# Africa Research Seminar #### calendar\_today Date and Time **April 19, 2011** 04:00PM - 05:30PM EDT ### "Propaganda and Conflict: Theory and Evidence From the Rwandan Genocide" *Abstract:This paper investigates the impact of propaganda on participation in violent conflict. I examine the effects of the infamous "hate radio" station Radio RTLM that called for the extermination of the Tutsi ethnic minority population before and during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. I develop a model of participation in ethnic violence where radio broadcasts a noisy public signal about the value of violence. I then test the model's predictions using a nation-wide village-level dataset on radio coverage and prosecutions for genocide violence. To identify causal effects, I exploit arguably exogenous variation in radio coverage generated by hills in the line-of-sight between radio transmitters and villages. Consistent with the model under strategic complements in violence, I find that Radio RTLM increased participation in violence, that the effects were decreasing in ethnic polarization, highly non-linear in radio coverage, and decreasing in literacy rates. Finally, the estimated effects are substantial. Complete village radio coverage increased violence by 65 to 77 percent, and a simple counter-factual calculation suggests that approximately 9 percent of the genocide, corresponding to at least 45 000 Tutsi deaths, can be explained by the radio station.* The current version of the paper can be found here:### Speaker: **David Yanagizawa-Drott**, *Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.* See also:- [ Africa Research Seminar ](/seminars/africa_research/schedule) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#) Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/node/805206/event-feed.ics) Copy link link