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Also, we contribute with an exploratory investigation of citizenmedia organizations’activities.To do so, we conduct an updated Pan-African online survey on
the work of international news reporters, collecting answers from 124 participants in 41 countries. These findings are complemented by in loco semi-struc‑
tured interviews with 43 professionals based in Nairobi, Dakar and Johannesburg. Our findings challenge the narrative of international news reporting as
a dying breed. Instead, they support a nuanced view towards localized continuities and localized ruptures in contemporary post-industrial mediascape:
socio-demographics express a considerably precarious new economy of foreign correspondence – particularly, in the case of freelance workers – while
the use of network-based digital media is driving the field towards the rising of a multilayered confederacy of distinct correspondences. The field it is no
longer an exclusive territory of professionals and these have now to deal with an unprecedented scale of user-generated content and direct feedback.
Professionals now spend a very considerable amount of daily time using the Internet. This suggests a paradigm shift in reporters’newsgathering practices
and, ultimately, their epistemological culture.
PN 180
The International News Coverage of Africa: Beyond the ‘Single Story’
M. Bunce
1
1
City University, Department of Journalism, London, United Kingdom
In the 1990s, media coverage of sub Saharan Africa was sporadic, simplistic, and overwhelmingly negative in its subject matter and tone (e.g. Hawk 1992).
This news content was widely considered a form of‘Afro-pessimism’, as it suggested that Africa had little or no prospect of positive development. In the early
2010s, however, leading news outlets like The Economist started to publish cover stories about an economically vibrant,‘Rising Africa’with burgeoning con‑
sumption, investment opportunities, and technological innovation. We do not know if such stories are now commonplace in mainstream day-to-day cov‑
erage, or they remain the exception. This paper contributes to our knowledge by presenting the results of a content analysis comparing two large samples
of news content, one from the early 1990s and one from the 2010s. The results find that, taken as a whole, news coverage of Africa has become significantly
more positive in tone. In addition, there has been a decrease in stories that focus exclusively on humanitarian disaster, and an increase in stories about
business and sport. These results suggest that we may finally be moving beyond a reductive and negative ‘single story’dominating the international news
coverage of the continent. It is important to note, however, that these changes have not been made uniformly across the news industry. Representations
of Africa in the media are diverse and multifaceted, and it is no longer possible – if it ever was – to speak of ‘The representation of Africa’. Even within one
publication, content can range from texts and images that are reductive and stereotypical through to those that are challenging, self-reflective and critical.
PN 182
New Imperialisms, Old Stereotypes: Depictions of the US in Africa
C. Paterson
1
1
University of Leeds, School of Media and Communication, Leeds, United Kingdom
This research examines discourses about an increasing US non-commercial role in Africa and asks why neo-colonial aspects of this involvement remain sub‑
stantially hidden in journalistic accounts of the continent. This paper starts from the premise that for the first time a single imperial power has established
a military presence across most of the continent of Africa. The last decade of secretive US military expansion across Africa, with US military elements active
in nearly every African country, has only recently been comprehensively exposed by a few investigative journalists but has only received very selective and
generally favourable coverage by mainstream news organisations. This phenomenon exists alongside US commercial, cultural, and religious imperialisms,
but shifts the thrust toward secrecy and hard power. This paper focuses on the inter-related non-commercial aspects of US originating expansion in Africa –
the military and the religious – and builds from a 2015 media content study by Paterson and Nothias (Communication, Culture & Critique 8–1) examining
the representation of China’s role and the US role in Africa by three global news providers. This paper seeks to demonstrate that an imperial grip on Africa
has altered shape, but not disappeared, and that it is supported rather than challenged in media reporting. Content research to date demonstrates that
news coverage of the US role in Africa positions the continent as an exploitable object lacking an ability to develop and thrive independently of external
powers – thereby reinforcing enduring stereotypes.