International and African media’s representation of African Debt to China: From stereotype to solution with constructive journalism

Abstract

Constructive journalism justifies its existence by an orientation towards solutions to vexing social issues. The central idea of this article is to discuss why constructive journalism could be an important approach for African journalistic practice. The research analyses African and international media reports on the China–Africa debt issue as a case study. It also discusses how the debt issue is depicted in online articles and reports from a content illustration of western, African and Chinese online media pools. Arguably so, there is a strong assumption that western and African media share more similarities than differences in representing Africa’s debt to China compared to their Chinese counterparts investigated in the study. In the framework of finding solutions and offering alternative journalistic perspectives, the study brings to light the fact that constructive journalism approaches, if applied by African media, have the potential to positively and objectively contribute to communication about the African debt with an inclination to solution-based applications. The study closes by a call to action for African media to be more responsible for their own image and to work towards a more balanced and focused coverage of not only the debt issue but other matters of international interest currently trending on the continent.