Alerting the nation to famine: The role of the media in exposing Canadians to the Ethiopian famine of 1984

Abstract

This thesis explores the coverage by English language media in Canada, specifically that of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the Globe and Mail, and Maclean’s, of the Ethiopian Famine of 1984, and how that coverage generated considerable interest among the Canadian public, including among members of the Canadian government. The CBC’s reporting of the famine in its evening news on 1 November 1984 galvanized many Canadians. Even newly elected Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, and his Secretary of State for External Affairs, Joe Clark, have admitted to being influenced by the reports of the famine on the CBC. Earlier reporting on the developing humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia, particularly by the Globe and Mail and Maclean’s, months, or even years before the CBC’s startling images, did not generate the same degree of interest or impact as the CBC did on that fall evening. Televised media generated interest in the crisis that print media simply could not match. However, this thesis shows that the Globe and Mail, a daily newspaper based in Toronto whose masthead describes itself as Canada’s national newspaper, and Maclean’s, which claims to be Canada’s Weekly Newsmagazine, both provided more detailed coverage of the crisis than television could. Maclean’s, moreover, understood the value of imagery in its coverage of the famine, and its increased space permitted it to engage in the transmission of differing perspectives on what was happening in Ethiopia. In the case of all three mediums, each moved on after several months of intense coverage of the famine, as new stories emerged. The public, it seems, similarly lost interest in the famine, suggesting that the media’s portrayal of the famine first alerted the nation to the Ethiopian crisis, became a key factor in mobilizing aid to Ethiopia and as the media’s interest waned, the public also lost interest in what was happening in the African nation.