presidency Republic of South Africa” an official government portal. The
official statement is introduced with a lead by AS that includes one internal link (A) to
AS’s archived stories and an embedded tweet from the official twitter account of AU
Chair (@AUChair2020) (B), representing the current President of South Africa who is
also the chair of the African Union. By inserting the hyperlink and the tweet, the reader
is given context with an internal link that sets the scene with breaking news (AS 49)
about how the Tigray war started and an embedded tweet of a subsequent
announcement in relation to why the statement was made. In terms of richness of
information therefore, such professional interventions make news more consumable for
the reader because their evidential strategies give instant access to source and contextual
materials.

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Figure 5.1. External and internal links as contextualization (AS 64)

The previous chapter highlighted the case of embedded tweets as a gatekeeping

mechanism which directs readers’ attention to AS’s original reporting, and which
provides exclusive access to sources as well as a jurisdictional topic, such as the Oromo
political prisoners. Embedded tweets present the case of gatekeeping not for merely
keeping the reader on the news page but also for determining the navigational path of
the reader through the kinds of materials they embed within them. Such materials that
come with embedded tweets serve different purposes for AS, such as legitimizing the
authority of its narratives by embedding tweets from an official external source that
shares AS’s article (reflexive) and keeping readers on its page by providing content that
can be viewed on the page, such as embedded videos or images (integrative). All these
are cases of embedded tweets added to original stories.

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Figure 5.2 embedded tweet in a recycled story (AS 114)

AS’s interventions as an indication of its sense-making role can also be identified in the
second dataset with the use of AS’s embedded tweets in recycled stories. Here, the
authority legitimization is manifested in their contextualization of external content by
linking it to their own archived stories. AS 114 (Figure 5.2) for instance brings the case
of a report by UNOCHA from the 2nd of February about an event that happened on 23
January which is linked to an original story (AS 92) embedded in a tweet from 29
December. This helps readers understand the news event as part of a series of
happenings not as an isolated incident.

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Figure 5.3. Embedded tweet update in real time (AS 58)

Besides the visual effects of embedding a tweet to link the recycled story to AS’s
internal story, it also brings the interactive element showing readers people’s
engagement with the news adding more context. More importantly, for developing
stories, the fact that embedded tweets update in real time helps maintain the flow of
information as demonstrated in Figure 5.3; an ‘update’ on the twitter platform would
automatically be streamed to the embedded tweet in AS’s website. Linking directly to
the internal story bypassing twitter would miss out on the ability to update and the
interactive function.

AS 118 brings the combined factors of original reporting and exclusivity into a recycled
story from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) by directing it to its own
jurisdictional topic. The story of the Oromo political prisoners, when originally covered
by AS, hardly links to external content because as already established, AS has covered
this topic extensively and thus projects itself as an information hub, using internal links
or embedded tweets for its evidential strategy. Most of the stories linked to the Oromo
are either of prisoners or of court cases which, as explained in the previous chapter, are
done with original reporting.
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The interventionist approaches of AS in recycled stories is not always inward looking as
can be gathered in the way in which external links are also added by AS to such stories.
The linking of recycled stories to external sources highlights the sense-making role of
AS as it does the legitimizing of authority through internal linking. Especially
controversial issues will require some digging, providing more citations, internal and
external, evidence, and investigation for journalism to maintain proximity to the truth.
“It is only via questioning and investigating that journalists challenge the information
that is sliced, diced and packaged for their consumption” (Phillips, 2010: 374).
According to Phillips, original reporting also lies in the confrontation and interrogation
of information subsidies just as much as it does in uncovering new facts and handling a
story from scratch. Therefore, the more recycled stories are challenged and investigated,
the closer they are to becoming original stories. It is not for the final outcome or the
finished product that traditional journalism held in high regard as it is for the dearth of
journalistic labour that goes into it (Coddington, 2014a).

In more profound ways, the purpose of the interventionist approach of AS turns some
recycled stories into original stories that have been professionally processed. AS 95 for
instance presents a typical instance in which a controversial story based on an official
statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office of Ethiopia is verified, supported,
enriched and challenged by nine hyperlinks including the statement itself by MoFA
which makes up the nucleus of the story. The statement is challenged by two news
stories, Egypt’s Ahram Online and Reuters which report similar stories in contradiction
to what is said in the official statement of the ministry. An embedded tweet by AS that
shares the statement from MoFA with a picture of Ambassador Dina Mufti, the
spokesperson is given subsequently followed by a direct link to the statement on the
Facebook page of the ministry. Then an internal link to AS’s story (AS 93) giving
background about the border conflict, a context of which helps understand the official
statement better. The story also presents as evidence confirming the statement, an
unlinked account of an unnamed source from “the spokesperson’s office” in addition to
linking to ESATtv, “a TV network known for broadcasting classified information from
government sources”. It even verifies with a link a claim made by the network and the
report by ESATtv is the very last thing it embeds for readers to view right there on the
page.

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The difference between the two sites is notably visible in how they handle controversial
stories. Within the dearth of linking in the second data period in EO some of the stories,
such as those from international media, that could be linked are presented without links.
For example looking at how the controversy about the suggested negotiations by the
chairman of the African Union, for the conflict between the federal government and the
TPLF, one understands AS’s news work as evidentiary and interventionist in how they
back up every claim they make with evidence (AS 65) whereas EO merely states ‘facts’
without evidence (EO 49). As the response of the Ethiopian government is backed by a
screen shot of the Prime Minister’s response, they also provide a screen shot of the
twitter thread by the chairman of the AU to show what necessitated the response by the
government. EO 49 on the other hand simply quotes from a statement by the
spokesperson for the Ethiopian government and another quote from the TPLF’s side
stating their readiness to negotiate but no links or evidence are given for both.

5.3.2 Internal linking legitimizing access, professionalism and journalistic labour

There is a kind of evolution in the way facts for news are handled with links and as such
an additional feature is introduced in the second data set as an indicator of original
reporting. Some of the original reports done by AS’s staff are accompanied by Twitter
handles next to the by-lines of the reporter responsible for the story. Besides its
increased use of hyperlinks to show the raw materials that go into the construction of
news, the inclusion of journalists’ contact information helps them achieve “more story
ideas, faster correction of factual mistakes and sometimes access to story sources
otherwise too time costly to find” (Deuze, 1999: 378).

The facts for stories of original reporting, among other things, are a result of journalistic
labour by AS’s reporters and the second data set in this regard is found to confirm the
findings of the previous chapter in that they use exclusively internal links to make a
case for their professional diligence in gathering facts, their journalistic values in adding
context and their ability to access information, sometimes exclusively. Some stories that
resulted from original reporting of court cases include links designated ‘external’
according to the study because they navigate away from the news site to other social
media platforms, even though they belong to AS in terms of authorship. Linking to
one’s own social media accounts to make a case for original reporting confirms self-
referencing as legitimizing authority.

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Some cases in which internal links are given a more prominent task of legitimizing
journalistic authority include the following: AS 59, AS 71, AS 86, AS 91, AS 97, AS
115, AS 120, AS 127, AS 128, AS 129, AS 133, AS 136, AS 138, AS 144, AS 148, AS
153, AS 162, AS 165, AS 168, AS 171, AS 174, AS 185, AS 189. AS 97, for instance,
is original reporting of a story based on a rare access to a phone interview with a
government official. Through the label “News Update” the story is indicated as a follow
up for which an internal hyperlink is used to link to a related previous story done by AS.
The link not only connects two of AS’s stories in real time but in doing so calls the
reader’s attention to the rare access AS managed to gain to one of the most controversial
topics since the beginning of the war.

Despite reports of atrocities committed by the Eritrean army and the federal
government of Ethiopia, officials have consistently denied their presence and
participation in the Tigray war. AS previously reported (AS 96)33 on the mayor of
Mekelle who contradicted the official line admitting the presence of Eritrean troops
which he later backtracked in AS 97. The link to the previous story tells the reader that
AS has reported on an important topic before and that the current story is a follow up.
Given the information blackout, AS projects itself as a go to information hub.
Throughout the ongoing war where there has been a restricted access and many reports
continue to rely either on duplication or external linking, original reporting is hard to
come by and an internal link has been used not to restrict but for the reader to get
information they might not get anywhere else.

AS’s stories are carefully crafted to boost its authority in original contribution and even
when they use deep links to reports by other news organizations, it is only to give
context to their own original reporting. AS 66 is a typical case of the foregrounded
originality of AS in which a Facebook post from November 17 is given as evidence to a
news report on November 23. The Facebook post is there in confirmation that AS has
been following the development of the story.

33
Medihane E. 2021, “News: Mekelle City Interim Mayor Admits Presence and Participation of Eritrean
forces in Tigray Conflict”, Addis Standard, 04 January, viewed 03 June 2021, News: Mekelle city interim
mayor admits presence and participation of Eritrean forces in Tigray conflict - Addis Standard

156
 “For the past week, Addis Standard has been following the troubling reports
closely after receiving several calls from residents (link) trapped in the
middle of the ongoing attacks…”
(AS 66, Para 2, November 23, 2020)
Two other links, one to a VOA Amharic news and another to a report by Reuters are
given in the 10th paragraph only to provide contextual depth to the story

Internal linking is also used as a way to localize an event or call attention not only to
one’s personal stake in a story but to their circumvention of simple recycling. AS 59 is a
report about the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) concern over “the
arrest of more journalists”. The headline “Ethiopian human rights commission
condemns more arrest of journalists as police keeps all incommunicado” and associated
lead make up the nucleus of the story and appear to express concern, but the link which
leads to that particular post of the EHRC, an embedded tweet from the official Twitter
account of the commissioner Daniel Bekele, is given toward the end of the news.
Instead, two internal links are given prioritized positions being placed in the second
paragraph of the story. Though the lead of the story includes quotes from the embedded
tweet, in terms of positioning of links, the two internal links are given priority. This not
only to directs attention to AS’s case of original reporting, but also brings the report
home by bringing up the story of the arrest of Medihane, one of AS’s own journalists to
project the story as exclusive to AS. The story is about the detention of three journalists
from a state news agency, Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) and another one from a
private network (OMN), but after briefly mentioning the arrest of media professionals
AS brings the story to itself by linking to archived stories covering the arrest (AS 59) of
one of its own journalists.

