High-res *Unhappy thoughts means some combination of foreign aid, immigration and refugees, civil war and guerrilla warfare, terrorism, “war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity” (all one category), famine, drought, or AIDS. Over the whole period, this collection of negative topics averaged 28% of total articles on the continent. Again, the tagging system that the Times uses is opaque, the tags are vague, and most importantly, it seems like a lot of articles with “Africa” as the location tag lack desciptive tags (like “famine” or “ponies”). In short, be skeptical of the graph’s validity.

*Unhappy thoughts means some combination of foreign aid, immigration and refugees, civil war and guerrilla warfare, terrorism, “war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity” (all one category), famine, drought, or AIDS.

Over the whole period, this collection of negative topics averaged 28% of total articles on the continent.

Again, the tagging system that the Times uses is opaque, the tags are vague, and most importantly, it seems like a lot of articles with “Africa” as the location tag lack desciptive tags (like “famine” or “ponies”). In short, be skeptical of the graph’s validity.