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No discount for strife and anarchy in some African nations
If you are tired of all the negativity about Africa in the news, then you can take steps to deal with this problem? If you frustrated that a few war torn nations continue to dominate the news about Africa, then you can take steps to deal with this problem. If you stunned that an entire continent of 53 nations is presented from the lens of a few troubled nations, then you can take steps to deal with this problem?
Do you know the damage this is causing and costing Africa? Read on.
Writing in African Business Magazine(March, 2009), the best selling Pan African Business magazine, Omari Issa, CEO of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa said:
“greater scrutiny of investment and business issues, more timely and accurate reporting and a culture of delivering impartial news will not only help drive demand for investment climate reform, but also boost investor confidence in business environments”
The U.S Council of Foreign Relations, writing in “More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach towards Africa” (2006), looked at the problem this way.
“Much of the public’s attention on Africa focuses on humanitarian emergencies. Bust just as important are the emerging trends towards democracy and better governance over the past twenty years that are transforming many African countries”
The World Bank Africa Region experts, in the September 2008 Africa Region Brief stated:
“At all times, but especially during a crisis, Africa’s uneven progress tends to be underplayed and slippages highlighted. The positive trends in school enrollment rates, improvements in service delivery in the health and education sectors, and the fact that Africa has been reducing poverty at a rate higher than South Asia are lost. Headlines about war, famine, disease and misery dominate and overshadow the kind of recognition deserved by the 13 African countries that have attained middle income status and the five others which are on the verge of reaching that threshold”
Africa Practice’s Marcus Courage sees it this way:
We must stop complaining about Africa’s marginalization in the international media and do something about it. Effective communication of reforms by governments and regional economic communities is key. So too are initiatives that build capacity among indigenous media organizations to report on business in Africa”
“Too few African governments have devoted adequate resources to communication” Marcus Courage.
The list goes on and on and is supported with facts, statistics and research study from experts and universities. Yet, whether it is your local television station or newspaper, or global media giants that churn out information in a 24X7 news cycle, so called news out of Africa is filled with images that make the continent, its peoples and leaders look and seem helpless, unproductive, useless and out of this world.
Without minimizing the impact of conflict, war and disease in some parts of the continent, this issue remains as pertinent a problem as strife and calamity itself. As a matter of fact, there are still may hot spots and unimaginable things taking place in Africa. The problem here is that of reporting, not just negative news, all the time, but one of deliverying impartial news. And news can be negative and positive. So, where are all the positive stories about Africa..is the questions we are asking.
What are Africans and media organizations doing about this problem?
Very little, except to either ignore the problem altogether, hold roundtable discussions, interviews or make statements about it.
(C) Copyright, Africa Agenda
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