5.3.3 Internal links as gateways

In addition to touting their professional contribution in creating original reports or

turning recycled stories into original ones through their professional touch, AS also
contextualizes already published reports and through internal links provides their
readers with already packaged information rather than raw data found on external
destinations. AS’s gatekeeping mechanism to keep readers on site, as explained in the
previous chapter, is incentivized with exclusive treated information and contextual
background. Such mechanisms give the image of a professional sense-maker providing
journalistically treated information in contrast to raw data scattered all over the internet.
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From the way information is organized around hyperlinks, AS projects itself as an
information hub by giving access to information located on external destination, that is,
by using their website as a gateway or a bridge, per se. Instead of sending readers away
to an external content directly, they keep them within the website and give them the
intended content that has already been part of their news text which is a way of reader
retention but at the same time of promoting the value of one’s product. AS 107 is a
good example to show how diversity of information is brought together to challenge a
recycled news. As the lead gives the core of the news, the statement without a link, the
second paragraph provides a quote from the statement and a link to the Facebook page
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is followed by a third paragraph that includes
three different links to AS’s archived stories.

E.g. “His assertion is in direct contradiction of the remarks by Major General

Belay Seyoum (link 1), Commander of the Northern Command, and Atakilti
Hailesilasie, the federally appointed interim mayor of Mekelle (link 2) City. It
also goes against latest report by Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (link 3)
(EHRC) whose investigators filed firsthand accounts from residents of Humera
confirming the presence and participation in widespread looting of “Eritrean
soldiers.”” (Para. 3)
(AS 107, Para 3, January 21, 2021)

Link 1 navigates to AS’s previous news analysis (06 January 2021) of the full speech of
Major General Belay Seyoum whose video speech from AS’s YouTube channel is
embedded within the story. The second link (link 2) directs readers to AS 96, a news
story that links to a recorded video from the Facebook page of a private citizen used as
an evidential strategy and link 3 leads to an AS analysis done on the report compiled by
the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which reports on atrocities
committed by Eritrean soldiers. Despite the denial of the spokesperson, the three links
speak otherwise because they all present evidence against it and put the news in
perspective.

This linking strategy is not merely self-referencing but an important sense-making

mechanism which provides the reader with readily packaged and contextualized
information. It could have been easier to link directly to the YouTube video on AS’s
YouTube channel but doing so would have only given the reader decontextualized
information. But by placing it within an analysis, the reader understands how the story

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developed and how it relates to the current news they are reading. The same is true with
the other two links (2 & 3 above) which also navigate to internal stories, all used to
show the contradiction with the claim made in the nucleus of the story.

The links included in the third paragraph of the story (AS 77) about the composition of
the new interim government of the Tigray regional state after the federal government
took control of the capital, Mekelle. The information about each party that make up the
new governing body of the Tigray regional state, Arena Tigray, Tigray Democratic
Party, and Assimba Democratic Party is linked to archived stories of AS that not only
give information about their specific connection in relation to the topic of the story, but
also legitimizes AS’s authority as a sense-maker.

Arena Tigray is linked to an interview (A) AS conducted in 2016 with Gebru Asrat, the
founder of the party about how he sees the political trajectory of the country lead by the
former Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Though Gebru
himself is not a member of the new interim administration, his interview sets the scene
for the opposition of his party to the TPLF’s rule embedded in how he explains the
country’s political situation of the time. The second link for Tigray Democratic Party
(TDP) navigates externally to AS’s own tweet from 15 October 2020 about the
appointment of the chairman Aregawi Berhe not to the current position but his recent
appointment as a Director General of the Office of the National Council for the
Coordination of Public Participation to the Construction of the Great Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam (GERD). The tweet also shows that Aregawi replaces a former
TPLF/EPRDF member, Roman Gebreselassie whose picture appears next to his. Both
hyperlinks contextualize the main story by showing their opposition to the deposed
regional government TPLF and by putting the two personalities at the hearts of the
story. In contrast, the third link associated with Assimba Democratic Party connects the
story to an internal analysis of the contested Tigray election 2020 held in September in
which of all the three parties only Assimba took part. Despite being deemed illegal by
the federal government, the Tigray regional government went ahead and conducted the
elections.

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Figure 5.4. Self-referencing for contextualization

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The news labels the three parties as ‘opposition’ in the second paragraph: “According to
Dr. Mulu, among these opposition parties are Arena Tigray, Tigray Democratic Party
(TDP) and Assimba Democratic Party (ADP)”. However, the links give additional
information on the former two who agreed with the federal government’s designation of
the election as ‘illegal’ by boycotting it and the latter as aligning with the decision of
the deposed Tigray regional government to go ahead with the election by participating
in it. This dichotomy contextualizes country’s current political situation and the Tigray
war in particular which started with the defiance of the Tigray regional government
toward the federal government. Pointing to stories done previously by it, AS projects an
image of a news site that has followed up the controversy and has stories to show for its
original reporting and its ability as a sense-maker by weaving stories done at different
times together in one story. Here, linking internally and amplifying AS as a go-to
information repository is equally important as keeping readers informed. This is why, in
the face of many international outlets reporting about the Tigray war, AS keeps looking
to its own reporting.

Therefore, this frequent contextualization using internal linking, beyond the reliance on
one’s own news gathering, is also an effort to direct the attention of readers by
projecting the news site not only as a reliable outlet but also as one which has already
covered stories that matter to the public. Instead of sending readers away to external
websites, they spare readers’ efforts at making sense of events by making the relevant
connections for them while keeping them in their own site. This marks the difference
between the two sites; EO frequently relies on external information and hardly links to
internal pages.

5.4 Link precision

Links make the news gathering process transparent showing news readers where facts
for news come from. This transparency allows the reader to see not only how the
content of the news came about but the values given to each material through the extent
to which linked materials are used in the actual construction of the news. The analysis
of link precision in the previous chapter revealed the sourcing practices of the two sites
and showed that deep links do not necessarily represent sources, as linked materials are
also used to give context to news events. As explained in the previous chapter, both
these strategies give readers direct access to the raw materials for news.

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Table 5.3. Link precision (Data set 1 and 2)

News site Data External Deep Links Generic Links

links
Addis 1st data set 72 66 (91.7%) 6 (8.3%)
Standard
280 265 (94.6%) 15 (5.4%)
2nd data set
Ethiopia 95 62 (65.3%) 33 (34.7%)
st
Observer 1 data set
2nd data set 8 8 -

Table 5.3 shows the number of deep and generic links for the two sites used in both data
periods; data set 1 (three months), data set 2 (six months). Given the minimal generic
linking in both data periods, as can be seen in the table, AS maintains its targeted
linking in that it kept its generic links under ten percent. In fact, for the number of
external links used in the second data period which are four times as large as the first
data period that is only twice as long, the consistent deep linking tells something of the
routine news writing and gatekeeping practice of AS as well as adherence to journalistic
norms. By the same token, in line with the dramatic drop in the general linking of EO,
the all-deep links in the second data period may not reveal much, as the news selection
process remains hidden behind the normative walls for lack of transparency about the
news gathering process.

Link precision has been identified as one of the gatekeeping mechanisms used by EO in
the previous data period. A little over one third of EO’s external links are generic, some
of which are accompanied by quotes from the linked entities to keep readers on their
webpage. The number of links in a news story is no indication of depth because all of
the links in the news (EO 04) that had the largest number of links (11) were found to be
generic with no substantial contribution to the news.

5.5 The News Ecology: Institutionality

Table 5.4 summarizes the destinations of external links in the two news sites used in the
second data period. The findings of this chapter confirm what the previous chapter
found in a more limited dataset, that the frequent destinations of deep links are
institutional entities, especially international organizations and international media.
International organizations, particularly in the context of this chapter, mostly include

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non-governmental organizations and embassies, due to the humanitarian work
addressing the crisis in Tigray and the diplomatic shuttle among countries. Due to the
information blackout, it was mostly the reports of international humanitarian
organizations operating on the ground in Tigray that occupied the information space
regarding the war.

Information about the war kept coming out through ad hoc civil society and advocacy
groups, established information channels locally and in the diaspora. These channels
made active participation in voicing the accounts of victims through their websites
which were used as inputs for virtual protests by ordinary citizens. However, despite
their huge impact in the awareness creation among the international community, they
are not made part of the information diet selected by the news sites as both sites
gravitated toward institutional sources. Though the linking patterns have notably been
altered in the second data period toward less linking, EO’s sourcing shows its
inclination toward government outlets as sources for their news narratives. However,
when it comes to AS, though their stories constantly direct toward their efforts at
original reporting, their news also makes use of international media and non-
governmental organizations, to contextualize their narratives, especially during the
second data period.

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 Table 5.4. Link
precision and
Addis Standard authorship (Dataset 2)

Website Social media

State Private Int’l Gov’t Int’l Private Organization Personal Mainstream self Sum
media media media inst. org Co. media

Deep 4 13 40 8 43 - 63 11 27 58 265

Generic - - 1 1 6 1 4 - 2 - 15

Ethiopia Observer Sum

Deep - 1 5 1 1 - - - - - 8

Generic - - - - - - - - - -

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5.6 Updated Link Taxonomy

Figure 5.5. Updated Link Taxonomy

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This study developed a preliminary sketch of the hyperlink taxonomy which is used in
Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 as an analytical framework in the analysis of the hyperlinks
used in the two sample news sites in. The study found customization of hyperlinks by
the two news sites as reflected in the updated taxonomy in Figure 5.5. Accordingly,
two sub-categories of link precision have been added to Embedded hyperlinks
according to their use exclusively in AS, Integrative and Reflexive. Camouflaging on
the other hand is added to EO’s as a specific customization of link precision when a
generic link camouflages as a deep link.

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5.7 Conclusion

The Tigray war marks another dramatic shift in the news media of Ethiopia, and this
chapter has extended the analysis from the limited data set of Chapter 4 to a time period
that covers the first six months of this war. Analysis of the data set confirms the already
identified trends, but reveals also the shifts made by AS and EO, likely as a necessary
response to the conditions of reporting during this period. Not the least of these is the
government’s media blackout, forcing news sites to turn to other organisations for their
information.

The analysis on a bigger dataset revealed some more functions of hyperlinking in AS

than already revealed in the previous chapter. The two news sites showed a big gap in
their linking patterns as well as the frequency of their news update in that as AS
maintained a steadily increasing news update and linking pattern, EO’s on the other
hand showed a sharp decline which has more to do with political leanings of the media
than the socio-political situation in which the chapter is done. The chapter looked into
the limited linking patterns and the general sourcing pattern for lack of it to examine the
reason behind the decline and found that alignment to the government narrative about
the war seems to be a more relevant explanation for it.

