Media, Social Media, and NGOs: Key Players in Shaping Parliamentary Agendas on Post-Conflict Burundi and the DRC
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51698/tripodos.2025.58.04Keywords:
mass media, NGO, parliament, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the CongoAbstract
In recent years, parliaments have gained great prominence as discussion forums for international conflicts. Hence, there is interest in examining how Members of Parliament utilize information from traditional and social media, as well as NGOs —key actors in armed conflicts— within the framework of agenda-building studies. This paper analyses the presence of these organizations in the debates of five European parliaments on two of the most alarming post-conflict situations of the 21st century on the African continent: those of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This study has been carried out through an automated quantitative Big Data analysis of the minutes of parliamentary debates that dealt with the situation in the region over a period of five years. Unlike previous studies, this research reveals that it is not international media that play a greater role in parliamentary agendas, but rather
African media and NGOs that are most decisive in the configuration of parliamentary agendas.
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En los últimos años, los parlamentos han adquirido un gran protagonismo como foros de discusión de conflictos internacionales. Por ello, el uso que hacen los parlamentarios de la información transmitida por los medios de comunicación tradicionales y los medios sociales, así como las ONG (actores con un papel fundamental en las guerras) constituye un objeto de análisis de gran interés en el marco de los estudios de agenda-building. Este trabajo examina la presencia de estas organizaciones en los debates de cinco parlamentos europeos sobre dos de las situaciones de posconflicto más alarmantes del siglo XXI en el continente africano: las de Burundi y la República Democrática del Congo. El estudio se ha llevado a cabo mediante un análisis cuantitativo automatizado de Big Data sobre las actas de los debates parlamentarios que abordaron la situación en la región durante un periodo de cinco años. A diferencia de trabajos anteriores, esta investigación revela que no son los medios internacionales los que tienen un mayor protagonismo en las agendas parlamentarias, sino que son los medios africanos y las ONG los más decisivos en la configuración de las agendas parlamentarias.
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