The lack of interest in the death of a former African leader wasn’t just business as usual in the story of a continent, but a reflection on what we find important in our media diet, writes Mark Sawyer.

It’s been quite a few days. The former leader of the world’s third biggest democracy was gunned down. Much-loved actors James Caan and Tony Sirico, who embodied gangsterdom in The Godfather and The Sopranos, were whacked for real, so to speak (I mean no disrespect!). Boris Johnson both quit and hung on for dear life as prime minister of the UK.

The Australian media every now and then does some hand-wringing about its whiteness. ‘’We’re going to devote more attention to the wider world, not just London and Washington,’’ is the pledge.

Well, Sri Lanka teeters on the verge of collapse, having run out of oil and money. The Marcos family is back running the Philippines, but the novelty seems to have already worn off. There’s an election in Papua New Guinea. That will draw a little attention, and then we’ll put that fragile democracy on the backburner. 

 Australians talk about our future in this part of the world but a story about Boris, or say Meghan and Harry, will smoke the latest doings in countries with 90% of the world’s population.

The world won’t listen: African dream died long before a despot – Michael West