The minimal linking only confirms the gatekeeping function of hyperlinking in EO as it

offers external sources less frequently, the reader is forced to stay on site. However, AS
uses hyperlinks to give a rich understanding of a news story by linking to a diversity of
sources internally and externally. As EO uses recycled materials as they are, AS adds its
own contribution by giving more context through providing additional sources mostly
internally linked stories. This is a way of calling attention to its ability not only to
conduct original reporting as a legitimizing authority but also sense-making of the
different materials available online by creating a connection among stories old and new.
Moreover, in addition to linking internally to direct attention to its original reporting,
AS also uses external linking to contextualize external content presenting it in a
consumable form within an internal story. Instead of linking to external information, it
links to its stories that have already used the particular external information as a source
by way of contextualizing external content through internal content.

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An examination of the news ecology through the analysis of the destination of links
reveals that both sites gravitate toward institutional entities which may explain that
bureaucratic affinity is evident in their sourcing.

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Chapter 6. Conclusion
The scrutiny into the marriage between journalism and technology is never an
exhaustive one as it presents many avenues for analysis and hence must be a focused
one. This thesis has examined the role and nature of hyperlinks in the context of
journalism in contemporary Ethiopia, comparing two current news sites, Addis Standard
and Ethiopia Observer for their hyperlinking patterns. With a broader aim of
contributing to the study of hyperlinks from the perspective of Ethiopian newsrooms
which have their own constraints, the thesis brings the two news sites from different
social contexts to look into how hyperlinks are appropriated to facilitate news work. A
unifying theme for the study has been the information marginalization that faces the
private media in this specific context underpinning the study. This chapter reviews the
main chapters of the thesis, discusses its limitations and potential for further research,
and concludes with some final observations about hyperlinking in the two sites in
Ethiopia.

6.1 Review of the thesis

Chapter Two brought together two major components of this thesis from the literature;
the technical aspect of hyperlinks explaining what they are and how they are
conceptualized in journalism and their function in aiding the paradigmatic shift of
journalism legitimizing it in the networked public sphere. It started by introducing the
concept of hypertext as distinct from hyperlinks, a term which is used interchangeably
with hypermedia. As both represent interconnected groups of texts enabled by the
networked information infrastructure, what hypertext is for a digital text, hypermedia is
for the combination of text and multimedia features. However, any of the interconnected
entities in this networked platform are referred to as ‘text’ hence rendering the two
terms basically the same or in other words, hypermedia is seen as an extension of
multimodality in hypertext. In terms of manifestation, as hypermedia and hypertext
comprise the underlying structure of the networked public sphere, they are represented
by hyperlinks which are the concrete forms of hypertextual systems.

Unlike plain text, the forms of hyperlinks are studied not as signs for mere
contemplation but sites for user action and it is this two-fold nature that has made them
important components of the online media. In this study, they have been addressed as
semiotic resources not only for their communicative form but also for the action
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component they bring into online journalism, engaging the reader in determining their
news browsing experience. This makes the reader an important part of hypertextual
communication. Yet, it has been established that it is the structure that is put in place by
the news producer that the reader navigates to fulfill their information needs, and thus it
is the structures that hyperlinks enable that has been the focus of the thesis, rather than
user actions per se.

Among the wide-ranging types of hyperlinks, this study examined in-text hyperlinks
used in online news reporting as citation or sourcing mechanisms, particularly because
of their non-obtrusive nature in enabling the seamless fusion of different pages and
platforms into a news text. Hyperlinks facilitate easy navigation in news consumption
making raw materials which comprise the news text accessible on a click of a mouse.
Readers are thereby given access to the news gathering process, the priorities of the
news sites and their value systems which are all transparently displayed for the online
news consumer.

As with any technology adapted into the newsroom, there are positives and negatives, as
discussed in Chapter Two. On the positive side, hyperlinks are hailed for their potential
in reviving journalistic authority through creating connections among multiple other
sources of information and knowledge. However, in an era when the user is also
engaged in generating content that equally shares the networked information space, the
question encompassing journalism is how it could retain its authority amid the
cacophony of data. It remains a challenge for journalism to make use of this asset of the
networked infrastructure and to stand out as a legitimate source of knowledge.

The contribution of hyperlinks to journalism goes beyond the content of what is actually
delivered to include the non-linear narrative enabled by hyperlinks. What comes
through the networked public sphere is not only news but information about the making
of news. This makes it easier for the public to understand underlying and related issues
and the news ecology in general. Extra layers of meaning can be carried by the linking
choices of news sites, such as the raw materials of news and the affiliations and
perspectives of the journalist. All of this might help shape the reader’s view of the
social world.

On the negative side, studies show that easily available information sources mean that
journalism often relies on readymade materials from official sources. Instead of
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producing original stories, journalists resort to an uncritical duplication of information
subsidies. News gathering continues to be dictated by the practical working conditions
of journalism and increasing pressure of limited time and resources can lead to
excessive ‘churnalism’. Nevertheless, hyperlinks remain a significant contributor to the
meanings made in journalistic texts and warrant further investigation. This is
particularly important in a context such as that of the news media in Ethiopia, where
hyperlinks provide important access to information sources.

The third chapter explained the materials, the journalistic data used in the study and the
analytical categories used for the study. Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer are two
news sites selected based on their primary purpose of news reporting, their engagement
in writing their own stories, absence of aggregation and their use of in-text hyperlinks.
Data has been collected in two stages; the first data includes set involved a three
months’ data of news texts running from January-March 2019 and the second data set
from November 2020 to April 2021, being the first six months of the ongoing Tigray
war.

Two major approaches to the study of hyperlinks were identified, literal and
interpretational. The current study was situated within the latter, looking beyond the
technical capabilities of hyperlinks into how journalists use them to legitimize their
narratives in the Ethiopian media context. In doing so, it takes a social semiotic
approach to analyse the use of hyperlinks as a semiotic practice, placing the journalist at
the centre of the meaning making.

A taxonomy of categories of hyperlinks was introduced. In terms of their destinations,

hyperlinks are classified as internal, those which upon a click action transport the reader
to another page within the same website, or external, those which navigate outside to
another website. An important distinction of this study is that links to social media
pages of the news sites is also labelled as ‘external’ because though they belong to the
same ownership, they transport the reader to another platform. The navigational
pathways, beyond revealing the extent to which a news site relies on the diversity of
outside content or stays insulated, also signify the kind of roles (gatekeeper Vs sense-
maker) journalists play in their news reporting.

External links are further classified into deep or generic based on the level of access
given to the raw materials. Through deep links, the journalist gives access to the raw
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materials they used for news by linking to the exact location. Generic links merely point
to the location of a document by leading the reader to a generic page or a homepage.

Deep links are further classified according to the platforms they are linked to (a website
or a social media platform, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and so on) and
according to the authorship of the linked entity (government agency, international
organization, international media and so on).

Thus, Chapter Three provided an analytical framework to explicate the semiotic

potential of hyperlinks as used in news reporting. Beyond what is conveyed by the
content of news texts, hyperlinks add extra layers of meaning which legitimize the
authority of news sites, depending on the nature of the links used. Thus, the navigational
paths of both AS and EO can be examined to determine how they control the news
consumption patterns of their news audiences in their own unique ways.

The chapter ends with a typology of hyperlinks that resulted from the analytical
framework and this was extended as the study progressed.

Chapter Four provided the results of analysis of the first data period. The two sites were
compared in terms of general linking patterns, navigational paths, external v. internal
links, link precision and link destination as well as authorship. Some similarities were
found between the two sites, but the analysis also revealed fundamental differences
between the practice of journalism of the two news sites, in terms of different
hyperlinking strategies used to establish their authority.

Most importantly, external links were found to be more frequent than internal links for
both news sites. This finding contrasts with most other current studies. The
classification of the links to a site’s own social media as external rather than internal
undoubtedly contributes to this finding, especially in the case of Addis Standard.
However, the classification of self-referencing as external linking is justified given that
all social media accounts provide multiple further links through interactive elements,
such as hashtags and Twitter handles which can take the reader on to other sites. Thus,
links to social media accounts fulfilling the same function as any other ‘external’ link.
These links, however they are labelled, have been indispensable in legitimizing the
authority of AS’s narratives.

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Despite this general similarity between the two sites, clear differences were also found
in their linking strategies. In terms of the proportion of navigational paths, while a third
of the hyperlinks in AS constitute internal links, they are kept at a minimum in EO.
AS’s internal links are frequently and sometimes exclusively used in stories resulting
from original reporting by AS’s staff, court reporting and those related to the Oromo
political movement, a topic over which AS has established exclusivity by virtue of
extensive coverage. The only external links these stories have are the embedded tweets
whose authorship belong to AS, which are essentially mechanisms of self-referencing.
Embedded tweets are critical as gatekeeping mechanisms not only successfully keeping
readers inside their news site but also providing extra content on site. This includes the
use of integrative embedding which provides the external content for the reader within
the news item itself, eliminating the need for the reader to navigate away. As well, AS
uses reflexive embedding where the link originates from an elite source, thus conferring
authority to AS by its use.

In contrast, Ethiopia Observer prioritises generic links, especially those to private

companies used with no particular purpose other than enumerating a number of them.
However, some links to social media, which are usually made public especially when
owned by elite personalities, are kept generic. These links accompanied by quotes from
the linked social media to keep the reader on site camouflage external generic links as
deep links; these bring the intended content to the news site but do not provide access to
the actual content in the external destination. This results in less transparency for the
news processes of Ethiopia Observer.

Chapter Five applied the same methodology to a second data set, covering the first six
months of the Tigray war. The context of the war provided an important, if unfortunate,
opportunity to examine if the changed news context further influenced the hyperlinking
patterns of the two sites. The first notable difference is a divergence between the two
sites in terms of the quantity of news produced, as well as the frequency of hyperlinking
used within those stories. Relative to the first data period, AS increased its story count,
and within those stories, its frequency of hyperlinking. EO decreased its story count,
and within those stories, decreased the frequency of hyperlinking.

