African news media largely ignore what is going in Swaziland. And when news is reported it is mainly about poverty, HIV/AIDS and development issues. South African news media are more interested in Swaziland than any other country on the African continent.
These are some of the findings of a survey I undertook into how the world’s media view Swaziland.
I wrote earlier this month about what news media outside of Africa reported on Swaziland and said it seemed that anyone hardly anyone outside of Swaziland is interested in the kingdom.
The news from within Africa is a little better.
To recap, I set up a small research project to systematically monitor the world’s news media to find out how Swaziland was reported abroad. To do this it would be impractical to read every newspaper, listen to all radio stations and watch all television stations in the world. Instead, I used Google News as the source material. Google News is a computer-generated news site that collects together headlines from more than 4,500 English-language news sources worldwide.
I have been downloading items on Swaziland from Google News every day since February 2005. I do this by requesting from the computer site all items that contain the word ‘Swaziland’ in them. To make the number of downloads manageable Google News only sends you one copy of an item even if it appears in more than one publication. That means, for example, if a news agency such as the Associated Press sends out a story and it is used by a dozen newspapers in the United States only one version will be picked up and sent out to you by Google News.
These are some of the findings of a survey I undertook into how the world’s media view Swaziland.
I wrote earlier this month about what news media outside of Africa reported on Swaziland and said it seemed that anyone hardly anyone outside of Swaziland is interested in the kingdom.
The news from within Africa is a little better.
To recap, I set up a small research project to systematically monitor the world’s news media to find out how Swaziland was reported abroad. To do this it would be impractical to read every newspaper, listen to all radio stations and watch all television stations in the world. Instead, I used Google News as the source material. Google News is a computer-generated news site that collects together headlines from more than 4,500 English-language news sources worldwide.
I have been downloading items on Swaziland from Google News every day since February 2005. I do this by requesting from the computer site all items that contain the word ‘Swaziland’ in them. To make the number of downloads manageable Google News only sends you one copy of an item even if it appears in more than one publication. That means, for example, if a news agency such as the Associated Press sends out a story and it is used by a dozen newspapers in the United States only one version will be picked up and sent out to you by Google News.
For this research I took the period for one year starting March 2005 and counted the items for every other month (March, May, July and so on).
In that time there were 165 items counted. The first thing to notice about this is how few there were. The 165 items averaged just over one a day and many of the items were small reports of less than 100 words. It would seem that there is not much interest in the rest of the world about what is going on in Swaziland.
The table below shows which organizations within Africa are reporting on Swaziland. The total number of items counted was 125 (compared to only 40 for outside Africa). This suggests that Swaziland is more ‘newsworthy’ within Africa.
A total of 34 items come from South African newspapers, broadcasting stations or the South Africa Press Association. This is perhaps unsurprising since South Africa borders Swaziland and there is a constant movement of people between the two countries. It is also widely stated that there are more Swazi people living in South Africa than live in Swaziland itself so the ethnic connection between the two countries is clear.
Nearly one in four items comes from the United Nations supported Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a news and information agency that reports mostly on development issues. Here are some examples of items sent out by IRIN during the year.
- Swaziland is to standardise primary school fees as a first step toward meeting UNESCO’s goal of education for all by 2015.
- Women challenging their traditional status as minors.
- Finance minister announces the Government Budget for the year.
- Government embarks on anti corruption drive.
- Aids and poverty in the Hhohho region.
Among the organisations that only had one entry in the count were ReliefWeb, Biz Community, The Nation newspaper, Kenya, and the Writers in Prison Committee.
Swazi journalists often complain that the kingdom and in particular King Mswati III get negative coverage in the foreign press. This view isn’t supported by the evidence. The ‘development’ reports on HIV/AIDS, education, gender and so on are mostly neutral in tone and content. They give facts and a wide range of opinion.
Those who detect bias and negative reporting in the foreign press need to allow that Swaziland is a kingdom that has very serious problems that need to be addressed. To take some examples: Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world; it is generally recognised within the kingdom itself that corruption is rife; and poverty is endemic. Just because the foreign media reports on these issues it does not mean that the reporting is negative. People need to be told what is going on.
