ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with American reporting on African politics. At a first glance it may seem out of place in a volume that deals with media and democratization in Africa. In a world, however, that is increasingly influenced by the global reach of modern communication, this is not necessarily so. What American media report on Africa has a bearing on democratization on that continent in at least two different respects. The first is that media reports tend to influence U.S. policy, especially since so few policy-makers really have a good understanding of their own of what is happening in Africa. Because reporting tends to tailor its accounts and analysis to anticipated constituency interests in the United States, it is typically providing an image of Africa that reinforces rather than questions American stereotypes about Africa. Policy toward that continent, therefore, becomes superficial, something that is significant since the U.S. is a major funder of governance and democracy activities in Africa. The second is that U.S. media are increasingly accessible to the African public. This is true not only for CNN, but also other radio and television networks that are rebroadcast in Africa, as discussed by van der Veur in chapter 4, and in news magazines such as Time and Newsweek. Because this reporting echoes the pre-conceived ideas about Africa that Americans—whether white or black—have, people in African countries who take it in cannot help but becoming angry with much of what they see or hear. Even though it is often phrased in universalist terms, it typically reflects an American parochialism that undercuts the credibility and efficacy of what U.S. institutions 158do in order to promote democratization in Africa. American reporting, therefore, is very much part of the concerns of this volume.
