Abstract
This paper is a critical examination of the complexity of issue-attention and international media reporting of wars and political conflicts in Angola, Algeria, Burundi, Central Africa Republic, Mauritania, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea/Ethiopia, Nigeria, Liberia, Somalia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Mali, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. After examining concepts in international reporting of humanitarian crises, such as The CNN Effect, The Al Jazeera Effect, Embedded Journalism, The Twitter Effect and Facebook Revolution. Next, the chapter focuses on the challenge of promoting sustained media engagement and social action to wars and conflicts in Africa and using two case studies of protracted crises.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bacon, K. (2004). Hiding Death in Darfur: Why the Press Was so Late. Columbia Journalism Review, 43(3), 9–10.
Bahador, B. (2007). The CNN Effect: How the News Media Pushed the West Toward War in Kosovo. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Baum, M., & Zhukov, Y. (2015). Filtering Revolution: Reporting Bias in International Newspaper Coverage of the Libyan Civil War. Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Peace Research. sagepub.co.uk/journals. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343314554791.
BBC News. (2014, October 22). Pros and Cons of Embedded Journalism. http://scrippsmediaethics.blogspot.co.za/2014/10/pros-and-cons-of-embedded-journalism.html.
Bruno, N. (2010). Tweet First, Verify Later? How Real-Time Information is Changing the Coverage of Worldwide Crisis Events. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/tweet-first-verify-later-how-real-time-information-changing-coverage-worldwide-crisis.
Bunce, M. (2001). The New Foreign Correspondents at Work: Local-National Stringers and the Global News Coverage of Conflict in Darfur. London: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/new-foreign-correspondent-work.
Bunce, M., Franks, S., & Patterson, C. (2017). Africa’s Image in the 21st Century: From the ‘Heart of Darkness’ to ‘Africa Rising’. London: Routledge.
Dirjkzeul, D., & Moke, M. (2005). Public Communication Strategies of International Humanitarian Organisations. https://www.icrc.org/en/international-review/article/public-communication-strategies-international-humanitarian.
Doane, S. (2010). Responding to Genocide in Sudan. Stanford Journal of International Relations. https://web.stanford.edu/group/sjir/3.2.10_doane.html.
Downs, A. (1972). Up and Down with Ecology: The Issue Attention Cycle. The Public Interest, 28(Summer), 38–50.
Easterly, W. (2002). The Cartel of Good Intentions. Foreign Policy (July–August), 40–49.
Fayoyin, A. (2016). Engaging Social Media for Health Communication in Africa: A Synthesis of Approaches, Results, and Lessons. Journal of Mass Communication and Journalism, 6(6). https://doi.org/10.4172/2165-7912.1000315.
Gazette. (2007). Darfur: An Investigation into a Tragedy’s Forgotten Actors. Paris: Reporters Without Borders.
Hawkins, V. 2008. “Conflict Death Tolls” Stealth Conflicts. https://stealthconflicts.wordpress.com/category/conflict-death-tolls/.
Hilgatrtner, S., & Bosk, C. L. (1988). The Rise and Fall of Social Problems: A Public Arenas Model. American Journal of Sociology, 94(1), 53–78.
Hoile, D. (2003). Images of Sudan: Case Studies in Propaganda and Misrepresentation. London: European Sudanese Public Affairs Council.
Human Rights Watch. (2017). Sudan Events of 2016. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/sudan.
IRIN News. (2018). Blue Nile: Sudan’s Forgotten Front. http://archive.irinnews.org/multimedia/BlueNile/.
Jones, B. D., & Baumgartner, F. R. (2006). The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritise Problems. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kalcisc, M. (2011). A Reporting Disaster. The Interdependence of Media and Aid Agencies in a Competitive Compassion Market. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/reporting-disaster-interdependence-media-and-aid-agencies-competitive-compassion.
Keung, L. (2017). Going Digital: A Roadmap for Organizational Transformation. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/seminar-report-digital-transformation-organisation-challenges.
