News values, cultural proximity and cross-cultural media framing: How western and Muslim media covered Darfur

Abstract

Abstract This article is an academic investigation of the burgeoning trend of cross-cultural transfer of images within the current global communication scene, in which a dominant technology is transcending political borders and geographical barriers, and threatening to create a global audience with a unified public opinion. News values, sensationalism and cross-cultural framing of news are three constructs pertinent to the investigation of the Darfur coverage in the international and Muslim media. The article compares western media coverage and frames of the Darfur crisis with the coverage and frames present in two newspapers from the Muslim world. It tests the hypothesis that, in the absence of Islamic proximity as a news value, sensationalism-driven western news sources continue to dominate the news scene and, as a result, pass the negative characterization of Islam and Muslims to the Muslim world through a process of cross-cultural framing.