Orlando: Media narratives of mass shootings

On The Listening Post this week: We analyse the coverage of the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. Plus, cartoonist Gado on the state of Kenya’s media.

Orlando: Media narratives of mass shootings

When 49 people were killed in a mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, the US media went into overdrive. We analyse the fragmented facts, the familiar narratives of terror and the rhetoric of blame driving the coverage of this story.

Talking us through the story are: Joe Concha, TV columnist, Mediate; Zaid Jilani, reporter, The Intercept; Mike Signorile, editor at large, Huffpostqueer; and Sophia Tesfaye, deputy politics editor, Salon.

On our radar

• Ahmet Abd al-Qadar, an exiled Syrian journalists, has survived not one, but two assassination attempts by the Islamic State in the Turkish city of Urfa.
• The state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation has come under cyber-attack, reportedly for being biased towards President Jacob Zuma’s ANC government.
• Gossipy American media outlet Gawker has filed for bankruptcy after losing its legal battle with former wrestler Hulk Hogan – a lawsuit bankrolled by vengeful tech billionaire, Peter Thiel.

Gado: Caricaturing Kenya’s media

For the last two decades, political cartoonist Godfrey Mwampembwa – better known as Gado – worked for Kenya’s leading newspaper, the Daily Nation. He used satire to hold power to account in the country and across the region. But that all ended three months ago, when he was fired. We talk to Gado about his story and what it says about the state of the media in Kenya.

In addition to Godfrey Mwampembewa, the other speakers in this story are: Robi Ochieng, lecturer, USIU; John-Allan Namu, investigative journalist; Tom Mshindi, editor-in-chief, Nation Media Group; and Dennis Itumbi, government spokesman.