Professor Robert Dardenne, an Associate Professor of the Florida State University's Department of Journalism has stressed the need for African media to project the continent positively to attract the necessary foreign investments.
"About 95 per cent of the news items from Africa to the United States and other parts of the world is negative and this is portrayed by Africa's own reporters and media organisations and if there should be progress on the continent its media need to refrain from sending out negative reports," he said.
Professor Dardanne said this on Tuesday when he addressed journalists on "The Edward R. Murrow Programme for Journalists" at the University of South Florida in Florida USA.
The three-week Edward R. Murrow programme for Journalists brought together some 150 emerging leaders in the field of journalism from around the world to examine Journalistic practices in the United States.
He said, "The news that we hear from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, for instance, are portraying the two countries as bad and this is often reported by their own people who are correspondents to the international media."
Professor Dardanne, who is also Director of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies in the University, said the only good news reports in the American media about Africa was its culture and oil finds.
"The success story of Africa depends on you and it must begin with you here. You need to resist the temptation of monetary influence from foreign media organisations and shield your countries; you should device means of marketing the continent so that poverty, ignorance and disease would be eliminated," he advised.
He said Africa had all that it needed to be rich and emancipate itself from the problem of poverty, hunger, conflicts and disease, adding that the role of the journalist must be well defined to ensure good journalistic practices.
He commended African countries with media freedom but cautioned media practitioners not to abuse the system since it had the tendency to divide the people.
Some of the visiting journalists shared their experiences in journalism in their various countries with students and tutors of the Florida State University.
It came out that apart from a few countries including Ghana, the media in most African countries were gagged.
From Caesar Abagali, GNA Special Correspondent, Florida, USA