Influencing the message: The role of catholic missionaries in media coverage of the Nigerian civil war

Catholic Historical Review

Volumn 90, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 697-718

  Waters, Ken ^a  

^a PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 60950180312     PISSN: 00088080     EISSN: 15340708     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/cat.2005.0081     Document Type: Review

References (66)

1. The Hunger Business, Daniel Wolfe, producer (London: First Circle Films for Channel 4, Great Britain, 2000).
2. The incident is also discussed by Kevin Doheny in his book, No Hands But Yours (Cambridge, 1999), p. 24.
3. Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw, "The Agenda Setting Function of the Mass Media," Public Opinion Quarterly, 36 (1972), 176-187.
4. Bernard Cohen, The Press and Foreign Policy (Princeton, 1963), p. 13.
5. Todd Gitlin, The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and Unmaking of the New Left (Berkeley, 1980).
6. See Gay Tuchman, Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality (New York, 1978).
7. S. R. Yows, "Toward developing a coherent theory of framing Understanding the relationship between news framing and audience framing." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Anaheim, California, 1996.
8. S. Craig Watkins, "Framing Protest: News Media Frames of the Million Man March," Critical Studies in Media Communication, 18 (2001), 96.
9. Robert Entman, "Framing U.S. Coverage of international news: Contrasts in narratives of KAL and Iran Air incidents," Journal of Communication, 41 (1991), 6-27.
10. Frederick Forsyth, The Biafra Story: The Making of An African Legend (Barnsley, England, 2001), p. 3.
11. Paul Harrison and Robin Palmer, News Out of Africa: Biafra to Band Aid (London, 1986), p. 20.
12. See also, John de St. Jorre, The Brothers' War: Biafra and Nigeria (Boston, 1972), p. 251.
13. Bob Quinlan, "Joint Church Aid During the Nigerian-Biafran Conflict, 1967-1970," Paper presented at the Summer Staff Development Institute of Catholic Relief Services, 1995. Obtained from the archives of Catholic Relief Services, Baltimore, Maryland.
14. Norman Kirkham, "Federal Bombers Kill Hundreds in Biafra," The Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1968, p. A-23.
15. Walter Partington, "Biafra's New Anger Against Britain," Daily Express, April 23, 1968, p. A-1.
16. William Norris, "Biafrans' ordeal by air attack," The Times, April 25, 1968, n.p. A focus on the air raids, however, is not the common story appearing in the Times during the spring of 1968. More coverage focused on British moves to end the war and rush aid to "war torn areas of Nigeria," and pointing out later that famine deaths were common in Nigeria and in "territory still held by the Biafran rebels."
17. See "Famine Deaths on both sides in Nigeria," The Times, June 29, 1968, n.p.
18. Michael Doheny, "5 Days in Biafra," memo dated March-April, 1968, contained in Box 1 of the Doheny files at the archives of the Spiritan Order, Dublin, Ireland.
19. Michael Leapman, "Land of No Hope," The Sun, June 12, 1968, p. A-1.
20. "The Sun Says," The Sun, June 13, 1968, p. A-2.
21. Brian Dixon, "Milk - Not Murder!" The Daily Sketch, June 22, 1968, p. A-1.
22. On July 11, 1968, a Holy Ghost Father, Kintan Kilbride, echoed Doheny's caution, telling NBC news: "Even their reluctance to accept food which passes through federal army lines is understandable - former supplies have been poisoned." For an explanation of the Biafrans' beliefs, see Nwokochu Nkpa, "Rumors of Mass Poisoning in Biafra," Public Opinion Quarterly 41 (1977), 332-346.
23. John Edwards, "At Last a Chance to Live," Daily Sketch July 11, 1968, pp. 12-13.
24. See, for instance, Des Mullan, "Priests Tell of Horror," Evening Herald, November 3, 1969, p. 2; Michael Doheny wrote to Kevin in July, 1969, that Bishop J. B. Whelan was swamped with news interviews. "The whole country is roused and the relief is pouring in," he reported. Memo accessed at the Spiritan archives.
25. Doheny, No Hands But Yours, p. 26.
26. Winston S. Churchill, "An eye-witness reports on starvation in Biafra," The Times, March 3, 1969, p. 8.
27. The lay Catholic publication Commonweal noted in February that visitors had received a communiqué from Catholic priests in Biafra stating that co-existence with Nigeria was impossible and genocide was a potential reality. The mimeographed bulletin also complained that the BBC coverage of the crisis was "not reliable, sometimes even ludicrous." See J. Deedy, "News and views [Irish missionaries support Biafran secessionist movement]," Commonweal, 87 (February 16, 1968), 574.
28. See also, Geoffrey Murray, "Journey to Biafra," Christian Century, 85 (May 15, 1968), 662-664.
29. Michael Mok, Biafra Journal (New York, 1969), p. 21.
30. Michael Mok, "Through flak-peppered sky, a frail link of guns and food," Life, August 23, 1968, p. 52.