Myers, S. (2010, August 20). Embedistan: Embedding in Iraq During the Invasion and the Drawdown. https://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/embedistan-embedding-in-iraq-during-the-invasion-and-the-drawdown/.
Moeller, S. (1999). Four Habits of International News Reporting. http://frameworksinstitute.org/assets/files/PDF_GII/four_habits_of_news_reporting.pdf.
Owens-Ibie, N. (2016). Conflicting Communication in the Communication of Conflict: Chibok and the Narratives on Media Representation. In O. Esan (Ed.), Taking Stock: Nigerian Media and National Challenges (pp. 69–83). Toronto, Canada: Canada University Press.
Peterson, K. (2009). Revisiting Downs’ Issue-Attention Cycle: International Terrorism and the US Public Opinion. Journal of Strategic Security, 2(4), 1–17.
Richstad, J., & Nnaemeka, T. (1980). Structured Relations and the News Flow in the Pacific. Gazette, 26(4), 235–258.
Rittel, H. W., & Webber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in General Theory of Planning. Policy Sciences, 4, 155–165.
Robinson, P. (2005). The CNN Effect Revisited. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 22, 344–349.
Robinson, P. (1999). The CNN Effect: Can the News Media Drive Foreign Policy. Review of International Studies, 25, 301–309.
Sambrook, R. (2010). Are Foreign Correspondents Redundant? http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/are-foreign-correspondents-redundant.
Seib, P. (2008). The Al Jazeera Effect: How the Global Media Are Reshaping World Politics. Washington: DC, Potomac Books Inc.
Selim, H. (2011). The Coverage of Egypt’s Revolution in the Egyptian, American and Israeli Newspapers. http://scrippsmediaethics.blogspot.co.za/2014/10/pros-and-cons-of-embedded-journalism.html.
Shan, A. (2014, September 14). Conflicts in Africa. Global Issues. http://www.globalissues.org/issue/83/conflicts-in-africa.
Si, S. (2014). The Expansion in International Broadcasting: The Growing Global Reach of China Central Television. http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/expansion-international-broadcasting.
Soderlund, W., Biggs, D., Hildebrandt, K., & Sidahmed, A. S. (2010). Humanitarian Crises and Interventions: Reassessing the Impact of the Media. Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press.
The Lancet. (2010, January 23). Growth of Aid and Decline of Humanitarianism, Vol. 375.
Tuosto, K. (2008). The “Grunt Truth” of Embedded Journalism: The New Media/Military Relationship. Stanford Journal of International Relations, X(1), 1–21.
Van Belle, D. (2008, May 29–31). Agenda Setting and Donor Responsiveness to Humanitarian Crisis and Development. Harvard Kennedy School, Paper 2.2 the Role of the News Media in the Governance of Reform Agenda.
Watkins, A., & Wilber, K. (2015). Wicked and Wise: How to Solve the Worlds’ Toughest Problems. Kent: Urbane.
Wilesmith, G. (2011). Reporting Afghanistan and Iraq: Media, Military and Government and How They Influence Each Other. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/reporting-afghanistan-and-iraq-media-military-and-governments-and-how-they-influence.
Further Reading
Fayoyin, A. (2015). Analysing International News: Contexts, Processes and Practices. Delaware: Springboard Communications.
Internews: Reporting on Humanitarian Crises: A Manual for Trainers and Journalists and an Introduction for Humanitarian Workers. https://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/resources/IN140220_HumanitarianReportingMANUAL_WEB.pdf.
Owen, J., & Heather, P. (2009). International News Reporting: Frontlines and Deadlines. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Shaw, I. S. (2012). Human Rights Journalism: Advances in Reporting Distant Humanitarian Interventions. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fayoyin, A. (2019). The Complexity of Issue-Attention and International Media Reporting of Africa’s Protracted Wars and Conflicts. In: Ngwainmbi, E. (eds) Media in the Global Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26450-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26450-5_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-26449-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-26450-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)