DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i04.004

Pages: 287-294

Embarking on the fight against corruption is one of Cameroon’s greatest efforts to forge the country ahead. Due to the endemic and devastating nature of corruption in the country, the government, under direct instructions from the Head of State, has made the fight against corruption a priority in all sectors. The media remain a major partner in attaining government’s objectives. This paper therefore, seeks to understand the role of the media in this fight through a comparative analysis of Cameroon media coverage of corruption by a private (The Post) and a public (Cameroon Tribune) media. In order to analyse central issues on corruption by the Cameroon media, a content analysis has been used to study The Post and Cameroon Tribune newspapers. Issues of the newspapers as from July 2014 to December 2014 were content analysed with the unit of analysis being a news story. Findings reveal that The Post newspaper covered more stories on corruption (70.6%) than Cameroon Tribune (29.4%). The Post newspaper gave prominence on corruption stories (88.9%), front page placement to Cameroon Tribune(11.1%). Results further reveal that The Post coverage on corruption mostly centred on the investigation of public authorities (85.7%) and accusation of corrupt practice on public officials (78.6%) while Cameroon Tribune centred on legal proceedings on corruption (75%). Out of the 34 stories covered on corruption by both newspapers over a period of 6 months, fraud (100%) and embezzlement (46.7%) were heavily highlighted by The Post newspaper while Cameroon Tribune mainly covered corruption issues pertaining to embezzlement (53.3%). To conclude, the private press analysed is more proactive in the fight against corruption in Cameroon. However, though the public media is engaged in the fight against corruption, most of their concern is directed towards government policy on the issues.