Tips for more effective coverage:
Canadian media play a vital role in helping to educate Canadians on the crisis in Darfur Sudan. A Pollara Poll in May 2007 found that Canadians from across the country, and in various age groups, support Canadian political and military action in Darfur, but still, not enough citizens at home are demanding that the government ACT!
Our experience has also led us to examine coverage that does appear in the media and we have found some coverage to be extremely useful and other stories, less so.
“Good Coverage”
- Coverage that is engaging on the broad implications of this crisis for the people of Darfur, for Sudan, for Africa, for the UN and for international diplomacy and humanitarian intervention
- Coverage that relates the personal stories of the victims in Darfur
“Coverage that is less helpful”
- Coverage that speak of crisis in purely political terms
- Coverage that confuses or dilutes the balance of “aggressor” and “victim” in the context of the situation
- Coverage that suggests most important debate taking place is that over the exact number of lives lost in the crisis