Abstract:
The aim of this paper was to investigate negative representation of the
National University of Lesotho (henceforth NUL) by the Scrutator in
the weekly newspaper, the Lesotho Times. With a view that negative
representation is a form of the media framing which seems to be
increasingly taking up different dimensions worthy of attention for
further conceptual understanding, we set out to examine the
phenomenon. We set out with an assumption that the findings of the
study would shed light on media operation, in general, and also help the
media audiences observe how one of the local print media houses, the
Lesotho Times, represents certain groups of Basotho society. The
concept of negative representation is probably one of the phenomena
which have drawn much attention from scholars of different disciplines
within the social sciences, linguistics and communication studies.
Adopting Content Analysis as a research instrument in selected issues
of the Lesotho Times from 2010 to 2011, we investigated the Scrutator‘s
negative representation of the NUL community in this particular
newspaper. We, therefore, observe that negative representation is a
perspectival projection of the newspaper; it is probably a strategic tool
of manipulating people and making them develop a certain attitude
towards the University as well as the University community despite its
role as a leading tertiary institution in the Kingdom of Lesotho.