31. David Robinson, "Politics of Starvation," Newsweek, July 22, 1968, p. 42.
32. John Sullivan, "[Biafran] Starvation and Charges of Propaganda," National Catholic Reporter, November 20, 1968.
33. Atutumama Okotie, "A Critical Analysis of the Rhetoric of CBS, ABC and NBC Television News Coverage of the Nigerian Civil War" (Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1982), p. 79.
34. John McLaughlin, "Report from Biafra," America, 120 (January 25, 1969), 90-95;
35. idem, "Nigeria-Biafra: A Matter of Accommodation," America, 120 (February 8, 1969), 162-167.
36. Tony Byrne, Airlift to Biafra: Breaching the Blockade (Dublin, 1997), p. 44.
37. Publicist for Biafrans Announces He's giving up Breakaway Regime's Cause," NBC News, August 13, 1968. Accessed via the archives of ITN (http:www.itnarchive.com). In a New York City speech, the transport minister of Nigeria, Joseph Tarka, accused the Biafrans of using money for war purposes rather than helping the starving. He also accused the aid agencies of "blatantly false and distorted political propaganda." From proceedings of the 21st annual Conference on Church and State of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, New York City, January 29, 1969. Contained in special collection 508, "A Collection of material about the Biafra-Nigeria War, 1967-1970," Archives of the University Research Library, University of California at Los Angeles.
38. The church succeeded and the ICRC failed," noted Emmanuel Urhobo. Relief Operations in the Nigerian Civil War (Ibadan, Nigeria, 1968), p. 39.
39. Other books chronicling the failures of the ICRC to mount an airlift include: Dan Jacobs, The Brutality of Nations (New York, 1987);
40. Suzanne Cronje, The World and Nigeria: The Diplomatic History of the Biafran War, 1967-1970 (London, 1972).
41. Hugh G. Lloyd et al., The Nordchurchaid Airlift to Biafra, 1968-1970: An Operations Report (Copenhagen, 1972), p. 29.
42. "Letter from Biafra," New Yorker, October 4, 1969, p. 47;
43. "Long Beach to Biafra," West Magazine, June 29, 1969, p. 8;
44. "Come on Down and Get Killed," Time, March 21, 1969, p. 32.
45. Report of the Biafra Study Mission," Senate Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 91st Congress, First Session, 51 (February 25, 1969), p. 1984.
46. "First Annual Report of the Joint Biafra Famine Appeal" (Dublin, 1969).
47. "The Founding of Irish Concern," Missionary Annals, February, 1970, pp. 5-9.
48. Kevin Doheny, "Visit to London." Undated trip notes contained in Doheny Box 1, Spiritan Archives. These notes formed the first draft of chapter 8 in Doheny's book, but the reactions of Michael Doheny to the American visit are not contained in the final draft of the book.
49. Kevin Doheny, untitled memo, October 8, 1969. Contained in Doheny Box 1, Spiritan Archives.
50. Frederick C. Cuny, Disasters and Development (New York, 1983);
51. David Arnold, Famine: Social Crisis and Historical Change (London, 1988).
52. Simone Westermann, "Media and relief workers: changing relations," Crossings, March/April, 1997, p. 22;
53. for a detailed discussion of this phenomenon, see Jonathan Benthall, Disasters, Relief and the Media (London, 1993).
54. Kevin Doheny, "At the Mercy of the Media." Undated manuscript, probably a first draft of a chapter in No Hands But Yours. From Spiritan Archives.
55. Kevin Doheny, "An Account of Mike's Departure into Eternal Life." Script of Kevin Doheny's eulogy for his brother, Michael, April 2, 1992. From Spiritan Archives.
56. See, for instance, Africa Watch, Evil Days: 30 Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia (London, 1991);
57. "The Politics of Information: Famine in Ethiopia and Sudan in the 1980s," in Starving in Silence (London: Article 19 publications, 1990);
58. Peter Gill, A Year in the Death of Africa: Politics, Bureaucracy and the Famine (London, 1986);
59. Ethiopia, the Politics of Famine (New York, 1990);
60. Alex de Waal, Famine that Kills (New York, 1989);
61. Rikiya Omaar and Alex de Waal, "Humanitarianism Unbounded?" (London, 1994).
62. Two recent conferences dealing with the images of Africa in the press were held at New York University ("Famine in the Media Age: The Politics of Aid and Representation") in 1994
63. Northwestern University's Annenberg Washington Program ("Media, Disaster Relief and Images of the Developing World") in 1993.
64. See, for instance, A. B. Akinyemi, The British Press and the Nigerian Civil War: the Godfather Complex (Ibadan, Nigeria, 1979);
65. Beverly G. Hawk (ed.), Africa's Media Image (New York, 1992); The British documentaries "The Hunger Business" and "Consuming Hunger: Getting the Story" also feature the concerns of African scholars. "Consuming Hunger: Getting the Story," produced by Ilan Ziv for Synopsis Television, 1987, distribution through Maryknoll World.
66. S. Iyengar, M. D. Peters, and D. Kinder, "Experimental Demonstration of the 'Not-So-Minimal' Consequences of Television News Programs," American Political Science Review, 76 (1982), 854-855.