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Afrika-Wissen: Transdisziplinäre Analysen zu Medien im deutschsprachigen Raum

Hans Peter Hahn, Sylvestre Kouakou (eds.)

Bielefeld: transcript Verlag (2026), 264 pp.

"Was wissen Menschen in Deutschland über Afrika? Und wie kommen sie zu ihrem Wissen? Die Beiträger*innen antworten auf Basis einer ausgewählten Medienanalyse und blicken kritisch auf die Quellen, Bedingungen und Wirkungen bestimmter Wissenstraditionen – denn seit Generationen bestehen Vorurteil ... more

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Entfernte Nachbarn / distant neighbours / vizinhos distantes: Transnationale Öffentlichkeit in afrikanisch-europäischer Nachrichtenberichterstattung

Marcus Kreutler

Wiesbaden: Springer VS (2025), xxii, 351 pp.

"In diesem Buch wird untersucht, ob gleichsprachige Berichterstattung in europäischen und afrikanischen Zeitungen Kennzeichen transnationaler Öffentlichkeit aufweist. Dabei überträgt der Autor ein vor allem mit Blick auf EU-Staaten etabliertes Konzept auf afrikanisch-europäische Länderpaare, d ... more

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Global Media Index for Africa 2024

Wallace Chuma, Rutendo Faithful Nyaku, Trust Matsilele, Grace Itumbiri

Africa No Filter; Africa Center (2024), 46 pp.

"The Global Media Index for Africa assesses and ranks online news stories of the 20 leading news providers that offer primary coverage of Africa for the world. It is also a tool that aims to provide much needed regular 'health checks' on how Africa is framed in the media. The outlets selected are th ... more

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The cost of media stereotypes to Africa: The relationship between media, investment and economic development

Marie Wilke, Matthew Ferreira, Chuma Mashita, Sheena Shah, Steen Joffe, Stephen Adjignon, Luel Hagos

Africa No Filter; africapractice (2024), 32 pp.

"Africa could be losing up to $4.2 billion annually in interest payments on its loans primarily due to stereotypical narratives that dominate global media coverage of the continent. The media’s portrayal of Africa has long been dominated by persistent stereotypes. This report explores the econom ... more

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Aid and the news agenda: Examining the forces shaping NGO-produced humanitarian media

Michael Sunderland

Bournemouth University, Doctoral Thesis (2024), 268 pp.

"This study examines the external influences that shape NGO-produced news content concerning humanitarian crises in East, West and Central Africa. Employing a thematic analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with humanitarian communicators and a content analysis of the humanitarian press rel ... eases of four major NGOs, it seeks to establish the types of content NGO communications staff consider most effective for achieving mainstream media coverage, how they access such content, and any forces influencing their eventual production of news. In line with notions of media logic (Altheide and Snow 1979; Cottle and Nolan 2007) and news cloning (Fenton 2010), it uncovers a reliance on hard-hitting humanitarian statistics and powerful first-person testimonies, which are considered essential for achieving news coverage. Statistics are found to be most often sourced from publicly available humanitarian datasets, often managed by the United Nations, and are considered susceptible to politicisation by authorities implicated in certain crises. First-person testimonies are usually gathered in-person by NGO staff and are affected by issues of physical access to crisis zones including monitoring by local authorities and demands for media sign-off. Additionally, a humanitarian NGO’s decision on whether to speak out publicly about a crisis is found to be often weighed up against threats to staff and programme safety. Examining these issues through a lens of agenda building theory (Cobb and Elder 1971), this study introduces the concept of agenda erosion, describing the phenomenon by which powerful actors, including host authorities and western governmental and intergovernmental donors, exert influence to undermine agenda building activities by NGOs in the context of humanitarian crises. Methods of agenda erosion might include demanding sign-off of media content, the control of physical access to crisis zones for communications staff, and the politicisation of humanitarian data. Unlike the traditional view of NGOs being producers of information subsidies (Gandy 1982), this concept recognises that, as news producers, NGOs also accept information subsidies, including humanitarian data, from other actors. These subsidies are used by NGOs to increase their own agenda building effectiveness but can also allow other, potentially conflicting, priorities to influence the media agenda too. NGOs are now widely regarded as important players in the production of international news (Cottle and Nolan, 2007; Cooper, 2011; Powers 2018) and these findings suggest agenda erosion is in-part responsible for the continuing adherence of aid organisations to established patterns of news construction (Cottle & Nolan 2007; Fenton 2010; Waisbord 2011; Powers 2018). Only crises with hard-hitting data or emotive personal stories are likely to achieve mainstream media coverage but exposure to such sources is often closely guarded by the most powerful actors in certain crises. As a result, some crises continue to go underreported and NGOs risk being silenced or, worse, used as proxy mouthpieces by powers implicated in the humanitarian context to which they are attempting to respond." (Abstract) more

