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Mike Ter.Songu
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Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 12, 2007 - 03:22 AM
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The Africa we see through the eyes of the western media is really horrible. It is portrayed as a continent of strife, hunger and diseases. I rarely see or hear any positve report on Africa on any of the these western Media Orgainsations. Recently, a highly respected western journalist who has worked for such high profile media organisations like the BBC and CNN, Femi Oke, adamited at a media sumit in Liberia that the Western media has been unfair in its coverage of African news.
Is Ms Oke right? Or do you think the western media has covered all there is to cover on Africa? lets share your view!
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mnopq
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 12, 2007 - 12:55 PM
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Unfortunately you are right.
Media always looks to make a big story and what can make it bigger than showing conflicts, strifes and wars that overshadow any other cultural or social developments. Peace and security are always paramount and wherever there is an issue involving human lives, the popular media is there to portray the situation. This is normal, or rather expected. It is however not normal to draw conclusions based on eye-catching articles and popular TV news emission depicting Africa as nothing else but a hodge-podge of conflicting tribes and groupings.
Any intelligent and curious person will go beyond popular media to discover Africa.
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Monika
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 12, 2007 - 05:57 PM
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i think the term "african american" to refer to black people is invalid for many reasons:
- not all black people are african- some come from the caribbean and austraila and stuff
- not all africans are black- i am egyptian, i am african but when i tell people that, they go "what? but you're not black"
- and finally, the term generalizes implying that all black people that live in eglish-speaking countries will be american. why african AMERICAN? if it's not appropriate to call them black in USA that must mean its not appropriate to call them black anywhere esle right? so how is the rest of the english-speaking world supposed to refer to people with a dark skin tone? Therefore i think there is nothing wrong with referring to them as black just as we refer to white people as white and stuff like that =)
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George C. Owens
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 13, 2007 - 02:35 AM
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Mike,
As Hyak said, but in other words Bad News sells papers, good news goes on page 4 after Macey's advertisement, that is true all over the world, not just westwern media.
Monika,
All of Mankind are African, we all came from Sub-Saharan Africa, somwhere between Nigeria and Ethiopia, and we walked. We did not fly or ride in slave ships, 'till later on, we are all just shades of brown. Me, I have never seen a white man nor a black man, only shades of brown. Our skin shade changed because of both natural and asthetic selection. Me, I am part Arerican-Indian, well that is another misnomer, non of my recent ansestors were from India but several were Choctaw, Chicasaw, and Cherokey and some other tribes. One of my favorite lines is by Morgan Freeman in Robinhood, a little girl asks why his skin is colored and he replies, "God love variety."
bye,
george
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Mike Ter.Songu
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 14, 2007 - 06:10 AM
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This is normal, or rather expected. It is however not normal to draw conclusions based on eye-catching articles and popular TV news emission depicting Africa as nothing else but a hodge-podge of conflicting tribes and groupings.
Any intelligent and curious person will go beyond popular media to discover Africa.
Thanks Hyek, for your reply. it is a mind operner on media reports. However, you will agree with me that the media carries a lot of weight especially where public opinion is concerned. Thus it can be very unfair where this power, is employed on baseless assumptions. not many people have contact with Africa in the world. And fewer still, will have the patience to question what they read. I live in Africa and I can tell you that most of this are far from the Africa I know.
All of Mankind are African, we all came from Sub-Saharan Africa, somwhere between Nigeria and Ethiopia, and we walked. We did not fly or ride in slave ships, 'till later on, we are all just shades of brown. Me, I have never seen a white man nor a black man, only shades of brown. Our skin shade changed because of both natural and asthetic selection. Me, I am part Arerican-Indian, well that is another misnomer, non of my recent ansestors were from India but several were Choctaw, Chicasaw, and Cherokey and some other tribes. One of my favorite lines is by Morgan Freeman in Robinhood, a little girl asks why his skin is colored and he replies, "God love variety."
George,
You have quit a neutral reply for Monika here. It still beats me why colour should be such a big issue. I am black and it doesn't make different from anybody. So I dont really care whether you call me that or any thing you think sutis it. By the way, a name is nothing more than what it depicts.
This post was edited on: 2007-10-15 at 09:29 AM by: Mike Ter.Songu
This post was edited on: 2007-10-15 at 09:39 AM by: Mike Ter.Songu
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Chika
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 17, 2007 - 09:41 AM
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the western world has been abusing africa for centuries for reasons of greed.
so, of course, western nations want to continue to abuse africa by labelling it as a weak, unstable continent which will allow the westerners to continue to abuse africa.
so, they employ the media to show africa as unstable.
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Chika
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 17, 2007 - 09:44 AM
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If the media starts to portray africa as progressive and successful, what will happen?
1) the world will realize that africans are not backwards!
2) the west will feel guilty
3) the west won't be able to abuse africa.
but, the western world is ruled by capitalist greed and in capitalism, you have to have the rich and you must have the poor. so, the west wants africa to be the poor underdog.
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George C. Owens
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 23, 2007 - 11:48 PM
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Mike,
I am concidered to be white even though i have a hard time checking that box when i fill out a form that asks that question. For i am about as mixed as a person can be.
I am 1 shade liter than you and 1 shade darker than Chika.
Man is one race not four. Otherwise i am a mistake, 'cause iam all 4.
Now back to your thread or better still how do you see Africa. And what changes can be made to make it better. Every country on Earth needs improving.
bye,
george
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Mike Ter.Songu
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
October 24, 2007 - 09:06 AM
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Now back to your thread or better still how do you see Africa. And what changes can be made to make it better. Every country on Earth needs improving
Well, thanks George, for your post. I think you are right. Every country needs an improvement. But this is easier work if the country is left to develop in peace without stereotypes from without. I doubt if a country can improve considerably in an atmosphere of castgation.
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Raine
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
November 7, 2007 - 11:23 PM
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American news especially is biased and 1 sided. many of the networks are controlled by corperations and the people must show the corperations' veiws in order to keep their jobs. unfortunatly, corperations often become rich and powerful through deception or unsavory means and many times continue to be deceptive to stay powerful. that's why i'm glad i have a public TV channel that shows BBC news. they definatly do have more veiws and more coverage of many aspects of everything going on in the world.
watch the movie "Corperation" and you'll see some of what i'm talking about
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Ifeatu
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Re: Is the Africa potrayed in the western media the true Africa?
December 12, 2007 - 02:07 PM
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I believe western civilization as a whole has very differing view on the subject of Africa depending on where specifically that your talking about...America is a capitalist nation, concerned only with the improvement in the value of its dollar...but then again, so is Nigeria, it's top-heavy government structure is the source of many of its challenges...things haven't been right since the Biafran war. I think in order for things to improve (at least in our area of the continent) we've got to learn how to use our resources to the advantage of the country as a whole (Oil, Diamonds, etc)
Western Culture's opinion of Africa is largely based on the underdeveloped areas of East Africa from which most documentaries come. More recently a stigma has been put on Nigeria because of the scandals regarding mail fraud. All in all though, I think people need to become more educated about the continent it has massive potential.
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