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Fanning the Flames of Fear: A Critical Analysis of Local Language Radio as a Catalyst to the Post Election Violence in Kenya

Fanning the Flames of Fear: A Critical Analysis of Local Language Radio as a Catalyst to the Post Election Violence in Kenya
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Author(s): Timothy W. Kituri (Royal Roads University, Canada)
Copyright: 2013
Pages: 17
Source title: New Media Influence on Social and Political Change in Africa
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Anthony A. Olorunnisola (Pennsylvania State University, USA)and Aziz Douai (University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4197-6.ch005

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Abstract

Democracy depends on a free and independent media to survive. As a democratic country, Kenya enjoys a media that is relatively free. This includes radio stations that broadcast in local languages and which provide the majority of Kenyans with access to news and entertainment. These local language radio stations have been singled out as a catalyst to the post-election violence that rocked Kenya in December 2007. Tribal messages that propagated hate and fear, based on political and historic events, were broadcast--thus inciting violence. Critical Discourse Analysis is used in this study to explicate the ideologies of power through systemic investigation of the messages created and transmitted over the local language radio stations. This study contributes to the body of work done on media and democratization in Africa by showing how a gap regulatory and journalistic monitoring can jeopardize the watchdog function of media. The author recommends further research in these areas as a means of strengthening the role of media in building democracy in Africa.

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