A Chink in the Charm? A Framing Analysis of Coverage of Chinese Aid in the Ghanaian Media (original) (raw)
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2022
This study is grounded in framing theory to understand tones and frames adopted by media from various regions when covering Chinese investment in Africa. Relying on news articles collected from Factiva and Nexis Uni databases, the study focuses on four tones (positive, negative, neutral, and mixed) and five generic frames (conflict, human interest, attribution of responsibility, morality, and economic consequences). The results of this quantitative content analysis indicate that Chinese, Kenyan, South African, and Nigerian media reported on Chinese investment in Africa using a positive tone, while media in the United States and Britain adopted a negative tone. Furthermore, each generic frame was adopted with varying levels of intensity across the countries investigated in this study. The conclusion is discussed in terms of how each country’s economic and political interests involved in the Chinese investments debate influence the tone and frame of the news media coverage.
The Media Framing of China’s Image in East Africa: An Exploratory Study
African East-Asian Affairs, 2013
Sino-East African relations are very significant for the continent. These tightening, multilevel and overarching relations are to a certain extent dependent on the accumulation of perceptions among East Africans about China. China-Africa social science literature has pointed out that China has both a favourable and unfavourable image in East Africa. These studies however exhibit a certain level of vagueness from a communication perspective in so far as they lack empiricism. This exploratory paper investigates the media image of China in East Africa with a view to determining positive, negative and weak perceptions by applying a content analysis approach. I use a media framing model to investigate China's image as represented by four Nation Media Group English-language newspapers during 2011. As an exploratory study, the paper discusses some of the issues raised by the analysis, presents tentative findings and proposes further research directions ii. Predictions touting the imminent consignment of print media to history by new
Partner, prototype or persuader? China’s renewed media engagement with Ghana
This article provides an empirically grounded assessment of China’s increasing role in the African mediasphere. It examines the strategic importance of Chinese media assistance to Ghana along three dimensions: the potential appeal of the Chinese approach to information regulation for countries struggling to balance development and risks to political stability; the direct intervention of Chinese companies in the media and telecommunication sectors through the provision of loans, equipment and technical expertise; and the stepping up of China’s public diplomacy strategy through the expansion of international broadcasters and the increase of exchange and training programs targeting African citizens. The study is based on fieldwork conducted by the authors in Ghana, and on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with Ghanaian journalists, policymakers, journalism educators, civil society players and Chinese journalists and media entrepreneurs in Ghana. Problematising the alarmist scholarship that suggests a strategic Chinese invasion of Africa and the potential reversal of media freedoms, the study indicates that the Chinese presence in Ghana seems to be grounded in a more pragmatic and less uniform approach anchored on mutual interests. It concludes by suggesting the need for a shift in the debate that tends to be polarised by images of China as either a neo-colonialist power or as a benevolent partner. To understand whether the Chinese approach to the media could have resonance beyond China, greater attention must be paid to how the ideology and political culture characterising individual African countries, as well as the elites who establish partnerships with Chinese political leaders and companies, resonate with the Chinese approach to governance and the media.
A DIMMING LIGHT OF FRIENDSHIP? PERCEPTION OF GHANAIANS ON GHANA-CHINA RELATIONS
The Ghana-China relations is believed to have started in the 1960s. The relations that started as an effort to fight against a common enemy, i.e. imperialism, was characterised by small financial commitments from China (Donavan, 2007). However, the current face of the relation appears to be shifting towards an economic form of partnership with an ever-growing presence of Chinese businessmen in Ghana. The shift in form and direction, has renewed the interest among scholars and policymakers to assess the reasons, merits, and prospects of the new face of the relation. Absent from the literature, however, is an methodical examination of Ghanaian perceptions about the increasing Chinese presence and assistance to Ghana, and the very variable(s) that may inform public opinion. This paper explores the subject of Ghanaian perceptions of Chinese presence in Ghana by examining two core variables-democracy (political variable), and extraction of resources (economic variable) that may influence peoples' opinion. The results of the study show that the overall positive perception of Africans about China in the literature is an over-generalization. The Ghanaian perception about Chinese presence in the country is generally negative, with statistically strong significant relationship between democracy, extraction of resources and perception of Ghanaians on Chinese economic and political influence and assistance in Ghana. The strong statistically significant relationship between Chinese involvement in resource extraction and negative popular perception is a call on Political elites, opinion leaders, stakeholders, and the international community to take a second look at Chinese presence and engagements in Ghana. The study is premised on a data-set from Afrobarometer Round 6.