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COVID-19 and the Constructions of Africa in African News Media

Mphathisi Ndlovu, Maame Nikabs

Journal of African Media Studies, volume 15, issue 2 (2023), pp. 179-198

"This article examines the constructions of Africa in COVID-19-related stories that were produced by African news media. Dominant scholarship indicates that western media generally reproduce and perpetuate harmful stereotypes on Africa. Given that there is scant literature on how African media cover ... more

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Das Afrikabild in der visuellen Kommunikation von Entwicklungsorganisationen

Alia Herz-Jakoby

Lausanne et al.: Peter Lang (2023), 417 pp.

"Die visuelle Kommunikation von Entwicklungsorganisationen ist geprägt von Spendenplakaten. Anhand einer eingängigen Bildsprache wird Aufmerksamkeit generiert. Mit einer postkolonialen Perspektive zeigt die Autorin auf, wie das vermittelte Afrikabild visuellen Stereotypen folgt, die bis in die Kol ... more

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Who is Influencing Who? Unpacking Youth and Influence in Africa. A Summary of a Nine-Country Survey

Rebecca Pointer, Natasha Kimani, Moky Makura

Africa No Filter (2023), iv, 18 pp.

"Africa is a diverse and complex continent, consisting of 54 countries, 5 regions and about 2,000 languages. This report identifies what influences African youths' attitudes and decisions. It is based on a survey of 4,500 people, aged 18–35, in nine African countries: Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Ivory ... more

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Beyond Western Afropessimism: The African Narrative in African and Non-Western Countries

Rebecca Pointer

Journal of African Media Studies, volume 15, issue 2 (2023), pp. 151-160

"Although some studies have previously indicated that the stereotypical western mainstream media narratives about Africa may be shifting, this Special Issue highlights the stickiness of the stereotypes, and some of the platforms on which they continue to be repeated. Some of these studies further sh ... more

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Africa’s Global Media Image in a Digital World as an Exclusive Western Preserve?

Chilkaire Wilfred, Williams Ezeru

International Communication Gazette, volume 84, issue 5 (2022), pp. 379-400

"Who constructs Africa’s global media image? That is the main focus of this longitudinal study. It looks at both the journalists and the news sources applied in the British press coverage of Africa between 1992 and 2017. Four British national newspapers (The Guardian, Financial Times, The Times, a ... more

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Reframing Africa? Reflections on Modernity and the Moving Image

Cynthia Kros, Reece Auguiste, Pervaiz Khan (eds.)

Cape Town; Bethlehem, PA: African Minds; Media Studies Press (2022), ix, 246 pp.

"Reframing Africa is at root a project about the African archive broadly defined. It asks questions pertaining to this archive as a repository of historical knowledge, its systems of classification, and what strategies should be developed to ensure its preservation in light of state negligence. In a ... more

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Africa's soft power: Can Africa's creativity transform the continent? A summary of a nine-country survey

Natasha Kimani Rebecca Pointer, Moky Makura

Africa No Filter (2022), 16 pp.