Some of this variation can be explained by differences in the nature of the two news
sites. Addis Standard works within Ethiopia and has reporters on the ground, as well as

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easier access to official sources, while EO works in the diaspora. Both news sites would
be affected by information blackouts by the government, lack of internet access, and
harassment of journalists. However, the very minimal data and hence the lower level of
linking of EO also speaks to its semiotic choices. These were explained as a
consequence of the political leanings of the owners. As the war was happening in a
complete blackout during the first couple of months, international outlets were critical
in enabling a multitude of stories about the war to find their way into the media sphere.
These outlets were labelled ‘fake’ by the Ethiopian government for making many of the
atrocities, war crimes and the humanitarian crises known to the world. State media and
affiliates for the most part avoided talking about the war, but when they did, they mostly
focused on portraying the government in a positive light propagating the stabilizing
efforts by the government and the belligerence of the TPLF. It seems that EO has
aligned itself with this strategy.

With the larger data set, Chapter Five revealed hyperlinks as the perception and
execution of journalistic roles. The chapter identified that while EO uses its
hyperlinking patterns primarily to enable gatekeeping, AS uses hyperlinking patterns
strategically to enable sense-making. In terms of executing their journalistic role, AS’s
journalists oscillate between gatekeepers and sense-makers. In particular, AS uses
frequent internal linking to prior stories to strengthen its sense of authority and
reliability by pointing to original stories. These stories by AS that originated from their
journalistic labour, make up three quarters of the total number of stories in the first data
set and a little over half in the second. These stories offer information that readers
cannot find elsewhere because of the exclusive access AS’s journalists enjoy or the
jurisdictional topic they are covering. The links in these stories direct readers either to
other pages within AS or to social media pages run by AS as a matter of keeping them
in their territories.

AS rely on their own reporting for stories that demand a high level of accuracy, such as
court reporting. Court reports are the types of stories that are usually done by AS’s staff
on the ground who sometimes get their hands on some evidence, such as court orders to
show for their originality. When these stories involve Oromo political prisoners, they
are usually constructed to be exclusively original and hardly get linked externally; there
are exceptional cases where highly relevant sources get linked to enhance their
exclusivity, such as the Oromo Political Prisoners Defence Team. Even recycled stories
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are contextualized with further links, and again this is often to its own prior stories.
With the addition of journalists’ twitter handles alongside their by-lines, it is clear that
AS takes every opportunity to assert its professional presence.

With a mix of original reporting and recycling in both news sites, the analysis also
found a higher degree of intervention by AS that almost turns recycled stories into
original stories, as the recycled stories are both interrogated and contextualised by citing
multiple additional sources. This feature of AS marks the clear difference with EO as
the latter’s use of recycled materials mostly resorts to mere duplication, rarely giving
access to the original story and hardly questioning it. Internal linking is also a rare
feature of EO and hence news events fell short of contextualization with hardly any
connection among them. During the Tigray war where events keep unfolding, EO’s
news work seems to be leaning more toward the traditional role of gatekeeping mostly
relaying information rather than making sense of it.

In exploring the news ecology through the analysis of the destination of the deep links
for their authorship, this chapter, just as the previous one, discovered that both AS and
EO link to institutions more frequently. Within the broad category of the platforms,
website and social media, AS links more to websites in the first data period than to
social media while in the second data period, the pattern is vice versa. The second data
period saw more self-referencing from AS to its social media pages contributing to the
overall higher social media referencing. On the other hand, EO links to websites more
than social media in both data periods. While the platforms may differ, looking into the
authorship of the links in both sites from both data periods indicate that both news sites
depend on institutional entities for their news narratives and for establishing their
authority through constructing affiliations. This gravitation toward institutional entities
to some extent entities confirms the adherence to standardized routines of news work
that manifests itself in the news gathering process.

Together, chapters 4 and 5 bring some greater diversity to the understanding of

journalism more broadly, by examining aspects of the news media in Ethiopia.

6.2 Limitations of the study and further opportunities

This thesis has attempted to provide insight into a contemporary media context but is
also limited by that context. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, it was not possible to travel

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to Ethiopia and speak to journalists from Addis Standard, as was originally planned for.
An ethnographic perspective, including interviews with journalistic staff, could give
interesting insights into the news context, and into their hyperlinking practices. While
such information could potentially be gathered by phone or email, the politically-
charged nature of the setting makes this challenging also, and likely limits the insights
that could be obtained that way. In an era where everyone’s online activity is virtually
visible, the polarized political landscape makes everyday interaction difficult and
essentially impossible. Therefore, when the war broke out, the study opted for a ‘safe’
venture shifting its total focus to the textual analysis.

The thesis has taken a qualitative approach and therefore the data set must necessarily
be limited in size in order to be manageable. This means that the findings cannot be
generalized but use of the second data set enabled some of the insights from the first
period to be confirmed, and differences to be noted. Clearly, it would be of benefit to
extend the data period further, to continue to observe these trends. It would also be
interesting to examine other media outlets from Ethiopia in terms of their hyperlinking
practices, and in particular, to see if political allegiance continues to play a role.
However, hyperlinking is not very common in Ethiopia generally and the two news sites
were initially selected for their exceptional frequency in using these online tools in their
news reporting. Of course, other news sites such as Ethiopia Insight also use hyperlinks
extensively, but such sites fell outside of the selection criteria for the primary purpose in
news analysis. It would certainly give a wider perspective to include other journalistic
genres in further research efforts. Furthermore, a longitudinal study with more news
outlets would benefit the scholarly circle and reveal more features of meaning-making,
helping to see how temporal factors come into play in them. At the time of doing the
research, only Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer were eligible candidates based on
the criteria used one of which is the frequent use of hyperlinking as part of their news
texts. But if hyperlinking becomes a common news reporting trend, it would be
beneficial to include more outlets in the same media context and see if the same patterns
identified in this study are replicated, which would give the impetus to be conclusive
about the findings. The two data sets are situated in two different socio-political
contexts and that may have influenced the steady increase in external linking in AS and
the decrease in EO, and studying the two sites over time will help identify consistent
patterns.
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Another relevant point of comparison would be Ethiopian media coverage v.
international media coverage of Ethiopian stories, to identify the nature of the links used
there. Especially in times like the current political situation where Ethiopia is making
headlines for the worst humanitarian crisis of our time34, a comparative study would
give more insights about the nature of hyperlinks and their specific use across countries
and the interplay of more factors, such as global power relations. Situating the case of
countries like Ethiopia in cross-sectional studies would help put the study of hyperlinks
in a new light and bring diversity to the research agenda.

The study has demonstrated that analysis of hyperlinks can reveal important insights
into the nature of journalism, and particularly its evolution in the content of
technological change. In particular, it has shown how hyperlinking can be adapted to fit
specific needs and contexts and demonstrated the general implication of hyperlinking in
the paradigmatic shift of journalism befitting the digitally mediated environment. This
includes the way different linking strategies are used, such as embedding as identified in
this study, and the extent to which journalists let their audiences in on their news
gathering through link precision.

In terms of methodology and scope, this study is highly constrained by the political
context and the pandemic but expanding the methodology to include ethnographic
study, i.e., of journalists and news consumers, would help demystify some of the taken
for granted features of hyperlinks. More specifically, situating the audience within the
communicative triad would give a more comprehensive picture of the interactivity
aspect of hyperlinks and more generally of the marriage between journalism and
technology.

6.3 Final observations

For the most part, the relative position of Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer in the
media space seems to determine the way the two sites operate journalistically. Due to
their physical presence in the Ethiopian media landscape or lack thereof they enjoy
differential privileges. While Addis Standard has a registered 35 status in the country,

34
Gladstone, R. 2021, ”9.4 million people are ‘living their worst nightmare’ in northern Ethiopia due to
ongoing conflict”, New York Times, 10 June, viewed 25 September 2021,
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/world/africa/ethiopia-famine-tigray.html
35
Addis Standard is registered with the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia under license number 1552/2003.
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Ethiopia Observer runs as an online outlet from the diaspora. Their respective status
apparently affects their news composition, source relations and the content of their
news.

By virtue of being registered and having a strong presence in the Ethiopian media
landscape since 2011, Addis Standard has achieved a certain status. This includes a
source base which constantly supplies inputs to their news gathering process. Looking
at the news composition of AS, it is understandable that they have established a
relationship with some official sources, such as embassies and non-governmental
organizations which directly send press statements to the news site for publicity. In
addition to the steady supply of official statements, AS also repurposes recycled
materials already published online. Their sources also include some anonymous insiders
within the government who are mentioned as having important positions in the state
structure supplying important news tips.

More importantly, Addis Standard has reporters on the ground going to news events and
conducting interviews as raw materials for their news texts. This is evident in the
presence of a good number of original reports. Particularly for news stories related to
the topic of the Oromo resistance, AS hardly cites any external sources but rather relies
heavily on their own journalistic labour. The case of the Oromo political prisoners for
example has not been reported more extensively anywhere else than it has in AS, thus
establishing it as a jurisdictional topic for the site. Besides giving an account of what
their journalists witness or the relevant sources with direct relation to the topic, AS also
constantly contextualizes their reports by linking internally to archived stories. This
contextualization somewhat reflects a genuine effort by AS to provide something that
can be trusted because of the diversity of sources provided as well as the level of
transparency with which readers are given access to source materials. AS takes
advantage of the non-obtrusive nature of hyperlinks to embed as much contextual
information as possible into the news.

In contrast, Ethiopia Observer works from outside of Ethiopia itself as part of the
diaspora. This makes it even more challenging to access relevant sources, but as noted
in Chapter 5, the political alignment of EO emerges through its coverage – or lack of
coverage – of particularly controversial stories. In the context of the Tigray war, EO
reduces its overall coverage and its frequency of linking. Additionally, the use of

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generic links to social media sources in the first data period indicates the superficial
access EO gives to some sources. Even those social media posts EO deep links to
mostly belong to mainstream media outlets.

The findings of this thesis show that while hyperlinking may be a technological feature,
its implications go far beyond mere technology. Apart from showing the raw materials
that go into the news, they serve as the gateway through which readers get a sneak peek
behind the scenes of the news gathering process. Readers get to experience the presence
of the journalist as a gatekeeper in the link trajectory, i.e., the nature of the hypertextual
paths constructed through hyperlinks determining the reader’s navigation, their access
and information intake all of which shape the role of the journalist as gatekeeper or
sense-maker. In the context of the contemporary media landscape in Ethiopia, and
through an examination of two specific sites, Addis Standard and Ethiopia Observer, it
has been shown that while Addis Standard balances both roles, Ethiopia Observer
prioritises the role of gatekeeper, and limits its readers’ access to further knowledge. In
contrast to EO, AS’s gatekeeping is less of control and more based on choice as external
linking is practiced in higher proportions. While EO uses generic links with quotes to
keep readers onsite, AS uses internal links to call readers’ attention to certain stories on
their site while still using external links in higher proportion. While readers stay on EO
because of generic links, AS’s readers on the other hand stay inside AS because they are
provided with rich information and are also given the flexibility to browse externally
into deep links. Even when AS uses recycled stories, besides giving links to the original
story they also contextualize it using their archived stories helping readers make sense
of it by showing connections.

