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- Volume 11, Issue 1, 2019
Journal of African Media Studies - Volume 11, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 11, Issue 1, 2019
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Radio waves, children’s rights and community communication: A radio for children’s rights project in Africa
Authors: Vicensia Shule, Hugo Boothby, Samah Ahmed and Anders Høg HansenThis article draws upon research done as part of a formative evaluation of a radio project on children’s rights in Tanzania. Fieldwork was conducted etween January and June 2016 followed by a longer period of analysis. In this article we take the project as a case study of applied Communication for Development (ComDev) and examine the insights it offers into this field of both theory and practice. Making use of data generated during the evaluation process we reflect critically on the project, and the evaluation processes itself, taking participation, community radio, selection, involvement, community exchange and radio practice as our points of departure. The empirical work and analysis revealed a strong potential in the project’s activation of crucial local contexts and webs of communication, but also vulnerability and uncertainty in terms of vision as well as practical models for a sustainable continuation and impact.
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Social media trivialization of the increasing participation of women in politics in Ethiopia
Authors: Bruktawit Ejigu Kassa and Katharine SarikakisSocial media, Facebook in particular, is increasingly serving as an alternative platform for discussing politics in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, it has also become a public sphere in which not only political views are shared but also discourses that ridicule women’s increasing role in Ethiopian politics are constructed and disseminated through. By analysing a sample of Facebook texts which tease the wave of women’s appointment to political power in Ethiopia, this paper argues that the discursive meanings of the texts are indicatives of a patriarchal society’s deep-rooted resistance towards women’s engagement in the public sphere as well as its strong desire to maintain the status quo. The theoretical foundation of the analytic framework to be employed in analysing the Facebook messages is the post-structuralist and postmodern approach to discourse, particularly the Habermasian view of the complex relationship between texts, their contexts of productions and interpretations and the broader life world.
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Watch my back and I watch yours’: Beyond Habermas’ public sphere concept in democratic and participatory dimensions of pre-colonial Shona society public spaces
Authors: Lyton Ncube and Keyan G. TomaselliDebates on communication media and democracy including in Africa are largely anchored in the western Habermasian public sphere concept. Studies employing indigenous African communication platforms and symbols are scarce, prompting Zimbabwean philosopher Tafataona Mahoso to argue that while Africans have a philosophy, we have become ‘illiterate’ such that we cannot read our constructions and symbols. Thus, this article broadens discussions on participatory communication practices and democratic principles by engaging pre-colonial Zimbabwe communication and solidarity relational philosophies of Dariro and Dare (ubiquitous circle) largely located in traditional Shona societies. The philosophical democratic dimensions of these platforms are discussed in relation to Habermas’ public sphere theory. We show that despite western thought generally regarding the non-West as a place of antiquarian traditions and unprocessed data, pre-colonial indigenous African communication systems were characterized by democratic participation, agency and public contest; at times beyond democratic practices and principles espoused by the Habermasian public sphere.
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Speaking to power through newspaper editorials in Zimbabwe
Authors: Mathew Nyaungwa and Anthea GarmanThis article seeks to provide an insight into the complex role that editorials – a newspaper’s institutional voice – play in highly polarised political contexts. It focuses on how the editorials of two Zimbabwean daily newspapers – The Herald, a progovernment newspaper, and NewsDay, a perceived pro-opposition newspaper – spoke to those in power at a time of transition from a government of national unity to majoritarian rule in 2013. The study also sets out to understand how both the newspapers’ editorials over this time responded to a contested political domain. Qualitative content analysis, rhetorical analysis and in-depth interviews were used to consider the tactics employed in the editorials to question and challenge the decisions and behaviours of those in positions of authority. The research findings contradict the common view in Zimbabwe that the privately–owned media blindly support the opposition while the state-owned media do the same with ZANU-PF. The findings show that in the period in question both newspapers exploited the editorial as a space to urge politicians to think of the national common good.
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Boko Haram in the Nigerian press: The politics of labelling
Authors: Mercy Ette and Sarah JoeLabels shape and define public discourse. As condensational symbols, they can serve as political tools and instruments of policy due to the media’s tendency to use labels to create meaning and knowledge about political and social reality. This study examines the politics of labelling through a case study of the representation of Boko Haram in a selection of Nigerian national newspapers. Boko Haram, a transnational terrorist organization responsible for the death of over 20,000 Nigerians and the displacement of more than two million people, has been a major threat to the Nigerian state for almost a decade. Although it was originally perceived to be a domestic problem, its reach across national boundaries has extended its impact beyond Nigeria and it has now been recognized as an international threat. This article explores how labels used to frame this group in the Nigerian press echo geo-ethno polarities embedded in Nigerian politics. The study investigates the representations of Boko Haram to evaluate how the narrative about the sect has been constructed. It reveals that the dominant voices prefer labels such as terrorists and insurgents, which reflect popular understanding of the sect. Through a content analysis of a selection of national news stories, the study argues that the nature of Nigerian politics and media ecology plays a critical role in the media framing of Boko Haram.
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Policy, regulation and implementation of advertiser-funded programming in South Africa: A case of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
Authors: Risimati Maurice Khosa and Miyelani KhosaEvolving technology has changed television viewing patterns, with the resultant effect of advertisers having less confidence in the effectiveness of traditional television advertising. Advertisers and broadcasters alike are, as a result, forced to come up with creative ways to maintain and increase revenue. This has led to the rise of alternative ways of advertising in television, such as advertiser-funded programming (AFP). This study sought to investigate the policy, ethical and regulatory considerations brought about by AFP, and also, the implementation of AFP at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Through the employment of semistructured interviews, the study divulges that the implementation of AFP within the SABC basically follows the trends of implementing AFP worldwide. However, the actual policy and regulatory environment requires an overhaul as it exhibits many flaws. As a result, this study provides possible policy recommendations.
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Zambian media in transition: Media reforms in an economic and political context
More LessThe history and development of the Zambian media has been intertwined with the process of democratization in the country. This article uses the theories of transitology and political economy of communication to analyse the relationship between media reforms and the democratic process. Since 1991, the trajectory of the Zambian media has been presented in the shadow of the political and economic factors at play during the transition to democracy. As part of the democratic transition, political elites promised media reforms, but subsequent developments have made the media increasingly more a prisoner of the political and economic realities, where the state retains control over the media. The government employs rhetoric to create an illusion of media reforms by repeatedly promising to privatize state-owned media. This article therefore argues that even if economic factors exert great influence on the democratic transition in Zambia, the state continues to be a key player in shaping the media industry in the country. It further argues that some of the causes of this stalled transition are historical factors imbedded in the problem of recycled leadership.
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