How much is a person’s image worth? And that of a neighborhood or a city? Does the amount skyrocket if we refer to a country or a continent?
Let’s put it black-ink on white-paper.
How much does the image of Africa cost? Is it expensive or cheap to speak badly and soon, or quickly and badly, about our neighbors to the south? Does what we journalists say impact the pockets of African governments and citizens?
First I’ll give a figure as a headline and then I’ll give some context: $4.2 billion a year.
Media coverage, tending toward bias and bias, can mean an annual loss of that amount of money. (Do we have so much power?)
Let me explain. Or, rather, I transfer here some of the conclusions that the colleagues of the Africa no Filter portal have expressed in their recent report The Cost of Media Stereotypes to Africa. In seven points they make it quite clear.
First: “African countries receive more media attention during elections, but with a disproportionate focus on negative issues such as violence and electoral fraud.”
Second: “Africa receives higher scores in terms of negative perception and bias in the media compared to non-African countries with similar political risks.”
Third: «“Violence” is closely associated with Africa in electoral coverage, especially in the headlines».
Fourth: “Negative media sentiment increases risk perception, leading to higher borrowing costs for African countries.”
Fifth: “African countries are unjustifiably perceived by investors as higher risk, resulting in higher borrowing costs compared to similar non-African countries.”
Sixth: “The full impact of media bias extends beyond the costs of debt and probably affects other sectors such as tourism.”
Seventh (and back to the number): “Africa could be losing up to $4.2 billion annually in inflated interest payments due to biased media coverage.”
Nothing more to add, especially if it is to speak little and poorly, or poorly and poorly, about African countries.
In the image above, Sudanese women sit on a brick barricade in Khartoum. Photography: Getty
