The discursive construction of African audiences: a comparative study of CGTN Africa, al jazeera english and enews channel Africa 2013–2016

Abstract

The development of emerging economies, such as China, South Africa and Qatar has given rise to non-Western media networks, which mediate their increasing role in international affairs. These news networks; Al Jazeera English, Chinese Global Television Network (CGTN) Africa and the former eNews Channel Africa (eNCA), are focusing on marginalised parts of the world, consequently constructing new African audience formations and creating imagined transnational communities beyond the nation state. The driving force behind these conceptions is Africa’s economic growth and political stability, which started to shift the global narrative from a dark and hopeless continent to a rising Africa. Nevertheless, the implications of these new transnational players in Africa requires further investigation. This study outlines the evolution of African audience constructions during specific periods in the 2010s, to provide insight into the implications of transnational media within the context of non-Western and emerging economies, particularly Africa. The significance of these developments is best explored through an analytical framework that considers the complex interaction of factors as opposed to traditional centre-periphery approaches. This study therefore draws from Appadurai’s concept of global cultural flows, Foucault’s notion of power/knowledge, as well as Benedict Anderson’s ‘imagined community’.