THE FALSE IMPRESSION BY THE WESTERN MEDIA ON AFRICA:
Written
by LUCAS ANUFORO, Dublin Ireland
“State
propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is
permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and
others, and it has been pursued to this day.”―Noam Chomsky
“The news isn’t there to tell you what happened. It’s there to tell you what it wants you to hear or what it thinks you want to hear.” ―Joss Whedon
The media world especially, the West has misjudged, misrepresented and misinterpreted almost every event that is taking place on the African soil. Africa a continent with much-chequered history has been the focus of deluded Western media propaganda.
Despite the largeness of the Continent and its richness both in human and natural resources the Western media only portray Africa as a continent of poverty, natural disasters, war, diseases and famine. The consequences this false narrative ideology had led Africa being seen as an over dependant on the Western powers for all her needs and more so as a continent that cannot take charge of its own destiny both politically, economically, and otherwise.
However,
many people in the civilised society mostly the youth lack good knowledge of
Africa, the culture, and their ways of life. And they never intend to visit the
continent due to certain negative pictures being painted on Africa courtesy, of
the Western media through cable news programmes, the movie industries, the
internet and the print media. All these are just for their selfish interest.
This
dogmatic approach by Western media has pigeonholed Africa as a dark continent.
Africa is regarded as a continent of crisis, tribal anarchy, civil war,
political instability, brazen corruption and lack of competent leadership.
Whereas it could be traced that civilization started from Egypt that’s why
Africa was said to be the cradle of civilization. Some school of thought
believe that such false representation of Africa by the Western media have
created a negative impact on Africans especially those who travelled outside
the continent in search of new lives to be racially discriminated in all facets
of life. The viewpoints taken by these powerful Western media through the
representation by some editors, journalist and politicians edify the belief
that Africa cannot take a bigger challenge on the world stage.
It is
true that Africa has encountered many crises both in armed conflict, civil
unrest, political instability, diseases and famine. Perhaps the situation would
have been managed, if not for the inaccurate and deceptive ways the continent
is been reported by Western media in favour of their businesses and their media
empire; thereby creating a misconception about Africa. For instance; the
catastrophic “Miss World” aborted pageant that was to be hosted by Nigeria in
2002 but was later shifted to London due to comment made by one of Nigerian
local journalist “that Prophet Mohammed could have loved to marry one of the
contestants if he was still alive.” This created a moral panic by Western media
report and as such infuriated anger among some Islamic fanatics which led to
civil unrest. It could be argued that the report was blown out of proportion on
the country’s inability and lack of competency to host the event.
The
persistent famine in countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, and Eritrea as well as
some Sub Sahara Africa countries has been an avenue for some Charity
Organisations such as Concern, Trócaire, etc in collaboration with mainstream
media to flaunt images of poverty striking faces of women and children on front
pages of Newspaper and billboards thereby creating the impression of poverty in
these countries.
According
to Thardo Sompeta a panellist South Africa achiever award; “Western media only
come to Africa to do business. Because of the negative coverage about Africa,
it discourages investors who wanted to come into the continent and invest.
Africa needs to be rebranded.”
The
role of Western media such as CNN, the BBC, and France 24 was questioned during
the Sierra Leone civil war. It was seen as lip services suitable for Western
powers to prove their premeditated choice of non-intervention. Throughout the
war, the Western media seems to have much concern on suggestive images of women
and children being raped and killed because Africa has been categorized as a
continent without hope. Whereas there were some underlying crimes committed by
some Western powers that the media kept a blind eye to report; the ‘diamond
trade’ the rebels sold to finance the war. The question is; who were the
merchants that those precious stones were being sold to. And where were the
rebels getting all sophisticated arms and ammunition to resist defeat? All
these were behind the camera and lens of the Western media report.
In as
much that African has its own good and bad stories just like other continents,
however; some countries in Africa are still making progress economically.
Countries like Angola, Ethiopia, and Botswana have been on steady growth in the
economy. Its GDPs has risen progressively making them be among of the fastest
growing economies in the world and this is not making headlines in Western
media report instead Zimbabwe, with ailing economy becomes an everyday
headline.
The
story of HIV/AIDS in Africa especially countries in Sub- Sahara Africa were
blown out of proportion by the Western Media. For example for the past 30
years, HIV/AIDS have been a global challenge both in social and economic
development of the human race. Record by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
and other health agencies suggest that most of HIV/AIDS carriers are from
Africa. According to statistics out of 42 million HIV patients worldwide, 30
million are said to be from Sub Sahara Africa without having a thorough
statistics of it. As a result, HIV/AIDS is now seen as an African inheritance.
