News flow to, from and within Africa : ba content analysis

Abstract

The end of the Cold War in the 1980s, the continued democratisation process in Africa (not the least in South Africa) during the 1990s, the calls in the 2000s for an African renaissance, as well as appeals for 'African news for Africa' within a developmental context, offered new opportunities for researchers in the field of news flow studies. This demanded not only new cartographic maps as was the case of the former USSR, but also new conceptual and news media maps, especially of Africa - of which relatively little is known as far as news flow studies are concerned. It also required new answers to some old questions asked about the process of international news flow to, from and within the developing world. This research project will address some of these news flow issues with reference to Africa, South Africa, and three Western countries, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. In this research project a broad question is posed and answered: How does a selection of South African and Western media portray South Africa and Africa at the beginning of the new millennium through the process of international news coverage? The aim of the research is to identify possible changes in attitude towards Africa in the past couple of years and to establish if new patterns of reporting have developed, both in South African media reporting on Africa, and international media's coverage of Africa. It was found that although international media's coverage of Africa is still based on traditional patterns such as the 'bad-news syndrome', South African media are moving away from following their international counterparts and are now distinguishing between the coverage of individual countries and Africa as a continent - the latter with increasingly positive results.