Framing the US Embassy Bombings and September 11 Attacks in African and US Newspapers

Abstract

Domestic & international newspapers' coverage of the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya & Tanzania & the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the US is studied to determine whether local & cultural determinants affected the media's use of news frames in reporting these events. An overview of various potential influences on media coverage of terrorist attacks, eg, whether the event affected a local/domestic or international audience, is presented. Newspaper articles published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nairobi News Nation, & the Dar Es Salaam Daily News that covered the 1998 & 2001 terrorist attacks were analyzed to determine the extent of coverage dedicated to each event, the location of such news stories within their respective publications, & the cultural influences upon news coverage. Several findings are presented; for instance, it is revealed that all newspapers provided greater coverage for local terrorist attacks & that the US news media generally emphasized how these events, especially the 1998 terrorist attacks, affected the US while overlooking their impact upon African politics. In fact, it is concluded that both the US & African newspapers' coverage of the aforementioned events exhibited signs of ethnocentrism. 3 Tables, 3 Figures, 21 References. J. W. Parker