Media and Agenda Setting Function: Newspaper Reporting on Husband Battering in Kenya

Media houses adopted sensational reporting on the mainstream Newspapers (Nation and Standard) between February 2012 and April 2012 on husband battering in Nyeri County, Kenya. This article answers the question: what is the role of agenda setting on husband battering stories among selected respondents in Nyeri County? In order to obtain a comprehensive answer, the study was guided by the Agenda setting and Critical Discourse Analysis Theories. The researchers adopted a qualitative approach, specifically an Ex-post facto research design with a prospective orientation. The study population was all texts covering husband battering in Nyeri County and all Male and Female respondents chosen to represent readers of Daily Nation and the Standard Newspapers. The study identified agenda setting as a function in the stories on husband battering in Nyeri County. It was found that readers were exposed to content which endured for a relatively short time but that affected their behavior or judgment related to the content they processed.