The Image of China and the United States of America in Selected African Media

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to present the media images of the United States and China in Africa, based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of opinion journalism in Kenya and Zimbabwe. The rationale of the research is dictated by the rivalry for Africa between China and the USA and the need to measure the success of each side at the media level. All the opinion articles in the top five newspapers in each of these two African countries, with references to China or the USA, during the calendar year 2017 have been counted and classified from the point of view of the presence of positive, neutral or negative assessments about China and the USA. The results show that compared to the USA, China has a significantly better image in both African countries. The USA less clearly loses the competition with China in terms of values, sociopolitical and cultural patterns, but more clearly in the assessments of its actual activities in Africa. The quantitative results indicate that in the positive assessments of China, there is no significant contrast between the Zimbabwean (mainly state-controlled) and the Kenyan press. In contrast, the share of the articles with negative assessments of the USA in Zimbabwe (76 per cent) and Kenya (47 per cent) differ substantially. These results correlate quite well with the statements of previous researchers regarding the successes of Chinese soft power and the high expectation for the China model, as well as the recent decline of the image of the USA internationally.