Editor’s introduction

Abstract

The flow of media between East Asia and Africa is a largely untold story. Whereas it sometimes seems that the only thing growing faster than Asia-Africa trade and investment is reporting on Asia-Africa trade and investment, this in-tensive coverage finds it difficult to step outside of its own assumptions and to discuss itself as media. Tracking, describing, analyzing and critiquing the in-creasingly complex relationship between East Asia and Africa has developed into a burgeoning scholarly field and a competitive journalistic beat. However, those following this growing field are frequently exasperated that after more than two decades of mounting column inches, many half-truths are stubbornly repeated in the popular press and many more questions remain unasked. This edition of African East Asian Affairs turns the focus on the role of media in East Asia-African relations. In particular, we have brought together scholars busy developing new, exciting ways of analyzing the frontiers of Asian-African me-dia engagement and the role it plays in mediating the wider economic and strate-gic relationship between these two regions.