What Is the Relationship between Hate Radio and Violence? Rethinking Rwanda's “Radio Macheteâ€

Scott Straus
Additional contact information
Scott Straus: University of Wisconsin, Madison, sstraus@wisc.edu

Politics & Society, 2007, vol. 35, issue 4, 609-637

Abstract: The importance of hate radio pervades commentary on the Rwandan genocide, and Rwanda has become a paradigmatic case of media sparking extreme violence. However, there exists little social scientific analysis of radio's impact on the onset of genocide and the mobilization of genocide participants. Through an analysis of exposure, timing, and content as well as interviews with perpetrators, the article refutes the conventional wisdom that broadcasts from the notorious radio station RTLM were a primary determinant of genocide. Instead, the article finds evidence of conditional media e fects, which take on significance only when situated in a broader context of violence.

Keywords: genocide; ethnic violence; media effects; hate radio; Rwanda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0032329207308181 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:35:y:2007:i:4:p:609-637

DOI: 10.1177/0032329207308181

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Politics & Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().