Besieged by clichéd headlines bearing news of the “four Ds” – death, destruction, disease and despair – Africa needs fresh, “new news” reporting, according to Hunter-Gault, a former CNN reporter and current South Africa resident. Combining insightful personal observations and informed coverage of the political and economic tides, New News Out of Africa offers a palatable, balanced report of the continent’s renaissance. The “new news” is not always good news, concedes Hunter-Gault. Instead, it aims for accuracy rather than sensationalism; for the real picture rather than the party line. A veteran reporter who spent 20 years with the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and earned prestigious accolades for her coverage of South African apartheid, she is also the first black woman to desegregate the University of Georgia in the United States. In the first of three chapters, she covers the transformation of the continent’s most promising nation, South Africa. The shift from an apartheid state to a black-led government was relatively peaceful, and the new state has taken steps towards transparency and peer review of neighbouring governments, harbingers of future stability. Though she acknowledges the Aids epidemic, the massive black unemployment and the political infighting, Hunter-Gault believes the 11-year-old democracy is on a stable path toward economic and social development. The need to counteract the mountain of negative press is very real, Hunter-Gault says in an interview with WorldPress.org. “Donor fatigue” and “compassion fatigue” have hit Western organisations that fear that, in light of the barrage of disparaging headlines from Africa, aid encourages dependency or will only fall into the hands of corrupt politicians who continue to sap their citizens. However, she notes the “direct correlation between poverty and security – the condition of Africa makes it ripe for activity by terrorists”. Impoverished, starved citizens are likely to sign on with terrorist organisations that offer money and protection for family members, she warns. Though authoritarian regimes like that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe threaten the stability of the continent, there are a number of young democracies – all less than 30 years old – emerging across Africa, aided by a continent-wide commitment to advancement by courageous journalists and activists who Hunter-Gault claims are “not patient, in a good way.”