Un-covering Darfur: world media framing of civil
war and genocide
Bella Mody
School of Journalism and Mass
Communication
CU-Boulder
• How are nationally-owned media covering
a foreign crisis in Darfur Sudan?
• How do regional/national interests of the
country/region in which the medium is
based manifest themselves in the
coverage?
• How do ownership and financing influence
coverage?
• Darfur, Sudan
-Africa’s largest country, Sudan’s largest state
-Arab military dictatorship since 1989
-Plentiful oil resources committed to China, Russia, France:
sought by US
-Strategic control of Nile waters
-Environmental changes forcing changes in occupation
-Home to Osama bin Laden prior to his Afghanistan move:
being cultivated by US for terrorism protection
• Civil war, genocide
-Former colonies like Sudan face civil war in
different parts: South, West (Darfur) and now in
the East
-JEM and SLA rebels launch attack against
Khartoum government in Feb 2003 to redress
eco neglect of Western Sudan (Darfur)
-Supported by Darfur civilians: government
retaliation destroys them: 300,000 estimated
dead, 2 mill displaced
• How are the world’s media covering the first
genocide of the 21st century?
-Study looks at 11 news sources in 7 countries
-State-owned: BBC.net, Al Jazeera.net, People’s
Daily, China Daily, Al Ahram English and Arabic
-Private ownership: Mail and Guardian South
Africa, Guardian UK, Le Monde France,
NYTimes, Washington Post
-High regional-national interest: Al Jazeera, Al
Ahram Arabic, China Daily
• Multi-method research:
-Quantitative analysis
-Qualitative textual analysis
-Contextual analysis: forces that mediate
foreign news coverage such as regionalnational interests and ownership-financing
of news medium