VII. List of Appendices
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Stereotypes
2.1.4 Stereotypes of Africa in Global Media
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and films. It is so much so that the communications flow between other continents is mediated by American news organizations to a large extent (Thussu, 2000, p.163).
In early media effects research, Joseph Klapper (1960, p.8) asserted that “mass media does not ordinarily serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, but rather functions through a nexus of mediating factors” but rather it operates within a pre-existing sociocultural structure (Boyd-Barrett & Braham, 1987).
The media’s influence on stereotypes has been documented in countries outside the United States. For example, Tan et al (1997) found that negative portrayals lead to negative perception of Native Americans who found the portrayals believable; Hewes (2005)
demonstrated the effect of parasocial contact which proved that prejudice decrease with mediated interaction with media characters of outgroups, such as transvestites. Processing of new information is the key factor to stereotype change (Yunying & Tan, 2011).
New media has potential for shedding more light on the continent’s media coverage, so to speak, by providing more opportunities for representing Africa for the world to see. In 2008, the African Studies Centre Library in Leiden, reported that approximately 2,500 e-journals with articles about Africa, were published. However, it was also reported at that time that much of online content is produced by non-Africans outside the continent. Melissa Wall’s article “Africa on YouTube” found that most of the content on Kenya and Ghana was either musical or tourist. Furthermore, the sources imposed their own meanings onto the videos and had themselves at the center (Williams, 2009).
2.1.4 Stereotypes of Africa In Global Media
In May 2000, Jean-Louis Sarbib, vice president of the Middle East and North Africa international lending agency, said at the international economic conference on Africa that
“one fifth of Africans live in a world that is at war with itself or its neighbor.”"That meant
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that even though 80% of the continent lives in peace, it’s the unstable 20% that is used to define its image as a whole. Azziz Bahad, former deputy minister of foreign affairs in South Africa asserted that the negative disaster-focused coverage by international media giants like CNN and BBC are bringing back old racial interpretations of Africa (“World Bank official says Western world misinformed about Africa,”"2000).
Economic journalist and editor of the London-based Africa Business magazine, Anner Versi, affirms that albeit Africa is low on the priority list, when it does get media coverage in the West it continually consists only of negative news, portraying corruption, wars, famine and disease (Versi, 2004). According the World Bank, foreign aid investment in Africa is heavily impacted by negative portrayal of Africa by Western media (Duodu, 2000).
‘In the West’, claims Molefi Kete Asante in his recent History of Africa, ‘the ignorance of Africa is palpable, like a monster that invades our brains with disbelief,
deception, and disinterest, yet is everywhere around us. We are victims of probably the most uninformed educated people in the world on the subject of Africa"(Williams, 2009, p7). So when it comes to media coverage of Africa, the most critical issue is that of invisibility: a lot of important stories go unreported by Western press. Digestible, predictable stories of war, famine and disease are chosen over African history, culture and values. Stories are told only of colonization and westernization point of view, ignoring the historical parts that happen before then (Hawk, 1992).
Alan Gelb, World Bank African chief economist, said economic growth and
reconstruction programs are often ignored in favor of reports on Aids, conflict and epidemics.
Notwithstanding, the World Bank itself also lends to the problem of misreporting of Africa.
With a surface area of 11.5 million square miles, Africa is the second largest continent with 54 countries, yet the World Bank treats it as one region. This is reflected in their figures and
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reports, which at best summarize the findings for Sub-Saharan Africa in one part and North Africa in the other. Countries with totally different GNDS per capita levels and sociopolitical traditions are grouped together to summarize figures and make points about social
disintegration respectively (Duodu, 2000).
Economic journalist and editor of the London-based Africa Business magazine, Anner Versi, affirms that albeit Africa is low on the priority list, when it does get media coverage in the West it continually consists only of negative news, portraying corruption, wars, famine and disease. All of Africa is treated as one “big sorry mass”"such that if conflict breaks out in one country, headlines read something along the lines of “Africa returns to barbarity.”"The programming of a “Hopeless Continent”"is so in-depth that it causes junior and senior
journalists who are assigned to cover stories in Africa to have confirmation bias. This bias is so deep in the Western identity and subconscious that it is hard for them to see. Murdock (1973) asserts that news reports are often in line with what the opinions of those in power (Siu, 2009). According to Versi, in order to change the Western media’s representation of Africa, we have to change what the journalists want to see (Versi, 2004).
