Breaking The Silence: Media Framing of Darfur Crisis

This study analyze the media coverage of the conflict in Darfur, Sudan and how it was framed in both the Sudanese newspapers and the social media. Although the armed conflict started only a few years ago between rebels demanding social and political changes and the central government in Khartoum, but the consequences of such conflict are horrible, millions were forced to leave their villages, thousands were killed, and many allegations of terrible violations for the basic human rights including torture, rape, and kidnapping. The content analysis for a purposive sample of Sudanese newspapers and the NGOs and the human rights activists’ videos discovered a huge gap between how each of them framed this conflict type, its cause/s, the responsibility, and the suggested solution/s. The Sudanese newspapers tend to frame the issue as rebel movements using foreign aid to achieve the agenda of Sudan’s enemies which include dividing Sudan to many small countries, and taking over its natural resources, especially oil. While the dominant frame used in social media tend to frame the issue as a genocide crime committed by Arab militia “the Janjaweed” against the Black-African tribes in Darfur