By Mark Kapchanga
Amidst Western media stories of China's "exploitation" and
"neo-colonialism", now the emerging superpower wants to tell its own
African story.
Nairobi, Kenya:
China’s growing role in Africa is no secret.
Its expansive resource-backed infrastructural projects are widely
reported on and the $200 billion/year trade between China and Africa has
been turning heads around the world.
Sino-African relations are
covered abundantly in Western and African media. But now, China wants to
narrate its own stories. Concerned that the loudest stories of
China-Africa relations being heard are ones of exploitation,
neo-colonialism, and the propping up of dictators, China’s central
government has initiated a big media push to offer a counterbalance to
Western narratives.
China’s media dreams
China’s central government has reportedly set aside $7 billion to expand its state-run media globally. This is starting to bear fruit.
In January 2012, China Central Television (CCTV) set up headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, and soon began courting Africa’s top journalists. In December, China Daily, China's biggest English-language newspaper, launched Africa Weekly. In Ethiopia, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua erected giant news screens. Thousands of scholarships for African journalists have been established. And Xinhua has also partnered with Kenyan mobile firm, Safaricom, to provide the first mobile news service in sub-Saharan Africa.
(Source : Think Africa Press via allAfrica.com)
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