Sino-Africa relations through the lenses of Western, African and Chinese media
2018
In the modern era, the mass media represents one of the most important factors shaping foreign policy. It plays a central and active role in providing justification for policy positions, and is often the lens by which current events are viewed and given weight by the public and by policymakers alike. An important way that the media performs this role is by its use of ‘framing.’ A useful definition of the term ‘framing’ in this context is when certain aspects of perceived reality are chosen and assembled into narratives which emphasizes facts or events, deemphasizes others, and links them in a manner which promotes a particular interpretation, assessment, or resolution. By the use of framing, the media influences how its consumers understand a particular topic. 1
Optimism Versus Pessmism: An Exploratory Analysis of China in Zambian Media
2013
The huge interest in Zambia-China relations globally, both in academia and popular press, inspires several inquisitions. How have these relations changed and panned out in the present, from a Zambian media perspective? Would a Zambian media approach help provide insights into the ebb and flow of perceptions about China inside Zambia? What can we gather from the Zambian media on the September 2011 regime change in Zambia vis-à-vis China's engagement? In other words, how did Zambian media craft perceptions on and of China in the era of late president Michael Chilufya Sata's leadership? To answer these questions, this exploratory study applies a framing theoretical approach to analysis of content from three Zambian news media: Daily Mail, The Post Online and Zambian Watchdog. The objective is to offer perspectives from this sample of the Zambian media scene with a view to determining optimistic versus pessimistic perceptions on China's image. Selected international media are included for a transient, loose comparative comment. The news framing analysis is fore grounded by literature review to set the background and context in which the selected media reported China between January 2013 and January 2014. After a systematic content review, this article concludes that the three newspapers frame China in more optimistic than pessimistic terms. The article concludes by arguing for the need for audience-based fieldwork as an important next step. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction Even the most cursory of glances at the Africa-China relations would yield Zambia as one among few other African countries to have attracted an above-average amount of media reporting and scholarly research output. Alden (2007:72) for instance characterizes Zambia as 'China's perfect storm', while Sautman and Yan (2010:746) reckon Zambia as one of the countries 'held up in Western discourse [of which media is all pervading] as exemplars of negativity about China in Africa'. Park (2013:153) points out that Zambia is one of the countries where 'Chinese in Africa are becoming targets of increased anti-Chinese sentiment led by opposition political parties and civil society organizations'. Noted Africa-China scholar Deborah Brautigam explains her choice of Zambia (as well as Tanzania) as the site for her fieldwork on the basis that its relations with China are long-standing (Brautigam 2009:20). For both Zambia and Tanzania, bilateral relations with China were established immediately after their independence from British colonial rule in 1964 and 1962, respectively. A viewing of television news programmes, documentaries, and films on the Africa-China topic available on YouTube, the open source video content platform, show generous space allocated to Zambia relative to other African countries in a good number of the episodes. Focus on Zambia by global broadcasters can be seen in the documentary, The Chinese are Coming (BBC, March 2011), as an example among many others in which China is portrayed as inimical to Zambia's interests. In balanced productions such as Al Jazeera's People and Power: King Cobra and the Dragon (November 2012) and When China Met Africa (February 2011) 1 one sees a dichotomy This is best exemplified by the Human Rights Watch report's binary characterisation of 'the Chinese' as: 'good investors, but bad employers' (Human Rights Watch, 2011:3; 30-31). In June 2011, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chastised China for pursuing a neo-colonial agenda in Africa. She made the remarks on the sidelines of an African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) conference in the Zambian capital, Lusaka (see Bloomberg, 2011). The charge of Chinese neo-colonialism in Zambia has been woven into 'human rights' issues relating to labour relations and encompassing low pay, excessive working hours, poor health and safety standards, frequency of accidents, environmental destruction, barring workers from joining labour unions, summary dismissals, etc.