Both AS and EO claim breadth and diversity through their reporting: “Reporting
beyond your eyes” (AS) and “A reliable, diverse and insightful voice on Ethiopia.
Dedicated to telling stories about Ethiopian politics, culture and history” (EO), but only
AS’s slogan is evidenced through its hyperlinking practices. As such, from the diversity
of sources it links to especially in the war stories, AS displays a higher degree of
professionalism than EO, is more selective in its linking to the point of being biased in
their total disregard of some stories.

Hyperlinks help fill the news cycle by allowing the easy pick-up of news from other
sites and AS seems to be taking advantage of them well in its news work. In recycled as

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well as original stories, hyperlinks have a notable presence in quantity and quality (link
precision). As initially predicted in this study, hyperlinks are a response to the
information marginalization in the Ethiopian media landscape. Hyperlinks already had a
strong presence in the first data period and even more so in the second; in fact, as the
problem of access to information during the second data period intensified, so did the
number of links. The outcome however was different in the case of EO in that the
information blockade was met with a dramatic drop in not only hyperlinking but also
news reporting, indicating that specific organizational contexts come into play in news
work.

The thesis also revealed the appropriation of hyperlinks into professional ideologies.
The source materials as analysed in this study are categorized in terms of the platform
destinations they are posted on, such as websites and social media. Social media posts
for sourcing and profiles for topical purposes are commonly used in both news sites. In
terms of evidentiary strategies, these stand outside of the sociocultural conventions of
professional news work which is traditionally constituted by eyewitness testimonies,
interviews and documents. However, the data showed that most of the deep links for
both AS and EO navigate to either elite institutional establishments (such as media
organizations both local and international, international organizations, etc) or to the
social media posts of elite personalities (government officials, political analysts,
journalists affiliated to mainstream media, etc.).

These non-conventional sources that exist outside of the professional boundary of

journalism may be commonly used, but their importance does not lie in their essence
but in the authorship behind the links. For one, ostensibly, this indicates the increasing
adoption of social media by organizational entities and their normalization in news
discourse but more importantly, it speaks more to the professional ideologies that
govern news selection than a deliberate attempt at setting hegemonic narratives. The
need for attribution in sourcing, underpinned by the privileging of the objectivity
paradigm is solidified into news values that determine the legitimacy of some sources
and not others. What can be seen from the pattern of authorship in this study are the
familiar selection frames that prioritize elite sources (elite organizations or those
affiliated to them) over the average person. In any case, be it hegemony or practices as
part of news routines, ultimately, the author becomes the message. In the context of a
rapidly changing technological environment, in a country with a precarious political
180
situation, emerging forms of communication will continue to encroach journalistic
practices in which case the examination of persistence in ideological paradigms or any
configurations should be an ongoing endeavour.

181
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194
Appendix

Addis Standard: Data set 1

(AS 01) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-billene-helen-remain-at-pms-press-

secretariat-kassahun-gofe-not-joining/

(AS 02) https://addisstandard.com/news-rapid-response-plan-seeks-us25-5m-to-reach-

civilians-displaced-by-inter-communal-violence/

(AS 03) https://addisstandard.com/news-irish-pm-leo-varadkaris-due-to-visit-ethiopia/

(AS 04) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-ireland-announce-cultural-heritage-

tourism-partnership/

(AS 05) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-nebiat-getachew-a-career-diplomat-

becomes-the-new-spokesperson-of-mofa/

(AS 06) https://addisstandard.com/news-defense-force-begins-airstrike-in-western-

oromia-says-targets-are-olf-military-training-camps/

(AS 07) https://addisstandard.com/news-main-road-connecting-ethiopia-to-djibouti-

blocked-by-protesters-in-afar-2/

(AS 08) https://addisstandard.com/news-police-say-corruption-charges-on-erimias-

amelga-already-filed-at-fed-court/

(AS 09) https://addisstandard.com/news-nearly-36-million-children-in-ethiopia-are-

poor-lack-access-to-basic-social-services-a-new-report-reveals/

(AS 10) https://addisstandard.com/news-judge-presiding-at-high-level-corruption-case-

recuses-himself/

(AS 11) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-somali-regions-cabinet-removes-

communication-chief-calls-ahmed-shide-to-jigjiga/

(AS 12) https://addisstandard.com/news-police-detains-former-eprdf-veteran-bereket-

simon-ex-tiret-ceo-tadesse-kassa/

(AS 13) https://addisstandard.com/feature-for-women-reforms-in-ethiopia-bring-hope-

and-uncertainty/

195
(AS 14) https://addisstandard.com/news-breakthrough-as-government-olf-sg-agree-on-
immediate-ceasefire-encampment-of-rebel-army-in-20-days/

(AS 15) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-eu-step-up-partnership-and-

cooperation/

(AS 16) https://addisstandard.com/news-attorney-generals-office-says-investigations-

into-august-jigjiga-violence-complete-reveals-discovery-of-mass-grave/

(AS 17) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-somali-region-vice-president-says-possible-

plot-of-treason-against-the-region-foiled-eleven-cabinet-members-in-addis-abeba-for-
emergency-briefing/

(AS 18) https://addisstandard.com/news-fourth-day-protests-leave-one-dead-many-

injured-in-dire-dawa-city/

(AS 19) https://addisstandard.com/news-lemma-megerssa-supports-olf-sg-government-

peace-deal-preparations-underway-to-bring-rebels-committee-says/

(AS 20) https://addisstandard.com/news-iom-airlifts-hundreds-of-ethiopian-migrants-

stranded-in-yemen-to-ethiopia/

(AS 21) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-charges-ex-somali-region-president-

46-others-with-inciting-violence/

(AS 22) https://addisstandard.com/news-curfew-ban-on-public-gathering-imposed-in-

somali-region-after-death-of-two-at-religious-festival/

(AS 23) https://addisstandard.com/news-pizza-hut-ethiopia-launches-women-operated-

restaurant-its-first-in-the-world/

(AS 24) https://addisstandard.com/news-gates-foundation-awards-cabi-1-49-m-to-help-

boost-food-security-in-ethiopia-india/

(AS 25) https://addisstandard.com/exclusive-ethiopia-to-establish-new-authority-to-

regulate-telecommunication-service-see-copy-of-the-new-proclamation/

(AS 26) https://addisstandard.com/news-ex-somali-region-president-dismisses-criminal-

charges-against-him-as-coordinated-lies/

(AS 27) https://addisstandard.com/news-u-s-embassy-launches-ethiopia-debates/

196
(AS 28) https://addisstandard.com/news-clashes-in-central-gonder-zone-claim-lives-
damage-to-properties/

(AS 29) https://addisstandard.com/news-three-killed-when-ethiopian-military-

helicopter-crashes-en-route-from-kadugli-to-abyei/

(AS 30) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopian-islamic-affairs-supreme-council-

condemns-two-separate-attacks-on-mosques-in-south-gonder/

(AS 31) https://addisstandard.com/news-thousands-displaced-by-fresh-violence-in-

central-and-western-gonder-in-need-of-urgent-help/

(AS 32) https://addisstandard.com/news-despite-court-authorized-bail-police-continue-

holding-former-coo-of-ethio-telecom-with-fresh-corruption-allegations/

(AS 33) https://addisstandard.com/news-u-s-announces-40-m-to-support-goal-of-

universal-health-coverage-in-ethiopia/

(AS 34) https://addisstandard.com/news-court-okays-prosecutors-request-for-witness-

protection-in-ex-somali-president-case/

(AS 35) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-charges-eight-former-prison-officials-

in-connection-with-deadly-qilinto-prison-fire/

(AS 36) https://addisstandard.com/news-supreme-court-upholds-high-courts-decision-

to-grant-bail-to-former-coo-of-ethio-telecom/

(AS 37) https://addisstandard.com/news-demolition-of-houses-leaves-hundreds-in-

legetafo-legedadi-homeless-city-mayor-insists-houses-are-illegal/

(AS 38) https://addisstandard.com/news-u-s-embassy-supports-going-digital-to-

improve-ethiopias-food-and-drug-safety/

(AS 39) https://addisstandard.com/news-court-orders-the-police-to-bring-absent-

defendants-in-ex-somali-president-file-translators-no-show-despite-court-order/

(AS 40) https://addisstandard.com/news-shashemene-hospital-gets-new-outpatient-

center-with-maternity-ward-emergency-unit/

(AS 41) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-kenya-trade-and-investment-forum-

kicks-off-in-addis-abeba/

197
(AS 42) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-pm-abiy-ahmed-president-mohamed-
abdullahi-mohamed-en-route-to-nairobi-for-talks-with-uhuru-kenyatta/

(AS 43) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-un-appeal-for-us1-3-b-to-help-8-3-m-

ethiopians-in-need-of-food-non-food-assistance/

(AS 44) https://addisstandard.com/news-multiple-protests-across-oromia-region-in-

wake-of-condo-houses-distribution-by-addis-abeba-city-admin-%EF%BB%BF/

(AS 45) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-un-chief-appoints-fm-workneh-gebeyehu-

as-unon-director-general/

(AS 46) https://addisstandard.com/news-pm-abiy-forms-committee-to-resolve-oromia-

addis-boundary-administrative-dispute/

(AS 47) #ET302 Crash: The world mourns with Ethiopia. Chronicles of events - Addis
Standard

(AS 48) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-france-to-sign-space-economic-

cooperation/

(AS 49) https://addisstandard.com/news-10th-organizational-conference-of-spdp-

underway-ahmed-shide-mustefa-omer-likely-the-next-chairman-deputy-chairman-of-
the-party/

198
Ethiopia Observer: Data set 1

(EO 01) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/04/division-lack-of-cohesion-

among-ruling-party-leaders-blocking-the-ongoing-reform-merera-gudina/

(EO 02) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/08/ethiopia-is-in-transition-

defined-by-no-clear-direction-tsadkan-gebretensae/

(EO 03) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/09/outrage-over-army-killings/

