Representation of Somali Pirates in British Media - Term Paper Example

Representation of Somali Pirates in British Media Name Institution Course Date Representation of Somali Pirates in British Media Abstract Piracy off the coast Somalia has extended the mind's eye of the community and the surveillance of the mass media. Employing serious treatise examination, this research paper reflects on stories regarding piracy in the northern coast of Somali on the global British Broadcasting Corporation official news site. A matching examination is carried out to find out how Somalis participating in the piracy and their activities are symbolized as well as by what means macro-conversational policies of authentication are put into use. These examinations disclose how broadcast tales do not concentrate on Somali people but on undesirable pictures of people participating in piracy and encouraging depictions of military powers from the west. A good number of etymological approaches are recognized that put emphasis on powers from the west and eloquent treatise that authenticate the ongoing existence and activities of armies from the west. These treatise are drawn upon at the expenditure of treatise concerned to the dilemma of Somali people. These discoveries not only call into inquiry the British Broadcasting Corporation’s rights to impartiality, but also show the information that stories do not encourage circumstances appropriate for a termination of piracy in Somalia. Introduction The wonder of Somali piracy has been known since ancient times. According to Jay, (2011), the ancient Egyptians already faced frequent pirate attacks against ships. During the nineteenth century, the marvel was minimal, distressing only a small portion of trade traders and mostly situated in a particular areas such as Southeastern part of Asia (Ortiz, & Carlos, 2010). Somali piracy is a very precise phenomenon primarily due to the three-way certainties that are causing the problem challenging to completely understand and extremely difficult to explain (Kontorovitch, Steven, Joseph, Gathii, & Agora, 2010). First, the political state in the country. Somalia is a country within an enduring interior war in which the eras of calm are few and countless reconciliation process have returned very little positive outcome. Even though piracy is occasionally curbed, it has never been completely eradicated or solved. According to Zou, (2005), as long as there are merchandises to procure and the reward outweighs the jeopardies involved in the process, there will never be an end to piracy. Piracy is an action of illegally boarding or the actual attempt to board a vessel with the obvious determination to commit burglary or any other lawbreaking actions and with the obvious determination or capability to use force in persistence of the deed. According to Abudullahi, and Najad, (2008), generally, bandits themselves have primarily been the criminals, sociopaths, misfits, convicts, unemployed, and poor “who faced or else unwelcoming futures”. The main attraction of the pirates is not love for the country or other philosophical motives but the financial gain and the perfect environments for piracy to flourish comprise of lawlessness, hardship, and chance (Caldas and Carmen, 1994). These circumstances describe Somali since nineteen ninety one’s downfall of power and its associated economic and communal breakdown. Nevertheless, newscast tales about piracy infrequently exemplify these circumstances and their derivation causes. According to Martin, Carafano, and Richard, (2009), as an alternative, it is bandit assaults and, to a considerable superior level, western marine comebacks which control the broadcast. This research paper examines a section of broadcasts tales in relations to in what way contributors are characterized and how approaches which concentrate broadcast tales on to positive depictions of western armed forces powers, undesirable depictions of bandits and eliminate non-pirating Somalis. This focus on western military powers expresses treatises that authenticate the ongoing existence and activities of western armed forces. These treatises do not endorse circumstances appropriate for a termination of piracy and raise queries regarding detachment at the British Broadcasting Corporation (Peter, 2008). Philosophy and methodology theory The international British Broadcasting Corporation news site is the preferred news website of examinations because of its fame and status for being impartial, a status noted by countless world renowned researchers. Its broadcasts operate the globe’s widest-reaching intercontinental newscasts assembly network, broadcasting in over thirty three languages and claiming over two hundred and thirty million users (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2012b). Its operational online newscasts feature/package is an essential portion of British Broadcasting Corporation’s multi-platform package, an “enhancement” of its traditional service (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2012a). The British Broadcasting Corporation news website is among the top forty websites with highest number of visitors each day and it is the most popular news website in the United Kingdom. The British Broadcasting Corporation website is not only popular but also the site presents itself as detached. