World, meet Africa! A new way of reporting the continent
It's frequently depressing reading accounts of Africa in the mainstream media. Doubly so, in fact. Firstly because what is defined as worthy of reporting is, well, depressing. And secondly because it so seldom engages with the complex and vibrant reality of the continent in all its massive diversity, preferring instead to deal in simplistic stereotypes.
That's why today's launch of a new website from global news organisation Reuters devoted exclusively to the continent – Reuters Africa – is so exciting. And most exciting of all is the inclusion of blogs on every individual country page on the site.
In the screenshot below of the site's page for Uganda you can see, to the right of the map, a section headed “BLOGS”. Below it are links to the most recent entries on Uganda from Global Voices. There is a similar feed for each of the more than 50 countries on the continent.
Reuters is a major funder of Global Voices and it is great that they are able to use our content in this way. It also demonstrates the increasing value placed by news organisations on the ability of authentic voices to provide perspective, background and context to the events they cover. Reuters puts it like this:
The launch of Reuters Africa supports Reuters commitment to cover Africa in detail and from all angles, to give a wider sense of the issues and their contexts, and to explore the individual countries and cultures. Reuters Africa will target both those living on the continent, and anyone globally who follows African development, investment and news…
As part of Reuters continuing efforts to incorporate a wider set of voices and commentary into its news content, the site will incorporate country-specific blogs via Global Voices, the international network of bloggers.
This is a great step forward, but there's still a long way to go. There are large and exciting blogging communities in several countries, such as Nigeria and Kenya but there are other areas where coverage is very sparse and still others, such as Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, where online expression is severely curtailed by the government.
We hope that the involvement of bloggers in projects such as this not only gives a platform to those whose voices have long been left unheard but also encourages others to join the conversation and brings pressure to bear on behalf of those who want to speak but cannot.
12 comments
This is great. I’m a sucker for clickable maps. But I’m surprised to find no associated RSS feeds.
Any news service can benefit from blogging input for on the ground reporting.
Many bloggers will welcome the increased exposure.
We applaud those who would expand our horizons.
However, how will Reuters re-act to the blogger who runs afoul of the authorities?
The news revolution will be customised…
Reuters, the trusty, 156-year-old peddler of breaking news, has launched Reuters Africa: global news (’Liverpool sink Barcelona!’) with greater prominence for Africa-related stories (’Sudan, Chad again pledge to avoid hostilitiesR…
Rachel, hello! This sounds great, but I don’t understand why Reuters’ conventional agency reporting is still so stuck on largely business and macro-economic development only. Why doesn’t Reuters incorporate a more rounded approach to news and information into its general coverage? Or am I missing something? From Lara, currently in Angola.
Hi Lara! so great to hear from you and find your blog.
I think it’s a good thing that Reuters is treating the African continent as the viable economic entity it is rather than the basket case we’re so used to seeing portrayed in the mainstream media. However if you look at the individual country pages you’ll see the usual broad reporting amongst the stories.
And of course Reuters AlertNet covers Africa in great detail.