(EO 04) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/14/tour-companies-and-hotels-see-

a-bigger-increase-in-tourist-arrivals/

(EO 05) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/14/gunmen-rob-17-banks/

(EO 06) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/16/the-situation-in-tigray-region-

is-highly-worrisome-says-gebru-asrat/

(EO 07) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/19/117-african-migrants-die-in-

wreck-off-coast-of-libya/

(EO 08) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/21/ethiopia-needs-a-new-

constitution-dawit-wolde-giorgis/

(EO 09) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/23/berket-simon-and-tadesse-

kassa-arrested-taken-to-bahir-dar/

(EO 10) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/24/a-plot-to-overthrow-the-

president-of-ethiopias-somali-region/

(EO 11) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/25/ethiopia-participates-in-spains-

largest-tourism-fair/

(EO 12) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/27/ahmed-shide-criticises-reports-

of-party-splits-denies-involvement-to-oust-president/

(EO 13) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/01/27/al-amoudi-released-from-

prison/

(EO 14) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/01/analysts-debate-on-the-nature-

of-the-reforms-in-ethiopias-transition-period/

199
(EO 15) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/03/website-founder-says-he-was-
threatened-by-tigray-regional-states-security-agents/

(EO 16) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/04/abiy-ahmed-on-the-role-of-the-

media/

(EO 17) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/05/zadig-abraha-delivers-scathing-

review-of-tplf-after-submitting-resignation/

(EO 18) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/08/ethiopia-showcases-travel-

products-at-brussels-holiday-fair/

(EO 19) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/10/emperor-haile-selassie-statue-

unveiled/

(EO 20) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/17/twenty-eight-years-holed-up-in-

italian-embassy/

(EO 21) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/20/twenty-eight-years-holed-up-in-

italian-embassy-2/

(EO 22) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/21/bulcha-demeksa-announces-

run-for-parliament/

(EO 23) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/25/home-demolitions-sparks-

anger-confusion/

(EO 24) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/28/ethiopias-foremost-washnit-

player-yohannes-afework-dies-at-72/

(EO 25) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/28/french-bank-banque-populaire-

set-to-enter-ethiopia/

(EO 26) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/01/stage-veteran-producer-dies-

aged-83/

(EO 27) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/03/the-eprdf-should-make-or-

break-merera-gudina/

(EO 28) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/06/ethiopian-tour-companies-

complain-of-losing-booth-at-berlin-travel-trade/

200
(EO 29) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/08/gedu-andargachew-resigns/

(EO 30) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/10/ethiopian-airline-flight-crashes-

killing-157/

(EO 31) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/12/french-press-focuses-on-

ethiopia-in-connection-with-macrons-visit-to-country/

201
Addis Standard Twitter Thread Reader (Referenced in Section 4.3.1.1)

Thread by @addisstandard: " : @PMEthiopia indicates there has been a plane crash
involving @flyethiopian "Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Ke […]"
#Ethiopia #Kenya #Bishoftu #Update (threadreaderapp.com)

202
Addis Standard: Data set 2

(AS 50) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-national-defense-forces-given-order-to-

start-military-offensive-against-tplf-pm-abiy-ahmed/

(AS 51) https://addisstandard.com/a-statement-from-jakenn-publishing-plc-regarding-

the-blockage-of-all-means-of-communication-in-tigray-regional-state/

(AS 52) https://addisstandard.com/news-as-more-troops-mobilized-to-northern-

ethiopia-to-join-aimless-war-pm-abiy-assures-operations-have-clear-limited-achievable-
objectives/

(AS 53) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-onlf-vice-chairman-and-veteran-member-

hassan-moalim-resigns/

(AS 54) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-pm-abiy-confirms-air-force-conducted-

targeted-strikes-in-mekelle-and-its-environs/

(AS 55) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-house-of-federation-adopts-resolution-to-

establish-a-transitional-government-in-tigray/

(AS 56) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-germany-calls-for-federal-tigray-govts-to-

act-immediately-to-stop-the-fight-suggests-african-union-mediated-talks/

(As 57) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-unprecedented-move-by-pm-abiy-sees-

new-leadership-in-entire-security-sector-foreign-ministry/

(AS 58) https://addisstandard.com/new-alert-police-detain-addis-standards-editor-

accuse-him-of-attempt-to-dismantle-the-constitution/

(AS 59) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-police-rearrest-addis-standards-editor/

(AS 60) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopian-human-rights-commission-

condemns-more-arrest-of-journalists-as-police-keeps-all-incommunicado/

(AS 61) https://addisstandard.com/news-irc-warns-of-looming-humanitarian-crisis-as-

supply-of-social-service-to-the-most-vulnerable-is-disrupted-following-military-
operation-in-tigray/

203
(AS 62) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopian-red-cross-society-requests-respect-
for-its-logo-during-the-ongoing-conflict-in-border-areas-between-tigray-amhara-
regions/

(AS 63) https://addisstandard.com/news-rocket-attacks-damage-airport-areas-in-bahir-

dar-gonder-cities-government-blames-tplf/

(As 64) https://addisstandard.com/news-authorities-in-benishangul-gumuz-say-culprits-

who-killed-at-least-34-civilians-in-gruesome-bus-attack-eliminated-fresh-attack-leaves-
three-more-injured/

(AS 65) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-au-chair-appoints-three-special-envoys-

to-help-mediate-ongoing-conflict-in-ethiopia-create-conditions-for-inclusive-dialogue/

(AS 66) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-ethiopia-says-pm-abiy-will-receive-au-

chair-envoy-one-on-one-news-circulating-on-media-quoting-ramaphosas-statement-on-
mediation-fake/

(AS 67) https://addisstandard.com/news-dozens-of-civilians-killed-in-sustained-konso-

zone-violence-more-than-94-000-displaced/

(AS 68) https://addisstandard.com/news-fed-court-grants-police-eight-more-days-to-

remand-four-journalists-including-addis-standards-editor-and-six-others-in-one-file/

(AS 69) https://addisstandard.com/news-uae-ethiopia-looking-to-cooperate-in-artificial-

intelligence/

(AS 70) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-rights-commission-calls-on-govt-to-

restore-communications-basic-services-in-tigray-calls-on-independent-transparent-
investigation-into-grave-rights-violations/

(AS 71) https://addisstandard.com/news-number-of-civilians-killed-in-recent-violence-

in-konso-reaches-66-39-injured-and-more-than-130-000-displaced/

(AS 72) https://addisstandard.com/news-a-federal-high-court-repeals-lower-court-bail-

grant-remands-four-journalists-for-thirteen-more-days/

(AS 73) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethio-djibouti-railway-suffers-from-theft-and-

vandalism-leading-to-heavy-revenue-loss/

204
(AS 74) https://addisstandard.com/news-amhara-region-police-says-its-requesting-
federal-govt-to-intervene-or-be-given-the-task-to-solve-security-crisis-in-neighboring-
benishangul-region/

(AS 75) https://addisstandard.com/news-opposition-party-oromo-federalist-congress-

says-it-will-find-it-extremely-hard-to-take-part-in-coming-elections-under-existing-
conditions/

(AS 76) https://addisstandard.com/news-the-ethiopian-agricultural-transformation-

agency-presents-its-business-model-impact-and-10-year-strategy/

(AS 77) https://addisstandard.com/news-climate-fueled-la-nina-in-east-africa-will-

drive-millions-into-hunger-oxfam/

(AS 78) https://addisstandard.com/news-tigray-interim-admin-ceo-says-mekelle-gets-

new-mayor-urges-civil-servants-to-resume-work-and-cautions-door-to-door-search-for-
unlawful-firearms-begins-today/

(AS 79) https://addisstandard.com/business-news-ceva-logistics-continues-african-

expansion-with-joint-venture-in-ethiopia/

(AS 80) https://addisstandard.com/news-ruling-party-members-speak-of-need-to-repeat-

tigray-military-operation-in-benishangul-gumuz-as-amhara-region-govt-nama-ramp-up-
calls-for-actions/

(AS 81) https://addisstandard.com/news-as-killings-of-civilians-continue-in-metekel-

authorities-in-benishagul-gumuz-amhara-regional-states-step-up-blames/

(AS 82) https://addisstandard.com/news-nestle-launches-a-waste-management-program-

to-tackle-plastic-pollution/

(AS 83) https://addisstandard.com/news-iom-partners-provide-relief-to-people-affected-

by-the-crisis-in-northern-ethiopia/

(AS 84) https://addisstandard.com/news-olf-accuses-govt-of-fresh-crackdown-on-its-

members-oromia-region-says-measures-taken-on-several-dozen-rebel-members-
thousands-arrested-across-region/

205
(AS 85) https://addisstandard.com/news-pm-abiy-meets-metekel-residents-to-discuss-
security-meeting-comes-a-day-after-door-to-door-hunt-launched-to-control-criminal-
groups-behind-attacks-on-civilians/

(AS 86) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-un-rights-commissioner-speaks-of-

artillery-strikes-on-populated-areas-deliberate-targeting-of-civilians-urges-ethiopia-to-
provide-unhindered-acc/

(AS 87) https://addisstandard.com/news-federal-court-receives-amended-charge-on-

eskinder-nega-et-al-police-detain-supporters-from-court-premises/

(AS 88) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-eyewitnesses-say-more-than-90-killed-in-

fresh-attack-in-bulen-wereda-benishangul-gumuz-region-cautions-civilians-to-join-safe-
villages/

(AS 89) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-rights-commission-says-attack-in-

benishangul-gumuz-sign-of-severe-decline-of-rights-protection-primary-duty-of-
government/

(AS 90) https://addisstandard.com/news-tigray-region-interim-health-bureau-head-

admits-civilian-deaths-in-battle-to-capture-mekelle-looting-of-hospitals-and-university/

(AS 91) https://addisstandard.com/news-66-killed-in-recurring-conflict-in-konso-idps-

victims-require-urgent-attention-rights-comission/

(AS 92) https://addisstandard.com/news-defendants-in-eskinder-nega-file-enter-not-

guilty-plea-court-schedules-witness-hearing-for-april/

(AS 93) https://addisstandard.com/news-afar-somali-regions-trade-serious-accusations-

after-renewed-violence-leaves-scores-dead/

(AS 94) https://addisstandard.com/news-local-official-in-amhara-region-accused-sudan-

of-invading-large-swaths-of-land-stealing-destroying-more-than-25-m-worth-property/

