With Coverage of Guinea Coup, US News Media Dumb Down the News

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…

Covid-19 Spared Africa — A Reality American Media Won’t Admit

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…

Africa Bright Spots Remain Despite Negative Headlines

If you are like me I am sure you’ve been won­der­ing what is going on with recent news from the African con­ti­nent.  For exam­ple — I met a gen­tle­man who I’ll refer to sim­ply as a friend — at a restau­rant in Auro­ra, Col­orado on Jan­u­ary 16.  After a brief con­ver­sa­tion, he quick­ly asked me…