University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Communication ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 6-28-2010 U.S. Press Representation of the Southern Sudanese Civil War, 1983-2005 Abdissa Zerai Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds Recommended Citation Zerai, Abdissa. "U.S. Press Representation of the Southern Sudanese Civil War, 1983-2005." (2010). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds/14 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. U.S. PRESS REPRESENTATION OF THE SOUTHERN SUDANESE CIVIL WAR, 1983-2005 BY ABDISSA ZERAI B.A., Foreign Languages & Literature (English), Addis Ababa University, 1988 M. Ed., TESOL, University of Stirling, 1997 M.A., Communication, Eastern Illinois University, 2004 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2010 DEDICATION I dedicate this piece of work to my late sister, Senait Zerai, whose sudden death I had to mourn from a distant land. She was a precious young girl whose infectious smile and sense of optimism had always been the source of inspiration for the family. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and for most, I would like to thank the Almighty God for his abounding grace that helped me to endure the arduous task of doctoral study. Without His unfailing grace, a successful completion of this challenging journey would not have been possible. I owe sincere and earnest gratitude to my dissertation chair, Dr. Janet Cramer, for her constant guidance, close following-up, and resourceful mentoring throughout the course of this study. Without her insightful comments, constructive suggestions, and positive motivations this dissertation wouldn‘t have been what it is now. I am also truly indebted to my dissertation committee members, Dr. Mary Jane Collier, Dr. Ilia Rodriguez, and Dr. Admasu Shunkuri, for their willingness to be onboard with me in this journey and for their invaluable scholarly inputs. While Dr. Collier was instrumental in sharpening my scholarly lens in the area of postcolonial studies, Dr. Rodriguez‘s class gave birth to my dissertation topic and provided me with the opportunity to test the water for the first time. I was also fortunate to be able to tap on the wealth of knowledge Dr. Shunkuri has to offer on African politics and to be able to make a good use of it in this piece of work. I am eternally grateful to each one of them. I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to both the faculty and staff of the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico for creating a nurturing and collegial academic and social environment where everyone feels at home. I am particularly grateful to the department chair, Dr. John Oetzel, for his unwavering commitment in making financial assistance available throughout my study. My especial thanks go to my dear friends, Jessica Crespo, Chie Torigoe, and Soumia iv Dhar, for their unconditional support and encouragement that kept me going throughout this study. What is more, I am eternally grateful to my wife, Mihret Belete, for standing by my side and providing the support and encouragement I needed throughout my study. She was phenomenal in shouldering the responsibility of raising our two children in my absence for about three years before we were reunited. My sons, Epherem Abdissa and Nahom Abdissa, were graciously understanding and never complained when I was not able to spend time with them as much as they might have wanted. For this, they deserve my earnest gratitude. I am also indebted to my father, Zerai Bamano, who, at an early stage in my life, instilled in me the importance of education. Without his inspiration and encouragement, I wouldn‘t have made it this far. Finally, my heart-felt gratitude goes to my relatives and friends around the world who have earnestly prayed for my success and wellbeing. Your prayers have, indeed, made a difference. v U.S. PRESS REPRESENTATION OF THE SOUTHERN SUDANESE CIVIL WAR, 1983-2005 BY ABDISSA ZERAI ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2010 U.S. PRESS REPRESENTATION OF THE SOUTHERN SUDANESE CIVIL WAR, 1983-2005 By Abdissa Zerai B.A., Foreign Languages & Literature (English), Addis Ababa University, 1988 M. Ed., TESOL, University of Stirling, 1997 M.A., Communication, Eastern Illinois University, 2004 Ph. D., Communication, University of New Mexico, 2010 ABSTRACT The study examines how the U.S. print news media discursively represented the civil war that raged from 1983-2005 between southern Sudan and the central government in the north over the tenures of three successive war-time Sudanese administrations. The study was situated within the broader theoretical umbrella of cultural studies. However, the theory of representation and postcolonial theory served as the principal theoretical frames for the study. Employing critical discourse analysis, with framing as a strategy, the study focused on five U.S. print news media outlets (three national newspapers and two national newsmagazines): The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report. News articles published on the subject in the selected print news media outlets over the entire stretch of the civil war were collected and analyzed. vii The analysis revealed that the narratives of the selected print news media discursively constructed an ethno/racial-religious frame as a colonizing frame in talking about the southern Sudanese civil war. With respect to the portrayal of the warring parties (southern forces and three war-time Sudanese administrations), a shift of narratives was observed over the entire civil war period. While the ethno/racial-religious discursive angle remained the same throughout the civil war period, the news narratives‘ portrayal of the warring parties oscillated depending on the nature of Washington‘s policy toward Khartoum‘s regimes. It was argued that the news discourse of the civil war focused exclusively on the ethno/racial-religious dimension in explaining the locus of the southern Sudanese civil war, and in so doing, excluded the role of colonial legacy, which could have shared the same discursive terrain, as an important explanatory factor for the southern Sudanese predicament. This colonial legacy, among other things, encompasses the institution of the north-south divide, the emergence of a sectarian political structure, and the contribution of the Condominium in the Sudanese national identity crisis. The study outlines the implications of such representations and portrayals and articulates some of the loci of the U.S. news media‘s analytical impoverishment with respect to reporting events on the African continent. Finally, the study makes some suggestions as to what the U.S. news media might do to improve the way they cover crises on the continent. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 U.S.-Sudan Relations .................................................................................................... 8 Theoretical Framework: Media and the Production of Meaning; Postcolonial Theory ............................................................................................................. 12 News as Discourse ...................................................................................................... 12 Representation............................................................................................................. 17 Framing Theory .......................................................................................................... 25 Postcolonial Theoretical Framework .......................................................................... 29 An Overview of the Study .......................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER TWO: SUDAN IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ......................................... 40 Turco-Egyptian Conquest (1821-1885) ...................................................................... 42 Mahdist Rule (1885-1898) .......................................................................................... 43 Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1898-1956) .............................................................. 45 Sudan‘s North-South Conflict in Context ................................................................... 52 CHAPTER THREE: U.S. FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS SUDAN DURING SOUTH SUDAN‘S CIVIL WAR ............................................................................................. 59 CHAPTER FOUR: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 76 Producing Knowledge about Africa/Sudan ................................................................ 76 Media Influence; Outside Influence on Media Coverage ......................................... 104 Significance of the Study .......................................................................................... 116 CHAPTER FIVE: METHODOLOGICAL ORIENTATIONS .........................................