Half of all African countries surveyed believe international news coverage of their country is fair, according to a report just released by The Pew Global Attitudes Project. This includes Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and to a lesser extent Uganda.
Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia don’t agree. In particular, Ethiopians (a whopping 71 percent) see their country’s image distorted by foreign reporting. (Which might account for the nasty send-off BBC reporter Andrew Heavens of Meskel Square got on his blog when he relocated from Addis to Khartoum.)
The poll consisted of face-to-face interviews with more than 8,000 adults in 10 African countries, and is summarized in the New York Times, which interestingly, chose to illustrate the story with a photo of Nigerian poll workers in this spring’s disputed election. A multimedia graphic of the table to the right is also included in the Times coverage.
I’m not sure what the pattern is here — other than Eastern and Southern Anglo Africans believe they are getting a fairer portrait than Western Anglo African countries. Do international reporters spend more time in the East and South? Tend to be based in those regions and thus likely to develop more nuanced ideas about them leading to more favorable coverage? Hmm. . .
Do international reporters spend more time in the East and South?
I think the answer is YES. There has also been more westerners in these regions…reasons: safari/tourism, milder climate.
By: caretaker on July 30, 2007
at 8:25 am
Yes, I would bet those reasons would be part of the explanation.
I wonder what the tourist/business people numbers are from the US to those regions . . .
By: Melissa on July 30, 2007
at 8:48 am
I saw this new PEW Global Attitudes report via another news source (not the NY Times) and downloaded it for reading at a later date. The summaries that I have briefly read would make it appear that this report has lots of juicy information about the attitudes of sub-Saharan Africans. I believe the headline that attracted my attention to this report read something like “Africans say they are better off now…” I remember reading somewhere that statistics and polls can be constructed to present information in any number of ways for interpretation, so one has to be very careful with this type of information.
In regards to your question if “international reporters” spend more time in Eastern and Southern Africa, it would certainly appear so and probably for very good reasons.
Traditionally, international reporters working in Africa meant white Europeans and their descendents (primarily from the U.K. followed by continental West European countries, the U.S., Canada, and Australia). Fortunately this picture is changing rapidly as more and more countries become interested in sub-Saharan Africa AND the news profession is beginning to open up to multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-racial hiring practices in a handful of developed countries and even a few developing nations. Guess who’s leading the pack in that department?
I could imagine that due to historical reasons (colonialism), relatively stable post-colonial period politics and a somewhat reliable infrastructure, cities like Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Harrare were the places to be if you were running a business of any kind in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), South Africa and Namibia gained a reputation in Old Europe as “white man’s Africa” and sure enough that is where white folks and others set up shop. In the North countries like Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia enjoyed some of the same preferences from European investment and migration until the Arab natives got a little restless after the end of WWII. Super-Saharan Africa ain’t been the same since (unpredictable).
Of course old habits as described above do die hard but thank God they do die out eventually with time. Me, I’m interested in news and views from “all-over Africa” without any preference for a particular region, people or other discriminating factors. That’s the beauty of having my type of African heritage (New World slavery and freedom), my ancestors are from “All Over Africa” and I’m interested in every damn last one of them…North, South, East and West!
By: BRE on July 31, 2007
at 5:07 am
Makes sense — as more African reporters are employed by Western news outlets, coverage should likely shift geographically to reflect that. Than again, it seems to me that CNBC Africa was relying primarily on South Africans to cover the continent. Hmmm.
By: Melissa on August 1, 2007
at 5:05 pm