<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>During recent years, considerable attention has been paid to the negative portrayal of the African continent in the media of the so-called ‘global North’. Significantly less focus has been put on how to actually represent Africa in the news as more than the site of catastrophes or in other ways than through sunshine stories of the ‘struggling but smiling African’. The present article argues that the lack of a wide range of different genres in the North’s mediated representations of Africa is problematic, because the ‘hard news’ we receive is deficient in information about the background and context of news event. The article looks into different cultural expressions such as film, television entertainment and literature to explore how they can play a role in illustrating the concept of ‘Africa’ as both diverse and multifaceted. It argues that opening the northern mediascape to more content from the south would serve as an important backdrop and help in understanding a variety of messages from the African continent.</p></abstract>

During recent years, considerable attention has been paid to the negative portrayal of the African continent in the media of the so-called ‘global North’. Significantly less focus has been put on how to actually represent Africa in the news as more than the site of catastrophes or in other ways than through sunshine stories of the ‘struggling but smiling African’. The present article argues that the lack of a wide range of different genres in the North’s mediated representations of Africa is problematic, because the ‘hard news’ we receive is deficient in information about the background and context of news event. The article looks into different cultural expressions such as film, television entertainment and literature to explore how they can play a role in illustrating the concept of ‘Africa’ as both diverse and multifaceted. It argues that opening the northern mediascape to more content from the south would serve as an important backdrop and help in understanding a variety of messages from the African continent.

Mediated Culture and the Well-informed Global Citizen

Dr.Art., Associate Professor, Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, Oslo University College

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Images of Africa in the Global North

During recent years, considerable attention has been paid to the negative portrayal of the African continent in the media of the so-called ‘global North’....

Mediated Culture and the Well-informed Global Citizen

Published Online: Jan 30, 2017

Page range: 47 - 61

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0129

Keywords
media coverage of Africa, mediated culture, political economy of the media, cosmopolitan citizenship

© 2010 Kristin Skare Orgeret, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mediated Culture and the Well-informed Global Citizen

Published Online: Jan 30, 2017

Page range: 47 - 61

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0129

Keywordsmedia coverage of Africa, mediated culture, political economy of the media, cosmopolitan citizenship

© 2010 Kristin Skare Orgeret, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
media coverage of Africa, mediated culture, political economy of the media, cosmopolitan citizenship