An invisible genocide: how the Western media failed to report the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi and why

Abstract

This literature review analyses current academic literature examining the reporting of the Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi in 1994 in the American and European media. It shows how the genocide was mischaracterised as a 'tribal war' and an act of spontaneous violence and primordial hatred, rather than being accurately reported as a meticulously planned and implemented political project of ethnic extermination. It examines the range of reasons for this failure to report the news accurately presented in the current literature, finding a combination of factors: racism, lack of media interest in reporting on Rwanda and Africa, a shortage of images of the genocide, an uncritical approach to government statements downplaying genocide, and the drive to report stories that gratify Western viewers' perception of the West as being morally idealistic, just, and civilised. When the truth contradicted these imperatives and prejudices academic literature shows that the media sacrificed the truth for the economic bottom line to produce media that sells.Rwanda simply wasn't important enough. To British editors, it was a small country far away in a continent that rarely hit the headlines. The words Hutu and Tutsi sounded funny, hardly names that an ambitious news editor or desk officer would want to draw to the attention of a busy boss and claim that they were of immediate and vital importance. Within a few days of the plane crash, [which marked the start of the genocide] The Times ran several articles about what it obviously considered an angle to interest its readers: the fate of the Rwandan gorillas. 1 -Richard Dowden Would the world have reacted differently if confronted daily by images of people being slaughtered rather than the static, disembodied pictures of disfigured corpses? More informed and comprehensive coverage of the Rwanda genocide, particularly in those early days, might well have mitigated or even halted the killing by sparking an international outcry. The news media could have made a difference. 2 -Allan Thompson

Towards an Empathic Human Rights

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The effectiveness of flagging content belonging to prominent individuals: The case of Donald Trump on Twitter

“…Traditional broadcast media, that is, print, radio, and television, have long been implicated in facilitating extremism, political violence, genocide, and other societal dysfunction. (Nasser‐Eddine et al, 2011; Schimmel, 2011). In response, governments have enforced regulatory frameworks to militate against what they deem inappropriate content that could upset the stability of important societal systems (Day & Weatherby, 2011).…”