DATE=2/14/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=AFRICA / U-S MEDIA
NUMBER=5-45451
BYLINE=PURNELL MURDOCK
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
// Editors: This piece can be used in conjunction
with coverage of the National Summit on Africa, 2/16 -
2/20. //
INTRO: How well is Africa covered by the U-S media?
Are there enough stories? Are there hidden biases?
These are just a few of the questions discussed by a
panel of American and African journalists at a recent
seminar in Washington D-C (Jan. 22nd) sponsored by the
Smithsonian Institution. VOA'S Purnell Murdock reports
on what they found.
TEXT: One can find a wealth of world news in U-S
newspapers, on the radio, or on television. The
American media take pride in providing unbiased,
timely news. And while most news agencies admit that
limited resources, print space, and air time affect
what news gets told, news executives say they try to
provide a broad range of information for a wide and
diverse audience.
But not everyone agrees. The African-American
community has been consistently critical of media
coverage of stories about Africa, saying there is far
less attention paid to that continent compared with
the rest of the world.
So a group of leading American and African journalists
examined the issue at a meeting in Washington recently
(sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution).
Lynne Duke, a former South Africa correspondent for
the Washington Post, says the problem is not so much
the quality of news coverage, but rather the quantity
of stories about Africa. She says that during her
tour in Johannesburg, she often had to fight with her
editors to get her stories in the newspaper.
/// DUKE ACT ONE ///
If you want to verify that, you can just look at
the list of (news) briefs that our newspaper
runs every day. If Africa is ever listed, you
will get one - maybe two - mentions. Whereas
Europe will have six or seven mentions, Asia
will have four or five, Latin America will have
maybe three or four. And on some days, there is
nothing from Africa, as if there is no news
happening there.
/// END ACT ///
One of the problems, the journalists say, is how the
news media uses their resources to cover Africa's vast
regions. The Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles
Times and the Wall Street Journal are the only major
newspapers with bureaus in Africa. And C-N-N, the
Cable News Network, is the only major television
network with bureaus on the continent.
The executive director of the Washington-based Africa
News Service, Bertie Howard, says her news
organization was founded in the 1970's to fill the
void in mainstream news media coverage of Africa. She
says her concern is that even scarce news about Africa
is mostly negative.
/// HOWARD ACT ///
Whenever we have visitors in our office from the
(African) continent one standard question I ask
Africans is how they assess the news (about
Africa) and how well the media is covering
Africa. And almost to a person they say, "What
news?" There is such a scarcity. And again it
tends to be people who will say the stories are
about war, famine or corruption. We do not see
enough balanced reporting that talks about
things that are not fairly pessimistic.
/// END ACT ///
Journalists say the growth of democracy and the
revitalization of Africa's developing economies are
among the positive developments that have received
relatively little attention in the news. They say
those stories are often overshadowed by events in
other parts of the world, particularly Europe.
Washington Post correspondent Lynne Duke says the
American news media's decision-makers are mostly white
and have a cultural bias toward Europe. She says an
example is the attention the American news media
places on wars in Eastern Europe compared to wars in
Africa.
/// DUKE ACT TWO ///
I think that race has everything to do with it.
Especially in the instance of Kosovo coverage
and allegedly similar crises in Africa, because
in Africa the crises were always far larger
than in Kosovo. But I think race had
everything to do with the disparity in the way
the stories were covered. I couldn't get the
Angola return to war, or the displacement of
one million people, on the front page even
before Kosovo broke out. And when the whole
Kosovo situation unfolded there was no space in
our paper or any other paper for virtually
anything else, let alone Africa, which is on
the margins of the news agenda in the best of
times.
/// END ACT ///
The Washington Post's assistant managing editor for
foreign news, Phil Bennett, says pre-conceptions about
what the U-S government considers is of strategic
value influences the decisions of many news
organizations. He says the American media focus on
Europe because the United States fought two world wars
there.
/// BENNETT ACT ///
I think the media - to a large extent more than
we would like to think - cover the agenda set by
the United States government. Why do we devote
so many resources to Kosovo? Well, the United
States was involved in a war there and that
tends to determine to a large extent where we
devote - especially at the Washington Post - our
resources.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Bennett says one of the important stories of the
next century will be the integration, or exclusion, of
large numbers of people into a global economy. He
says the spread of culture across regional boundaries
will create greater interest in Africa and other parts
of the developing world. And that, he says, may
compel the American news media to pay more attention.
(signed)
NEB/WPM/DLB/JO
14-Feb-2000 15:49 PM EDT (14-Feb-2000 2049 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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