Alternative to West or Extension of East? Comparison of African News Agencies’ Perceptions of China

• In Event: EXTENDED SESSION PART 2: Global Communication and Social Change in African Contexts

Abstract

This study focuses on Third World media’s distinctive frame of China's presence in Africa, which remains understudied. It compares news by Ghanaian News Agency and Ethiopian News Agency. Guided by Most Different Systems Design, the study adopts Musa’s alternative/ extension framework and content analysis approach. The results indicate that the two African national news agencies shared similar patterns of covering China, despite differences between Ghana’s and Ethiopia’s relations with China. The common features are 1) a high degree of self-reliance on agencies’ own journalists; 2) a majority of news expressing favorable or neutral tone; 3) actors in news mainly consisting of African and Chinese elites. Possible causes for these commonalities are discussed, including African agencies’ forming alliances with Chinese Xinhua News Agency. The author also suggests the necessity of incorporating the competition between Xinhua and the Western “Big Four” into the framework for analyzing the Third World news agencies.

Author

• YUANJIE XIA, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong