By Gift Briton
The media can influence public perception and policy decisions, including fostering a more informed public discourse to address the increasing number of road traffic deaths in Africa. Yet, as new research highlights, the current media reporting practices have significant gaps.
The report, titled “Content Analysis of Media Coverage of Road Collisions and Road Safety in Africa,” reveals how news on the African continent typically fails to inform the public of the growing road safety crisis’s nature, impact, and scale.
According to the new study, produced by Science Africa with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the current reporting practices, which often emphasize individual fault over systemic issues, hinder public understanding of road safety as a preventable public health crisis.
Of the nearly 1,000 stories analyzed from 25 leading media organizations in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania, published between September 2021 and September 2024, more than half attributed road crashes primarily to poor driver behavior, often leading to victim-blaming.
The stories mostly overlooked systemic issues such as inadequate infrastructure, insufficient laws, and law enforcement, which are critical factors in road safety.
For instance, while pedestrians account for one-third of road traffic deaths in the WHO African Region, media narratives frequently frame these incidents as individual failings.
This approach, experts say, neglects systemic problems like missing footpaths, lack of safe crossing points, and inadequate public transportation options.
“This landmark study – the first of its kind ever undertaken in Africa – shows that news must catch up with science when it comes to road safety. The media has a crucial role in calling for policies and actions that save lives, so we must help journalists dig deeper into the facts, the data, and what works in reducing road deaths,” says Dr Nhan Tran, Head of Safety and Mobility at WHO.
Moreover, 65% of the analyzed news articles treated crashes as isolated events, failing to provide context such as the number of previous fatalities in the same area. Such isolations prevents readers from recognizing patterns and understanding the true scale of the road safety crisis.
Correspondingly, more than half of the articles used the term “accident” instead of “crash” or “collision,” a choice of words that experts say can obscure the preventable nature of these incidents.
Again, just 14% of all reports mentioned road safety laws, 11% mentioned the quality of infrastructure, and 7% noted road safety policies.
According to the WHO African Region’s Road Safety Status Report for 2024 launched in July, 2024, road traffic deaths increased faster in the African Region than any other region between 2010 and 2021, rising by 17%. The African Region accounts for nearly one-fifth of the 1.2 million annual road deaths globally despite holding just 3% of the world’s registered vehicles.
To address these challenges, the report recommends that journalists delve deeper into systemic issues rather than focusing solely on individual road users.
Also, it calls for enhancing professional capacity through targeted training for reporters and editors, which is crucial for better road safety reporting.
Furthermore, the authors advise that incorporating follow-up investigations into causes of crashes, such as road conditions or vehicle maintenance failures, can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to road traffic injuries and fatalities.
Improving media coverage through nuanced reporting on road safety is not just about better journalism but a critical step toward saving lives. Journalists are encouraged to shift the narrative from individual blame to systemic solutions for road safety if the crisis is to be addressed.
Dr Tran adds, “Road deaths are preventable. People will always make mistakes on the roads, but we can ensure that our transport systems absorb errors in ways that reduce the risk of death. This is why news reports must give the full picture and look into more systemic causes and solutions.”