In
2014 Africa was again on western media spotlight during Ebola outbreak. The
mainstream media label almost every West African as Ebola carrier especially
those who were from the affected countries that live in Europe and America who
travelled to the West Africa. The news of the disease was over exaggerated.
Instead of finding the solution to the endemic Africa became the focus of
isolation. The fight against Ebola was effective when the disease got into to
Europe and America they were able to send their medical personnel to the
affected countries.
In
1992 it was reported by New York Times that starvation was taken toll in East
African and some Southern African countries due to the severe drought which the
New York Times published the story five times in eight days. Three out the five
stories mainly focused on elephants and Rhinos and other endangered species
thereby leaving millions of people starving without food and water out of the
spotlight.
The
1998 attack on America embassy in Kenya and Tanzania were extensively given a
wider coverage by the Western media because of the US interest abroad. The
Kenyans who died in the attack were not given much publicity unlike the
American nationals who were given wider publicity because it involves America.
These were documented facts and not baloney.
As
Western media continue to dominate the global news arena with new technological
advancement Africa is left behind in the new media world. The giant media
co-operations like, Fox news and British Sky owned by Australian born media
mogul now an American Kieth Rupert Murdoch who owns other media chains such as
the “News of the World” and the “Sun” newspaper has the power of monopoly which
influences media in their reports.
The
Arab Spring which took place a few years back was another example of Western
media propaganda. Some countries in Africa like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were
the hotspot for Western news media during the revolution. The likes of other
online social media such as the facebook, twitter and Google plus have helped
the mainstream media to execute their negative news report in Africa.
During
the crisis in Egypt when President Mohamed Morsy was overthrown the Western
media were showing different armature videos that were not properly verified.
Some of these videos and images were taken by some protesters through their
smartphones and cameras and were broadcasted on CNN, BBC, Sky news and other
mainstream media. It created anger and emotion when viewed by neighbouring
countries especially on restive youth who want to cease any slight opportunity
to foment trouble and more so perpetuate militancy and terrorism within the
region.
As
Africa is often depicted as a continent without hope by Western media, this
calls for an analytical review, especially during the crisis. The military
intervention by US marine in Somalia in 1991-1992 was because of horrible
images televised by CNN, FOX news and other mainstream media that showed
pictures of starving women and children and some child soldiers. Perhaps the US
would have been better off without going to Somalia because of heavy casualties
they suffered.
The
images of war and economic crisis are being recycled daily by these media
outfits which diminish the continent glorious image due to these false
narratives. This could be perhaps reasons why some media decided to add new
programmes so as change the perception of viewers towards the continent. For
instance, media such as the BBC relays programme like “African Dream” an
informative programme about successful African businessmen and women. While the
CNN runs “African voices”.
Since
the establishment of AL- Jazeera TV network in Doha Qatar, it has given the
Middle East and the Arab world a voice and helps rewrite the propaganda that is
been labelled against the region by the Western media. Africa needs a voice
that will rebrand and boast their battered image.
As
Africa detests the ugly painting by Western media, the continent has a
responsibility to play to enhance coverage. Despite the technological
backwardness of the continent, there are needs to establish a good training
environment for journalist so as to have seasoned and tested media
professionals that can compete with their western counterpart.
The
government should create a good policy for free press freedom so as to have an
enabling environment for private ownership of media which will help train
upcoming journalists and for accurate news dissemination. In as much as there
is a regulatory system in place, the government should avoid using it as an
avenue to intimidate broadcasting owners and journalists. For instance in
Nigeria, severally some private media outfit like African Independent
Television (AIT) and Channel Television has been a target of victimisation.
Occasionally, these media outfits had been shut down by the government because
of some of their programme which speaks against government policies.
It’s
time for Africa to rise up and face the challenges of the 21st century. Media
is now a powerful weapon which countries use to rewrite its ugly past. The era
of neo-colonialism is over where western news dissemination was obtrusive on
the continent. More so, the emergence of new technologies in broadcasting has
made it easy especially in the new age of internet technology which has
spontaneously changed the world to a global village; Africa should not be left
behind in the race.
Lucas
Anuforo, Freelance Journalist
Twitter@anuforo
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