The media are failing to show the human side of Africa and instead opt to tell gloomy stories about the continent.
Comfort Mabuza, the director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa – Swaziland Chapter, called on journalists to be more positive in their reporting of Africa.
The Weekend Observer on Saturday (10 November 2007) reported Mabuza saying, ‘The Western media has painted a gloomy picture about the status of the African continent. The most highlighted issue is the plight of the poor, famine and disease.’
Mabuza, who was speaking at a workshop on journalism research organised by the international media organisation Panos, said that in the Western media, one is usually confronted with disturbing pictures of millions dying and skinny and frail bodies.
The Weekend Observer reported Mabuza saying, ‘These pictures are of our brothers and sisters showing them in such a state by the Western media, whilst we dismally fail to tell the stories as we live them.’
He said the Swazi media should take up such stories of severe poverty that has engulfed the country and ravaged more than half the population.
There is nothing particularly new in what Mabuza said, but that doesn’t make his point any less valid.
Media academics and media commentators have been studying the coverage of Africa for many years. In most cases they criticise the under reporting of Africa and the stereotyping of Africans. Africa is seen as a culturally, intellectually and politically inferior continent when compared to America and Europe.
A list of the typical images of Africa as portrayed by the American and European media would look something like this
- Beautiful scenery
- Amazing wildlife
- Africans acting as servants to Western tourists
- Friendly welcoming people (incidentally, a stereotype the Swazi media likes to perpetuate about its own kingdom)
- Political and social instability
- Disaster zones
- Hunger
- Disease
- Corruption
- Incompetent leadership
One reason for the poor quality of the coverage of Africa is that there are relatively few correspondents from the major Western news organisations living in Africa who understand the culture of the people. The correspondents that do exist tend to be based in major urban centres such as Nairobi, Cairo, Harare and Johannesburg, which means they don’t get much opportunity to get out into the rural areas of Africa where most Africans live. As a result they are unable to portray Africa on anything but a superficial level.
The media academic Tina van der Heyden believes there are more subversive reasons for the Western media’s negative portrayal of Africa. These are related to coverage of the West’s role in African news situations and also go a long way to explaining why reports on Africa are often made out of context, obscuring information by omission.
While it’s common to have reports criticising undemocratic African leaders, the Western ‘democratic' country supporting the dictator is seldom mentioned. In the reporting of conflict situations as well, the West’s role in supplying weapons is also not mentioned.
Van der Heyden says that the Western media’s selection of foreign news stories often attempts to disguise or simplify the role Western governments and businesses have played in the exploitation of African countries.
Van der Heyden says that the only time the West’s role in a crisis situation in Africa is emphasised, is when the West has the opportunity to emerge as a ‘Samaritan’ figure, helping the Africa which is unable to help itself. This is often an opportunity for Aid and relief organisations to get some advertising. So you would have a story about the aid worker who risked life and limb to help, but nothing about the local people who deal with the same situation everyday.
There are ways the media’s coverage of Africa may be improved. Van der Heyden reports on Ghana’s Minister of Communications ten-point agenda on how Africa can be given more balanced and accurate coverage.
1. African leaders, governments and citizens, must resolve to work harder to produce more positive news in Africa.
2. Africa must have a positive image of itself.
3. Africans must engage in ‘affirmative reporting’ for Africa.
4. African governments and the private sector must take decisive advantage of news and film exchange programmes.
5. African government must allocate more funds to the communications sector.
6. There should be communication components in funding for projects in sectors like agriculture, education, health etc.
7. More press attaches/cultural or information officers should be posted to diplomatic missions.
8. Professions in Africa allied to journalism, like public relations and advertising have the onerous role of presenting positive images about Africa.
9. African countries should undertake more international public relations campaigns.
10. African countries and their international friends should provide more education and training to journalists.
If you are interested in the topic of media coverage of Africa the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, USA, published a special issue of its quarterly journal Nieman Reports on ‘Africa: Stories to be Told’ in Fall 2004.
The journal includes articles from across the continent. You can get it on the Internet here
See also AFRICA’S NEWS BY AFRICANS
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