03 November 2008
Africans Share Impressions of the U.S. Presidential Race
Visiting journalists offer their thoughts on America’s 2008 elections
Washington — When the presidential candidates debated September 26 in Mississippi, journalists from Ethiopia, Mali and Senegal were among hundreds of reporters in attendance. The African journalists came to Mississippi on a U.S.-sponsored exchange program to enable reporters from other nations to observe the U.S. election process firsthand.
Now back at work in their home countries, three of the participants talked to America.gov about their experience, and their impressions of the debate.
In terms of key observations, all cited the emergence of the U.S. economy as the pivotal campaign issue, the significance of young Americans’ engagement in the elections, the underlying issue of race and the effect of debates on the political process. But each encountered some surprises on the campaign trail.
Abiye Tekelemariam, editor and radio presenter for Addis Neger, published as a newspaper and a broadcast over radio, told America.gov, “The U.S. is in a major economic crisis … and the way [this] changed the campaign issues and narratives so quickly was amazing. The first debate was supposed to be about foreign policy … [but] half of the debate was spent on tax policy, health care, financial regulations and other issues relating to the economic crisis.”
The journalists suggested that the emphasis on economic issues, combined with a more politically active student population, might distinguish the 2008 campaign from other recent presidential campaigns.
Mamadou Thior, chief editor of Radio Television Senegal, told America.gov that the venue for the first debate at a university was important because it engaged students in the political process, potentially leading to “a tremendous turnout among young voters for the November 4 elections.”
Alassane Souleymane, deputy editor in chief of Radio Television Mali, was struck by the high level of interest among young people and students in the campaigns and the elections.
All three journalists commented on how the first presidential debate of 2008 took place in a state that was on the front lines of the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1960s. For Thior, “seeing … an African-American candidate ... debating with a white opponent for the presidency” of the United States at a university in the Deep South was deeply moving.
While covering the debates at the University of Mississippi, Thior also met and interviewed John Meredith, son of civil rights activist James Meredith, who was the first black student to enroll at the school in the 1960s. The elder Meredith braved fierce opposition, including death threats, to get a college degree. “I went around talking to people who witnessed that era,” said Thior, “and I noticed that a racial divide is still there, even if relations between blacks and whites improved over the last decades.”
Tekelemariam said that even though “there is a caricature of the Deep South as uncivilized, intolerant and illiberal,” he encountered a different reality. “The people I met were invariably, and in some ways incredibly, decent and tolerant.”
Despite the United States’ challenges and problems, Souleymane said, he saw America at a turning point, and observed that having an African-American candidate is “a very original case.”
THE ROLE OF THE NEWS MEDIA
All three journalists agreed the press plays an important role in shaping the presidential race. Tekelemariam said he found the campaigns and the candidates worried more about tailored messages and “sound bites” than real discourse, and that big corporate media news outlets were not always fair. Thior also said he saw a lack of objectivity on the part of some major media outlets.
The African observers saw citizen journalism as a significant new development for the 2008 campaign. Thior said that citizen journalism is shaping news patterns by letting “ordinary folks have their say about issues [by] becoming reporters. Local channels and newspapers focus on local issues, which is really interesting.”
Tekelemariam added that new media also are quickly becoming an alternative to the traditional news sources. “I was … astounded with the breadth and quality of discussion in some of the blogs, and how they are becoming genuine instruments of a democratic political process.”
The easy availability of multiple news sources caught the journalists’ attention. Thior noticed that “more and more newspapers are for free and are very simple to read” in the United States and that American newspapers are funded by advertising revenue, and not by the government.
Thior wondered whether voters in Africa would welcome U.S.-style debates. He eventually concluded they would, saying, “Debating is very important between politicians [who] ... always promise paradise to voters if they vote for them.”
In reality, however, he said, “both candidates can differ on the same issue and contradict themselves” and that is why debates are important.
Both Thior and Tekelemariam said they think the 2008 election reinforces the image of the United States as a role model for diversity and democracy.
“The profile of the candidates in this election is a testament to the fact that there is no country in the world like America,” Tekelemariam added.