King Mswati III is largely ignored in the foreign press within Africa, except in South Africa. There were a number of reports critical of the king, but not all of the reports were. On a positive note, News 24 radio reported that the king sold his own livestock to pay for two luxury German cars and he did not use state money.
More negatively, the Sunday Times, Johannesburg, commented that the king’s penchant for expensive luxury cars and private jets ‘is an insult to the many ordinary Swazis who have to face the daily grind brought about by living in poverty.’
But to balance this view the same newspaper later published a comment from a Swazi who said that ordinary people in Swaziland did not begrudge their king his luxuries.
(In August 2007, Forbes.com estimated that King Mswati III had a net worth of 200 million US dollars, or one billion, four hundred million emalangeni).
The king as head of state was criticised in the Mail and Guardian as church groups in Swaziland protested against the draft constitution, which they said gave the monarch too much power. Later in the year South Africa Broadcasting Corporation reported that the king signed into law the new constitution which ‘cements his power as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and upholds a ban on opposition political parties’.
When I wrote about news coverage of Swaziland outside of Africa I concluded that Swaziland has no significance on the international stage because it is not strategically placed (there are no ports on world trade routes, for instance). Nor does Swaziland have much economic importance, such as a wealth of raw materials that are important in world manufacturing.
This lack of interest also exists within Africa. International news agencies such as Reuters and the Associated Press do not have offices in the kingdom and when there is a potentially interesting story, such as the annual Reed Dance, foreign journalists travel into Swaziland for a day or so and then move on to their next job.
A single Swazi-based freelance journalist writes a large number of the news reports coming out of Swaziland. Many of his reports are carried by the IRIN agency. What he demonstrates is that if news and feature material is supplied to international agencies there is a real possibility that it will be published.
If Swazi journalists want the world to know more about Swaziland they should take a leaf out of his book by writing their own news reports and articles and supplying them to foreign media.
Swazi journalists often complain that the kingdom and in particular King Mswati III get negative coverage in the foreign press. This view isn’t supported by the evidence. The ‘development’ reports on HIV/AIDS, education, gender and so on are mostly neutral in tone and content. They give facts and a wide range of opinion.
Those who detect bias and negative reporting in the foreign press need to allow that Swaziland is a kingdom that has very serious problems that need to be addressed. To take some examples: Swaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world; it is generally recognised within the kingdom itself that corruption is rife; and poverty is endemic. Just because the foreign media reports on these issues it does not mean that the reporting is negative. People need to be told what is going on.
King Mswati III is largely ignored in the foreign press within Africa, except in South Africa. There were a number of reports critical of the king, but not all of the reports were. On a positive note, News 24 radio reported that the king sold his own livestock to pay for two luxury German cars and he did not use state money.
More negatively, the Sunday Times, Johannesburg, commented that the king’s penchant for expensive luxury cars and private jets ‘is an insult to the many ordinary Swazis who have to face the daily grind brought about by living in poverty.’
But to balance this view the same newspaper later published a comment from a Swazi who said that ordinary people in Swaziland did not begrudge their king his luxuries.
(In August 2007, Forbes.com estimated that King Mswati III had a net worth of 200 million US dollars, or one billion, four hundred million emalangeni).
The king as head of state was criticised in the Mail and Guardian as church groups in Swaziland protested against the draft constitution, which they said gave the monarch too much power. Later in the year South Africa Broadcasting Corporation reported that the king signed into law the new constitution which ‘cements his power as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and upholds a ban on opposition political parties’.
When I wrote about news coverage of Swaziland outside of Africa I concluded that Swaziland has no significance on the international stage because it is not strategically placed (there are no ports on world trade routes, for instance). Nor does Swaziland have much economic importance, such as a wealth of raw materials that are important in world manufacturing.
This lack of interest also exists within Africa. International news agencies such as Reuters and the Associated Press do not have offices in the kingdom and when there is a potentially interesting story, such as the annual Reed Dance, foreign journalists travel into Swaziland for a day or so and then move on to their next job.
A single Swazi-based freelance journalist writes a large number of the news reports coming out of Swaziland. Many of his reports are carried by the IRIN agency. What he demonstrates is that if news and feature material is supplied to international agencies there is a real possibility that it will be published.
If Swazi journalists want the world to know more about Swaziland they should take a leaf out of his book by writing their own news reports and articles and supplying them to foreign media.
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