Images of Africa

Résumé du document

A Rwandan nun, Theophister Mukakibibi, was condemned last Thursday to thirty years of jail because of her involvement in the genocide that took place in 1994. Let us analyze the media coverage provided to this event. Are various newspapers dealing with the event in different ways? What is the image of Africa shaped by this covering?

Extraits

[...] It strikes me that this news comes from AP that is located in Nairobi and not from a Rwandan source. To conclude, after having read these articles it seems that journalism is sometimes synonym of plagiarism but also that Africa is not covered the way another continent would be. There is obviously a discrepancy between the covering of this event by a Rwandan source and Western ones that cannot be explained by an inevitable bias. In addition, I do not know more about Rwanda since headlines dealing with it are nearly always linked with the genocide of 1994. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, the covering is not equal and universal. On the one hand, Catnews article is an exception insofar as it is the only one to be based on a Rwandan source (the News Times). It covers in details the opinion and personality of the nun who ‘denies' that she took part in the genocide and it gives more background about the role played by the Church during the genocide. On the other hand, BBC and CNN include a picture with their articles. [...]

[...] What is the image of Africa shaped by this covering? First of all, the covering of this event is descriptive. It is mainly about giving the main points of what happened to Theophister Mukakibibi. First, journalists give an overview about the genocide of Rwanda and focus on the nun involvement and open the debate to the peace process. These articles are short (from 300 to 500 words) and the details underlined are copyrighted on the release of the Associated Press (AP). [...]