Sorius Samura, a native of Sierra Leone, is one such television journalist who
specializes in immersing himself in documentaries, going further than other journalists would to uncover the untold stories unfolding in Africa. His documentary “Living with Aids”, which cites male promiscuity as a major cause of the epidemic, awarded him Broadcaster of the Year in 2006 at the One Media Awards in London, England. He believes the white, liberal elite in the newsrooms are simply too scared and riddled with ‘post-colonial guilt’"to face Africa square on, and in this way they have “failed Africa.”"(Smith, 2006)
The themes of failure, famine, disease and coups in ‘Godforsaken countries’ are dominant in literature by ‘old African hands’, so much so that a young Barack Obama
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travelling to Kenya was angered by it, simply because it was without a clear target. The issue does not lie in accuracy, because Africa does have the lion’s share of challenges, but as Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society states, rather the generalization of a vast continent, that has more than 2000 cultures and languages as one country full of hapless victims (Williams, 2009). Figure 1 below shows an example of a news clipping reporting a conflict that happens in Sierra Leone.
Figure 1. News report of ‘Dark’ Africa (Duodu, 2000)
Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian writer, argues that the massive amounts of derogatory images of Africa in the eyes of the world is built up by Western literature and that is still there today, was originally a means to defend the slave trade and colonialism (Williams, 2009). Ukadike (1990) agrees with Achebe, stating that the exaggeration of these images that are negative and denote savagery serve to justify European rule and Christian missionaries
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‘involvement’ with Africa (Ramasubramanian, 2005). Today Africa is seen as an exotic place to travel and see animals, Achebe says, and not as a continent full of people (Williams, 2009).
A study done by Osunde & Tlou (1996) examined the stereotypes and misconceptions held by Social Studies teachers in American public schools and found the same stereotypes of wild animals, malnutrition, disease, huts, tribes, elephants, jungles, poor, deserts, villages, tigers, natives, superstition. Exactly the same as those found by Beyer and Hicks (1968), which surveyed 3259 students, more than 3 decades ago.
Fred Robarts, a human security consultant and writer who lived in D.R. Congo for two years (2006-8), dispute the theme of fear that has been so connected with Congo in many books. He says that while Congo may not have so many decent cinemas or cafes, it has less gun and street crime than London (Williams, 2009).
McCall Smith is the author of a book series based in Botswana, The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency that is now a television show starring Jill Scott. It is one of the few media portrayals of Africa that goes beyond the stereotypes into fuller representations. He had this to say in an interview:
McCall Smith: It’s not just my reaction to the country. People say what a wonderful place. People say that similarly about many sub-Saharan African countries. Without romanticizing the place, people there have great human qualities which really are very very striking. When you see the picture that’s presented of Africa, of sub-Saharan Africa, you don’t see that. I think this is a terrible pity.
Interviewer: They have diamonds. They have the Kalahari. They suffer from the AIDS epidemic. That’s pretty much the summary you read in the press.
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McCall Smith: There’s that side of it, too, in sub-Saharan Africa. But there are human qualities which are wonderful. Very interesting cultures with a lot to say.
Yet all we get is a picture of disasters (Williams, 2009, p11).
The literature reveals six major themes that describe major stereotypes about Africa from global media: One Country, Dark Africa, Victim, Conflict, The African and Wild & Savage Africa. These themes are presented with their conceptual descriptions and sources in Table 1:
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Stereotypes of Africa, Descriptions and Sources
Stereotypes of Africa Description Sources
One Country The problems reported in any parts of the continent is generalized to all of Africa
Countries with different GNDPs are grouped together to summarize findings If conflict breaks out in one country, it is reported along the lines of “Africa breaks out in barbarity.”
Hawk (1992); Williams (2009)
Duodu (2000)
Versi (2004)
‘Dark’ Africa In reference to both the color and the perceived ignorance of the people.
Primitive and Uncivilised.
Hut, dark, tribalism, war, famine, disease, animism, primitivism, poverty, third world, developing
The Ghost and The Darkness (1996):
based on a true story in 1898 about man-eating lions but depicting Kenyans as being ignorant as their predecessors 100 years ago
Victim Portrayal as a failure, in need of salvation from the white man.
Compassion Usury: ceaseless broadcasting of victim images and emotions to pull at the heart strings of countries to donate time, money, goods and services to ‘poor’ Africa.
AIDs, epidemics, disease, famine, flies in food and face, stomachs distended
Hawk (1992); Wyk (2007)
Susan Moeller (1992) as seen in Wyk (2007)
Chavis (1998)
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Conflict The unstable 20% is used to define the image of all Africa
Focus on negative disaster-based reporting
Fear, danger, war, corruption
Blood Diamond (2006): based on a real conflict, highlighting black conflict, greed and violence, with a white lead
“World Bank official
The African Defined as a black person living on the continent, according to former colonial labels. Therefore, a white South African or an Arab-looking North African are not considered ‘African’
Different skin colour, mentality, culture Superstitious, Primitive, Irrational
(Hawk 1992)
Wildlife & Savage Africa
A place where tourists go to see animals, not people.
Adventure, savagery, jungle, safari, natural wonders, big game hunting, King Kong, hut
Tarzan (1999): adventure, exotic Africa, with no people
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