Framing African Democracy: Does Media Coverage Match the Reality?

• In Event: Media Coverage and (Mis)Representation

Abstract

This study assesses the degree to which the US media framing of African democracy matches the actual level of democracy, as measured by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index. It selects ten African states that have the highest level of democracy on the Index and ten with the lowest and compares these states in relation to how they are framed in the New York Times (as a representative of US media). The paper hypotheses that the US media will not represent democracy in these states accurately, and will likely be more influenced by US foreign policy in relation to these states. To this end, the study reviews policy toward these states to see if this is a better explanatory factor for the media coverage than the actual level of democracy on the ground.

Authors

• Babak Bahador, University of Canterbury

• Virgil Hawkins, Osaka U