(AS 95) https://addisstandard.com/news-ata-teams-up-with-partners-to-deliver-

livestock-covid-19-information-to-farmers/

(AS 96) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-denies-reports-that-cairo-summons-

its-envoy-says-no-official-stance-yet-on-egypts-alleged-support-to-sudan/

206
(AS 97) https://addisstandard.com/news-mekelle-city-interim-mayor-admits-presence-
and-participation-of-eritrean-forces-in-tigray-conflict/

(AS 98) https://addisstandard.com/news-update-makelle-interim-mayor-says-remark-

on-eritrea-forces-only-a-repeat-of-military-official-interim-ceo-says-mayor-not-
mandated-to-speak-on-the-issue-corrective-measure-taken/

(AS 99) https://addisstandard.com/news-sudan-fails-to-attend-planned-ministerial-

virtual-meeting-on-gerd-says-its-call-for-au-experts-meeting-received-no-response/

(AS 100) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethio-lease-hands-over-high-tech-medical-

imaging-equipment-to-alatyon-hospital-hawassa/

(AS 101) News: Latest joint gov't-inter-agencies’ assessment report in Tigray reveals
dire humanitarian situation, massive damage, vandalization of public health centers -
Addis Standard

(AS 102) https://addisstandard.com/news-ofc-says-againvery-difficult-to-participate-in-

election-under-current-conditions-cautions-threat-to-multinational-federalism-
dangerous-move/

(AS 103) https://addisstandard.com/news-at-least-nine-civilians-killed-several-villages-

burned-in-renewed-attacks-in-konso/

(AS 104) https://addisstandard.com/news-five-regions-see-cholera-outbreaks-more-

than-50-die-in-december-alone/

(AS 105) https://addisstandard.com/news-eu-firm-on-withholding-ethiopia-budget-

support-demands-humanitarian-access-situation-in-tigray-beyond-a-purely-internal-law-
and-order-operation-possible-war-crimes/

(AS 106) https://addisstandard.com/news-victims-of-metekel-attacks-buried-in-mass-

graves-taskforce-announces-curfew/

(AS 107) https://addisstandard.com/news-the-first-hyperscale-data-center-park-breaks-

ground-in-ethiopias-ict-park/

(AS 108) https://addisstandard.com/news-foreign-ministry-spokesperson-contradicts-

army-commander-mekelle-interim-mayor-rights-commission-report-on-eritrean-forces-
involvement-in-armed-conflict-in-tigray/

207
(AS 109) https://addisstandard.com/news-security-forces-shot-dead-tigray-tv-journalist-
his-friend-in-mekelle-officials-decline-to-comment/

(AS 110) https://addisstandard.com/news-un-rep-for-sexual-violence-in-conflict-

greatly-concerned-by-horrific-reports-of-sexual-violence-in-tigray/

(AS 111) https://addisstandard.com/news-olf-says-electoral-boards-failure-to-address-

its-repeated-complaints-on-govt-crackdown-restricting-its-ability-to-participate-in-
elections/

(AS 112) https://addisstandard.com/news-rights-commission-raises-concern-on-urgent-

need-to-improve-prison-detention-conditions-in-gambella-calls-for-immediate-release-
of-all-children/

(AS 113) https://addisstandard.com/news-tigray-region-interim-admin-official-admits-

death-of-13-due-to-lack-of-food-says-crisis-scale-unprecedented-in-regions-history/

(AS 114) https://addisstandard.com/news-jawar-bekele-et-al-protest-with-hunger-after-

police-detain-dozens-of-supporters-from-court-premises/

(AS 115) https://addisstandard.com/news-30-police-officers-killed-40-more-injured-in-

latest-violent-clashes-between-federal-police-and-afar-security-forces-unocha/

(AS 116) https://addisstandard.com/news-defendants-on-jawar-mohammed-file-

continue-protest-with-hunger-police-briefly-detain-defense-lawyer/

(AS 117) https://addisstandard.com/news-electoral-board-cautions-olf-party-structure-

its-members-to-convene-general-assembly-to-settle-leadership-split-ethioelection2021/

(AS 118) https://addisstandard.com/news-update-federal-police-says-unocha-report-on-

police-forces-death-exaggerated-not-in-line-with-what-is-on-the-ground/

(AS 119) https://addisstandard.com/news-as-jawar-bekele-others-continue-hunger-

strike-ehrc-chief-says-close-supervision-required-reasonably-justified-demands-must-
be-addressed/

(AS 120) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-eu-joins-the-us-in-calling-withdrawal-

of-eritrean-troops-from-ethiopia-says-they-are-fueling-the-conflict-in-tigray-renews-
call-for-humanitarian-access-for-all/

208
(AS 121) https://addisstandard.com/news-as-jawar-et-al-continue-hunger-strike-oromia-
region-sees-multiple-protests-demanding-their-release-justice-for-slain-artist-hachalu/

(AS 122) News: U.S. Embassy kicks off election training for Ethiopian journalists -
Addis Standard

(AS 123) News: Electoral Board says five regional states fail to submit list of
constituency offices per schedule, issues new deadline - Addis Standard

(AS 124) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-deeply-concerned-by-eu-statement-

on-tigray-stays-silent-on-accusations-of-eritreas-role-in-the-armed-conflict/

(AS 125) https://addisstandard.com/news-vital-strategies-opens-office-in-addis-abeba-

to-help-strengthen-ethiopias-public-health-systems/

(AS 126) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopian-rights-commissions-latest-report-

on-tigray-sheds-light-on-sexual-violence-child-causalities/

(AS 127) https://addisstandard.com/news-benishangul-gumuz-region-ruling-party-

admits-ethnic-targeted-killings-in-metekel-issues-an-apology-sacks-senior-members/

(AS 128) https://addisstandard.com/news-medical-team-of-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-

quit-over-inability-to-transfer-bekele-gerba-to-private-hospital/

(AS 129) https://addisstandard.com/news-bekele-gerba-transferred-to-a-private-

hospital-after-court-upholds-earlier-decision/

(AS 130) https://addisstandard.com/news-update-family-says-security-forces-transfer-

bekele-to-armed-forces-hospital-forcibly/

(AS 131) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-accuses-sudanese-army-of-

demolishing-local-administrative-institutions-west-gonder-residents-decry-continued-
incursion-urge-solution/

(AS 132) https://addisstandard.com/news-electoral-board-invalidates-onlfs-emergency-

meeting-that-suspends-chairman-abdirahman-mahdi-party-members/

(AS 133) https://addisstandard.com/news-pragma-partners-specific-tools-techniques-

ltd-partner-for-supply-and-deployment-of-telecom-infrastructure-in-ethiopia/

209
(AS 134) https://addisstandard.com/news-update-fed-court-once-again-upholds-
decision-for-prisoners-in-hunger-strike-to-get-medical-care-at-private-hospital/

(AS 135) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopian-becomes-first-innovator-shortlisted-

for-africa-prize-2021-entrepreneurial-innovators-shaping-the-continent/

(AS 136) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-says-conflict-trumpeted-by-

sudanese-army-could-only-serve-a-third-party-sudan-summons-its-envoy-from-addis-
abeba/

(AS 137) https://addisstandard.com/news-attorney-general-appeals-at-supreme-court-to-

block-private-hospital-treatment-for-imprisoned-oromo-opposition-leaders-on-hunger-
strike/

(AS 138) https://addisstandard.com/news-national-defense-forces-say-tigrayan-un-

peacekeepers-who-refuse-to-come-home-traitors-demands-apology-form-unhcr/

(AS 139) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-court-acquits-woman-who-was-one-of-

the-four-suspects-in-the-assassination-of-oromo-artist-hachalu-hundessa/

(AS 140) https://addisstandard.com/news-police-in-jimma-defy-court-bail-transfer-uni-

graduate-two-others-to-separate-police-station-rights-commission-calls-for-their-
immediate-release/

(AS 141) https://addisstandard.com/news-amnesty-documents-potential-crime-against-

humanity-war-crime-committed-by-eritrean-forces-in-the-sacred-city-of-axum/

(AS 142) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-gets-first-orange-digital-center-in-

addis-abeba/

(AS 143) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-eu-calls-for-immediate-cessation-of-

hostilities-says-civilian-sufferings-in-tigray-appalling/

(AS 144) https://addisstandard.com/news-board-postponed-candidate-registration-

schedule-for-2nd-time-evaluating-afar-region-complaint-over-polling-station-listing-
under-somali-region/

(AS 145) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-supreme-court-cassation-bench-dismisses-

attorney-generals-appeal-to-block-private-hospital-for-bekele-gerba-jawar-mohammed-
et-al/

210
(AS 146) https://addisstandard.com/just-in-in-a-phone-call-with-pm-abiy-sec-blinken-
pressed-for-the-immediate-end-to-hostilities-and-the-withdrawal-of-outside-forces-
from-tigray-including-amhara-regional-security-forces-and-eritrean/

(AS 147) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-habtemariam-elevated-to-chairman-

ceo-of-motown-records/

(AS 148) https://addisstandard.com/news-construction-of-gerd-progressing-tendency-

to-invite-various-parties-to-mediate-demeaning-to-au-led-negotiations-amb-dina-mufti/

(AS 149) https://addisstandard.com/news-jimma-uni-graduate-two-others-who-remain-

in-police-custody-against-court-order-face-new-charges/

(AS 150) https://addisstandard.com/news-tigray-region-interim-admin-unanimous-on-

the-need-for-eritrean-troops-withdrawal-bureau-head/

(AS 151) https://addisstandard.com/update-un-secretary-general-joins-growing-calls-

for-eritrean-forces-to-leave-tigray/

(AS 152) https://addisstandard.com/new-report-on-axum-eritrean-forces-massacre-

tigray-civilians-hrw/

(AS 153) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-un-accepts-au-chairpersons-invitation-to-

support-participate-in-au-led-negotiation-on-gerd/

(AS 154) https://addisstandard.com/news-elders-intervention-ends-hunger-strike-by-

oromo-opposition-politicians/

(AS 155) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-rights-commission-urges-restraint-in-

gender-based-hate-speech-violence-against-women-participating-in-electoral-process/

(AS 156) https://addisstandard.com/news-security-forces-kill-scores-of-civilians-arrest-

several-in-metekel-after-attack-by-rebels-killed-three-wounded-seven-ethiopia-accuses-
egypt-sudan-for-persistent-violence/

