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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:British media coverage of the post-election violence in Kenya, 2007-08
Author:Somerville, KeithISNI
Year:2009
Periodical:Journal of Eastern African Studies
Volume:3
Issue:3
Pages:526-542
Language:English
Geographic terms:Kenya
Great Britain
Subjects:mass media
images
violence
ethnic conflicts
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17531050903273776
Abstract:The post-election violence in Kenya in December 2007 through to April 2008 was reported extensively but erratically in the British media. While BBC News Online, the Guardian, Telegraph and Independent gave regular coverage with online updates on their websites, other mass circulation media like Sky, the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail were more sparing in their coverage. But a common factor to all was a tendency to rely on simple, all-encompassing descriptive and analytical language to frame the reporting of the conflict - focusing on tribal and ethnic issues to the virtual exclusion of broader and deeper analyses of factors involved. This paper examines the coverage and compares and contrasts that coverage with some of the more thoughtful and in-depth analyses produced by experienced journalists and academics. The paper looks, too, at the journalistic processes and habits that may have led to this concentration on, in particular, the 'tribal' and ethnic explanations of the violence. The paper draws on an analysis, quantitative and qualitative, of the content of British media coverage from December 2007 to April 2008 and on the author's first-hand experience of covering Africa as a BBC journalist and a writer for specialist African publications over 30 years. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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