Briefing Paper

Coverage of Senegal’s Pandemic Response in Western Online News and Algorithm Filtering

Senegal, a small and politically stable coastal West African nation, has been hailed for its rapid response to combat the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), for which it has received significant attention in Western media. This essay examines Western online news coverage of Senegal’s swift action against COVID-19 and the innovation the country employed to tackle the outbreak. It does so against the backdrop of the international flow of information and how algorithm filtering challenges this notion.