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X-Posted from H-NET List for African History and Culture <H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU> From: Patrick Wurster <wurster@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU> -------- REPLY 1 Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 From: Stanford Matenda, National University of Science and Technology, Ascot, Bulawayo smatenda@nust.ac.zw Like other observations made before, I completely agree with the view that it is the stereotyped view of Africa that gives birth to this type of coverage. This then means that the understanding of journalism on Africa is premised on this understanding, which is decontextualised and ahistorical. Naturally, those who report on Africa will naturally seek these negative spots, which are defined and conceptualized as news themselves. Western journalism's self understanding in Africa has the messianic character of highlighting problems and thereby also bringing in trinkets of aid. (Notice the reference to the UN in the coverage) Indeed, unless journalism redefines itself and get new lenses for it to see the other story from Africa, the story will remain as it is for sometime. -------- REPLY 2 Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 03:47:02 -0400 From: Patrick Wurster <wurster@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU> Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 From: Elaine Windrich ewind2@yahoo.com I support Tony King's defence of the BBC report on the elections in the DRC. As part of the history of "violence" in Zaire/Congo, I would add the military support for Savimbi's UNITA for decades, which Mobutu willingly supplied as a client of the US, especially during the 1980s, when the Reagan administration provided hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid, including Stinger missiles, much of it routed through the military base at Kamina operated by the CIA. Also, the reports I heard were from Mark Doyle, one of the BBC's most experienced and knowledgeable correspondents based in Africa. He would never make irresponsible claims, about "violence" or any other unfavourable practice attributed to African states, without sufficient evidence to back up such claims. -------- REPLY 3 Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 18:27:54 -0400 From: Patrick Wurster <wurster@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU> Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2006 From: Sarah Van Beurden sarahvb@sas.upenn.edu The NYT is happily following in the footsteps of the BBC's negligent reporting on the elections in the following article titled ' Warlord Leads Incumbent in Congo, Election Observers Report.' The warlord in case is Bemba. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/africa/03congo.html With only a fraction of the votes counted, i find it irresponsible for the NYT to publish an article like this, especially because it plays right into the tactics of Bemba's followers. Kinshasa is a city that turns on rumors and the last couple of days the Bemba camp has started up a campaign of rumors (including entire false election results- i can provide them if anybody is interested) in which Bemba is celebrated as the winner. (See also the reporting on this on the website of the Monuc: www.monuc.org- it has an English and French version) Not only is this bad journalism, it could have real consequences because it lends credibility to possible future denial of election results by the Bemba camp. As anybody who has visited Kinshasa in the past couple of months knows, Bemba has gathered a significant amount of his soldiers in and around the capital- a very dangerous and explosive situation that has the potential to hurt many. The NYT should take more caution in its reporting instead of lending credibility to premature rumor campaigns in a country where the latter can have devastating effects. -------- REPLY 4 Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 18:27:58 -0400 From: Patrick Wurster <wurster@MAIL.H-NET.MSU.EDU> Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 From: Gretchen Walsh, African Studies Library, Boston University gwalsh@bu.edu In contrast to the complaints about biased, incomplete, or inaccurate coverage of Africa in the western media, let me counter with what seems to be a very good analysis that appeared in an influential publication: Ford, Neil "Africa Turns from Instability and Conflict to Mutual Co-operation." Jane's Intelligence Review August 2006, p. 36-39. Available online at http://jir.janes.com (registration required, not clear if one needs a subscription to search for this article, which did not appear on the top page of the site.) The "Key Points", highlighted in a box at the start of the article, are: * As a result of colonial-era intervention, the vast majority of African states trade with the rest of the world rather than with their neighbours. * This lack of economic interaction has made conflict between countries more likely and restrained economic growth on the continent. * Some efforts are now being made to reorient transport infrastructure and promote integration, particularly in southern Africa and East Africa. * Greater cross-border co-operation is set to make Sub-Saharan Africa a more secure region. The entire article seems to me to be a model of concise, focused, but accurate reporting and analysis. One additional comment on complaints about coverage of African events in the press: Academics who want more context and nuance in news coverage should try to write what they think is good coverage within the time and space constraints of most broadcast and print journalists. It isn't easy. In my youth I was employed to write captions for news photos in a small local paper. My tenure at that job was considerably shorter than the captions I drafted. You can't get very much context and nuance when you have limits on word count or column length.
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