conflict & communication online, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2012
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747

Fredrick Ogenga
Is Peace Journalism possible in the ‘war’ against terror in Somalia? How the Kenyan Daily Nation and the Standard represented Operation Linda Nchi

This paper concludes that in Africa the non-Western press may have the best chance to employ peace journalism, given its proximity to major conflicts. Nevertheless, the Kenyan press has so far failed to take advantage of an ideal opportunity for such an experiment in reporting on the war against terror. Kenya's press still operates within the war journalism framework. This paper employs a theoretical approach that combines theories of media representation in mainstream journalism with the concepts of peace journalism. Methodologically, it adopts a triangulating approach, employing both quantitative and qualitative content analysis to study the representations of Operation Linda Nchi by the Kenyan Daily Nation and The Standard and thereby offers a critical appraisal of the possibility for peace journalism to cover international terrorism in Africa.