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1of its 6 community determinations is to come up with a global mindfulness and understanding of global matters by its reporters who observe the morals of “precision, neutrality and unconventionality” and offer dependable and impartial info of significance, range and complexity” (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2012b). These are the fundamental values of impartiality, which is renowned as a perfect or communal concept of western broadcasting, not practical broadcasting (Norman, 1995). The information Newscasts tales from the worldwide British Broadcasting Corporation news site covering happenings off the northern coast of Somalia make-up the example (Abudullahi, and Najad, 2008). Tales from the year 2008 until 2010 have been selected because throughout this time, the coastline of Somalia turn out to be “world’s nastiest piracy area” entering Somalia’s 2nd & 3rd phases of piracy. To collect newscast which deal precisely with the study subject, “Somalia Pirates” was entered into the British Broadcasting Corporation news site search engine (Puchala and Donald, 2005). Out of the two hundred and twelve stories generated from this time era, one hundred account on the happenings of bandits and militaries from the west, demonstrating how Somali piracy is characterized when it developed to both stylish and troublesome. To achieve an illustrative example of close word-based examination, the one hundred tales were read and classified into three key areas of study. These were initially, pirates taking over ships illegally and other pirate undertakings; then, armed forces anxieties, achievements and happenings; and the last one, how Somalis (non-pirating and pirating) and connected illustration created seven tales (Raffaelli and Mario, 2007). To choose these, 2 foremost social difficulties connected to the site search engine. Just 4 stories precisely concerning Somali piracy were generated. These, having also existed in the original two hundred and twelve story sample, are also investigated. Happenings in Somalia Somalia has been external concentration throughout its fresh past. In the late 19th century, European supremacies began their struggle for Africa, one flagship being Somalia a portion of horn of Africa. According to Omondi, (2010), Somalis for a very long time claimed that the Europeans and the British destroyed their religion and made the Somali children theirs. Pirates have been operational in the Gulf of Aden, a place that happens to be one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, for several years. This has prompted the world’s supremacies to deploy their navies to safeguard international trade. According to Puchala, and Donald, (2005), the pirates are very smart in what they do. A gang of pirates is normally made up of 3 different kinds, namely; i. The technical professionals, who have the computer knowledge and how to operate the most multifaceted devices or equipment that are required to run pirate business. According to Raffaelli, and Mario, 2007), such devices include Global Positioning System, military hardware, and satellite phones. ii. Former militiamen, who are considered to have the power to fight and possess the knowledge of the battle field – having fought for a number of Somali clan warlords (Richardson, and John, 2007). iii. Former fishermen, who are considered to possess the brains of the operation simply because they know the sea. According to Richardson, and John, (2007), the former fishermen, the computer geeks and the former militiamen share the ever-increasing illegitimate profits which is the ransoms that the pirates normally receives in cash from the shipping companies. The piracy off the coast of Somalia is becoming a common business each day and it has cost up to more than thirty million US dollar in ransoms so far this year. A report obtain from the United Nations shows that the pirates are getting more assertive and aggressive each day (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2012a). Calling the shots Just across the Gulf of Aden is Yemen, the country where the pirates import all of their weapons among other equipment that they need to run their business (Omondi, 2010). A report obtained from the British Broadcasting Corporation, (2012b), show that the pirates also get some of the weapons and other high-tech equipment from the Somali capital Mogadishu. Observers on the ground around the Somali capital says that the weapon dealers receive the money though a company called “hawala” which is an illegal money transfer system. It is then the job of the militiamen to transport the weapons to the northern part of Somalia, Puntland to be precise. This is where they make the exchange, arms for the remaining balance. Researchers in the past reported that pirates receive their finances from the wealthy businessmen in the Middle-East especially Dubai. However, according to British Broadcasting Corporation, (2012b), the businessmen these days are the ones getting loans from the pirates, meaning that the pirates have been making a lot of money by hijacking vessels and demanding payoffs. Such huge