The Problem With The Western Narrative For News In Africa

This is a quotation from an account of John Locke's voyage to West Africa in 1561. The image of Africa that was and is still being depicted by the Western media could be traced back to Africa's pre-colonial past. the Western narrative of Africa through the media has always been misrepresented and stereotyped. Its rather more convenient to have reportage of Africa in the light of famine, war, diseases, poverty and corruption rather than portraying the gains, progress and developments made.

The problem with the Western narrative for news in Africa is multifaceted in nature. First amongst this quagmire is the single story syndrome where the story of Africa is put only in bad light. Africa generally is referred to as a country rather than a continent where people come from multicultural and social background. It's seen as a dark country infested with all unspeakable social malaise; this is well portrayed in Western media coverage where Africa is shown as being poor, hungry, stricken with war and diseases negating the other side of the story where Africa is making considerable strides in its arts, literature, science and entertainment. The single story shadows the good sides of African story and highlights the bad. What this does is to create a false perception in the minds of Africans and citizens of the rest of the world thereby affecting the bilateral relationships and policies of the rest of the world with Africa.

Afro-pessimism is second inline amongst this chain of problems. Afro-pessimism is defined by Prof. Okwui Enwezor as "the only way to engage in Africa through the ideas of negation". It can also be defined as the perception of Sub-Sahara Africa as a region too riddled with problems for good governance and economic development. This ideology is designed to underline the superiority of Western cultures over the “other,” that is, people from less developed economies. This ideology makes use of a country’s level of economic development as an index for distinguishing “superior cultures” from “inferior cultures”. A case in example describes one journalist who attended the press conference in Sudan on the “Darfur Crisis” and then the briefings in Addis Ababa. Yet the only story that made her paper was one about the prime ministerial plane being despatched to Nairobi to fetch prawn sandwiches. News from poor countries does not often make the headlines and when it does it is nearly always bad news.

Ignorance is another factor that mitigates against the proper narrative of African stories. A number of scholars have identified ignorance as one of the professional shortcomings that damage the credibility of western media reports on Africa. Franks (2005) argues that the diminished appetite for news from Africa reflects an overall decline in involvement with the continent. Consequently, this has resulted in a breeding ground for ignorance about the reality on the ground in the true African society. As Gordon Brown pointed out in a speech to the BBC World Service Trust conference:

“If six thousand people in Europe died of Malaria (as they do every day in Africa) the media would not just report the disaster: they would look for signs of negligence, for culpability, failures of science and technology and governmental corruption” (24 November 2004). (Franks, 2005: 130).

Negative stereotype is a concept the Western media employ to colour Africa bad. On a general note, one must ask why negativism is given prominence in media coverage of events. The media has the knack to select stories that can sell and omit those that cannot; then they report those selected in a way that makes them sell well. The result is the trend of crisis-driven journalism of churning news faster, going for the quick and headline-seeking superficial coverage that seizes on the outrageous, the dramatic and the exceptional without bothering to place it in its proper context. One wonders where objectivity and fairness, which are the hallmark of journalism, come into play, and what reality is being reflected when the Western media choose to take a discourse that sustains negative portrayal of Africa and other developing countries. Michira (2002: web document) puts it bluntly in this way:

“There has been, for a long time now, a systematic trend of misrepresenting Africa in the West, and the powerful Western media has been responsible for this. The Western public has been exposed to these patterns of misrepresentations, which in turn have been solidified into stereotypes or generalizations about what Africa is all about. ” In conclusion, it's only logical for problems to have solutions. part of which includes a paradigm shift in the way information and stories are told. A situation where Africans tell their own stories and help the viewing and listening public recognise the energy, vitality and possibilities of this continent. this paradigm would create a sustained reality that is reflective of what is actually happening within the African social context. thus avoiding a contrasting reality based on foreign western reportage of scepticism and assumptions.

Hence, it is essential that African’s have control of the ownership of the media organisations as well as the coverage of African stories. Indigenous ownership shows how much better coverage of Africa would be if more African reporters told the stories to Western audiences. case in point: Arise; Nduka Obaigbena, Channels; John Momoh and Ait; Raymond Dokpesi. In the 21st century, Western media are still serving their audiences old images of Africa in new glasses, a case of old wine presented in new bottles. it is recommended that greater efforts by governments and the private sector to break the monopoly the Western media conglomerates enjoy through ownership, production and distribution of media products. This is a valid recommendation but how it can be achieved and whether it can be achieved remains a thorny issue. To fail to do so is to deny its present and future importance on the world stage.