Influencing Media Perception

Last week the Economist magazine contained two articles on the China Africa relationship venturing that China needs to protect itself against growing displeasure among ordinary Africans. While there have been many examples of poor working practices and even violence, Chinese actors tend not to protect themselves against criticism in the way that a Western company would.
 

The content was not particularly original, but it adds to a growing interest in media perception in recent months. There seems to be increasing realisation that the Western media have been at least partially responsible for creating a generally negative Western view of the China Africa relationship.
 

This week’s news throws up two examples of poor practice which demonstrate the difficulty in making judgements on China’s role. The first is cited in Deborah Brautigam’s blog describing the collapse of a section of the Lusaka-Chirundu road in Zambia. While initial reports tell a story of substandard Chinese workmanship, Brautigam and her commenters point out that collapses also regularly occur on Western built roads, but that the attractive narrative of the slipshod Chinese interloper tempts publication. Without doing comparative studies of various road building projects the story draws a unfair generalisation.
 

The second story is that of Lee Sarro in Tanzania. Lee, a 65 year old Chinese manager has been arrested for beating a security guard to death whom he suspected of theft. While the previous story is perhaps unfair criticism, this kind of worker mistreatment seems to appear every year, and is unique to Chinese companies.
 

Chinese companies tend to lack the experience or the contacts to influence both Western and African media. However this does seem to be changing. Last week a China Africa Media Cooperation event was held in Nairobi. The speakers posited that western dominance of the international media had led to a skewed perception of both China and Africa in the world.
 

A particularly interesting outcome of the meeting was the announcement of a new Xinhua Mobile Newspaper, the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. The joint venture with a local telecom company will enable about 17 million Kenyan mobile subscribers to receive news from China's Xinhua News Agency via Multimedia Messaging Service.
 

This week the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper has taken up the cause. They disagreed with the ubiquitous criticism of Chinese neocolonialism, instead calling for a decolonisation of African media. They call for further efforts to create an independent and international African media which can speak for itself, rather than being spoken for by a biased international media prone to focus on African poverty and conflict.
 

Further disclosure of China’s foreign aid figures is another example of an increasing openness. These are likely the first steps in a strategy of engagement with key stakeholders, making sure that the Chinese point of view is put across. 

Comments or opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual contributors only, and do not necessarily represent the views of FRANCE 24. The content on this blog is provided on an "as-is" basis. FRANCE 24 is not liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of the content or use of this blog.
3 Comments
Re: Anonyme 23h41 I think you've missed my point. My observation is not that Chinese companies or businesses are bad for Africa, but rather that historically they have failed to protect against media criticism, and that recent developments show a change in that policy. "On a somewhat related note, an American doctor practicing in Ghana sucked blood from his patient. Not a soul in the West reported the incident." I find your example of the US doctor very interesting. Where was it reported? I didn't see it in the Ghanaian media. To answer your hypothetical, if it was reported that a Chinese man had done it I would have assumed it was fake. I agree that there are many faked scare stories about the Chinese in Africa, hence the title of the blog.
Henry Hall | Editor | China Africa News
"Lee, a 65 year old Chinese manager has been arrested for beating a security guard to death whom he suspected of theft. While the previous story is perhaps unfair criticism, this kind of worker mistreatment seems to appear every year, and is unique to Chinese companies." Really? Not impressed with your attempt to feign objectivity. On a somewhat related note, an American doctor practicing in Ghana sucked blood from his patient. Not a soul in the West reported the incident. Can you already imagine the headlines if he had been Chinese? The guy was simply deported. End of story. You guys should give us a break. Africa knows what it wants and needs. You don't know Africa better than Africans. Nor are you the only ones travelling to China regularly. Just sod off! We're tired of this nonsense!
I think the Chinese have adopted a strategy to dump their poorest quality products in Africa. I personally think that the chinese people are not real business persons, they come to enjoy the less densely populated Africa. Their country does not allow them to have many children, so they come so that can have more babies. The technology they bring is sub standard bt to other developed countries they produce good quality items.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • No HTML tags allowed

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.