Why is it that when most of us think of Africa, we see a poverty-stricken, helpless country? Surprisingly, Africa is actually “among the world’s most rapidly growing economic regions” according to the McKinsey Quarterly. (Rothmyer) Despite this, in 2010, magazines and newspapers in the United States ran around 245 stories focusing on Africa's poverty and only a mere 5 on its economic growth. (DevelopAfrica) The truth is-bad news sells, and that’s why the problem is perpetuated. This imbalance in variety of viewpoints on Africa has shown a dramatic impact on the country and on how other countries view them.
Many people tend to mold Africans into stereotypes based on assumptions they cultivate from what they see in western media. Negative articles and news broadcasts tend to portray Africa’s people as incompetent or not hard-working. Other recurring stereotypes include primitivism as well as incapability of being able to manage and care for themselves. It paints a picture of people ill-fitted to run their own country and relying solely on outside aid and intervention. As a result, Nigerian, Kenyan, and Zambian university graduates working in Europe find themselves overperforming in their jobs in order to gain the same respect as their counterparts. (Adekoya) One of the main purposes of media is to be a resource on realities not directly available to individuals. Many studies show that this media feature is particularly true in media relating to Africa. (Mezzana) As a result, people who have never even been to Africa feel like they know something about the country based off of a tunnel-visioned media and subconsciously generalize and stereotype its people.
This imbalance of viewpoints also causes a paternalism mentality towards Africa. Understandably, many NGOs(non-profit organizations) focus more on progress that needs to be made rather than what has already been accomplished. Essentially, they are pressured to continue attracting funding and attention to keep the organization running by releasing a superfluous amount of negative articles. Sunny Bindra, a Kenyan management consultant, says, “There are famines; they’re not made up. There are arrogant leaders. But most of the journalism that’s done doesn’t challenge anyone’s thinking.” (Rothmyer) This representation of African people as helpless victims dehumanizes them and makes it seem as though they do not possess the capability of fixing their own country. It promotes paternalism, “a term that invokes the authoritative but benevolent relationship of parents to their children, with the latter needing guidance since children are unable to act “properly” on their own.”(Baker)
Africa is not a homogenous country. Not every crevice of the place is rife with economic, social, and political despair. Instead, it is a continent made up of heterogeneous countries, some of which are experiencing problems, and some of which are not. Although these problems are often dramatized and written about in excess by the media, they do help raise awareness and influence others to solve these problems. An example of this would be the media calling out of one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises in northern Uganda which both Ugandan and African media chose to hide. (Africa) Africa still does deserve unbiased, diverse news coverage which focuses on both the problems and successes of the continent. However, if the problem is perpetuated and African media does not step up to the responsibility of reporting about their countries, Africans may still continue to be subject to paternalism and stereotypes.
Works Cited
Adekoya, Remi. "Why Africans Worry about How Africa Is Portrayed in Western Media | Remi Adekoya." Opinion. Guardian News and Media, 28 Nov. 2013. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.
"Africa's Media Image: Blame It on The West?" Africa News Service, 15 Sept. 2005. link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A136243691/GIC?u=los42754&xid=85a03a80. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.
Baker, Andy. "Media Portrayals of Africa Promote Paternalism." The Washington Post. WP Company, 05 Mar. 2015. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.
Mezzana, Daniele. "A Cancerous Image." Berkman Klein Center. Harvard, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.
Rothmyer, Karen. "Hiding the Real Africa." Columbia Journalism Review. Columbia Journalism Review, Apr. 2011. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.
"The Media's Problematic Portrayal of Africa." The Media's Problematic Portrayal of Africa | Develop Africa. DevelopAfrica, 23 Jan. 2017. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.
I learned a lot from this article that I never heard before. We spent a lot of time discussing paternalism in world history and EHAP, so it was really eye opening for me to see how this problem is perpetuated today. Do you know any statistics concerning the economic growth in Africa? Those are things that I would be interested to look at.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your article (esp bc it's a topic I've found interesting). You analyzed the effect of "pity news" very well.
ReplyDeleteYour title and hook are intriguing make me want to continue to read your article. Reading about how the media has affected Africa's image was also super interesting. How do you think African media can protect their image more?
ReplyDeleteI really like your title. I learned that Africa is not only all about poverty and economic downfall, there is an upside to but it is generally not given the same attention. I wonder what other countries are misrepresented by media?
ReplyDeleteI really really like your hook! The first sentence really related to what I also thought and it made me really want to read your article. You also have really informative data and information and I learned a lot from reading this article!
ReplyDeleteReading about how condescending and negative journalism on Africa can be was really interesting, I had never really thought about the paternalistic mentality people tend to have towards Africa. Your article itself flowed really well, and was very informative without posing a bias. How do you think people in Africa feel about this negative journalism?
ReplyDeleteReally great title, you added on a great conclusion to this that left a hint of hope for the readers.
ReplyDeleteYou were able to portray Africa in an unbiased way and that was very refreshing from the mostly negative reports that you talk about within your article. I think you made a very strong point about how the media really does dictate how other countries view a nation and your factual evidence helped to disprove the set notion that Africa is in an extremely dire state all the time.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite aspect of this piece was the interesting and original topic that I had never read about before. My main take away from this was how negative a portrayal Africa is given even though some parts of it are thriving. A follow up question I have is what affect would it have if the media began producing positive stories about Africa?
ReplyDelete