Framing Famine: An Analysis of Media Coverage of the 2011 Famine in Somalia

ABSTRACT

This study examines media coverage of the 2011–2012 famine in Somalia by the websites of BBC News, CNN and Al-Jazeera. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analyses, it explores why coverage of the famine began as late as it did, despite ample evidence of its inevitable unfolding, as well as the manner in which the famine was explained in popular news accounts. The study surveys famine-related news reports for evidence of four paradigms present in the current literature on famine and its causes, through which the famine could have been understood: as a Malthusian competition between population and land; as a failure of food entitlements; as critical political event; and as an issue of criminality. The findings include an overwhelming reliance on Malthusian explanations of famine, and noticeable under-reporting of the famine – despite ample evidence – until it was formally declared as such by the United Nations.

Keywords:

• famine
• Malthus
• media coverage
• Somalia

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Stupart

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

RICHARD STUPART is the Features Editor of African Defence Review and lecturer at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, Universität Erfurt.

Larry Strelitz

LARRY STRELITZ is Head of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He has published across a range of media studies topics including on the reception of global media by South African youth, a topic addressed in his book Mixed reception: South African youth and their experience of global media.