and positive progress in the piracy is what attracts the Somali youngsters, who have little or no hope of substitute careers in the battle-damaged country. According to Norman, (2003), once a pirate makes a huge fortune, it is his high time to marry a second and a third wife; they normally chose their wives from the poor nomadic clans, who are well known to have beautiful women. The act of piracy have a number of negative influences on several aspects in the lives of Somalis, as one of the Mogadishu resident told the BBC. There has been an escalating lack of security because ever since the fall of Somali government, there has huge numbers of armed militiamen coming to join the pirates (Garcia, Jose, and Bienvenido, 2002). According to the residents, life in Somalia has become very expensive for the common residents and this is because pirates pump in huge amounts of USD into the Somali economy resulting in huge fluctuations in the exchange rate (Robert, 2009). The pirates have never considered themselves as pirates but they prefer the name coastguards. The trappings of success might be fresh, but the act of piracy has been a big problem in Somali waters for more than ten years, a time when the Somali fishermen start losing their source of revenue. According to Menkaus, (2009), their old-fashioned fishing procedures were no match for the prohibited trawlers that were invading their waters. Somali piracy initially began along the southern part of Somali coast but started shifting north around the year two thousand and seven and as the outcome, the gangs of pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden are multi-tribe operations. Among the weapons the pirates obtain from Yemen are the rocket propelled grenades and the AK-47s. These pirates have been known to get forewarnings from contacts at the docks around the Gulf of Aden (Roger, M., (2008). According to Thomas, (2004), the pirates possess speedboats which have very powerful outboard motors to approach their target. At times the motorboats are propelled from much superior motherships on the big seas and they have even been able to seize massive oil tankers. Since the world powers want to protect the international trade, warships have been deployed along the coast of Somalia and around the Gulf of Aden (Alfred, 2009). These warships patrol along the coast of Somalia and this has made the pirates to operate further away and they have even in the past launched attacks across the Indian Ocean, nearer to India than their home country, Somalia. To manage to hijack a ship, the pirates normally use grappling boat hooks and irons – most of which are rocket propelled and climb the ship using ropes and ladders (Gunther, 1989). At times the pirates fire at the vessels as a means of scaring them to stop so that it is easier for them to climb. After hijacking the ship, they sail it to their base where keep the hostages until they receive the ransom money. Conclusion Somali piracy is a practice taking part in north Somali coast and is very unsafe on a number of levels, a spike in the side of international business and not likely to get weaken any time soon. Regardless of widespread media reporting and exposure, piracy is not a worldwide rampant or a danger to international safety and economics. It is very unusual to hear killings that have any kind of connection to the act of piracy but killings at times do occur. Pirates are normally after making money, huge amount or billions of money to be precise through piracy by abducting or taking people hostage once they hijack vessels in the sea. Piracy in the northern coast of Somalia has been increasing ever since it started and it has got the attention of the public and the media, making it a nearly essential of news consumption. This analysis paper has scrutinized the mode the British Broadcasting Corporation has represented Somalia piracy during a time of high media awareness. All the same it appears impracticable to anticipate the newscast media to discover and give emphasis on Somalis and their unsuccessful or failed state position which is partially to blame for the increase in piracy activities, this close examination of British Broadcasting Corporation website news exposes treatises infuriate the problem. Reporting practice is relatively responsible for this, placing in order sources with power and ease of access. Without a doubt, conversing with a pirate in hiding might even be by far more challenging than interviewing a United States military spokesman. References Ortiz, G., & Carlos, M., (2010). Private Armed Forces and Global Security: A Guide to the Issues (Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger Press Zou K., (2005). Seeking effectiveness for the crackdown of piracy at sea, (Journal of International Affairs, ABI/INFORM Global). Jay B., (2011). Deadly Waters, Inside The Hidden World Of Somalia's Pirates, (Profile Books, 2011) Kontorovitch, E., Steven, A., Joseph, R., Gathii, T., & Agora, J., (2010): Piracy Prosecutions, The American Society of International Law (American Journal of International Law 2010).Volume 104. The National Museum of the Royal Navy A brief history of piracy, (Royal Naval Museum Library, 2002). 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