Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

HOW FAMINE CAPTURED THE HEADLINES

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 12; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13688800601014025

1469-9729

Suzanne Franks,

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size The research for this paper was partly based upon the BBC written archives at Caversham. Privileged access to the archives was permitted as part of the Official History of the BBC, funded by the AHRC. I would also like to thank all the interviewees. Notes 1. International audience figures are very hard to estimate so this can only be an approximate figure. See Graham Mytton 'Dissent. A Billion Viewers Can't Be Right' Intermedia 19.3 (May–June 1991) for a discussion of this. 2. Several development charities more than doubled their income in the period after the famine coverage and the Band Aid/Live Aid phenomenon led to a new type and scale of charitable fund-raising event. For a further discussion of the wider impact of the media coverage of the famine see Suzanne Franks 'Famine, Politics, Aid and the Media' forthcoming PhD thesis, University of Westminster. 3. The BBC archives contain many references to the exceptional nature of this report. See, for example, remarks made to the BBC chairman in BBC RAPIC B 405-3. Letter from Fred O'Donovan Chairman of RTE to Stuart Young 9 Nov. 1984, 'I congratulate you all on a truly wonderful piece of professional television that has inspired the greatest co-operation of various countries since World War Two. When the history of this tragic famine is written it must never be forgotten that Michael Buerk's documentary started all the effort to help.' 4. BBC RAPIC B 420-4-3 Emergency Appeals Case file. Script for Famine Appeal by Esther Rantzen 31 Oct. 1983. 5. BBC Written Archive Centre (WAC) B 420-004-001 Emergency Appeals Policy 1965–85 Summary of Results from Radio and Television DEC Appeals (1966–83). 6. Interview Mike Wooldridge 2004. 7. Interview Mike Wooldridge 2004. 8. Interview Mike Wooldridge 2004. 9. Tony Vaux The Ethiopia Famine 1984 – Oxfam's Early Involvement. Unpublished Oxfam Report, Feb. 1985, Oxfam Archives. 10. Interview Libby Grimshaw 2004. 11. Interview Libby Grimshaw. See also BBC WAC File 405-3 Letter from Martin Bax Acting Director of Christian Aid to Alan Protheroe Assistant Director General 30 Nov. 1984 reflecting on the way that television news reported famine and interview with Wendy Riches from Save the Children quoted in The Listener op. cit. 12. Vaux op. cit. and Robert Dodd Oxfam's Response to Disasters in Ethiopia and the Sudan 1984–5 Internal Oxfam Report Sept. 1986 Unpublished. Oxfam Archive. 13. Hancock refers to George Galloway as director of War on Want and his outspoken criticism of the Ethiopian regime. 14. FCO confidential paper 'The Ethiopian Famine: Policy Problems' 29 Oct. 1984 lists as a current UK government policy objective the aim 'to supplant Soviet with Western influence in the Horn, especially Ethiopia'. Obtained under FOI. 15. Interview Mike Wooldridge 2004. 16. The National Archive (TNA) Public Record Office (PRO): OD 53/4 Telegram from Brian Barder to FCO 30 Nov. 1983 reporting on a donors meeting chaired by UNDRO Barder (the UK Ambassador to Ethiopia) reports on severe doubts cast on the logistical abilities of the Ethiopian Relief and Rehabilitation Commission to handle large quantities of aid and in particular the capacity of the port at Assab. 17. Tony Vaux Oxfam Report op. cit. 18. BBC WAC B 420-004-001 Emergency Appeals Policy 1965–85 Memo on Emergency Appeal for African Famine Relief from Towyn Mason Assistant Head of Secretariat 2 July 1984. 19. BBC WAC B 420-4-1 Emergency Appeals Policy 1965–85 List of appeals. 20. Interview with Michael Buerk 2004. 21. Interview with Michael Buerk 2004. 22. BBC WAC BBC RAPIC B 420-4-3 Emergency Appeals Case file. Script for DEC TV Famine Appeal broadcast on BBC 19 July 1984 by Frank Bough. 