More than a Victim: Thinking Through Foreign Correspondents’ Representations of Women in Conflict

Abstract

Media, and foreign correspondents in particular, play an important role in shaping the popular and political context in which high-level international decisions are made. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, foreign correspondents, working in tandem with policy and academic reports, have drawn much needed attention to the issue of rape as a gendered weapon of war. Yet this success has reinforced paradigmatic knowledge of that country and of women in sub-Saharan Africa who have long been assigned the role of Othered, silent suffering victim. The victim trope is crucial to a humanitarian fundraising form of reporting known as the transactional frame. This chapter argues that the role of foreign correspondents should not be to mimic humanitarian frames but rather represent women as historicised and politicised actors, recognising them as resourceful agents, and with potential to be actively engaged in transitional justice processes.