Fletcher Ziwoya is a doctoral student in the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. His research interests include: media representations; politics and development in Africa and; political participation and identity construction in African political ecologies. He worked as a radio journalist for Malawi’s national broadcaster, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation for over eight years. His extra-curricular activities include community mobilization and capacity building towards effective citizen participation in nation building.

Abstract

Imag(ining)ing Africa, Taking the Politics Out of Sport

Media coverage and research on Africa have been used over the years as sources of information on the continent and its people. Dominant in these are western sources that have portrayed Africa negatively as a lost cause for various political reasons. This paper is a discourse analysis of international online media coverage of Africa in general and South Africa in particular ahead of this year’s World Cup extravaganza in the country. The paper aims at critically examining some of the frames and assumptions that underpin Africa’s image portrayal on the international scene. The Analysis thus highlights the crisis of representation by western media and research on Africa and the international political economy dictating sports administration in the world. The study reveals continued western hegemony amidst renewed world attention and revived efforts to look at Africa positively.