(AS (157) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-stays-firm-on-solving-gerd-issue-

under-the-auspices-of-the-ongoing-au-led-negotiation/

(AS 158) https://addisstandard.com/news-raxio-kicks-off-construction-of-data-center-

in-addis-abeba/

211
(AS 159) https://addisstandard.com/news-gunmen-who-storm-a-local-church-kill-29-in-
horoguduru-western-oromia/

(AS 160) https://addisstandard.com/news-adb-approves-2-33-m-grant-to-support-the-

modernization-of-electronic-payments-infrastructure/

(AS 161) https://addisstandard.com/news-yemen-requests-ethiopia-to-send-special-

aircraft-to-repatriate-victims-bodies-survivors-of-detention-center-fire/

(AS 162) https://addisstandard.com/news-mpharma-belayab-pharmaceuticals-sign-

franchise-agreement-to-launch-haltons-pharmacies-in-ethiopia/

(AS 163) https://addisstandard.com/news-update-federal-police-free-keria-ibrahim-as-

prosecutors-seek-to-bring-terrorism-criminal-charges-against-20-former-tplf-leaders/

(AS 164) https://addisstandard.com/news-oromia-special-forces-in-east-wollega-kill-a-

high-school-student-days-before-he-sits-for-school-leaving-exam/

(AS 165) https://addisstandard.com/news-more-than-40-civilians-killed-in-western-

oromia-regional-govt-ola-rebels-trade-blame/

(AS 166) https://addisstandard.com/news-15-defendants-in-jawar-mohammeds-file-

entered-pleas-of-not-guilty-bekele-gerba-hamza-adane-jawar-mohammed-and-
shemsedin-taha-did-not-appear/

(AS 167) https://addisstandard.com/news-analysis-tigray-interim-admin-officials-say-

they-are-dismissed-for-speaking-up-against-atrocities-and-destruction/

(AS 168) https://addisstandard.com/news-dawud-ibsas-olf-slams-electoral-board-for-

participation-in-splinter-groups-meeting-to-elect-new-chairman/

(AS 169) https://addisstandard.com/news-lidetu-ayalew-banned-from-traveling-abroad-

for-the-second-time/

(AS 170) https://addisstandard.com/news-redfox-solutions-partners-with-rittal-to-bring-

ethiopia-its-first-private-data-center/

(AS 171) https://addisstandard.com/news-tigrays-women-affairs-communications-

bureaus-confirm-sexual-violence-in-the-region-is-rampant/

212
(AS 172) https://addisstandard.com/news-tv-show-producer-and-activist-meseret-
dhaba-released-having-spent-38-days-in-detention-without-charges/

(AS 173) https://addisstandard.com/news-addis-city-police-cautions-residents-on-false-

info-alleging-impending-ethnic-religious-violence-in-the-city/

(AS 174) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-eu-imposes-travel-ban-asset-freeze-

sanctions-including-on-eritrea-over-serious-violations-of-human-rights-around-the-
world/

(AS 175) https://addisstandard.com/news-remaining-five-defendants-in-jawar-

mohammeds-file-plead-not-guilty/

(AS 176) https://addisstandard.com/news-unknown-number-of-people-killed-in-

ongoing-violence-in-oromia-special-zone-and-north-shewa-zone-amhara-region-as-
warring-factions-trade-blame/

(AS 177) https://addisstandard.com/news-eu-ready-to-activate-all-foreign-policy-tools-

against-human-rights-violations-in-tigray-to-dispatch-envoy-back-to-ethiopia/

(AS 178) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-ethiopia-rights-commission-confirms-

eritrean-soldiers-massacred-civilians-in-axum-calls-for-comprhensive-investigation-in-
tigray/

(AS 179) https://addisstandard.com/news-electoral-board-calls-off-registration-in-30-

polling-stations-listed-in-eight-kebeles-under-somali-region-after-complaint-from-afar-
region/

(AS 180) https://addisstandard.com/news-amhara-oromia-pp-engage-in-war-of-words-

as-relative-peace-returns-to-violence-hit-areas/

(AS 181) https://addisstandard.com/news-senate-passes-bipartisan-res-on-ethiopia-us-

eu-discuss-measures-to-ease-crisis-in-tigray-flexibility-in-gerd-talks/

(AS 182) https://addisstandard.com/news-ethiopia-un-rights-commissions-launch-joint-

investigation-in-tigray-amidst-mounting-evidence-of-atrocities/

(AS 183) https://addisstandard.com/news-sunshine-investment-group-to-unlock-digital-

payments-in-ethiopia/

213
(AS 184) https://addisstandard.com/news-somali-region-asks-electoral-board-to-
reverse-decision-to-call-off-polling-stations-says-will-find-it-hard-to-partake/

(AS 185) https://addisstandard.com/news-after-two-days-lull-fighting-resumes-in-

oromo-zone-amhara-region-woreda-official-claims-afar-region-special-forces-involved/

(AS 186) https://addisstandard.com/news-fed-court-rejects-tplf-officials-defense-team-

request-to-replace-presidng-judge/

(AS 187) https://addisstandard.com/news-border-demarcation-not-our-responsibility-

electoral-board-tells-somali-region/

(AS 188) https://addisstandard.com/news-u-s-ethiopia-launch-new-2-2-b-productive-

safety-net-program/

(AS 189) https://addisstandard.com/news-oromia-police-rearrests-olf-members-again-

after-oromia-supreme-court-dismisses-charges-and-order-their-release/

(AS 190) https://addisstandard.com/news-third-defendant-in-hachalu-hundessa-

assassination-trial-granted-bail/

(AS 191) https://addisstandard.com/breaking-mekelle-city-interim-mayor-resigns/

(AS 192) https://addisstandard.com/news-multiple-forest-fires-result-of-arsonists-says-

forest-conservation-and-preservation-director/

(AS 193) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-amhara-region-president-warns-fed-

govt-to-seek-solution-to-stop-amhara-killings-wants-emergency-meeting/

(AS 194) https://addisstandard.com/news-alert-g7-foreign-ministers-call-for-clear-

inclusive-political-process-to-end-war-in-tigray-unconditional-verifiable-withdrwal-of-
eritrean-troops/

214
Ethiopia Observer: Data set 2

(EO 32) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/25/analyst-urges-country-to-

pursue-a-multilateral-approach-in-engagement-with-eritrea/

(EO 33) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/27/appropriate-policy-that-places-

small-producers-at-the-centre-required-dessalegn-rahmeto/

(EO 34) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/03/29/addis-ababa-belongs-to-all-of-

us-abiy-ahmed/

(EO 35) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/05/fighting-continues-in-

southwestern-tigray-debretsion/

(EO 36) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/06/calm-returns-to-border-town/

(EO 37) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/11/amhara-ethnic-group-targetted-

in-maikadra-attack/

(EO 38) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/14/rockets-hit-bahir-dar-and-

gondar-towns/

(EO 39) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/15/16-banks-reopen-in-tigray-for-

first-time-since-conflict/

(EO 40) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/15/ethiopian-military-seizes-the-

town-of-alamata-says-state-tv/

(EO 41) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/16/airstrikes-reportedly-kill-2-

people-in-mekele/

(EO 42) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/19/ethiopia-says-its-army-

marching-on-tigrayan-capital/

(EO 43) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/20/rocket-attack-hit-bahir-dar/

(EO 44) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/20/ethiopia-suspends-reuters-

licence-over-coverage-of-tigray-fighting/

(EO 45)
https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/22/%e1%8b%a8%e1%89%b5%e1%8c%8d
%e1%88%ab%e1%8b%ad-%e1%88%85%e1%8b%9d%e1%89%a5-
215
%e1%88%83%e1%8b%ad%e1%88%9b%e1%8a%96%e1%89%b3%e1%8b%8a%e1%
8a%93-%e1%89%a3%e1%88%85%e1%88%8b%e1%8b%8a-
%e1%8a%a5%e1%88%b4/

(EO 46) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/23/rockets-hit-bahirdars-for-3rd-

time/

(EO 47) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/24/more-than-600-civilians-killed-

in-maikadra-ethiopian-human-rights-commission-says/

(EO 48) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/29/the-operation-in-tigray-region-

complete-abiy-ahmed/

(EO 49) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/29/70-clandestine-burial-pits-

found-in-humera-reports/

(EO 50) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/11/30/abiy-ahmed-says-army-general-

could-have-been-poisoned/

(EO 51) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/12/04/ethiopia-says-no-dialogue-with-

tplf-leaders/

(EO 52) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/12/05/ethiopian-artist-mickael-bethe-

selassie-dies-aged-69/

(EO 53) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/12/11/addisalem-balema-appears-in-

court/

(EO 54) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2020/12/14/tigray-caretaker-administration-

takes-office/

(EO 55) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/01/24/six-out-of-ten-charges-brought-

against-jawar-et-al-dropped/

(EO 56) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/01/13/ethiopias-former-foreign-

minister-federal-affairs-minister-killed/

(EO 57) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/01/24/six-out-of-ten-charges-brought-

against-jawar-et-al-dropped/

216
(EO 58) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/01/25/adem-mohammed-to-become-
ambassador-to-turkey/

(EO 59) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/01/25/outgoing-us-ambassador-calls-

for-accelerated-humanitarian-assistance-in-tigray/

(EO 60) “በዴሞክራሲ ውስጥ የሚነሱ ጥያቄዎች በአንድ ጀምበር የሚቋጩ ሳይሆን ጊዜ

የሚጠይቁ ናቸው”- አቶ ሌንጮ ለታ

(EO 61) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/01/27/hearing-for-jawar-and-co-

defendants-postponed-due-to-supporters-wearing-yellow-clothes/

(EO 62) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/01/28/minors-arrested-in-sweeps-on-

olf-shane-released-says-gambella-region-president/

(EO 63) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/02/01/the-former-president-of-the-

tigray-region-reappears-vows-resistance/

(EO 64) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/02/09/jawar-mohammed-et-al-refuse-

to-end-the-hunger-strike-despite-a-plea-from-religious-leaders-and-politicians/

(EO 65) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/02/22/seven-killed-in-tigray-region-

bus-attack/

(EO 66) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/03/01/a-bbc-correspondent-arrested-

in-mekele/

(EO 67) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/03/03/bbc-reporter-girmay-gebru-

freed/

(EO 68) https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/03/07/jawar-et-al-agree-to-end-

hunger-strike-after-39-days/

217