A comparison between Belgian and Kenyan newspaper reports about the postelection crisisin Kenya shows that the same news events are reported from different frames of meaning.This is partly due to differing worldviews on which the news discourse is based, andthe various perspectives from which the events are interpreted, resulting in differentimplicit meanings. These can be studied to evaluate the quality of the reporting. The Kenyanpress focuses on the socio-political aspects of the conflicts involved, while the Belgiannewspaper coverage emphasizes the ethnic aspect. Both can be criticized. However, bycombining the interpretive analyses of newspaper language use with contextual explanationsderived from ethnographic information, such as interviews or editorial guidelines, abetter and more nuanced understanding of both national and international newspaper coveragecan be reached.
