156. Name: Richard Stupart Title: Hungry but Silent: A Content Analysis of Media Reporting on the 2011-2012 Famine in Somalia (A Comparison between BBC
News, CNN and Al Jazeera) Institution: Rhodes University Country: South Africa Date: 2013 Language: English Abstract:
This dissertation examines media coverage of the 2011-2012 famine in Somalia by the websites of BBC News, CNN and Al Jazeera. Using both quantitative and qualitative content analyses, the researcher asks why coverage of the famine began as late as it did, despite ample evidence that it was coming. The study surveys the famine-related news reports of four paradigms through which the causes of famine can be understood; as a Malthusian competition between population and land, as a failure of food entitlements as conceived of by Sen, as critical political event (Edkins), or as an issue of criminality (Alex de Waal). The findings showed a dramatic silencing of victim’s accounts of famine, despite a reliance on their photographic images, as well as an overwhelming preference for Malthusian accounts of the famine. Late media coverage is explored via a new-values paradigm, which links the sudden outburst of media coverage for the famine to a formal UN declaration, and suggests that this may have created a new elite- relevance to the event, which did not exist before, and therefore making it of relevance to domestic publics.
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