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Kenyan conflict, post-colonial media? A discourse analysis of how western media portrayed the violent aftermath of the Kenyan election in 2007 through a post-colonial perspective

Eklund, Daniel LU (2010) STVA21 20101
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Kenya had a disputed presidential election in late 2007 which erupted into ethnic clashes between supporters of the two candidates. Western media was quick to report back that the sudden violence was due to tribal differences. The goal of my essay was such to explore whether or not a post-colonial discourse could be found in western media. By choosing three international magazines with more analytical news-reporting(Time Magazine, Africa Confidential and The Economist) I could look upon articles through a post-colonial perspective and used tools available through critical discourse theory along with the concept of discrimination. The result was an overall picture that was not influenced by post-colonialism and to very little extent... (More)
Kenya had a disputed presidential election in late 2007 which erupted into ethnic clashes between supporters of the two candidates. Western media was quick to report back that the sudden violence was due to tribal differences. The goal of my essay was such to explore whether or not a post-colonial discourse could be found in western media. By choosing three international magazines with more analytical news-reporting(Time Magazine, Africa Confidential and The Economist) I could look upon articles through a post-colonial perspective and used tools available through critical discourse theory along with the concept of discrimination. The result was an overall picture that was not influenced by post-colonialism and to very little extent discriminatory in nature. However, in the material used I found four different fields where a post-colonial discourse could be located. These were; when using the word tribe, when Africa became an adventure, when Africa was seen as the bottom and when Africa was portrayed as one. What emerged was how media still upheld colonial views through the use of what language they used in the magazines. They sustained the image of “the Others” and created dichotomies where Africans were wild and savage. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Eklund, Daniel LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVA21 20101
year
type
L2 - 2nd term paper (old degree order)
subject
keywords
Discrimination, Critical discourse analysis, Post-colonialism, Ethnic violence, Kenya
language
English
id
1607637
date added to LUP
2010-07-01 11:56:27
date last changed
2010-07-01 11:56:27
@misc{1607637,
  abstract     = {{Kenya had a disputed presidential election in late 2007 which erupted into ethnic clashes between supporters of the two candidates. Western media was quick to report back that the sudden violence was due to tribal differences. The goal of my essay was such to explore whether or not a post-colonial discourse could be found in western media. By choosing three international magazines with more analytical news-reporting(Time Magazine, Africa Confidential and The Economist) I could look upon articles through a post-colonial perspective and used tools available through critical discourse theory along with the concept of discrimination. The result was an overall picture that was not influenced by post-colonialism and to very little extent discriminatory in nature. However, in the material used I found four different fields where a post-colonial discourse could be located. These were; when using the word tribe, when Africa became an adventure, when Africa was seen as the bottom and when Africa was portrayed as one. What emerged was how media still upheld colonial views through the use of what language they used in the magazines. They sustained the image of “the Others” and created dichotomies where Africans were wild and savage.}},
  author       = {{Eklund, Daniel}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Kenyan conflict, post-colonial media? A discourse analysis of how western media portrayed the violent aftermath of the Kenyan election in 2007 through a post-colonial perspective}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}