‘Africa Rising’ is an ideology which is gaining increasing traction and momentum amongst economists, analysts and those who would wish to present a positive perspective on the continent’s future.Advertising, more than any other mass media platform stratifies its audience along patterns of consumption and as such manipulates, underlines and marks social difference in ways which are now so embedded as to be commonplace. Using a familiar repertoire of images, Africa Rising is ‘advertising’ the message of positivity and optimism in the same way a soap manufacturer might sell a new handwash. The language and techniques of mass-market billboard advertising – what Stuart Hall would identify as a signifying practice – have technical and semiotic echoes in the branding applied to this ‘renaissance’ theme. The effect of this ideological makeover is to forge a conducive environment to gain buy-in from a sector of Kenyan society that can afford the luxury of the aspiration Africa Rising promises. The messages and values communicated by Africa Rising demonstrate ‘a new ideological use for pictures’ (Sontag 2003: 29), however they are not targeted to those at the base of the pyramid who remain socially and economically trapped by poverty and basic subsistence. The visual rhetoric employed by Africa Rising mines a semiotic vocabulary replete with norms and codes which have meaning inside and beyond the continent and which rely on traditional and received visual conventions. If the African renaissance is to translate into a meaningful ideology of transformation rather than ‘a new brick in the wall of cliches’ (Pieterse 2002: 60) it has to speak to all sectors of society and recognize that external indicators of progress do not necessarily serve those who least have the means to serve themselves.

This dissertation interrogates the representation of Africa as rising by examining the conditions that have led to the shift from an Afro pessimistic discourse to a more propulsive one. To do so, it examines how “Africa Rising” functions as a discourse articulated through transnational news networks, global financial, development, business organizations and Afrocentric digital platforms. It analyzes the recurring tropes, symbols and language used to signify the notion of “rising”, how various social actors are involved in the articulation of this discourse, the countries on the continent labelled as “rising”, which ones are not and why? It examines the conditions that have enabled the emergence of this discourse, and how they relate to other discourses. It examines the role of Afropolitans on the continent and the diaspora in the production and dissemination of this discourse through emerging Afrocentric digital platforms. Finally, it analyzes the tensions, contradictions and absences within this discourse and its implications for African countries. To address these questions, the rising discourse is theoretically contextualized within neoliberal globalization and development discourses, South-South relations, Postcolonial, journalism, digital media, and identity frameworks, to reveal the nuanced way that it articulates various ideological assumptions and the intersectional dimensions of race, gender and class in the production of the continent. Methodologically, this project applies a multi-sited critical discourse analysis, to a variety of news media texts from Anglo-American media, Afrocentric digital platforms and institutional reports. It also examines how various institutions deploy the notion of “Africa Rising.” Finally, this study includes interviews with content producers of Afrocentric digital platforms, to understand if and how they engage and situate their work within the “Africa Rising” discourse. This dissertation reveals that the Africa Rising discourse contradicts itself as it homogenizes the continent whilst pushing a neoliberal agenda that excludes countries within the continent that fail to adopt this agenda. It also reveals the tensions of neoliberalism on the continent, as countries with various profiles and histories struggle to adopt these policies. It reveals how various global social actors continue to influence affairs within the continent. Finally, it reveals the role that Afrocentric digital platforms are influencing perceptions about the African continent and how these platforms are intertwined with the neoliberal agenda. / Media & Communication

Today, the mass media is playing a key role in reinforcing globalisation, providing people with information that can make them more enlightened about the world. But apart from being an efficient tool for spreading information and a possible ”window on the world” the media can also produce preconceptions and create distance between people and places. This is a study on how African countries are portrayed in the Swedish Television news. The aim of the study is to describe, analyse and compare how Africa was described in 2003 and how it is described ten years later, in 2013. The analysis is based on foreign news reports in one of the main Swedish public service broadcasters, Sveriges Television (SVT). The theoretical framework primarily consists of theories on media logic and news values, representation, identification, globalisation and cosmopolitanism. One of the main conclusions is that although the amount of news on Africa has increased, the character of the news reports is still dominated by negative events such as wars, conflicts and suffering. Alongside this stereotypical and highly negative portrayal of Africa exists another story that focuses on economic development and success – An image that both brings new insights and creates new stereotypes.