No Longer Hopeless : A Media-centric Approach to the Framing the Africa Rising Debate

The Africa Rise rhetoric is more a Western coinage than it is African. Promoted as a new wave of optimism for a continent that has had its fair share of tribulations, the construct does not seem not have entered African media discourse. It is only in two articles that we see the construct used and even then, only in passing (City Press, July11 2014, Africa’s hope is its youth and City Press July 6 2014, Made in Africa). Analogously, we don’t see African media pinning any particular label to the continent’s perceived rising fortunes. A further research inquisition would be whether it is in fact important that Africans moot a terminology to describe the continent’s recent multipronged gains.

From an African media perspective as of mid 2014 – it is evident that history and memory of as such terms as Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance play an utterly insignificant role the media framing of African dynamics. Future research could focus on whys and wherefores of this apparent amnesia. 

African media are more optimistic than pessimistic about their continent without necessarily following the Economist and Time’s promotion of the Africa Rise construct. This stands in contrast to Western media’s ‘over-selection’ of negative news on and from Africa (Nothias 2002) as countless studies have confirmed (see Schorr 2011). On the whole, the media seem to embrace globalization, as we see in the celebration of African artists – musicians, models and sportspersons – plying their trade in Western capitals or in the upbeat framing of foreign direct investments in sectors as diverse as finance and infrastructure. In the FIFA World Cup, we see what Nothias (2012) described as Africa’s essentialism in the coming together as one, both to cheer on African teams and to criticize football mismanagement. Indeed one would wonder if other soccer continents such as Europe, Asia and Latin America forge such camaraderie when following the sport. This and other examples indicate the longevity of a Pan-African identity, even though the word Pan-Africa itself appears only once in the media content. In addition, there is poor linkage between the efforts of Pan-African institutions, notably NEPAD, and the African story.

The two areas in which African media agree with the Western media promoting the Africa Rise construct is in as far as the economic rebirth of the continent is concerned. A headline such as ‘Africa is hot – investor perceptions survey’ (City Press May 15 2014), could easily be swapped with ‘Africa is Rising Fast’ (Forbes, July 13, 2014) with very much the same meaning. The second major area of agreement between Africa Rise-enthusiastic Western media is the view that governance issues are to blame for issues such as insecurity, corruption and disease.

This exploratory paper does not claim to be comprehensive. Rather, it establishes the fact that usage of concepts such as Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance has waned over time and that the Africa Rise construct has failed to click. The question remains as to a label or metaphor with which most Africans associate as seen from media-centric studies. This question is beyond this largely desk-based research and would require extensive fieldwork going forward. Such fieldwork would include interviews with African media practitioners and scholars, greater precision in terms of sampling the continent and extension of media-type and country-by-country media representation. Future research could also bring in media from emerging economies such as the BRICS countries so as to gain a truly global understanding on these issues.

At the risk of being accused for lack of intellectual distance, we conclude by joining other African scholars for a call for African agency in international affairs. African media could play a pivotal role in the continent’s reclaiming its right to be in charge of its own representation and narratives. 

See full paper here 

By Bob Wekesa

The author is a Research Associate at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and PhD graduate from Communication University of China, Beijing, [email protected]