Pandemics and Power: Ep3 Transcript
Episode 3: "COVID-19 and Media Coverage about the Global South"
[Intro music]
[Audio clip from Al Jazeera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot3bEm5aTwU (0:36-53)]:
“When COVID-19 started to spread around the world, aid workers warned of disaster for Africa, fearing for weak and poorly funded health systems in many places and crowded cities making socially distancing impossible. But African countries appear to be managing.”
Afia:
Hey hey hey. Welcome back to Pandemics and Power. Somehow we’ve made it to our final episode - Time flies!
So in this last episode we decided to take you- the listeners- outside of this country many of us call home. Yes these United States of America are where we lay our heads every night, but for many of us the happenings of every place but the West keep us up at night. Recently we saw the hashtag End SARS take over social media along with hashtag Congo Is Bleeding with reference to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s long standing resource exploitation that began with the reign of King Leopold the second. And also hashtag End Anglophone Crisis pointing to the continuous Cameroonian divisions broadly along the lines of language that recently resulting in a massacre of English speaking children.
It’s hard to see ourselves in our own privilege as important when the world is suffering in so many ways. But this episode isn’t actually about the suffering of the third world. Today we’re actually bearing witness to their victories and successes. We’re exploring the ways that the “global south” has overcome COVID 19 in ways that no Western countries have been able to do. And yet, through the reporting of the West, you’d think that we’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. When you read the headlines, all you see are the biases of the writers who continuously place the burden of disease on the third world.
Throughout today’s episode we'll be using the term “global south” to refer to non-western and developing countries to unify our terminology.
Today Nora - my covisionary in decentering this nation in the conversation of COVID- is joining us to talk through this reality and what it means for the future of not only COVID 19 but also reporting on the global South.
Welcome Nora! Let’s take a moment just to introduce yourself and then we’ll dive right in.
Nora:
Hey everyone! My name is Nora and I am an international student at the college from Bethlehem, Palestine studying neuroscience and history of science. And I am so happy to join today’s conversation.
Afia:
Super excited to be diving into this discussion today. While the previous two episodes were very important I was actually really excited to take a moment today to not think about these United States. And instead to dive into a part of the world that we ignore daily.
Nora:
For sure. “Out of sight out of mind” is the comfortable route for human thought. The American population sees the world through the media available to them. So when we don’t see the positive representation of the Global South, we don’t think twice.. And when they are covered in US media, they are portrayed as in need of saving, causing some kind of security threat, or an exotic other .
Afia:
You’re so right. And in the context of the Congo, we erase the people completely, even as we benefit from their resources. Our cell phones, our cars, etc. But I digress.
Nora:
This raises the importance of decentering America for a second. Non-American populations do a much better job at keeping up with international news, but this effort is rare in the United States. Growing up in Palestine I know we kept up with international politics with particular attention to the US to see how it would impact us. It is unfortunate that so few Americans make an effort to see how their elected officials impact the real lives of people abroad. Having the conversation we set to have today is a necessary step towards not only humanizing non-american lives but also learning from them and their intellect.
Afia:
You hit the nail on the head there. I can’t think of any time I sat at the dinner table with my family and discussed what was happening anywhere but right here. SOMETIMES we discuss the impact of our policies on the rest of the world, but it's not a regular occurence.
[Transition music]
Afia:
To get us started, I just want to frame our conversation. This episode will be a little bit different than the previous ones. We won't be hearing direct stories from people. Instead we’ll be looking and listening to news articles that help us to better understand media coverage of the global south in the age of COVID-19. We’ll take a journey around the world through the lens of western media to The Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, and Italy.
We thought it was only rational to spend an episode analyzing the role of the media in how we perceive disease. I mean twitter and instagram started telling anyone who wanted to post about the election to “check before we posted,” They finally recognize the role of media headlines and postings in persuading our understandings and future actions.
So let’s listen to a short clip from BBC.
[Audio clip from BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq29fhtwfC0 (0:12-0:23)]:
“When COVID-19 was just starting to sweep the globe, experts predicted Africa would be devastated with millions of lives lost. But 6 months later the continent seems to be doing much better than expected.”
Afia:
I have a lot of feelings about this but tell me what comes to your mind.
Nora:
I think this is the perfect example for the matter we are here to discuss. The misinformation and mis-portrayal of the international community and particularly the global south.Western media sandwiches positive occurrences between layers of negative contextualization. This is something we would not see happen in reporting of Western countries, and we will hear this loud and clear in a bit as we will see later.
