You can only write about Africa as seen with a European eye : You have no other

Abstract: This research looks at the French press coverage of the 2014 uprising in Burkina Faso. The aim is to focus on the nature of the coverage by Libération and Le Figaro. Another goal is to find out how these newspapers framed their reporting and whether there are similarities and differences in their coverage. This research draws upon news framing. It is built on findings about the coverage of demonstrations and how the Western media reports about African news. It aims at refining the existing research on the subject of French media reporting about Africa and at filling the research gap of foreign news coverage of demonstrations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The research uses a qualitative content analysis to study the articles published by Libération and Le Figaro during the first week of the uprising. It examines the terms used to name actors, actions and to define the events. The thesis found that both newspapers covered the events in a rather similar way, pointing out the same actors and focusing on the same actions. They both draw a violent picture of the events. There were nevertheless differences in framing the responsibilities for the violent actions during the uprising.