Chinese and Japanese Media Diplomacy in the Global South: Comparing Two Visions of Asian Influence in Africa

Media lies at the heart of how both China and Japan are trying to expand their influence in the rest of the world. Chinese state-owned media has expanded rapidly into foreign markets, while the Japanese government is trying to utilize the global popularity of Japanese media for diplomatic purposes. That said, the Japanese and Chinese governments differ fundamentally in how they use media as a soft power tool. This becomes especially clear in emerging media markets like Africa. This talk compares Japanese and Chinese media diplomacy models in the Global South, with a particular focus on Africa. It argues that Japan and China represent two different models of media diplomacy that that will affect how states will brand themselves in the 21st century. 

Cobus van Staden is a lecturer in Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He specializes in the overlap between media and politics. He teaches on a wide range of topics, including political economies of media, China-Africa relations and public diplomacy. He is also a co-founder of the China-Africa Project, the web’s largest English-language forum for the discussion of China-Africarelations.The China-Africa Project currently has about 260,000 members and its weekly China in Africa Podcast has been downloaded more than a million times.

This seminar is hosted by the CEU Africa Research Group.