Abstract:
The media play a central role in disseminating information with the aim of creating awareness of topical issues,
including legal issues. Various studies have established that news from the media is a popular source of information on
current events. Similarly, the public‟s knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards legal systems are largely shaped by the
media information they receive, thus, the need for examining the content and nature of information being disseminated
by the media. Correspondingly, the Social Representation Theory (SRT) offers a framework for studying how the
media communicates about issues through the mechanisms of objectification and anchoring, with the aim of creating
awareness and promoting understanding. It is against this backdrop that this study examined how two leading Kenyan
newspapers used elements of objectification and anchoring to represent the ICC process involving six Kenyans
accused of being key perpetrators of the 2007/08 Post-Election Violence. Guided by the tenets of the SRT, this study
used an analytical research design to identify and describe elements of objectification and anchoring used in the
coverage of the Kenyan ICC confirmation of charges hearing proceedings by the two leading daily newspapers in the
country: Daily Nation and The Standard. It was established that the newspapers used various elements of
representation that were fused with ideological undertones and sensationally designed to arouse emotional reactions in
readers, especially when the ICC process was represented as an aggressive struggle or war between the prosecution
team and the Kenyans who were facing charges at the court.
Keywords: Anchoring, International Criminal Court, Objectification, Social Representation Theory.
