Problem:
“The only time Africa gets attention from American media is when major political events that threaten American interest are taking place… The result is that American correspondents deculturalize news from Africa by stripping it of its social relevance and value” Ebo, Bosah. 1992. Dr. Ebo teaches communication ethics, public relations and international communication at Rider University.
Consequences:
“The consequences of this behavior are horrific for the American population, who think only of chaos, violence, and poverty when the topic of Africa arises. These are the images in the minds of the American public – these are the images that need to be changed in order to understand the truth about African reality.” Jamie Wallace.
“Such perceptions have been a major factor in discouraging much-needed foreign investment, but they have also become self fulfiling prophesies, sometimes nipping incentive in the bud” -Charlyne Hunter-Gault
Why the press functions the way it does?
The agenda setting function of the mass media speaks of the important role of the media in our lives. From what we see and hear; on TV, the messages that we are bombarded with through radio, newspapers and today the internet, the press can communicate powerfullly and help shape our understanding and perceptions about what is important.
Agenda setting was first introduced in 1972 by researchers Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. Their findings revealed correlations between the rate at which media cover a story and the extend to which people think the story is important.
Subsequent research in the field have led to other conclusions about a cause and effect relationship between the media and public agenda’s.
The press operates through various selective mechanisms; framing, gatekeeping and priming, which regulate access to information. The motivations behind media actions are many.
"Gatekeepers exist in most industries, but their purpose is always the same: to control or withhold the flow of information and the ability to create change."
-Chris Guillebeau
How Africa fits in.
If the press plays such an important function in our lives, the question arises, why that function is sometimes construed as “inaccurate, biased, misleading, unfair and unbalanced”. Questions like this have led to what is now referred to as "Agenda Cutting" and "Agenda Surfing" and many more questions about what the press should or ought to be doing.
With specific reference to Africa, noted journalist Charlyne Hunter-Gault in The News News about Africa (Oxford University Press, 2006)”, contents that “many Africans have given up hope that the foreign media can ever be balanced in its coverage”.
Examples cited by Hunter-Gault:
“But just as not all africans are dark-skinned, neither is the continent a dark place. ..At the moment, it is a continent at a crtical moment in its history, with its nations undergoing change, albeit at different stages, and in many cases transformative”
“For too long a litany of sad songs have dominated the story about Africa and fueled a relentless, unforgiving afropessimism. But the new news comes from hope, like truth, rising from the earth as Africans take steps to realize an African renaissance , becoming masters of their own fate, charting their own way out of the Four D’s of the African apocalyse-death, disease, disaster, and dispair-which have made the continent the sorrow child of the universe.”
Complex subject, but not quite like brain surgery.
Agenda Setting as a subject is as complicated as it is, especially for people who are interested in media coverage of Africa but who do not understand or have little knowledge about the dynamics of the news business. It gets even more complex when trying to figure out avenues to portray positive news and events emanating from Africa just for the sake of it.
What is journalism?
According to Peter Osnos, founder and Editor-at-large for Foreign Affairs Books, writing in An Elegy for Journalism (Foreign Affairs, January/February, 2010), "journalism is the craft of newsgathering." However, Osnos presents an argument about some of the perils the profession now faces and how we all consume news today, saying:
"Traditionally, society's other great estates -- government, education, medicine, the arts -- have had a revenue model based on taxes, fees, insurance, or philanthropy. Journalism, however, has been supported overwhelmingly by advertising and circulation -- a model that assures an ongoing tug of war between the need to cultivate the public interest and the duty to antagonize society's most powerful pillars through careful scrutiny"
"News organizations are civic assets as much as are universities, libraries, museums, and hospitals, but unlike these institutions, the media have never been able to count on guaranteed public support."
The point Osnos makes is that, in his own words, "Non profit media may yet turn out to be the savior". And while this is an important point in understanding the argument about why we know less about positive trends out of Africa, one fact remains, as Osnos states:
"But the understanding of nonprofit media is still limited in the United States because most Americans continue to expect their news to come from businesses"
Stuff that happens:
In "Monopoly Media Manipulation", Michael Parenti, an award winning political analyst contents, "In a capitalist society like the United States, the corporate news media more or less reflect the dominant class ideology of their owners in both their reportage and commentary. At the same time, these media leave the impression that they are free and independent, capable of balanced coverage and objective commentary. How they achieve these seeemingly contradictory but legitimate goals is a matter worthy of study"
Furthermore, Parenti surmises, saying "many things are reported in the news, but few are explained. Little is said about how the social order is organized and for what purposes. Instead we are left to see the world as do mainstream pundits , as a scatter of events and personalities propelled by happenstance, circumstance, confused intensions , bungled operations, and individual ambition-rarely by powerful class interest. Passive voice and impersonal subject are essential rhetorical constructs for this mode of evasion"
Perceptions matter. Take action, build trust, investor confidence in Africa.
"Look at how the United States utilises effective communications to build and retain its super power status. Whether it is the war against drugs or terrorism, the U.S has used public communications to draw our collective action to perceived threats, and relied on the prevailing climate to justify foreign policy", Marcus Courage
How do we address problems of perception about Africa?
“Africans must take control of their destiny, sort out their own problems, and create their own solutions” Charlyne Hunter-Gault
So, many solutions and avenues have been posited as ways through which Africa could be presented as a place for business, democracy and development. Good, except, when there is still a profit motive behind such initiatives, with an overriding interest to sell positive news out of Africa Africa and make profits from it, the whole premise becomes a fallacy.
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