THE MEDIA and aid agencies have been strongly criticised for offering simplistic coverage of the Third World and using shocking images of crises in order to raise money.
In their coverage of crises such as the Rwandan genocide, the media played a major role "in the political social, economic and cultural domination" of the Third World by Europe and America, Mr Ikoweba Bunting, communications officer for Oxfam in East Africa, said yesterday.
He was speaking at a conference organised by Comhlamh, the association of returned development workers.
An RTE journalist, Ms Ann Daly, said the causes of the Rwandan genocide were never explained properly by the media. "The news was always of tribal or ethnic conflict and we all struggled to try and make sense of why Hutus were killing Tutsis. But the story rarely moved beyond this.
"Rwanda, like much of African was portrayed as peopled by those who could not manage on their own, and where tribal and ethnic conflict were endemic, and famine an inevitable consequence of their misfortune."
According to the Comhlamh chairwoman, Ms Eilish Dillon agencies used images giving the same message in order to raise funds, even though this approach would give people a false view of Africa.
At yesterday's conference, representatives of the three main Irish agencies defended their approach to development and fundraising.
The media were predisposed to having little interest in the developing world, the deputy chief executive of Concern, Mr Paddy McGuinness, said. The media tended to "hunt in packs", descending like "a swarm of locusts" to cover a particular crisis, only to move on to another within weeks.
He said Concern was nevertheless dependent on the media to get its message across. Much of its money came from the public, and the public became aware of crises through the media.
"Mr John O'Shea of GOAL said organisations like his would not solve the problems of the Third World. "Only when the corrupt governments of the Third World and the greedy selfish governments of the first world decide something has to be done for the people will anything improve.
He was unapologetic about the images used by agencies to fundraise, saying that the showing of horrific images of events like the Rwandan genocide forced governments to act and made people, contribute needed funds.
In Goma, he said, he had "prayed, cajoled and forced media people to go down to the cholera victims, put the camera in front of their eyes if necessary, film the bodies being pushed into a hold by a JCB."
"Why give out to journalists for bringing us these images and the agencies for standing beside those people?," he said.
"Should the media have reported instead on the fact that lots of Rwandan children had not been killed and were in school that day? It's important that the media reflect the situation as it is, not as some people in the cosy First World would like it to be.
Mr Justin Kilcullen, the director of Trocaire, said his agency had tried to correct superficial, media coverage of the Rwandan genocide.
When the genocide began on April 7th, 1994, the main media focus had been on how to get the Europeans living there out safely, rather than on the horrific level of killing taking place.