The combined results

Two main patterns have been identified throughout the 60 articles analyzed.  The first is the use of colonial language.  Words like “tribal,” “primitive,” “savage,” “traditional,” “customary,” were counted as such.  The second identified pattern was the use of stereotypical characteristics or essentialized features of the certain culture.  For the Maasai, words like “Maasai checks,” “warrior,” or “jumping” were used as stereotypical characteristics, while words like “tattoos,” “haka,” or “warrior” were used as stereotypical characteristics for the Maori. 

In terms of colonial language, NYTimes authors used it seven out of twenty-one articles for the Maasai and three out of fourteen articles for the Maori.  In BBC, five out of nine articles for the Maasai contained colonial language and three out of sixteen used it for the Maori.  Stereotypical language was used eight out of twenty-one articles for the Maasai and nine out of fourteen for the Maori.  In BBC, five out of nine articles used stereotypical language for the Maasai and seven out of three articles contained this language for the Maori.

It is important to note the detectable difference between the US and UK news corporations was the lack of authors taking responsibility for their articles on BBC.  For the Maasai, only two articles out of the total nine gave authors, while only five out of sixteen articles gave authors for the articles on the Maori.  Spurr would argue that journalism is better able to conceal imaginary representations when an author often takes responsibility for the content, which “conceals the most obvious effects of ideology and suppresses the historical dimension of the interpretive categories that are brought into play” (Spurr 9).  However, if the author denies responsibility then the notion of objectivity seems to be more removed.

In the NYTimes and BBC there was a tendency to provide more stereotypical words rather than colonial words, but only in the case of the Maori.  With the Maasai, there was a more even tendency between the two types of words.  This suggests that the Maori have a different power-relation with Western countries than the Maasai. The power-relations were laid down during the colonial era.  Although colonialism have formally ended, neocolonial relations have formed in its place.