Africa Phone Card: A New Space for Constructing Images of Africa

Abstract

Discourses on the negative reportage of Africa have been put at the doorstep of the mass media particularly, television, as well  as newspapers, magazines, and films, These channels have figured prominently as the major sources of information about the continent.  This paper explores another space that has emerged as a new medium for constructing ideas about Africa- Africa phone cards. The cards have become new spaces that produce enduring images about the continent and can be considered as new media text that also construct or define Africa. Through a combination of descriptive analysis of the images that appear on several of these sampled phone cards, interviews with some users of these phone cards, and references to existing literature on the portrayal of Africa in the media, the study reveals how the frameworks underlying dominant media constructions and reportage on Africa are transitioning into new realms. The study concludes that the popular visuals adorning the cards communicate tacit narrative assumptions that shape people’s general conception and understanding of Africa. 

Keywords; Africa, Africa phone card, stereotypes, media, western media, African arts and culture