GEORGE W. BUSH & MEDIA REPORTING OF THE IRAQI WAR: AFRICANS UNDERSTAND HOW IT FEELS.
Abdul - Kadir O. Etuazim
March 25, 2006
"No man has a chance to enjoy permanent success until he begins to look in a mirror for the real cause of all his mistakes."
Napoleon Hill
In the past week, United States President, George W. Bush, has been bemoaning the reporting of the war in Iraq by some media houses. He is particularly irked by the emphasis on the negative aspects of the war. It is incomprehensible, as he sees it, that no aspect of progress is making it to the front page or prime time. This is a fact and shame of the so-called free press. It also brings to question the objectivity of journalism as practiced by most media houses.
I do not intend to discuss the necessity or otherwise of the war. Instead, as an African, I appreciate the frustration of President Bush. The continent of Africa has been suffering, from time immemorial, from media bias for negativity. It is rare to watch and/or read positive news about the continent. The predilection is always to see the glass as half empty and not half full.
In my Foreign Service career, it was not unusual for protestations about the use of outdated pictures about my country, Nigeria, to be met with the retort that the press cannot be dictated to. In other words, the press has it both ways: heads they win, tails you lose! It is interesting that I now work in the industry. However, knowing the enragement felt by outsiders, as it were, my writings are tempered. I try to balance my take on issues.
It is standard practice for television reporters, filing reports from Africa, to shoot images against the backdrop of shantytowns. Additionally, the communities visited are deliberately located in the countryside. To an outsider, that is stereotypical Africa. There is nothing wrong. Africa should and must represent all that is backward and failure.
Unfortunately, Africans in the diaspora are not left out of this inclination towards deliberate skewing of facts. Most celebrities of African descent reinforce such images by highlighting the bad, with publicized tours of rundown areas and highlighting nothing about the affluent neighborhoods.
The trend is despicable for many reasons. In the first place, if the continent is entirely countryside, where did the flights that brought the reporters land? It is impossible, so far, for helicopters to fly thousands of miles ? as the reporting might suggest ? to ferry the journalists to remote regions. What this means is that there must be airports. There must be semblance of decency, if not outright decent environments, comparable to any other part of the world.
Secondly, visiting Heads of State put up somewhere. Is it in the thatched mud houses that are always depicted? Definitely not. Would it be out of place for the footage to show clips of modern parts of the continent? Do the reporters cozy up in the farm settlements that they relentlessly beam as what Africa only looks like? What is wrong in showing the other side?
Furthermore, it is normal for individuals in other parts of the world to dress scantily in warm weather. This is a given. In the case of Africa, children and adults dressing scantily because of extremely warm and humid temperature is portrayed as enduring evidence of primitiveness and poverty. Move all the wealthy of the world to the continent and the result would be the same, when it is very warm. Can someone give me a break?
The prevalence of poverty in Africa is not in dispute. However, there are many heartwarming and commendable areas of advancement that need to be reported on. These reports would encourage the world to support various efforts to bail out the continent. Balancing positive reports and negative occurrences would encourage donors as well as those sitting on the fence, and rightly so, to do more to assist.
As such, most Africans can understand where George W. Bush is coming from. The onus is on the media to evolve ways to strike a balance between the bad and hope. Every situation is like a coin ? it has two sides. Any attempt to dwell on only the ugly will ultimately haunt and hunt down the media. A final thought: members of the public, policy makers and politicians whining about the reporting on the Iraqi war should adopt the same approach when it comes to other issues such as stereotypical portrayal of Africa.
Napoleon Hill
In the past week, United States President, George W. Bush, has been bemoaning the reporting of the war in Iraq by some media houses. He is particularly irked by the emphasis on the negative aspects of the war. It is incomprehensible, as he sees it, that no aspect of progress is making it to the front page or prime time. This is a fact and shame of the so-called free press. It also brings to question the objectivity of journalism as practiced by most media houses.
I do not intend to discuss the necessity or otherwise of the war. Instead, as an African, I appreciate the frustration of President Bush. The continent of Africa has been suffering, from time immemorial, from media bias for negativity. It is rare to watch and/or read positive news about the continent. The predilection is always to see the glass as half empty and not half full.
In my Foreign Service career, it was not unusual for protestations about the use of outdated pictures about my country, Nigeria, to be met with the retort that the press cannot be dictated to. In other words, the press has it both ways: heads they win, tails you lose! It is interesting that I now work in the industry. However, knowing the enragement felt by outsiders, as it were, my writings are tempered. I try to balance my take on issues.
It is standard practice for television reporters, filing reports from Africa, to shoot images against the backdrop of shantytowns. Additionally, the communities visited are deliberately located in the countryside. To an outsider, that is stereotypical Africa. There is nothing wrong. Africa should and must represent all that is backward and failure.
Unfortunately, Africans in the diaspora are not left out of this inclination towards deliberate skewing of facts. Most celebrities of African descent reinforce such images by highlighting the bad, with publicized tours of rundown areas and highlighting nothing about the affluent neighborhoods.
The trend is despicable for many reasons. In the first place, if the continent is entirely countryside, where did the flights that brought the reporters land? It is impossible, so far, for helicopters to fly thousands of miles ? as the reporting might suggest ? to ferry the journalists to remote regions. What this means is that there must be airports. There must be semblance of decency, if not outright decent environments, comparable to any other part of the world.
Secondly, visiting Heads of State put up somewhere. Is it in the thatched mud houses that are always depicted? Definitely not. Would it be out of place for the footage to show clips of modern parts of the continent? Do the reporters cozy up in the farm settlements that they relentlessly beam as what Africa only looks like? What is wrong in showing the other side?
Furthermore, it is normal for individuals in other parts of the world to dress scantily in warm weather. This is a given. In the case of Africa, children and adults dressing scantily because of extremely warm and humid temperature is portrayed as enduring evidence of primitiveness and poverty. Move all the wealthy of the world to the continent and the result would be the same, when it is very warm. Can someone give me a break?
The prevalence of poverty in Africa is not in dispute. However, there are many heartwarming and commendable areas of advancement that need to be reported on. These reports would encourage the world to support various efforts to bail out the continent. Balancing positive reports and negative occurrences would encourage donors as well as those sitting on the fence, and rightly so, to do more to assist.
As such, most Africans can understand where George W. Bush is coming from. The onus is on the media to evolve ways to strike a balance between the bad and hope. Every situation is like a coin ? it has two sides. Any attempt to dwell on only the ugly will ultimately haunt and hunt down the media. A final thought: members of the public, policy makers and politicians whining about the reporting on the Iraqi war should adopt the same approach when it comes to other issues such as stereotypical portrayal of Africa.
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