Globalizing Academic Dishonesty: Western Media Frames of Contract Cheating by Kenyan Graduates (Got Posho?)

Abstract

The current meaning of globalization within higher education has gone beyond Global North institutions setting up campuses in the Global South or elsewhere, partnerships and / or expanding distance learning through open access or providing spaces for exchange programs for students and faculty. New opportunities exist due to access to the internet; digitization, online learning, and digitalization and payment platforms. It is in this space that the practice of contract cheating occurs. Academic dishonesty is an age-old part of the academy, with different strategies put in place to curb it; with both students and faculty having been found on the wrong side of the integrity line, when it comes to examinable work. As communication studies scholars and faculty members, this issue presented an opportunity to investigate this emerging space and how the ‘academic writer’ is framed through media narratives. Media framing theory provided the theoretical lens for the study. Using content analysis, the researchers assess the language in two highly mediatized stories from the Global North. The findings show a negative bias against Kenyan contract writers and reaffirms a power dynamic in higher education as part of a labour industry.

Keywords: academic writing, cheating, contract labor, employability, internationalization of higher education, media framing