On the Frontline: Africas PR Makeover
Author: Ali Merifield
Date: 08/05/2009
You don’t have to look far to find negative headlines about how the financial world is ‘in meltdown’, ‘crashing’ and ‘crunching.’ There is an argument that says negative headlines such as these can often exacerbate the problem by constantly ‘beating the drum of despair’ and creating self-fulfilling expectations.
The bombardment of negative headlines makes us feel anxious about our financial futures. Moreover, it seems that for Africa, negative headlines can have an effect on investment flows. For a continent that desperately needs strong private investment in order to become economically competitive, we may have underestimated the role business media has on Africa’s development.
In an article published in the IPRA‚s latest edition of ‚Frontline‚ Camilla Flatt and Jo Crawshaw look at how communicating Africa’s business successes can influence foreign investment into the continent. Read about a study, commissioned by Diageo and carried out by africapractice, that suggests that increased business coverage has played a role in increasing investment into Africa at http://www.ipra.org/frontlinedetail.asp?articleid=975.