[FoME] Media portrayals of pastoralists in Kenya, India and China

[Christoph Dietz]

Media perceptions and portrayals of pastoralists in Kenya, India and
China
By Mike Shanahan
London: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED),
2013, 28 p.
Download: http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/14623IIED.pdf

Executive Summary:
 
Pastoralists use their mobility to take advantage of resources –
pasture and water – that are patchily distributed in space and time.
Pastoralism can make major contributions to food security, livelihoods
and economic prosperity. However, these benefits often go unacknowledged
– by policy makers, donors and the public at large.

This is in part because of development and media narratives that paint
pastoralism as something bad that needs to change. This paper explores
how the media portrays pastoralism. To do so, we analysed the content of
newspaper articles about pastoralists in Kenya, China and India, and
also invited journalists in these countries to complete an online survey
and telephone interview. We identified significant gaps – and
inter-country differences – in the media’s portrayal of
pastoralists.

In Kenya, pastoralists feature mostly in ‘bad news’ stories of
conflict and drought. They appear vulnerable and lacking in agency.
Stories make almost no mention of the benefits that pastoralists bring.

In China, the media presented pastoralists as the cause of
environmental degradation and as (generally happy) beneficiaries of
government investment and settlement projects.

In India, newspapers tended to portray pastoralists with more pity, as
people whose rights to grazing land had been taken away and whose
livelihoods were at risk as pastures dwindle and locally resilient
livestock breeds disappear. Overall coverage of pastoralism in India was
rare however, and journalists there stated that pastoralists are
‘invisible’ to editors of national newspapers.

In all three countries, important topics such as climate change, the
economic importance of pastoralism and the links between mobility and
resilience, were under-reported. The majority of articles about
pastoralists failed to include their voices, and stories that focused on
women and children were uncommon. 

We discuss these patterns and suggest ways to ensure more accurate
media coverage of pastoralism and its potential to contribute to
sustainable development in a changing climate. We show that improved
media coverage of pastoralism is part of the institutional capacity that
is needed to ensure resilient food systems can be made real. Improved
ecoliteracy among journalists and editors can help strengthen the
resilience of vulnerable communities and national food systems alike,
and will become more important as climate change takes hold.