How journalists do memory work with numbers: The case of the 220,000 deaths during the Colombian conflict (1958–2012)

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between memory, journalism and numbers. It does so through a case study that examines how the Colombian news media reported on a particular figure during a peace negotiation: the 220,000 people who died because of the armed conflict in Colombia. The number was produced by the National Centre for Historical Memory in 2013 in a comprehensive report about the ravages of the Colombian conflict (1958–2012). Following a mix-method approach – a quantitative content analysis and a thematic analysis of the news articles – we find that the way in which journalists reported on the figure contradicts two key aspects of the report. While the report rejects an ‘official memory’ of the conflict for one that is more open to political and social debate, one characterised less by ‘closed truths’, the news reports treated the number as a fact and very rarely provided a form of contestation to it. Moreover, while the report emphasises the need for clarification over distortion and concealment when constructing memory, the news articles misrepresented those accountable for the casualties: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) was consistently positioned as the main illegal armed organisation responsible for the death toll. This representation ran counter to the findings from the report that emphasised the way paramilitary groups, rather than guerrilla groups (e.g. FARC), were more responsible for the killings. Considering our findings, we argue that an adherence to accuracy by journalists is more desirable than a practice of vagueness in the contribution to memory formation in post-conflict contexts.