New news out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance
Posted by Tanja Estella Bosch | 19 Sep, 2007Book review:
Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. (2006). New news out of Africa: Uncovering Africa’s Renaissance. (New York: Oxford University Press), ISBN-13: 978-0-19-517747-3
Veteran award winning reporter Hunter-Gault blends personal memoir with reportage and analysis, to challenge stereotypical reporting of Africa by, primarily, the Western media. It is no secret that media representations of the continent are most often stereotypical or sensationalised, focusing on conflict and disease; and the author sets out to systematically paint a different portrait: one of Africa which shows good, or so-called ‘new’ news. Hunter-Gault intends to give “examples from [her] experiences and observations to create a status report of a continent in a hopeful transition, albeit one that is slow and sometimes maddeningly regressive” (p.x). And here, she argues, the role of the African journalist is that of guardians of their new world. (More)
