Civil war and genocide in Darfur: comparing english.aljazeera.net and news.bbc.co.uk

Kelly Kinner and Katherine Osos

School of Journalism and Mass Communication CU-Boulder

• Why compare Al Jazeera and BBC internet sites

• Are there differences in the coverage of Darfur because of the different national/regional interests of the UK and the Middle East/Qatar?

• Are there differences because of differences in who owns and operates the two sites?

• Differences in national interest:

-UK: former colonial power in Sudan

-Qatar: an Arab country and member of the Arab League (like Sudan) which has done nothing to speak out against the genocide

• Differences in ownership, operations, financing-BBC: established under British constitution,

regulated by Foreign Office and Crown-appointed governors, financed by a tax on TV set ownership, operates in the Briitsh national interest

-reputed to be the best public broadcasting org in the world, criticizes its own government

consistently, upholds freedom of expression and fights state interference openly

• Differences in ownership, operations, financing

-Al Jazeera: financed by Emir of Qatar, criticizes Middle Eastern and Western governments, upholds freedom of media from state interference, founded as a result of a dissolved BBC/Saudi Arabian network

When did coverage start, how much

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Coverage by Month

Num

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BBC Al Jazeera

Coverage of Darfur

• BBC• 398 articles in first 26

months of crisis• Sample: 50% of non-

repeated stories: 175• Hard news: 67%• In-depth feature

articles 28%

• Al Jazeera169 articles in first 26

monthsSample: 50% of non-

repeated stories: 76Hard news: 99%In-depth feature articles:none

Framing: causes, conduct, remedies?

BBC• Causes cited in 19%

articles

-Race and ethnicity as

primary causes: 35%

-Government inequity and resources: 27%

• Al Jazeera• Causes cited in 22%of

articles

-Race and ethnicity as primary causes: 17%

-Government inequity and resources:29%

Framing: Groups blamed as cause of crisis

• BBC• Darfur rebels

demanding regional equity 7%

• Govt, their proxy Janjaweed fighters or both: 86%

• All domestic groups(rebels, govt, proxy

fighters): 17%

• Al Jazeera• Darfur rebels

demanding regional equity :21%

• Govt, their proxy Janjaweed fighters or both: 32%

• All domestic groups(rebels, govt, proxy

fighters): 29%

Framing: groups that could end the conflict

• BBC-Government: 9%-All domestic groups: 20%-Neighboring countries:

4%-UN and foreign agencies;

13%-domestic and foreign:

26%

• Al JazeeraGovernment: 12%-All domestic groups: 29%-Neighboring countries:

16%-UN and foreign agencies;

12%-domestic and foreign:

16%

Sources of news, quotes

• BBC-99% in-house authors

Direct quotes: UN 34%Govt : 27%NGOs 22%Rebels: 11%

• Al Jazeera-97% articles from news

agencies, e.g. Reuters and AFP

Direct quotes: UN 14%Govt : 46%NGOs 11%Rebels: 32%

Perception of emotional intensity of articles

• BBC

Low 19%

Medium 40

High 41

• Al Jazeera

Low 38%

Medium 43

High 20%

Making sense of the similarities and differences

• Apportioning reasons for Al J’s coverage between its regional location versus its Arab ownership is hard and is primarily an academic exercise here since they are so interconnected

• How did national/regional interest show itself?-Al Jaz coverage of Muslim-on-Muslim violence conducted

by Muslim dictatorship in fellow Arab country much less, less intense

-Al J cited race and ethnicity as causes much less less often than BBC

Differences due to regional affiliation (contd)

Al J blamed conflict on civil war initiators demanding regional equity for Darfur as causes of crisis 3 times more often than the BBC

-BBC blamed the Sudan govt, their proxy fighters or both for causing the crisis 2.5 times as often as Al J

-Solution responsibility was more often domestic and foreign for BBC than for Al J with much less emphasis on neighboring countries

How did differences in the ownership and operations of the news media express

themselves?• Al J had primarily hard news stories based on

news agency reports• Al J quoted UN less than half as often as BBC,

quoted government almost twice as often as BBC

• Al J articles generally lower in emotional intensity

Similarities with implications for coverage of genocide

• Low attention to causes of conflict in both media