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THE MEDIA DURING THE KOSOVO CRISIS
and 40 seconds average after Drenica, 12 minutes and 30 seconds
average after Gornje Obrinje, and 6 minutes average after Racak).
Although these three two-week periods after the massacres repre-
sented 10.9 percent of the total period reviewed, they accounted for
32 percent of the total Kosovo television coverage. In the four-week
(28-day) periods after the massacres, which accounted for 21.8 percent
of the time, media coverage was 48 percent of the total coverage. In
other words, these three incidents accounted for nearly half of all
media coverage. But were these incidents significant enough to justify
such disproportionate coverage? Table 5.6 addresses this question by
reviewing the significance of these incidents in relation to two vari-
ables that reflect the total violence in the conflict—the number of
Kosovo Albanians killed and the number of villages destroyed during
the civil war. If the percentage of individuals killed and villages
destroyed in the three incidents is similar to those recorded in the
media coverage they garnered in the overall conflict, then it could be
argued that these incidents received proportionate attention for their
significance in the conflict. If the incidents represent far less damage
in relation to the overall conflict, then media coverage could be
considered disproportionate.
As outlined in table 5.6, an estimated 2,000 Albanians died in the
Kosovo civil war, while 400 of their villages were destroyed. 53
Although some of these incidents involved fighting between Yugoslav
authorities and KLA militants, the majority of those killed were
civilians who died in ways not captured by cameras. In the three
unexpected and emotive incidents outlined above, a total of 156 people
were killed. 54 This means that an estimated 7.8 percent of the total
deaths and 2.5 percent of the villages destroyed in the conflict pre-
ceding NATO military intervention were due to these three incidents.
While the media clearly acted disproportionately when unexpected
and emotive images from Kosovo emerged, it is important to see how
these images were framed. For governments to be pressured into
action and policy change, framing in a manner that challenges existing
policy is important. The government’s reaction to these incidents is
reviewed in the following two chapters.
The Accumulating Effect
Although any television news story can potentially have political
impact, leading news items presented as the first story on the televi-
sion evening news are likely to generate more attention and potential
influence. 55 Therefore, to determine if there was an accumulating