NCJ Number
215758
Journal
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism Volume: 29 Issue: 6 Dated: September 2006 Pages: 607-619
Date Published
September 2006
Length
13 pages
Annotation
In order to strengthen the media and terrorism literature, this article examines media coverage, by two major Kenyan dailies, of two terrorist attacks in Kenya, the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi and the 2002 bomb and missile attacks in Mombasa.
Abstract
Analyzing newspaper coverage of the 1998 Nairobi and 2002 Mombasa terrorist attacks by the Nairobi Daily Nation and East African Standard finds that generalizations from Western sources, such as newsworthiness criteria and coverage of government officials and terrorists, appear similar in Kenyan media. Certain things were revealed about African news coverage of attacks on their own national soil. Many Western news values and practices appear to be at work in African media. However, the interpretation of the attacks and their aftermath is still colored by examples or worldviews derived from their structural position in the developing world. The lesson of this paper, especially for media in third world or developing countries who are not the primary target of the attack, might be best summed up as “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” At its core, terrorism is about communication, sending a message, through violence. But that message also is amplified and colored by media coverage. Kenya is a particularly attractive case for examining issues in media and terrorism. Kenya has a sizable Muslim population, along with an Indian and Pakistan ethnic minority. It is also located near the Horn of Africa, linking it geographically with the international terror networks of the Middle East and Sudan. The article examines the Daily Nation and the East African Standard, two of the leading English-language newspapers in Kenya. The rational behind using print media is that newspapers are both accessible and provide a common format for analysis. This article specifically explored the aspects of and influences on terrorism coverage in African media and whether it was the same as Western media. It explored how African journalists and media portrayed terrorists and motives of terrorism, and whether coverage of the second attack was different from the first. 3 tables, 36 notes