The Africa They See

Studies on media portrayal of places and issues haveyielded useful and informative finding on both causesand implications of portrayals. Perhaps the mostcomprehensive of such a study is the UNESCO’S McBridecommission whose findings Many Voices One World waspublished in 1980.Before many of the concernsof developing countries about negative portrayal bythe western media leading to inaccurate perceptionsand prejudices in the west, remain largely“allegations”.Since the publication of the McBridecommission report and the widespread globalinitiatives by UNESCO to address issues related tothe global media in subsequent years manystudies have been conducted which investigatedportrayal of minorities in the media. Useful andenlightening as it is the body of research on Mediaportrayal has tended to concentrate onanalysis,trends and activities of the press in thewest with only minimal number of studies tracingactivities of the media elsewhere in the world. Theresearch proposes to trace coverage of Africa by twoEnglish language dailies in Turkey Today’s ZamanNewspaper and Turkish Daily News during a threemonth period between October, November and December2008.