U.S. Press Representation of the Southern Sudanese Civil War, 1983-2005

The study examines how the U.S. print news media discursively represented the civil war that raged from 1983-2005 between southern Sudan and the central government in the north over the tenures of three successive war-time Sudanese administrations. The study was situated within the broader theoretical umbrella of cultural studies. However, the theory of representation and postcolonial theory served as the principal theoretical frames for the study. Employing critical discourse analysis, with framing as a strategy, the study focused on five U.S. print news media outlets (three national newspapers and two national newsmagazines): The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report. News articles published on the subject in the selected print news media outlets over the entire stretch of the civil war were collected and analyzed. The analysis revealed that the narratives of the selected print news media discursively constructed an ethno/racial-religious frame as a colonizing frame in talking about the southern Sudanese civil war. With respect to the portrayal of the warring parties (southern forces and three war-time Sudanese administrations), a shift of narratives was observed over the entire civil war period. While the ethno/racial-religious discursive angle remained the same throughout the civil war period, the news narratives\u27 portrayal of the warring parties oscillated depending on the nature of Washington\u27s policy toward Khartoum\u27s regimes. It was argued that the news discourse of the civil war focused exclusively on the ethno/racial-religious dimension in explaining the locus of the southern Sudanese civil war, and in so doing, excluded the role of colonial legacy, which could have shared the same discursive terrain, as an important explanatory factor for the southern Sudanese predicament. This colonial legacy, among other things, encompasses the institution of the north-south divide, the emergence of a sectarian political structure, and the contribution of the Condominium in the Sudanese national identity crisis. The study outlines the implications of such representations and portrayals and articulates some of the loci of the U.S. news media\u27s analytical impoverishment with respect to reporting events on the African continent. Finally, the study makes some suggestions as to what the U.S. news media might do to improve the way they cover crises on the continent

The Role of ICTs in Governance, Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding in Africa: The Case of Ethiopia

While the codification of a national ICT policy is an important indicator of a nation’s commitment to the development of ICTs, it is possible that states are “coerced” into implementing ICT reforms, particularly e-Government reforms, through pressure from donors (Brussels, 2011) and other significant and powerful constituent groups. Even when policies are developed by a state’s own volition, what matters is not the policy per se, but how and to what end the policy is used. Located in one of the most economically marginalized and unstable regions of the world, Ethiopia’s prioritization of economic development, stability, and national security might be legitimate. However, such concerns could also have a chilling effect on ICT development in the country. In light of this, this study seeks to examine how Ethiopia’s ICT policy is deployed and the extent to which the policy creates an enabling environment for the free flow of ideas, promotion of good governance, and socio-economic development

Ethiopia : social and political issues

The complete book of eleven chapters is presented in four sections, respectively covering issues related to governance, health, gender and land. This document encompasses Chapters 1 and 2, which contextualize issues through provision of background history and politics of Ethiopia (Chapter1); and ethnicity, language and education (Chapter2)

News discourses threatening multiculturalism in Ethiopian mainstream TV channels: Discourse historical approach

This study explores how the political interests of different ethnic groups influence mainstream televisions’ news discourses in Ethiopia. It was based on data generated from a corpus of 1167 news stories in three TV channels from 2019 to 2021 and analyzed stories threatening multiculturalism. Based on the theoretical lenses of critical theory, it employed a Discourse Historical Approach to analyze discursive strategies used in TV news. It underscores that in a diverse society like Ethiopia, achieving public consensus through news discourse might become tougher. The results also show that recent political polarization, conflicts, and civil wars have potentially compromised the objectivity of news reporting, undermining the utilization of inclusive language for representing diversity. Newsrooms employ antagonistic narratives that impede the cultivation of tolerance and respect among diverse ethnic and political factions. Consequently, these narratives cunningly neutralize the political undertones of ethnic conflicts by labeling the culprits as terrorists. Hostile mode of discourse perilous to the enactment of multiculturalism characterizes the news discourses in TV channels. While discussing political conflicts and insecurities, the news stories intensify divisions among diverse political groups. Therefore, the study suggests that news reporting in a diverse society ought to focus on peace bargaining, the use of impartial and inoffensive discourses to lay the groundwork for multicultural integration