Did Radio RTLM Really Contribute Meaningfully to the Rwandan Genocide? Using Qualitative Information to Improve Causal Inference From Measures of Media Availability

Danning, Gordon

October 2018

20181001

Did Radio RTLM Really Contribute Meaningfully to the Rwandan Genocide? Using Qualitative Information to Improve Causal Inference From Measures of Media Availability

DidRadioRtlmReallyContributeMeaning.pdf

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The scholarly literature on the relationship between media and communication technology and social behaviour is as vast as it is fascinating, and is as consequential as it is vast. In this article, I focus on a subset of that research, one which examines the relationship between information which is disseminated “from above” and political violence, and which employs estimates of media exposure to explore that relationship. I argue that, while these methods hold enormous potential for addressing some of the limitations that have long plagued conflict research, they involve a potential pitfall, i.e., the possibility that the variable that they measure, media availability, is an inadequate proxy for media consumption, which is the actual variable of interest. I further argue that researchers often cannot be confident that that proxy is a valid one unless they have a deep qualitative understanding of media consumption habits of the population under study. I illustrate that concern by examining the findings of Yanagizawa-Drott (2014), which estimated that roughly ten percent of the violence which took place in the course of the Rwandan genocide can be attributed to broadcast of the so-called “hate radio” station, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM).