African Media Coverage of NEPAD: Implications for Reporting Africa

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has emerged in recent years as an African-owned development framework for the African continent. Despite its emphasis on sustainable development, democratic governance, regional integration and strategies to implement these, a major challenge for NEPAD remains the continent-wide knowledge and understanding of its agenda and initiatives. This baseline study examines African news media coverage of NEPAD in order to assess the extent and nature of media engagement with NEPAD. Based on a content analysis of coverage in African newspapers and news providers available through the online news portal Allafrica.com, the study provides an overview of NEPAD coverage from January to July 2005 in a sample of African countries. Findings show that coverage of NEPAD is event based and elitist with little consistent critical analysis of processes that underpin the NEPAD framework. Analyses of this nature provide insights into how African media are reporting and engaging the public with regard to this continent-wide development initiative. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to ‘African journalism’.