African journalists urged to rebrand Africa

A media consultant in Egypt has tasked journalists in Africa to launch tactical campaign approaches to rebrand the continent.

Dr Samy Abd El Aziz, the Chief Executive Officer of Marcom Consultants, said it behoved on journalists to give positive impression about the continent to help attract investors and rebuild Africa to properly take its place in the world.

He said journalists should focus on issues in Africa and help change her image from the negative perception that the continent was only associated with poverty, deprivation, diseases, squalors and ignorance.

Dr Samy Abd El Aziz was addressing 46 journalists and media practitioners at a workshop on: “The Future of Media in Africa,” held in Cairo, Egypt.

He urged African journalists to launch tactical campaigns to help rebrand Africa’s image and act as agents and managers of African crisis.

The participants, drawn from 22 African countries, include Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali and Liberia.

Dr Samy Abd El Aziz said African journalists were providing stories to their people which they did not need because many of the stories were not reflecting and impacting positively on their lives.

He bemoaned the practice where African journalists provided stories that reduced the continent to nothingness instead of promoting it.

“Journalists in Africa write stories which are preferred by outsiders to the detriment of their countries and the welfare of the people,” he said.

Dr Samy Abd El Aziz said Africans should all be participants in the rebuilding efforts of good images for Africa while journalists should have a strong voice to speak out and be critical about issues that affected the people.

The Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development, in co-operation with Radio and Television Union, Egypt, organised the workshop to strengthen the co-operation between Egypt and other African countries.

The participants would treat topics on: “Tourist Marketing - Broadcaster as a Tool of Building Intellectual Image of Countries and Nations,” “Four Generation Wars,” “Media and Terrorism Struggle” and “The Importance of Co-operation and Co-ordination between African Countries” among other topics.