Positionality and Commercialization of Political Content in US, UK Media Coverage of African Elections

Abstract

Democracy, as the argument goes, has assumed a media character in the midst of mediatization of global politics. This has become more glaring in media coverage of politics vis-a-vis elections. In a way, it has fundamentally ignited the debate on media imagery and projection of power. Overall, the coverage to a large extent is particularistic in a sense as western media re-enacts the social realities of the global south to western audience. This chapter therefore argues that at the very core of this pattern of western media coverage of the global south, specifically, African elections, lies the positionality of issues and the commercialization of political contents. A recurring decimal of this coverage of African elections is the dominance of commercial contents over political journalism, mediatization, democratization, and political contents. The chapter also extrapolates the degree to which western media position African elections in a commercialized way and the implications of such media construction on political communication.