DATASET ON INTERNATIONAL MEDIA REPRESENTATION OF AFRICA: A STUDY OF CNN AND BBC

This study examined the international media's representation of Africa, with a focus on CNN and the BBC. Content analysis was employed, and the study’s population comprised media content from CNN and BBC. The sampling technique used was purposive selection of international news networks for the study, as previous studies have proved that they are the most popular international news outlets among Nigerians. From the websites of the two news outlets, the census method was used to select all news stories on Africa and its people. The findings of this study indicate that more than half of the stories on Africa from the two selected international media were written as straight news, at 53.4%. Straight news conveys a tone of seriousness and urgency in the stories it reports. Meanwhile, most of these stories may not even be such that would portray the continent in a positive light, but by writing them as hard news, a lot of attention may have been drawn to stories in this category. The study reveals the frequencies of the different themes of African stories covered by the two selected international media.

本研究聚焦美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）与英国广播公司（BBC），探讨国际媒体对非洲的形象表征。本研究采用内容分析法，研究总体涵盖两家媒体的全部媒体内容。本研究采用目的性抽样法选取国际新闻媒体作为研究对象，既往研究已证实，CNN与BBC是尼日利亚受众中最受欢迎的国际新闻媒体。本研究从两家新闻机构的官方网站中，采用普查法选取所有涉及非洲及非洲民众的新闻报道。研究结果显示，两家国际媒体刊发的涉非报道中，超半数以直述式新闻（straight news）形式呈现，占比达53.4%。直述式新闻在报道中传递出严肃且紧迫的基调。与此同时，此类报道大多无法塑造非洲大陆的正面形象，但以硬新闻（hard news）形式刊发，反而为这类报道吸引了大量关注度。本研究还梳理了两家国际媒体所报道的非洲新闻的不同主题及其出现频率。