Th e Impact of the Media on Genocide Intervention: A Prod, an Impediment, or Both?

This chapter offers an overview of the general theory on the influence of the media vis-a-vis genocide. It analyzes the genocidal events in Iraq, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur, with particular focus on the extent and quality of the media coverage of each crisis, how the victim group and its attackers were portrayed, and whether there was a consensus among political powerbrokers regarding intervention policy. There is a diversity of opinion regarding the role media played in relation to the US and British intervention policy in Iraq over the latter’s killing of the Kurds residing in northern Iraq. Two forms of influence may come into play: the government may “manufacture the consent” of the media and use it to gain support for its actions and through the “CNN effect, " the media may persuade the government of the necessity for intervention, or simply force its hand by making the intervention politically expedient.