Newspaper coverage of post political election violence in Africa: an assessment of the Kenyan example

Abstract

The media in Africa are often indicted for being partly responsible for the conflicts and tensions in the continent, and the role of the radio in escalating the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is frequently cited in support of this indictment. This article examines newspaper reports of the post 2007 presidential election violence in Kenya and finds a contrast to the Rwandan 'model'. Although the newspapers analysed did not provide any forewarning about the impending crisis, they relentlessly published news stories and house editorials that addressed peace-building in the country. The authors suggest that the Kenyan example raises two main issues: (a) the media can play functional roles in de-escalating conflicts in Africa; and (b) reporters should be society's moral witnesses, not 'objective' bystanders, who watch and report on the collapse of humanity.

A Kenyan newspaper analysis of the limitations of voluntary medical male circumcision and the importance of sustained condom use

“…The Daily Nation was selected due to its ease of access for the study team and large readership in both electronic and print newspapers. It is estimated that in 2006 the Daily Nation had a daily print circulation of 185,000 copies [ 27 ], and in 2011 the Daily Nation website was the most popular Kenyan website and the 10 th most popular website overall in Kenya [ 28 ].…”

Female genital cutting in the news media: A content analysis

“…In comparison to content analyses of news coverage of other issues from these nations (see, Behrman et al, 2012;Onyebadi and Oyedeji, 2011), the number of FGC-focused stories is very small. Given the limited amount of FGC-related coverage from each newspaper, this study indicates that FGC is perceived as an equally salient (or in this case, not salient) issue in all four news outlets.…”

Can the Media Be Conflict Sensitive? An Analysis of Kenya and South Africa

“…In their analysis of the actors that played a role in the 2007/2008 PEV, Onyebadi and Oyedeji found the media to have played functional roles in de-escalating conflicts as well as acting as society's moral witnesses since they did not just "objectively watch and report" on the violence, but they also made effort to ensure that how they reported contributed to a sense of urgency in the society about the need for the violence to end [74]. They single out The Standard and Daily Nation newspapers.…”

“…They single out The Standard and Daily Nation newspapers. They argue that both allocated 50% of their front page news to highlighting local and international initiatives and calls for peace in the country while their reports about ongoing violence took 31% of space with a focus on the need for the country to return to normalcy [74].…”