In a new report, Care International says events in Africa are being underreported in the media as global attention shifts to conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.
Care International's research singled out 10 African countries — including Zimbabwe, Uganda, Burundi, Zambia, and Senegal — that are suffering crises such as climate change, conflict, poverty, hunger, violence and political instability but are getting little news coverage.
It said more than 77,000 articles were published last year about these countries — while the iPhone 15 generated more than 273,000 stories.
The report, released last week, took the unusual approach of aggregating online articles in Arabic, English, French, German and Spanish. It found there were more than 215,000 articles last year about Prince Harry's book "Spare," but only 11,000 about the deadly violence and displacement in Burkina Faso.
There were more than 273,000 articles about the "Barbie" film, but only about 1,000 about the floods, drought and hunger in Angola that affected some 7 million people.
The report, titled Breaking the Silence, mentions many other African crises that are getting little to no media attention.
Stefan Brand, who works with Care Germany, explained why the continent's humanitarian crisis is underreported.
"The crises, the conflicts such as the war in Ukraine and now in the Middle East are receiving the most coverage by the international journalists in every country or in most of the countries and therefore smaller crises are more in the shadow of these big conflicts," said Brand. "But I also think that the media channels are more and more forced to save money because of a lack of interest by the public."
Experts point to reduced media budgets
Douglas Okwatch is the secretary of the Foreign Press Association, Africa, an organization of African journalists working for foreign media. He said media budgets have been shrinking, reducing the number of stories being produced from the continent.
"I think post-COVID countries globally really are constrained in terms of resources," he said. "Therefore, many countries, particularly the ones that own these big international media, are looking at where to cut budgets. And probably the media is one of the places, or the easiest places, to cut budgets. And when you cut budgets, then that has a direct implication on coverage."
International media's closure of foreign bureaus also is blamed for the underreporting and fatigue that has set in after decades of unending conflicts and humanitarian crises in some African countries.
Some critics have accused foreign media of focusing more on Africa's conflicts and suffering than its potential and contributions to the world.
Okwatch, who is also a journalist, said other sectors and global competition for Africa's resources and support are getting more coverage than the humanitarian crises.
"We are not just focused on the humanitarian — the fewer, the lesser humanitarian stories and things in Africa are on a downward spiral in terms of focus on Africa," he said. "I think if there's less coverage on humanitarian crises, probably the coverage has also shifted toward economic interests and geopolitical interests."
Brand said access to African countries and investment in stable media can improve coverage in Africa.
"I think, in general, governments need to give journalists access to the countries and especially the crisis of the region so reporters and journalists can report on these crises," said Brand.
"Foreign media needs to pay more attention, accept more pictures from African journalists, freelancers from countries, foreign countries, African countries," said Brand. "And media needs to invest in good, stable journalism, foreign correspondents, freelancers and local partners."
According to the United Nations, more than 300 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, about half of them in Africa.
Care International calls for the media to tell African humanitarian crisis stories so aid agencies and relevant authorities can take urgent action to save the situation.
