CNN with different lenses for the coverage of Africa and Europe?: Deviance tops Africa coverage

Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink and so is a positive image, positive image, everywhere, yet there is none for the media lenses to cover.

Taking inspiration from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, it is certain that not all positive news stories could qualify as international news stories since news is determined by what news editors consider as a reality for its audience and the market forces that shape the news.

Naturally, countries expect to be projected with positive news context for the global citizenry in order to sustain a positive image and perception from international communities. International perception of a country to a larger extent influences how a country is related in terms of political, social, cultural, and economic negotiations.

It is against the underlining power of global image and perceptions that the debate around the presentation and projection of Africa in the Western media gained momentum in the frame of the disputed New World Information and International Communication Order (NWIICO) debates and international news coverage discourses. The interest in discourses promoting positive Africa’s global image persists.

This article is therefore a contribution to the international news coverage of Africa in the global media-Western media from 2018 to 2019. The study analyzed CNN online news headlines relating to the coverage of Africa and Europe.

The methodology used for the analysis was news content analysis and the study units were European and African countries’ news stories. The total news stories analyzed were 463 news headlines.

Study results revealed that Africa’s news headlines were of more deviant news types as compared to Europe’s news stories. Topical deviance news topics related to Africa were accidents, deaths, natural disasters, infectious diseases, Xenophobia attacks, poverty, and terrorism while Europe’s deviance story was also crime, antisemitism, scandals, and social violence.

These results suggest that international news coverage irrespective of the source touches on the deviant type of news. This study is however limited by the selection of news headlines due to inaccessibility to the main news stories. Other studies could extend the reach beyond news headlines.

Africa and Europe News Type at a glance:



Why Blame CNN and the Western Media?

The Western media is always blamed for consistently reporting Africa in negative news contexts. I think these assertions deserve to be refined with a more objective and constructive position on the appreciation of factors and forces shaping international news values.

Gleanings from International news coverage scholarships suggest that international news values are influenced by event and contextual factors or what is referred to as international news determinants in relation to the characteristics of a country.

Among these factors are, cultural affinities, international prominence values, geographical proximities, the economic and political value of a country, deviance, and relevance relationship existing between countries in terms of the common values shared among hosts and an international country. Perhaps, critics of the Western media must extend a deeper study on what journalists look out for in news coverage based on the professional knowledge and scholarships they have been exposed to.

In addition, countries are encouraged to appreciate the media’s editorial decisions and evolve partnership and engagement with media as a force for social change in the promotion of positive news narratives. For instance, existing articles suggest that the coverage of Africa by African media also feeds the stereotypes around deviant-related topics at the expense of technological innovations and other success stories within the African continent.

The rhetoric towards the future is this: How can Africa’s story contribute to the global news narratives? Who should tell the African story? Should the African story be told by Africa or the Western media? African continent, therefore, should evolve and take ownership of its narratives, narratives that promote the expectations of its global and African audience.

Furthermore, African media narratives should reflect the realities and experiences of the African continent but should not be a tapestry of white-washing narratives.