Africa’s Deadliest Conflict : Media Coverage of the Humanitarian Disaster in the Congo and the United Nations Response, 1997–2008 / Walter C. Soderlund ... [et al.].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Soderlund, W. C. (Walter C.), author.

Briggs, E. Donald, author.

Najem, Tom, author.

Roberts, Blake C., 1962- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United Nations--Congo (Democratic Republic)--Kinshasa.

United Nations.

Humanitarian assistance--Congo (Democratic Republic)--Kinshasa.

Humanitarian assistance.

Press--Influence.

Press.

War in mass media.

Congo (Democratic Republic)--History--1997-.

Congo (Democratic Republic).

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

237 p.

Distribution:

Beaconsfield, Quebec : Canadian Electronic Library, 2012.

Place of Publication:

Waterloo, Ontario : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Africa’s Deadliest Conflict deals with the complex intersection of the legacy of post-colonial history—a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions—and changing norms of international intervention associated with the idea of human security and the responsibility to protect (R2P). It attempts to explain why, despite a softening of norms related to the sanctity of state sovereignty, the international community dealt so ineffectively with a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which between 1997 and 2011 claimed an estimated 5.5 million. In particular, the book focuses on the role of mass media in creating a will to intervene, a role considered by many to be the key to prodding a reluctant international community to action. Included in the book are a primer on Congolese history, a review of United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Congo, and a detailed examination of both US television news and New York Times coverage of the Congo from 1997 through 2008. Separate conclusions are offered with respect to peacekeeping in the Age of R2P and on the role of mass media in both promoting and inhibiting robust international responses to large-scale humanitarian crises.

Contents:

The Congo : understanding the conflict

The UN response : from ONUC to MONUSCO

Mass media, public awareness, and television news coverage of the Congo

New York Times framing of the Second Congo War

New York Times framing of the Third Congo War

Media coverage of the Congo wars : an overall assessment

Peacekeeping in the age of R2P

Conclusion : the impact of mass media on "the will to intervene"

Postscript : an update on events.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-225) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-55458-879-0

1-55458-878-2

OCLC:

865475093