Afia:
I know for myself it was another example of how western media, whether its based in the US or the UK can’t move past this bias you mentioned even when positive things are occuring. You wouldn’t know from that segment that anything good was happening on the continent because we’ve lumped over 50 countries into one reality. We normally associate the global south with worse health outcomes, but in the age of COVID-19, the African continent touted some of the best successes.
Nora:
Yea in the context of COVID the world observed a switch in these dynamics, where Rwanda had some of the world’s leading technologies for combating the spread of COVID. Senegal’s public health guidelines successfully controlled the spread of the pandemic. This is in sharp contrast to western countries like Italy where case numbers were rising uncontrollably. We see the different expectations in the news. So here’s a report from CNN about Rwanda:
[Audio clip from CNN: https://youtu.be/hVV6JXbAgjs?t=229 (3:50-4:15)]:
“Listening to you, I am so impressed by the level of dedication of the country. I mean every country is doing something, but Rwanda with limited resources in difficult circumstances your government has clearly decided this is obviously a priority and you’re gonna put in the money necessary. What more do you need by way of assistance from outside the country?”
Nora:
And we can put this in contrast with reports on Italy, here’s one from BBC:
[Audio clip from BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQdYDkwtvoo&ab_channel=BBCNews (00:53-1:12)]:
“This is Italy, one of the most advanced healthcare systems in the world. In the northern city of Brescia they’re reduced to treating patients in warehouses and tents because of coronavirus. Italy has the worst outbreak by far in Europe, but other countries are catching up.”
Nora:
The drastic difference in tone is striking. Whenever an individual’s response to someone’s success is that they’re “impressed,” that automatically implies a lower baseline expectation, and this is definitely evident in the quote from the first anchor. The tone of shock and surprise at Rwanda’s success, especially in contrast to the West’s failure, is evident proof of that. I mean, it is just unfathomable to western media that the west is failing and that it perhaps can learn something from the global south.
Afia:
I just want to throw in that I’ve been to all of these countries and so the headlines immediately struck me. When I went to Rwanda in 2015, it was right after the Ebola outbreak and Rwanda’s were scanning American’s for Ebola. THAT was when I knew they had it more together than the US ever could.
And no shade to Italy, but while they have the broad structure that we associate with Western European countries, they are struggling with autocrats in their government. They’re not exactly the pillar of international excellence.
But you’re exactly right regarding the responses of Senegal and Rwanda.
So when I read these titles for the first time I was honestly confused. What were these journalists trying to say? That African countries don’t deserve to say they’ve done well?
[Transition music]
Afia:
So when the headline says “The pandemic appears to have spared Africa so far. Scientists are struggling to explain why” The reader can’t help but run through all the images of the impoverished African continent that they’ve been fed throughout their lives.
Nora:
And really the term “third world” in general. These are all headlines written by the West, and we see that time and time again. Westerners refuse to acknowledge the success of countries they once colonized.
Afia:
And in this case, the pandemic didn’t “spare” the African continent. The pandemic didn’t spare anyone. But governments were able to make targeted decisions that either aided or halted the spread of the virus. When we use headlines like “The pandemic appears to have spared Africa so far” we’ve not only clumped the continent into Africa the country, but we’ve also removed any type of agency and power that can exist in places that don’t hold western power structures.
Nora:
ooo let’s get into your point about “Africa the country.” This is one of the best examples of American misinformation about global dynamics.
We rarely see this kind of clumping in media representations of Europe. But we do generally imagine Europe as a developed region with great healthcare and services. I feel like many more Americans would recognize Germany and France as distinct countries with distinct histories than they would Senegal and Rwanda. Even in the case of COVID-19, media rarely reports on how “Europe the continent” is dealing with the pandemic... This is reflected in the huge difference between the coverage of the peaks of the pandemic in Italy, contrasted with the control of the pandemic in African countries like Rwanda, Uganda and Senegal. The one common theme in both narratives is the element of surprise; western news are shook that a western country was unable to handle the pandemic, and are even more surprised by the fact that developing countries are handling it well. It’s like what Trevor Noah said:
[Audio clip from the Daily Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq29fhtwfC0 (0:00-0:12)]:
“The whole world is going through this people. But it turns out there's one place where they do seem to manage the virus better. And that place might surprise you because you’re racist.”
