The impetus to writing this thesis is the desire to look into the professional practice of the print media in representing reality over a reasonably long span of time. The study has three components: (i) the print media represented by three Amarigna newspapers, the daily Addis Zemen, the weekly Addis Admas, the biweekly Reporter, selected based on interesting aspects they have in terms of importance of circulation, type of ownership (state/private) and number of years in print; (ii) civil society organizations (CSOs) with different agendas as well as particular conceptions and practices of popularizing their activities; (iii) the entire election year 1997 that I consider Ethiopian media's 'prime time'.