How the North pictures the neighbouring South: Portuguese press coverage of the Sahrawi conflict

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Periodical article

Title:	How the North pictures the neighbouring South: Portuguese press coverage of the Sahrawi conflict
Author:	Novais, Rui Alexandre
Year:	2009
Periodical:	Journal of African Media Studies
Volume:	1
Issue:	3
Pages:	415-427
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Western Sahara Portugal
Subjects:	international conflicts images press
Abstract:	This article explores how the media, in a country that used to be a colonial power yet belongs to a relatively peaceful culture, depicts one of the oldest disputes in Africa. Drawing on a three-year analysis of the Portuguese press coverage of the Sahrawi conflict, it also tests some basic foundations of the selective representation of Africa in news reporting: the predominantly one-way traffic of information between the North and the South, as well as a similar imbalance in terms of the nature of the news treatment which tends to focus on negative and deviant issues often portrayed in a highly stereotyped fashion. The study does not corroborate Africa's thinness and invisibility but rather points to the pivotal influence of national context - the Portuguese 'afectio comunitatis' combined with a notable sensitivity towards human rights and self-determination issues - in the reporting of a given political process. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]