Beyond Fuelling The Dragon: Locating African Agency in Africa-China Relations
2016
The growing presence and influence of China across the African continent has attracted considerable local and international attention and even controversy. On the one hand, the burgeoning 'China in Africa' literature tends to focus on pessimistic assertions about the exploitative aspects of the engagement, and China is frequently represented as a twenty-first century (neo)colonial power that is plundering Africa's natural resources while corrupt, or at best passive, African leaders fuel the metaphorical dragon. On the other hand, more optimistic claims about China's engagement focus on notions of mutual benefits, lack of explicit and burdensome conditionalities, and the economic development opportunities presented by such engagement. What such polarising representations often ignore are questions of African agency and, specifically, the diverse factors that account for the growth in African state interactions with China, and how diverse African actors respond to Chinese engagement. Drawing on a critical African political economy perspective placed into productive engagement with postcolonial approaches and subaltern studies, I investigate the intensification of Africa-China linkages and focus on African agency in Africa-China relations. Specifically, this dissertation draws on the case of Ghana to interrogate the factors that drive Ghana's growing economic relations with China. It explores ways in which Ghanaian actors and institutions engage, shape, negotiate, accommodate, and resist Chinese actors' involvement in Ghana. Data for this project were collected during extensive fieldwork in Ghana and China. Interviews were conducted with state and non-state actors including government officials, civil society organisations, traders, chiefs, and community opinion leaders. As well, the dissertation draws on archival research and critical discourse analysis of key iii policy documents, speeches and media reports on Africa-China and Ghana-China relations. These data provide insights into the historical and contemporary dynamics of China's presence in Ghana's economy and the agentic responses it has engendered. The study finds that the intensifying engagements with China can be attributed to complex factors and motivations. The study also finds that Ghanaian state and non-state actors are often willing partners to Chinese actors and exhibit considerable autonomy and influence in their engagement with China. This finding challenges the popular view of Chinese dominance in engagement with African actors. Drawing on the concept of African agency, the dissertation uncovers how both Ghanaian state and non-state actors attempt to shape and influence their relations with China for their own economic and political ends. Through an examination of the labour politics of Chinese projects and Ghanaian workers, the politics of parliamentary scrutiny, oppositional activities of traders' associations and other civil society actors, the study shows how Ghanaian actors exert agency. Findings from these case studies suggest that Chinese corporate behaviour often is met with assertive local and national responses, which often minimise potentially negative impacts of Chinese enterprises and state interests in Ghana. This finding challenges the dominant view of a 'China' and Chinese entities that are always capable of imposing themselves on African actors who wield no autonomy, influence or leverage. Instead of domination and imposition, the case studies show dynamic interactions, influence, resistance and different forces that shape the terms of Ghanaian and Chinese interactions. Finally, through an investigation of how marginalised local communities attempt to resist the appropriation of their lands by transnational Chinese actors, the study shows iv how local resistance elicits state response to deal with perceived threats to the environment, safety and security. While negotiations and resistance in Ghana point to evidence of agency, they also point to much more. They reflect real oppositional politics borne out of struggle against marginalisation, inequality and injustice embedded in historical, local and global context of dispossession and accumulation, domination and exploitation, and poverty in the midst of wealth.
The Political Economy of Galamsey and Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Ghana
African Studies Quarterly, 2016
Situating China in Ghana's Political Economy "I don't blame the Chinese, I blame our politicians and local chiefs" Resident of Awaso in the Western Region (1) Between 2013 and 2014, Ghana's relations with China gained much global attention through activities of Chinese illegal miners in parts of the country, and the uproar over the disbursement of the $3 billion Chinese loan facility secured by the Ghanaian government in 2011. Though these situations have dogged recent Ghana-China engagements, China has always had constructive diplomatic and economic engagements with Ghana. The post-independent relationship between the two countries has evolved from a political ideological one to currently an economic pragmatic partnership. A framework for this relationship will be incomplete without looking back to the anti-imperialist struggle and the initiation of South-South cooperation at Bandung, in 1955. Ghana (then Gold Coast) was one of the African countries that encou...