"1. In all nine countries where youth were polled, more than 85% of respondents believed that arts and culture were an important part of their society. 2. Creatives are influential and admired:An average of 82% of all respondents respected and admired creatives in their country. 3. Young Africans ... did not believe it was possible to make a good living in the creative sector: Only 4% of respondents worked in the creative sector. Only 13% believed the creative sector was lucrative; 39% believed there were too many barriers to success and 21% said there was no money to be made in the sector. 4. Business and entrepreneurship are the most lucrative sectors: Most respondents (48%) believed that entrepreneurs and businesspeople have the most earning capacity, followed by professional sports people (23%). Nearly half of all respondents (48%) believed a traditional career in sport was seen to be more lucrative than a career in the creative industry: 23% of the respondents felt they would make more money from football or basketball compared to 13% who opted for music and film. Of respondents from Cote D'Ivoire, 45% believed sport was more lucrative, and South Africans (22%) and Kenyans (19%) perceived social media influencers as earning more than creatives. 5. Proving that Africa is a market for creative content, young Africans are consuming African films equally as much as US or international content: Most respondents watched films every week, whether local/African films (67%) or US/international films (66%). Among respondents who had watched between one and seven films, slightly more respondents had watched local or African films (57%) than international or US films (53%). 6. African writers are not writing for African audiences … and worryingly, many African youths are not reading for pleasure: Hardly any respondents had read a book in the month before the interview; 75% had not read any international authors, and 71% had not read any African authors. This indicates that African authors are not attracting an African youth audience. 7. Film is the most appreciated creative platform: Of all the creative art forms, respondents were most likely to have watched films, whether local/African (57%) or international (53%). 8. Respondents were not spending much money on creative outputs: Although respondents believed that arts and culture (85%) was an important part of society, few were spending to support the sector. In the creative sector, 78% said they either spent nothing or “very little” on arts and culture pastimes." (Key insights, page 1) more

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Same old story? African disease stereotypes persist in Covid-19 media coverage

Maame Nikabs, Mphathisi Ndlovu

Africa No Filter (2022), iii, 23 pp.

"1. Western media speculated about negative Covid-19 African outcomes: The media analysed in this study used words like “could”, “will almost certainly”, “will turn into” to prophesy doom for the continent, especially expressing doubt that the hospital infrastructure on the continent co ... uld cope. 2. The portrayal of Africa as diseased persisted: Global media had reported that Africa would be worst hit and expressed surprise that Africa did not reach the record high death rates that occurred in Western countries. Journalists were at pains to make sense of this “mystery”, for example, suggesting the low numbers were due to Africans being afraid to go to hospital. 3. Many development agencies also used negative stereotypes: Many publications from development agencies focused on barriers to the response to the epidemic in Africa, such as widespread poverty, lack of education, poor infrastructure, and irregular power supply. They further lamented a low test per case ratio and portrayed the continent as a charity case. Fears were also expressed about socio-economic impacts of Covid-19, such as job losses, economic contraction, and recession. 4. African media focused on government handling of the pandemic: African media mainly highlighted the African governments' agency in dealing with Covid-19. Some articles also reported on the mishandling of Covid-19 funds. However, within countries, different news sources sometimes reported differently, for example, in Zimbabwe, NewsDay typically reported on poor governance and corruption, while The Herald reported positively on actions being taken in the country. 5. African media chastised Africans about their behaviour: Many of the African media houses portrayed Africans as quarantine violators and fugitives who were breaching Covid-19 regulations and infecting family members, thereby spreading the virus. 6. Western media continued to represent Africa as a single entity: Just as with global coverage of Ebola and HIV/AIDS, the Western media outlets we studied continued to report on Africa as a homogenous entity and did not give attention to how Covid-19 was impacting differently in different countries – albeit that it gave some attention to South Africa, where death rates were high." (Key insights, page iii) more

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The German Image of Africa: Colonial Continuities in Media Reporting

Tina Adomako

In: Continuity of Injustice: The Colonial Legacy of Development and Missionization

Bonn: Missionszentrale der Franziskaner (2022), pp. 37-44

"Misery and poverty do exist, and the media should not be ignoring that. However, the status of the African continent cannot be judged without addressing the 500 years of slave trade. Our prosperity has been built by the unpaid labour of Black people and with the resources stolen from their countrie ... more

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Global broadcast media still relying on stereotypical narratives about Africa

Gideon H. Chitanga

Africa No Filter (2022), iii, 20 pp.

