When you realize the extent to which Int’l Media sometimes get Nigeria wrong, you start to question your acceptance of their default reporting about other parts of the world you’re not familiar with.
If they can get this wrong, what else are they getting wrong?
If they can get this wrong, what else are they getting wrong?
[That’s of course not to say local media isn’t just as guilty of getting Nigeria wrong. Examples abound. But the earlier point was meant to focus on Int’l media. Local media = another chapter entirely].
One of biggest successes of traditional ‘Western’ media has been the ability to elevate a very specific,limited, often-flawed POV (hereinafter known as “Bias”) to the realms of Objective Standard, regarding reporting about ANY part of the world. An admirable achievement,no doubt.
Anyone who knows me knows how much of a fan of The Economist I am. But there are times when I read what they write about Nigeria and I’m like WTF. And then I ask myself, if they’re getting Naija this wrong, how about what I’m reading from them about Burma, or Ukraine, or Lesotho?
And this writing is being done with Absolute Confidence, naturally. An unsophisticated reading conveys the impression that this is the Sole Truth. It is exactly as we are saying it. And you accept that, until your eyes open. Or the scales fall off.
[Having said that, The Economist’s Obits are among the finest pieces of writing in contemporary existence. I used to write Obits for NEXT, and had no other models for that particular form].
Will never forget 2016, when the FT and other media tried hard to impose their ‘Venezuela’ narrative on Nigeria.
A few years and a pandemic later, empty shelves and panic buying and petrol hoarding in the US and UK chastened everybody.
A few years and a pandemic later, empty shelves and panic buying and petrol hoarding in the US and UK chastened everybody.
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