Africa in the Canadian media: The Globe and Mail's coverage of Africa from 2003 to 2012

Coverage of Africa in the Western media has been problematic because of the dark characterisation of the continent's socio-political and economic affairs. Consequently, Africa's positive contributions to the global economy, as well as its diversity in linguistic, cultural, political and social systems are unknown to many in the global north. Using the content analysis technique, this study examines the nature and depth of the Globe and Mail newspaper's news coverage of Africa. The analysis shows a paradoxical news discourse at play in the newspaper's overall coverage of Africa from 2003 to 2012. Thus, the image of Africa, as manifest in the paper's overall coverage, is a mixture of positive and negative representation.