"1. International broadcast media CNNI (CNN International) , CGTN (China Global Television Network) and AJE (Al-Jazeera English) – reinforced Afro-pessimism in their coverage of Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe: Politics, corruption, conflict, business and economic news dominated their b ... roadcasts, and apart from a few isolated positive business stories, the chosen themes reflected the bad and the ugly, feeding into a negative narrative. Political news was dominated by gloom and doom, supported with images suggesting hopelessness. 2. Coverage of economic news and current affairs mostly presented economic progress as externally driven, with few economic success stories: Most economic news and current affairs stories highlighted growing unemployment, economic frustrations, business challenges and mismanagement associated with poor governance and suggestions of growing economic crisis. For example, despite economic growth in Ethiopia, CGTN news focused on Chinese investment that was fuelling infrastructure development in the four countries. 3. CGTN told more positive stories than CNNI or AJE: This more positive narrative of development journalism centred on successful projects between China and each of the four countries and highlighted economic gains for them. As such, coverage shone a light on economic progress based in cooperation. However, the narrative emphasised Chinese investment more than cooperative efforts in the four African countries. 4. CGTN and AJE had more diverse content than CNNI, covering sports, environment and conservation, art, fashion and music: Although minimal, the coverage shone a light on African sporting excellence and endogenous innovations to preserve the environment, and showcased talent in art forms and fashion. 5. CGTN and AJE also had more African anchors, journalists, correspondents and analysts than CNNI: The face of journalism – key sources, journalists and presenters – improved the public's perception of CGTN and AJE coverage. In addition, AJE gave voice to ordinary people, capturing and telling their experiences in its news and current affairs stories, through real time interactive social media participation during its broadcasts. 6. CNNI told fewer stories about the four countries, compared to CGTN and AJE: African countries remained marginal in CNNI, and when coverage was provided, it mainly focused on adverse political events." (Key insights, page iii) more

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The Business in Africa: Narrative Report

Richard Addy

Africa No Filter; AKAS (2022), 56 pp.

"The report found seven significant frames to stories about business in Africa: 1 More negative coverage: International media are more likely to negatively frame issues that impact on business in Africa while African media are twice as likely to reference corruption in their coverage of business in ... Africa compared to international media. 2 Foreign powers scramble for Africa: 70% of international coverage about business in Africa is dominated by references to foreign powers like China, the USA, Russia, France and the UK. 3Africa is two countries: Business in Africa coverage focuses on South Africa and Nigeria while business stars like Mauritius, Botswana, the Seychelles and Namibia get little coverage and research attention. 4. Silencing creativity, amplifying technology: Despite Nollywood being the world’s second-largest film industry and the growing influence of musical influences like AfroBeats and AmaPiano, creative businesses were only featured in 1% of all articles across African and global media. 5. Youth and women are underrepresented: Africa claims the top three spots in the Mastercard Index for the highest concentration of women business owners in the world. It also has the youngest population globally. However, youth and women are underrepresented. In fact, online news coverage of young people has declined since 2017, falling from 12.5% of articles referencing young people in 2017 to 8.1% in 2021. 6. Government, policy and regulations dominate: Around 54.5% of business news in 2021 was framed through government action and policies. Additionally, African media focused more on themes related to government than on those related to entrepreneurship. Yet, African countries make up six of the top 10 countries whose populations were most likely to search for the topic of entrepreneurship in 2021. 7. Missing Free Trade Area and investment: It makes up 1% of news and academic research, yet the agreement is expected to lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty and boost the incomes of nearly 68 million others. It’s also projected to boost Africa’s income by $450 billion by 2035 and increase Africa’s exports by $560 billion, mostly in manufacturing." (Executive summary, pages-5-6) more

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The Image of Africa in Ghana's Press: The Influence of Global News Organisations

Michael Serwornoo

Cambridge: Open Book Publishers (2021), 258 pp.

