UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title “We are all Rwandans”: Imagining the Post-Genocidal Nation Across Media Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18v9b19c Author Young, Andrew Phillip Publication Date 2016 Supplemental Material https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18v9b19c#supplemental Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles “We are all Rwandans”: Imagining the Post-Genocidal Nation Across Media A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Television by Andrew Phillip Young 2016 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION “We are all Rwandans”: Imagining the Post-Genocidal Nation Across Media by Andrew Phillip Young Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Television University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Chon A. Noriega, Chair There is little doubt of the fundamental impact of the 1994 Rwanda genocide on the country's social structure and cultural production, but the form that these changes have taken remains ignored by contemporary media scholars. Since this time, the need to identify the the particular industrial structure, political economy, and discursive slant of Rwandan “post- genocidal” media has become vital. The Rwandan government has gone to great lengths to construct and promote reconciliatory discourse to maintain order over a country divided along ethnic lines. Such a task, though, relies on far more than the simple state control of media message systems (particularly in the current period of media deregulation). Instead, it requires a more complex engagement with issues of self-censorship, speech law, public/private industrial regulation, national/transnational production/consumption paradigms, and post-traumatic media theory. This project examines the interrelationships between radio, television, newspapers, the ii Internet, and film in the contemporary Rwandan mediascape (which all merge through their relationships with governmental, regulatory, and funding agencies, such as the Rwanda Media High Council - RMHC) to investigate how they endorse national reconciliatory discourse. This study focuses on the period from 1995-2012, from the last days of the genocide proper (though mass ethnic violence continues on in various forms) to the contemporary period of comparative media “freedom,” to map the trajectory of the space, discourse, and regulation of the Rwandan mediascape. In looking at the through-line of this media narrative, this study utilizes discursive analysis, trauma theory, and textual analysis to compose a geography of media production/consumption in tandem with a discursive analysis of key media texts. The goal is two-fold: First, to prove that there are many production and consumption registers within the Rwandan mediascape that all operate, to varying degrees, to reinforce a state-supported reconciliatory discourse, and that the diversification and democratization of media (satellite TV, the internet, etc.), though a significant development, has done little to alter the dominance of traditional media and message systems. And second, given the particular media geography of contemporary Rwanda, the deregulation of media has had a minimal impact on the centrality of state-run media in the everyday lives of the general populace. iii The dissertation of Andrew Phillip Young is approved. John T. Caldwell Kathleen A. McHugh Allen Fraleigh Roberts Chon A. Noriega, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2016 iv For Kerry, Charlie and Owen. You sacrificed the most to let me follow my dream. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements __________________________________________________________ x Vita ______________________________________________________________________ xii Introduction ________________________________________________________________ 1 Literature Review _____________________________________________________ 10 Violence, Reconciliation, and Memory ______________________________ 11 Trauma and History______________________________________________ 15 Media and Nation _______________________________________________ 23 Framework and Methodology ____________________________________________ 28 A Brief “Pre-History” __________________________________________________ 39 Endnotes ____________________________________________________________ 44 Chapter 1: Radiyo Rwanda - State Influence, the Socio-Cultural Function of Radio, and the Genocidal “Rift” __________________________________________________ 50 Genocide and Responsibility ____________________________________________ 50 A Radio History ______________________________________________________ 54 The Genocidal “Rift” __________________________________________________ 63 Contemporary Rwandan Radio and Theorizing Trauma _______________________ 70 Case Study: Radiyo Rwanda, RTLM, and Ethnic Discourse ____________________ 80 Methodology ___________________________________________________ 83 Results and Analysis _____________________________________________ 85 Conclusions ____________________________________________________ 99 Connections _________________________________________________________ 104 Endnotes ___________________________________________________________ 105 Chapter 2: The Kinyamateka Paradox and The New Times - Catholicism, Regulation, and the Post-Genocidal Turn _______________________________________________ 111 Censorship and the Church _____________________________________________ 111 Literacy and Print Media ______________________________________________ 116 Trauma and State Endorsed Narrative ____________________________________ 124 Charting Print Media Regulation ________________________________________ 130 Case Study: Print/Online Journalism and Systems of Self-Regulation ___________ 141 Methodology __________________________________________________ 144 Results and Analysis ____________________________________________ 148 Conclusions ___________________________________________________ 161 Connections _________________________________________________________ 164 Endnotes ___________________________________________________________ 166 vi Chapter 3: “Hillywood” and Rwanda T.V. - Framing the Nation Through Film and Television __________________________________________________________ 172 Serving Witness _____________________________________________________ 172 Film and Television: Access, Infrastructure, and Audiences ___________________ 176 Reconciliation Through Media __________________________________________ 186 Contemporary Film: Transnationalism, Development, and Cultural Proximity _____ 193 Case Study: Film, Television, and the Formulation of Reconciliatory Discourse ___ 200 Methodology __________________________________________________ 203 Results and Analysis ____________________________________________ 205 Conclusions ___________________________________________________ 225 Connections _________________________________________________________ 232 Endnotes ___________________________________________________________ 234 Conclusion: Problematizing the Utopia - Realities of (De)Regulation and a New Media Geography _________________________________________________________ 240 Framing History _____________________________________________________ 240 Internet and the “New” Media Geography _________________________________ 244 Coda ______________________________________________________________ 259 Endnotes ___________________________________________________________ 264 Tables ___________________________________________________________________ 268 Charts ___________________________________________________________________ 279 Bibliography _____________________________________________________________ 281 Discourse Analysis Print Media Sample Set ____________________________________ 294 Audio Visual Materials _____________________________________________________ 298 Radio ______________________________________________________________ 298 Television __________________________________________________________ 299 Film _______________________________________________________________ 299 Online Video ________________________________________________________ 300 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first, and foremost, like to offer my deepest gratitude to my family. Kerry, Charles, and Owen, your patience, help, and support throughout this process represent the greatest expression of love I can think of. Mom and Dad, your compassion and guidance have made me who I am today, and will guide me in who I will become. My brother, Aaron, and sister, Sarah, you’ve both pushed me in different ways to try to always do more, and I appreciate that. Jack and Mary, thank you for always asking how I was doing and for helping (even when I know it wasn’t easy). I also need to express my sincerest gratitude to my dissertation committee. My Dissertation Committee Chair, Professor Chon Noriega, was incredibly helpful in directing my writing and, along with the other members of my committee, Professors John Caldwell, Kathleen McHugh, and Allen Roberts, guided this project to its conclusion (even when I know that it was difficult to find time to do so). I was also greatly aided by the generous moral and financial support of the University of California – Los Angeles and its donor community, including the Plitt Southern Theater Employee’s Trust Fellowship, Hugh Downs Graduate Research Fellowship, Joel Siegel Fellowship, Otis Ferguson Memorial Award in Critical Writing, and the