Nicholas Kristof is holding a competition called Win-a-trip, where an American college student will be selected to accompany Kristof on a reporting trip to Africa. This will give the student an invaluable opportunity to learn about issues and controversies in the developing world, travel with Kristof and learn from his vast experience, blog about the trip and have their voice heard on the NYT, and see with their own eyes – perhaps for the first time – malnutrition, lack of clean water, disease, poverty, conflict, violence, pain.
But one response from a student last year caught my eye. She argued that she refused to apply for Kristof’s contest because she thought there was too much negative coverage of Africa already; the world knows about Africa’s problems, its poverty, its hunger.
Americans don’t need any more stories of a dying Africa. Instead, we should learn of a living one. Kristof and his winners should investigate how it is that Botswana had the highest per-capita growth of any country in the world for the last 30 years of the twenty-first century. Report on the recent completion of the West Africa Gas Pipeline that delivers cheaper, cleaner energy to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Tell us about investment opportunities in Nigeria’s burgeoning capital markets.
I agree and disagree. I disagree that we should no longer cover the “negative” aspects of what’s going on in Africa, because reporters aren’t responsible for spinning the stories. They are responsible for telling the truth of things as they are - and this means the good, the bad, and the ugly. Journalism is a mirror of reality, and the reality today is that there are vast problems on the continent. No wonder we hear negative stories every day - it’s not the media, it’s the truth. Instead of blaming the media, we have to take it into our own hands to change the underlying reality, which is the actual problem.
But I agree in another respect. There is enough negative coverage, but there isn’t enough constructive, inspiring negative coverage. There is a lot about war, famine, death, destruction. And there is a lot written objectively, which is, after all, the reporter’s job - to be a watchful, neutral eye, and to tell both sides of the story. This coverage is of course necessary. But it makes readers think, “There is so much pain in Africa, and I really don’t want to see any more of this because there is nothing much I can do. It is too painful to think about so let me just tune it out.” The current, objective news coverage isn’t enough. It encourages fatalism and disheartens the public without offering hope.
In addition to the negative and positive coverage out there, we need a more human face to reporting. We need news coverage that is hopeful and inspiring, that gives readers a reason to care, to give, to get involved, to learn - to fight for something bigger than themselves. We need more columns like Kristof’s. The reason I love Kristof is that he argues for something and gets people engaged; he challenges readers to not just read about atrocity, but to get fired up about it. True, there is already so much written about Africa. But Kristof’s column, I think, brings a fresh perspective to it. Other columnists focus on policies, politics, governments. But Kristof, plain and simple, writes about the people. He brings the news down to earth. He tells stories about peoples lives, about individuals’ pains, heartaches, struggles, and dreams. He gives the reader a personal connection with a human trafficking victim in Cambodia, a child soldier in Uganda, or a microfinance borrower in India. By weaving the magic of personal stories, struggles, and triumphs, he gives readers a glimpse of actual life in the developing world - and by doing this, he is going far beyond the typical “negative” coverage we see.
After all, why is it that countless news stories about war and destruction don’t affect us - but one movie, Slumdog Millionaire, shocked and horrified so many? We’re desensitized to the typical news media, because it reduces people to nothing more than numbers. Pages and pages of death. But inherently, it’s when we hear the personal stories of men, women and children across the globe that we realize: we are all the same, and a teenager just like me shouldn’t be suffering just because she was born somewhere else. And somehow, this personal connection is all the more powerful than a bunch of statistics - it makes us tap into something deeper, and allows us to realize that we are all connected far more profoundly than we can ever imagine.
And that’s what we need to see more of.
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