The Coverage of Africa in the Mainstream Western Media – Examining the Times Coverage of the D.R. Congo’s First Free Elections

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate the on-going complaints from both African and western scholars that Africa is still negatively represented in the western mainstream media more than 50 years after independence even when hopeful signs and baby steps towards democratisation and development are obvious in the continent. The study employs both content and discourse analysis approach. The Times, which used to be one of the leading western newspapers and the British newspaper of record, was selected. Content and discourse analysis were used to evaluate and categorise the news items published in the sampled year (January to December 2006), to distinguish the emerging themes, identify the sources, and to interpret the language used in the coverage. The findings show that news stories throughout the coverage of the D.R. Congo first free and fair elections in 2006 were written by western journalists and correspondents from The Times and associated correspondents, while three other news agencies namely Agence France Press (AFP), Associated Press (AP) and Reuters were the main sources for The Times newspaper. Recurring themes such as tribal clashes, civil wars, corruption, child exploitation, poverty, refugees, witchcraft, dependency, spreading diseases and mismanagement prevail in the reporting. The findings reveal that the reporting of the Congo in The Times has avowedly been through western eyes, and, as with much journalism, has not offered any real context to the stories.