A recent study conducted and presented to the International Communication Division of the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference, discovered that African journalists tend to favour the United States over China in their reporting, despite a perceived shift towards China amongst Africans.
The study, which was carried out by two African PhD candidates at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States titled, “Hierarchy of influences and mediated public diplomacy: The case of China’s and the United States’ footprints on African news media,” examined the role of journalistic norms and practices in shaping mediated public diplomacy (MPD) in Nigeria and Egypt.
The study shows that the majority of foreign affairs journalists in Nigeria and Egypt have a more favourable view of the United States foreign missions in both countries, compared to those of China.
This preference influences how these journalists engage with foreign news sources, with the United States seeing their diplomatic communication disproportionately reported on by the news media in both countries.
The study’s findings suggest that several factors contribute to this preference. At the individual level, Nigerian journalists’ political attitudes towards democracy played a significant role in shaping their interest in US diplomatic messages.
As one journalist noted, “I think the US is a model democracy… I tend to pay more attention to US diplomatic messages because they align with my values.”
In contrast, Egyptian journalists’ political attitudes did not appear to shape their interest in US or Chinese messages.
However, the study found that Egyptian journalists highlighted strong access to US media relations teams, which provided them with timely and newsworthy information.
At the routine level, the study found that journalists’ dependence on press subsidies and verification norms also played a significant role. Nigerian journalists, facing resource shortages, relied heavily on embassy press releases for international coverage, giving US messages an edge.