Mediatizing distant suffering: A longitudinal analysis of The New York Times’ coverage of famine in Somalia (1960–2021)

Grounded in mediatization theory, this article unpacks the discourse strategies employed by The New York Times in its coverage of Somali famine from 1960 to 2021, with analytical lens anchored in the social construction of reality. Through a multimodal critical discourse analysis of 819 reports, the study reveals that the media adopt different strategies to depict famine and famine victims in response to the ever-evolving US-Somalia relationship. The portrayal of international relief operations serves to reinforce the heroic image of developed countries while perpetuating the dichotomy between “us” and “them” in the international political structure. This framing implicitly constructs Western moral legitimacy through saviorist rhetoric while positioning distant suffering as a passive object of rescue, a discursive strategy that mirrors and perpetuates power asymmetries in the media coverage. The current research contributes to mediatization scholarship by reconceptualizing it as a mnemonic practice of power, wherein media institutions do not merely record historical events but actively curate collective memory, transforming distant suffering into consumable scenes of humanitarian drama.