The Epidemic Of Africa And The Abduction Of The 200 Chibok

â€Å"I m hearing only bad news from Radio Africa, I m hearing only sad news from Radio Africa†, sang the pop group ‘Latin Quarter’ in their song â€Å"Radio Africa† released in 1985. ‘Radio Africa’ refers to all the news you hear about from the Western press and sadly, this quote still holds truth with the reportings of Africa by the Western press. The situation is made even worse by the fact that the ‘bad news’ is not even reported until it becomes a disaster of epic proportions. We have just recently witnessed the reporting of the Ebola Crisis in West Africa and the abduction of the 200 Chibok schoolgirls in Nigeria by terrorists Boko Haram. These events were barely covered until they became a crisis. With reference to the reporting of the genocide in Rwanda, it â€Å"claimed the spotlight only after there were indisputably ‘lots of dead bodies’† (Carruthers, 2011, p.166). Western press collectively ignores A frica at best and at worst report only ‘bad news’ creating the impression that Africa is at best irrelevant and at worst barbaric. The Western press refers to the press of many developed countries and continents such as Europe and in addition, countries that have been colonised by them such as America. Peter Adamson, founder and author of UNICEF’s annual State of the World’s Children report observed that â€Å"western audiences dramatically over-estimate the problems and dependency of people in the developing countries† (Diane Publishing, 1995, p.31). He argues that Western news’