Foreign Policy Blogs

Ignoring International News

I do not watch the American network news programs. There are too many better options and the quality of the evening news programs, while rarely awful, is pretty shallow. I was not surprised, then, to find out that the coverage of international affairs on the network news programs reached a record low in 2008.  I would surmise, then, that the amount of coverage dedicated to Africa is even more dismal and follows the tragedy cycle.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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