I’ve written about US news media coverage of the African continent over the course of many years. In my analysis of the coverage seen, the emphasis continues to be on what’s wrong with the continent, with little effort made to report progress made over many decades of African social, economic, and democratic change. The coverage…
A destabilizing war between the government in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and Anglophone separatists has been going on for more than four years. Hundreds of civilians have died as a result. Thousands have been displaced and are now refugees in neighboring countries. Most negotiations to resolve the conflict appear to have failed. With each passing day that…
From a cursory look, at least two dozen US news organizations reported this story about African snails on their websites and TV broadcasts. We are not even counting the ones that reported the story in other forms. It’s the custom of many African immigrants living in the United States that when they travel to the continent,…
The news headlines following the passing of Tanzanian leader John Magufuli paint him in a negative light. This is not fair. Magufuli became president in 2015 and won reelection to a second term following the October 2020 general elections. Tanzania is often hailed as one of the African continent’s most democratic, politically stable, and prosperous African nations.…
It’s been more than a year since the coronavirus pandemic began circulating around the world. From its difficult to trace origins in Wuhan, a Chinese province, the pandemic has seen more than 117 million cases worldwide, with an estimated 2.6 million recorded deaths. One of the mysteries of the Covid-19 saga is that not…
With Africa and U.S. Cities, a document published by the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS), news about the African continent — its peoples, governments, institutions, and activities — never stops. Coverage of the continent by American-run, as well as African-run organizations, and a mix of others, is what informs us about what…
Tensions in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have gone from talking about the potential for conflict into what is now the aftermath of a war between the country’s federal government in Addis Ababa and the regional government in Tigray. An estimated six million people live in the Tigray region. Since fighting began on November 4,…
In journalism, there is such a thing as agenda-setting – how the mass media — newspapers, radio, and TV, and the plurality of online channels — prioritize the news for publication. The idea that some news stories would take precedence over others gained credence with thought leaders, Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, during the 1968…
Joe Biden was proclaimed the winner of the 2020 American presidential race on Saturday, Nov. 7. Biden crossed the 270 Electoral College votes threshold needed to secure the presidency. The rest of the votes are still being counted. They are yet to be certified by each of America’s 50 states. In electoral parlance, Biden is now…
The governing record of Paul Biya, Cameroon’s current leader, is making the news rounds, again. Biya assumed office as president of the centrally located African nation on Nov. 6, 1982. He’s been president now for 38 long years. Biya, now 87-years-old, became president after serving as prime minister under the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. That…