"Chapter 1 presents the historical and contextual backgrounds of the study. Beginning with a discussion of the UNESCO-commissioned MacBride and Sreberny-Mohammadi reports, the chapter opens up the debate of that era. The findings of Beverly Hawk’s edited book on Africa’s Media Image are outlined ... , in addition to the work of Mel Bunce et al. (2017). Ghana’s evolving positionality as a strong Pan-African state is discussed, from the pre-independence through the post-independence era to the current Internet and digital age. Chapter 2 situates this study in the current literature as a way of benefiting from previous research. It discusses the meaning and usefulness of foreign news in general, while also discussing the conceptualisation of terms and expanding upon a discussion relating to the opportunities afforded by the digital and Internet era for a fuller understanding of the world. It continues to evaluate the various determinants of international news coverage. This chapter subsequently describes how Africa has been portrayed in the Western media alongside a discussion of the determinants of international news flow. This chapter zeroes in on the framework within which the African press operates and the influences of international news agencies, and Western education and training on this entire process. Chapter 3 examines the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of the study. The theories of newsworthiness, intermedia agenda-setting and postcolonial critique are discussed. The inter-relationships among the three theories are outlined, highlighting how they help in addressing the objectives of the study. The theoretical framework and hierarchical influence model of Pamela Shoemaker and Stephen Reese (2014) are recounted. Chapter 4 discusses the overarching methodology with a detailed outline of the various methods and procedures that inform the study. Ethnographic content analysis (ECA), a method that integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches to content analysis, is explained. This chapter also provides a rationale for the use of multiple methods (triangulation) for data collection as it pertains to this study. It encompasses the sampling methods and procedures employed, the units of analysis that were subject to examination, the period of study, as well as the steps and procedures carried out in the actual data collection in the field. The chapter ends with a discussion of validity, reliability and ethical issues, as well as coding instruments and protocol adopted for the study. Chapter 5 presents the findings of the ethnographic content analysis that emerged from the examination of articles on the foreign news pages in the newspapers studied. It discusses how the findings of the ECA complement purposes outlined for the research. The chapter ends with a comparison of Africa’s image as portrayed in the Ghanaian press vis à vis the current literature. Chapter 6 focuses on the description of the findings relating to the ethnographic interview aspect of the data as a follow-up on chapter five. The ethnographic interview reveals the reasoning behind the foreign news selection process in Ghana from the perspective of the journalists and editors. The chapter outlines the qualitative weight of influence and the conditions shaping the foreign news selection. The workings of intermedia agenda-setting relationships are traced through the ethnographic interviews. All the findings are reduced to descriptions involving little or no discussions at that stage of the analysis. Chapter 7 discusses the findings outlined in Chapters 5 and 6 in line with the objectives of the entire study, in particular through an evaluation of each of the research questions posed in the Introduction. The chapter argues that the coverage of foreign news in the Ghanaian press reinforces existing postcolonial trajectories and relationships that contribute to the existing imbalance in international news flow around the world. The chapter further argues that the soft-power success of China’s Xinhua News Agency not only represents South–South cooperation, but presents a new form of supremacy as a result of the relationship and engagement defined by imbalance of power relations and interactions between the Chinese and their Ghanaian counterpart. The chapter also focuses on the juxtaposition between the dependency of the Ghanaian press on international news agencies and its claim of an African perspective, thus suggesting that the entire scenario represents a resistance and subaltern ambivalence. However, to reach such a conclusion we must first consider to what extent resistance is truly effective. In reality, Ghanaian journalists have done less in practice to establish any potent resistance to their negative proxy coverage of the continent, which begs the question, does the efficacy of resistance exist only in its conception or can it be achieved in practice?" (Outline of the book, pages 7-9) more

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Diskurse und Praktiken der Schulbuchproduktion in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und England am Beispiel von Afrikawissen

Lars Müller

Göttingen: V & R Unipress (2021), 560 pp.

"Was ist aus Schulbüchern über Afrika zu lernen und woher kommen diese Wissensbestände? Schulbuchproduktion wird in diesem Band als Knotenpunkt gesellschaftlicher Diskurse und Praktiken verstanden und Schulbuchwissen im Kontext seiner Produktionsbedingungen sowie der gesellschaftlichen Debatten a ... more

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How to Write About Africa in 8 Steps: An Ethical Storytelling Handbook
Key Guides

Rebecca Pointer

Africa No Filter (2021), 31 pp.

"Storytelling is the most powerful way for donor and non-governmental organisations to convey their work because stories allow audiences to connect on both intellectual and emotional levels. However, much of the storytelling about development work in Africa is unethical and perpetuates harmful and s ... more

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Post-koloniale Erinnerungsdiskurse in der Medienkultur: Der Genozid an den Ovaherero und Nama in der deutschsprachigen Presse von 2001 bis 2016

Kaya de Wolff

Bielefeld: transcript Verlag (2021), 476 pp.

"Die Debatten um die Anerkennung des Ovaherero- und Nama-Genozids (1904-1908) im heutigen Namibia haben in den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten wachsende öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit erhalten. Kaya de Wolff hat die deutschsprachige Presseberichterstattung in den Jahren 2001 bis 2016 über den Umgang mit de ... more

How to Write About Africa in 8 Steps: An Ethical Storytelling Handbook Key Guides

How to Write About Africa in 8 Steps: An Ethical Storytelling Handbook
Key Guides