A lot has changed in Rwanda since the 1994 genocide. The country has seen impressive economic growth, has made great strides in democracy and education, and now ranks first in the world in terms of the number of women elected to parliament and in cabinet. So why don't we hear more about Rwanda and other stories of progress in Africa?
That's because poverty, instability, disease, illiteracy and corruption dominate Western press coverage of the continent, according to New African magazine this month (subscription only). Taking the Western media to task for their biased and distorting reporting of the continent, the magazine looks at why so little good news makes it out of Africa.
Historical baggage and domestic interests are probably the biggest reasons for the Western media's distorted view of the continent, Editor Baffour Ankomah argues. Foreign policy concerns at home often influence the subjects chosen Â? Zimbabwe's elections rather than those in Nigeria, for example - and history pervades even the most enlightened articles.
Ankomah draws attention to an article in Britain's Guardian newspaper by correspondent George Alagiah in 1999 in which he said: "I have a gnawing regret that, as a foreign correspondent, I have done Africa a disservice, too often showing the continent at its worst and too rarely showing it in full flower."
Though he pleaded for his colleagues to abandon historical baggage relating to Africa, it's ironic how the paper chose a headline suffused with negative historical connotations - "New light on the Dark Continent" - Ankomah says.
Elsewhere in the magazine, South African President Thabo Mbeki draws attention to a Boston University study which looked at seven major U.S. newspapers between 1994 and 2004. It detailed how little coverage looked at economic growth, the decline in civil wars, or increased access to education.
Disasters in Somalia, Rwanda and West Africa dominated, while transitions to democracy in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and elsewhere were ignored according to the 2005 study.
With few media organisations employing more than one reporter based in Africa, much of the continent's news goes unreported, Mbeki says.
Wanjohl Kabukuru argues this year's coverage of Kenya shows how Western media coverage gets carried away with negative imagery.
"During the countryÂ?s worst moments of shame Â? the post-war election violence that erupted between December 2007 and February 2008 - the Western media tore Kenya into shreds. For the two months, the hitherto peaceful Kenya found itself painted in the worst of adjectives.
"Four decades of solid achievements after independence were totally forgotten," Kabukuru writes.
Kabukuru quotes the comments of African media executive Norman Mudibo who said in Kenya's Business Daily that he was shocked by CNN's coverage and how it equated the violence to tribal warfare.
"There could be ethnic tension, exacerbated by the alleged flawed electoral process, but it is unfair for the international media to trumpet messages that give the impression that Kenya has already gone to the dogs," Mudibo said.
For Regina Jere-Malanda, the problem is that good news doesn't sell. What does sell can be encapsulated by the acronym "PIDIC" - poverty, instability, disease, illiteracy and corruption -
a term coined by Nigerian journalist Pascal Eze.
Jere-Malanda says: "No one else but Africans ourselves have a duty to shake off this stigmatising image." The African media should be at the forefront of the effort to change Western minds about what the continent has to offer, she concludes.
In a satirical piece for literary magazine Granta, Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina hits on some of the stereotypes regularly found in writing about Africa.
"Among your characters you must always include "The Starving African", who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West," he says. "Broad brushstrokes throughout are good. Avoid having the African characters laugh, or struggle to educate their kids, or just make do in mundane circumstances."
What's your view? Is the Western media fixated on the worst stories from Africa? Do we hear enough good news from the continent?
What are the reasons for the way the West reports Africa? Who's responsibility is it to challenge entrenched images? Is the Western media just doing its job and reporting reality?
What do you think?
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