The principle cause of Africa's problems is found in its underdevelopment. This phenomenon is not self inflicted by Africa. Africa can only be responsible to the extent that it was too weak to resist it since the advent of colonial rule up to now. Poverty, indebtedness, lack of tolerance, political and economic pressures from donor communities constitute the root causes of our problems. But it is the latter which is most subtle because sometimes it comes in form of offering solutions and therefore difficult to deal with.
International media seem to be part and parcel of such pressures.
In this brief paper, I point out three main aspects in which international media has served to sustain Africa's anxieties rather than being a source of constructive information on Africa. First, coverage of Africa in the international media is inadquate. Second, reports on Africa are by and large made out of context thereby obscuring circumstantial data by ommission. Third, much of the information on Africa describe it without analysis or with highly superficial and simplistic backgrounds. After this I will give a proposal on the way forward in reporting Africa.