412 / 658
410
Saturday, November 12
1 1 : 0 0 – 1 2 : 3 0
JOS26
Reporting on Conflict
PP 602
Critical Eye or Amplifier of War? – A Comparative Study of Journalism in Four States on the War in Ukraine
G. Nygren
1
, J. Hök
1
1
Sødertørn University, Dep of social sciences, Huddinge, Sweden
The development of conflict in Ukraine during the critical year 2014 has once again showed the limited space for independent journalism in times of war.
Weaponizing of information and use of media as part of “hybrid warfare” has made researchers label the conflict in Ukraine as an “arrested”war with less
autonomy for media than ever (Hoskins and O´Loughlin 2015). A study of mainstream journalism in four states: Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Sweden cast
light on the difficulties to keep disinformation and propaganda at arms-length. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of mainstream media in
the conflict in Ukraine in this perspective.The focus is on the conflicting roles of journalism in the coverage of the war in Ukraine in the two countries directly
involved (Ukraine and Russia). The paper also compares the results with data from two other states, the neighboring Poland and the non-aligned Sweden.
The paper is based on the results from a transnational research project involving researchers from Ukraine, Russia, Poland and Sweden. In the project news
coverage in three mainstream media in each country during July-September 2014 has been analyzed in a common code scheme, in total 1875 articles and
news stories. The results shows a coverage deeply dependent on official framing of motives and actions of the parties involved. In Russia the conflict is
described as a civil war where the people’s militia in eastern Ukraine defend the people against a “junta” in Kiev. In Ukraine the conflict is an “antiterrorist
operation”(ATO) and in the end of the period also a Russian invasion. In Poland the reporting is very focused on the perceived Russian threat, and the con‑
flicts is framed into a nationalistic discourse. In Sweden, the conflict is treated in the light of international politics and diplomacy and in addition the human
interest stories on civilians in eastern Ukraine and after the downing of the Malaysian airplane MH17. The paper describe the findings in the analysis
of the conflict reporting in the light of the tensions and interplay between influences of different social fields (Bourdieu 2005). The diverse professional
field of journalism in each state that has developed a certain degree of autonomy, but with different perceptions of impartiality and partisanship. Other
fields are: -The political/military field urging for loyalty to the homeland and the political-military perspective and actions. -The field of economic interest
where owners and commercial actors limit the space for critical investigation -The field of the public and civil society with strong nationalistic opinions and
expectations. The paper shows many examples on how these fields influence reporting on the conflict in mainstream media. It shows that war reporting
cannot be reduced to question of censorship and military pressure, the mechanisms behind the coverage are much more complicated. War reporting is em‑
bedded into the political/cultural context of the country, and professional values in journalism like being a“critical eye”are only minor parts of this context.
PP 603
Kenyans on Twitter vs CNN: The ‘Twar’ over Africa's Image on World News
D. Cheruiyot
1
1
Karlstad University, Geography- Media and Communication, Karlstad, Sweden
How do audiences of global news networks challenge dominant narratives of Africa on international news? This paper examines the reactions of Kenyan
Twitter users to a news report by the American Cable News Network (CNN) in July 2015, through a content analysis of 15,176 tweets that were accompanied
by a worldwide trending hashtag, SomeoneTellCNN. The tweets were a reaction to a news story titled, Security Fears as Obama Heads to Terror Hotbed,
ahead of US President's visit to Kenya in summer of 2015. #SomeoneTellCNN was started and popularised by Twitter users who associate themselves with
another hashtag, #KOT (Kenyans on Twitter)—media critics who have since 2012 engaged in what they refer to as “twars” against Western media or‑
ganisations such as CNN and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Studies into representation of Africa on global news are mostly dominated by
the discourse of Western stereotypes—the images of poverty, disease, wars, terrorism and corruption (see Hawk, 1992). Often the “African audience”
(a reductionist term as it homogenises Africa) is described as ‘powerless’and subject to a dominant Western narrative (Gallagher, 2015; Thompson, 2007).
Even though several scholars have argued that Africans are not at the mercy of European and North American ‘dominant negative image’ (Ibid), empirical
studies that interrogate resistances toWestern stereotypes are rare. Further, few studies have focused on how audiences of global news networks in Africa
describe how they are represented on world news. Yet, in the past decade, there has been growing criticism of Western media in Africa on social media as
well as media-critical blogs (like for instance, africasacountry.com) that have questioned theWestern narratives of a‘dark continent’. This paper interrogates
audience criticism from Kenya Twitter users over CNN’s news coverage as a possible way in which audiences of global news networks resist a dominant
Western image and create their self image on world media space. The paper discusses the discourses of contemporary literature found in the nexus of rep‑
resentation in news media and media criticism as a possible mechanism of media accountability. The preliminary findings suggest that Kenya Twitter users,
while they raise critical questions on CNN’s journalistic practice, pinpoint how framing of the news story by the global network characterizes a dominant
negative image of Africa. The critical tweets move further to re-frame the ‘negative’ image (reinforced by the adjectives such as “hotbed of terror”) by
offering an alternative description of preferred image of Africa. The discussion of findings focuses on media criticism of news coverage by western news
networks as potential mechanism for global media accountability in news coverage of Africa. Keywords: Africa’s image, CNN, global news networks, Kenya,
media accountability, media criticism, media representation, Twitter hashtag References Gallagher, J. (2015). Images of Africa: Creation, negotiation and
subversion. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Hawk, B. G. (1992). Africa's media image. New York: Praeger. Thompson, A. (2007). The media and
the Rwanda genocide. Ottawa: Fountain Publishers.