23. BBC WAC B 420-4-1 Emergency Appeals Policy 1965–85. Memo from Dennis Mann Appeals Secretary to the BBC Secretary 1 Aug. 1984. 24. Tony Vaux Oxfam Report op. cit. 25. See, for example, Daily Mail 'Economic Facts which Face the Fund Raisers' 16 Sept. 1985. Other estimates of the cost were as high as $200 million. 26. Interview Mike Wooldridge 2004. 27. BBC RAPIC B 420-4-3 Emergency Appeals Case file. Letter from Pam Pouncey DEC Secretary to Dennis Mann BBC Appeals Secretary 4 Sept. 1984. 28. Interview with Michael Buerk Nov. 2004. 29. BBC WAC News and Current Affairs Minutes 6 Nov. 1984 refer to letter from World Vision regarding the use of their plane by Buerk and Amin. 30. Interview Michael Buerk 2004. 31. Interview Chris Cramer 2006. 32. Interview Chris Cramer 2006. 33. Interview Michael Buerk 2004. 34. BBC WAC Television Programme as Broadcast BBC1 Six O'Clock News 23 Oct. 1984. 35. BBC RAPIC see file B 107-4 Six O'Clock News. 36. Interview Ron Neil Nov. 2005. 37. BBC RAPIC B 107-4 Six O'Clock News Internal correspondence June 1984. 38. BBC RAPIC B 107-4 Six O'Clock News Paper on 'Early Evening Programmes News and Current Affairs' 21 June 1984 and Press statement 8 June 1984. 39. Interview Ron Neil 2005. 40. Harrison is referring to John Birt who joined the BBC in 1987 as Deputy Director General and eventually DG. He implemented changes throughout the News and Current Affairs departments with an emphasis on programmes which gave more in-depth explanation. 41. BBC WAC Board of Governors Minutes 6 Sept. 1984 Minute 261 (ii). 42. BBC WAC Board of Governors Minutes 20 Sept. 1984 Minute 282 (i). 43. Interview Ron Neil 2005. 44. BBC WAC R 9/1, 147/5 TV Audience Figures BARB. 45. Interviews with Ron Neil 2005 and Michael Buerk 2004. 46. BBC WAC BBC Television Programme as Broadcast BBC1 News 24 Oct. 1984. 47. Interview Paddy Coulter 2004. See also article in Morning Star 25 Oct. 1984 'Strike Lifted for Famine Film to Go Ahead'. 48. An interesting example of this is in press reaction as a result of the BBC News broadcast. There was a tenfold increase in coverage of the Ethiopian famine by the quality press following the Amin/Buerk broadcast and tabloid coverage went form 50 column inches in the first three weeks of Oct. to 1,100 column inches in the last 10 days of the month. See Magistad Appendix 1. 49. See, for example, Galtung and Ruge, for a classic summary of the drivers behind the values in foreign news coverage as well as Gans and Schudson who are also informative on this subject. 50. The concept of a 'CNN effect' was only given that name during the first Gulf War 1991, however, as Piers Robinson concludes in The CNN Effect that it was applicable in retrospect to the coverage of the Ethiopian famine. 51. 'Bitter Harvest' TV Eye Programme for Thames Television broadcast 25 Oct. 1984. 52. Interview Ron Neil 2005. 53. See, for example, speech by Rt. Hon. Hilary Benn MP Secretary of State for DFID at the BBC-World Service Trust/DFID Conference 24 Nov. 2004 'Awareness, Understanding and Response. The Media and Development; Communication and the Millennium Development Goals'. 54. Interview Ron Neil 2005. 55. Schudson discusses why the media were slow to cover the Aids epidemic, concluding that 'aids is a slow moving disaster not a dramatic event of flood, fire or earthquake suddenness'. 56. Interview Peter Gill Nov. 2004. 57. Interview Ron Neil 2005. 58. See The Hunger Business a two-part series by First Circle Films shown on Channel 4, Nov. 2000 for a critique of the role of the media and the effectiveness of the aid operation in Ethiopia during this period. 59. Evan Davis (BBC Economics Editor) Can the Media do Complexity? Talk to Social Market Foundation 13 July 2004. 60. Interview Michael Buerk 2004. 61. Interview Ron Neil 2005. 62. BBC WAC Television Programme as Broadcast Six O'Clock News 23 Oct. 1984.