“Paschal Eze, Iowa-based new media strategist and former newspaper editor and talk show host, will at 7pm November 13 dissect mainstream media’s negative coverage of Africa at the African American Museum in Cedar Rapids Iowa.
Eze who has been invited to speak on his signature theme, “Turn off your TV and see Africa,†is expected to draw from his print journalism background and travels in Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world.
“The mainstream media likes the world to believe Africa is the quintessential valley of misery and hopelessness, a place synonymous with backwardness and bestiality and inhabited by people up to no good who are glaringly beyond social and economic redemption. This is grossly unfair and clearly condemnable,†retorts Eze who has addressed wide-ranging secular and spiritual audiences in different parts of the world for over 15 years.
Eze believes all the journalistic talk about being fair and balanced and presenting both sides of a story does not apply to coverage of Africa. The reason, he explains, is that it would not drive ratings and attract advertisements “if CNN or Fox News, for example, shows Africa’s high rise buildings, five-star hotels, vibrant capital markets, cable news studios, basketball players and fans, outdoor cafes, appreciably stocked libraries and bookstores with lots of people, public parks, people driving latest SUVs, well-equipped private hospitals, “cool†university campuses, well-paved boulevards with street lights, airports with beautiful tarmacs and functioning escalators, departmental stores and fast food chains, fashion shops, computerized banking operations and kids in trendy clothes watching CNN or Fox News or playing computer games in the comfort of their own well-decorated rooms.â€Â
Another often ignored factor, according to Eze, is that officials of many non-government organizations operating on the continent persistently present Africans and African neighborhoods in the worst possible way in their TV ads and interviews to attract funding which many a time only serves to promote their own affluent lifestyle in upscale areas of African cities while the much-trumpeted African indigents receive only surface-scratching help.
“I have seen slums and squalor in Nigerian cities of Dopemu and Calabar but I have also seen slums and squalor in American cities of Detroit and Chicago. I have seen some genuinely wealthy and debt-free middle class Africans in Nigeria and Gambia just as I have seen some wealthy and middle class people in America, England and Australia.
“And though there is corruption in Windhoek, corruption also exists in Washington. Though you will find crime in Nairobi and Lagos, you will also find crime in New York and Las Vegas. Yet, there are great achievers and people of integrity in those cities. Put differently, Africa is not what mainstream media has made many people in the northern hemisphere to believe,†Eze contends.
Sponsored by the African-American Historical Museum and Cultural Center Cedar Rapids Iowa, the 7pm November 13 “Turn off your TV and see Africa†event is open to members of the public and admission is free.
For more information, visit the African American Museum’s website.”
