Sudan and South Africa - a framing analysis of Mail & Guardian Online's coverage of Darfur

Abstract

This study examines how the Mail & Guardian Online, a leading African news outlet, covered and analysed the conflict in Darfur, Western Sudan, using framing as its theoretical framework and methodological approach. The exploration produces five frames and two sub-frames: Genesis, resolution/intransigence, humanitarian (African cataclysm and world benevolence), international ambivalence and African impotence. The article concludes that the Mail & Guardian Online did not offer extensive investigative reports that explored the causes and origin of the crisis, nor did their reports offer substantive suggestions for solving the crisis, but that the newspaper must still be praised for its extensive coverage of the crisis. The case-study approach demonstrates that the African media are striving to hold African governments, leaders and role players responsible for their actions, which augurs well for the African Union and the African masses, but the press's ability to do so is dependent on financial and human resources.