Document details

Journalism on Darfur Between Social Fields: Global and National Forces

In: Media and Mass Atrocity: The Rwanda Genocide and Beyond
Allan Thompson (ed.)
Waterloo, Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation (2019), pp. 237-252

Contains bibliogr. pp. 249-252

ISBN 978-1-928096-72-6

Signature commbox: 10-Conflicts-E 2019

"In presenting some of the findings from an analysis of 3,387 media reports and from interviews with Africa correspondents and other journalists from eight countries, this chapter provides several insights on patterns of media representations of the conflict in Darfur. After initial neglect, peaks in reporting followed political initiatives, especially Kofi Annan's analogical bridging from the Rwandan genocide to Darfur, and the ICC interventions. Judicial interventions increased reporting and citations of the crime frame. While the humanitarian emergency frame featured prominently in early stages, its use declined quickly as continued suffering was no longer news and as the government of Sudan cut off sources of information. Diplomatic representations also declined over time. Patterns of reporting follow similar paths in all countries, but they do so at different levels of intensity. In addition, receptivity to the crime frame and use of the genocide label vary across countries. The causal factors of such variation are country-specific policy preferences and cultural sensitivities, distinct characteristics of media fields and varying strengths, that is, resources, power and prestige, of social fields that surround journalism." (Conclusions, page 270)