ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been considerable discussion regarding the ability of news media coverage to cause intervention during humanitarian crisis. Operations Provide Comfort in Northern Iraq in 1991 and Restore Hope in Somalia in 1992-93, where emotive news coverage of suffering people appeared to drive intervention, are the most
prominent examples to date of the so-called CNN effect. Yet debate over the relationship between media coverage and intervention remains inconclusive. Leading studies by journalists Cowing (1994) and Strobel (1997) have questioned how influential the media really are, whilst academics such as Shaw (1996) argue media impact is profound. As Livingston (1997: 1) points out, 'despite numerous symposia, books, articles, and research fellowships devoted to unravelling the CNN effect, success at clarifying it . . . has been minimal'. For humanitarians, many of whom seek to harness the perceived potential of the news media to facilitate humanitarian action, this lack of progress is significant and the question of whether such
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interventions are media-driven or strategically motivated by cross-border refugee flows remains unclear.1
