What is it about?
Drawing on three decades of reporting from Africa for the BBC, I explain what it is really like to be a journalist in the field. This includes dealing with editors in London who expect more than can be possibly achieved, living with BBC editorial guidelines written for domestic situations and the problem of explaining Africa to an audience that has little or no background in most stories.
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Why is it important?
A great deal of academic writing on the media is theoretical. This is - of course - important, but it can be removed from reality. This is an explanation of what it is really like to report from Africa, with all the difficulties, dangers and rewards that this can pose. My primary audience was in Africa, via broadcasts on the BBC World Service radio and BBC World TV. So reports had to serve both a UK audience and an African one, which posed challenges of its own.
Perspectives
I was Africa Editor, BBC World Service News, until my retirement four years ago. During my time I reported from across the continent, covering everything from apartheid to Eritrea's war of liberation from Ethiopia. This included famines, coups and rebellions.
Martin Plaut
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Reporting conflict in Africa, Media War & Conflict, March 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1750635217699546.
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