The urban–rural divide: Building the news media agenda in post-genocide Rwanda

Abstract

Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which the media played a significant role, the government enacted strict media laws that have led to a climate of self-censorship. This study examines the processes of agenda building and frame building from the perspective of Rwandan journalists. Journalists working at mainstream news outlets both in urban and rural areas participated in in-depth interviews for this study. Research questions included the following: How do journalists find content for news stories? What types of sources do journalists use in news stories? According to the respondents, government strongly influences the media agenda, although differences emerged between rural and urban media outlets. Urban media outlets often reported stories that came from the government, while using government sources to do so. Rural media outlets were more likely to crowdsource stories from the community. This indicates that urban media outlets rely more on the mobilisation model of agenda building, while rural outlets are more likely to use the outside initiative model. These findings suggest that rural news outlets in Rwanda report on news which is more pertinent to their community, while urban news outlets focus more on political issues on the government agenda.

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