Afia:
[laughs] I laugh every time I hear that clip. It is so brutally honest, but there are no lies. Ok. Thank you Trevor Noah. Unfortunately we can’t seem to see Black and Brown bodies and countries as leaders on the global stage. And so we don’t give them credit where credit is due.
So Nora, how WAS Rwanda handling the pandemic? And what can we learn from the strategies they employed?
Nora:
Well Rwanda’s response came quick and early which made all the difference. From the very first case they received they went on complete lockdown. They installed sanitary and handwashing stations all over the country. They enforced symptom screenings at borders and made testing widely available. They even used robots at testing facilities to decrease human contamination and contact.
Afia:
wow. Tearing up a little bit over here. This is so beautifully thorough and efficient . Imagine living in a country that knew how to mobilize for something that wasn’t war. Well, in the case of the pandemic I we have certainly seen the price that delayed measures cost. And Rwanda was like we are not having it. But too many, honestly Western, countries were like let's wait it out.
Nora:
Italy is a great example of that. The delayed lockdown allowed numbers to rise and rise until the response came too late, but the damage had been done. Yet still, they got more media coverage than did successful countries like Rwanda, Senegal and New Zealand.
Were you not doing study abroad in Senegal for a while Afia? Mind if I flip the table for a second and ask if you have kept up with the response there in particular throughout the pandemic?
Afia:
Yea, I mean I love Senegal for so many reasons even though I never figured out how to speak French. The invisible letters were too much for me. But Wolof I could work with. But, you didn’t ask me to recount my study abroad experience though. Here’s a quick quote.
[Audio clip from Al Jazeera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot3bEm5aTwU (1:09-1:20)]:
“Senegal has one of the worlds highest recovery rates. Researchers there are pioneering a testing kit that can return results in 10 minutes and costs just under a dollar.”
Afia:
This quote was from an Al Jazeera report that was really trying to highlight the different African country responses to the virus.
Nora:
oop which I think is pretty important to note because they are a non-Western media source
Afia :
You right, you right. The response varied across the continent, but a place like Senegal is actually leading the charge. They have temperature checks at every store, 24 hour test results, and disinfectants at the entrance to every school. Like literally spraying down them kids. They are not playing games. Senegal ranks number 2 in a study of 36 countries' responses to the pandemic, with the US ranking 31st.
Nora:
That is awesome. Especially for a country with active borders and immigration. I think that is such a big factor to control for.
Afia:
Definitely. And a lot of this swift response was a result of lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak of 2014. Their goal was to be fully transparent through the whole process and not repeat previous mistakes. And I really just want to add that a lot of these Western countries say that they are responsible for the end of epidemics like ebola, but the only countries seeing to learn from them are those in the Global South.
Nora:
We did see how much easier it was for New Zealand, which is fairly remote, to control the pandemic with a country wide lockdown and stopping airfare until local cases were manageable. That is how it was able to get out of the COVID crisis, and be the first to do so.
Afia:
Yea and I mean there are several examples of countries that have handled this better than the US. But that is not so clear when it comes to media coverage. We’re kind of obsessed with ourselves.
Nora:
As we have heard and discussed, it is pretty clear that “developing countries” have developed to a point where they are able to cope with crises better than some of the healthcare systems the world considers to be THE most advanced.
Afia:
And this is important to keep in mind while consuming mainstream western media. Assumptions of the inferiority of the Global South are often ingrained within media coverage.
Nora:
Exactly, this language usually goes unnoticed because it aligns with the public opinion that has normalized such ideas and leaves them unchallenged. Listeners to keep an open and critical mind when consuming reports.
Afia:
Very fair. And on that note, let's thank our listeners who have made it this far with us in the podcast and thank you Nora for joining me today.
Nora:
Thank you Afia, it was a great conversation!
[Outro music]
Alyssa:
Hi listeners! I hope you enjoyed our last episode of the Pandemics and Power trilogy! My name is Alyssa Panton and I am an author of this episode of Pandemics and Power. We hope that this episode brings awareness to the significance of media perception during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you found yourself immersed in this conversation, we encourage you to stay engaged and become critical thinkers of the information you absorb from your favorite media networks. This episode was written, recorded, and edited by Arambi Eyong, Nora Marzouqa, Alyssa Panton, K. Stawasz, and Afia Tyus. This episode was produced as a part of the Harvard University, History of Science course Significant Stories, taught by Dr. David Unger and Shireen Hamza