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An unbroken spirit: Afghanistan exiled media since the Taliban takeover
Deep Insights

Berlin: JX Fund (2024), 44 pp.

"A large portion of independent media has relocated to United States of America, Canada, and European countries such as Germany, France, UK, Ireland after the Taliban took over. The teams of many of these outlets operate in a hybrid model with editorial leadership in exile and staff members and free ... lancers in Afghanistan. Just over half of Afghan exiled media (57%) were founded in Afghanistan before the Taliban took over, but others (42%) were established in exile after August 15, 2021. Exiled media publish their content in multiple languages, including both the official languages of Afghanistan: Pashto and Dari (Farsi). Out of 47 media surveyed, 35 also publish their content in English. Afghan women journalists have founded several media outlets spanning various platforms, including online publications, radio and television channels, social media platforms, and podcasts. Through these outlets, they amplify the voices of Afghan women and shed light on the challenges they face under Taliban rule. In exile, ethnic, religious, linguistic, and political affiliations continue to influence the content and ownership of some media outlets, with direct consequences on their credibility. Afghan exiled media mostly aim for nation-wide coverage (90%). Only 10% of exiled media focus on regional coverage. Media consumption in Afghanistan has shifted towards exiled media. In addition, since the Taliban takeover, audiences increasingly relied on the internet, particularly social media platforms, to access information and entertainment programs. The study reveals that Facebook, X, and YouTube are the most popular social media platforms for exiled media outlets – both for audiences to consume content and interact with publishers. Television still stands as the predominant broadcasting platform in Afghanistan, with urban areas exhibiting a higher prevalence of household TV ownership compared to rural regions. Television coverage extends to nearly 40 percent of Afghanistan’s population. At least 12 Afghan TV exiled projects are accessible via satellite, web, social media, apps and streaming platforms. Fact-checking information coming from on-the-ground sources is becoming harder. The Taliban severely restricted information flows. Most Afghan exiled media rely on citizen journalism and anonymous sources. Lack of financial sustainability is a major concern. Afghan exiled media have lost their previous funding opportunities and need to cover budget gaps from international organizations or other philanthropic sources." (Executive summary, page 3) more

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Breaking the Silence: The 10 Most Under-Reported Humanitarian Crises of 2023

London: Care International (2024), 26 pp.

"For the second year in a row, all ten of the most under-reported crises are in Africa. From conflict in Angola to climate change in Zimbabwe, every entry in this report represents countless human tragedies taking place in the shadows of the world’s gaze. Our second most under-reported crisis coun ... more

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China’s Strategy to Shape Africa’s Media Space

Paul Nantulya

Washington, DC: Africa Center for Strategic Studies, April 16 (2024)

"China’s biggest media conglomerate, Xinhua, has 37 bureaus in Africa. This dwarves any other news agency—African or non-African—and is a dramatic increase from just a handful two decades ago. Another Chinese media giant, StarTimes, is China’s biggest player in African digital TV and the sec ... more

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Die übersehene Welt: Der Globale Süden in deutschsprachigen Medien. Positionspapier anlässlich der Gründung eines Netzwerkes

Ladislaus Ludescher

[author] (2024), 23 pp.

"Es bleibt festzuhalten: Durch die mediale Vernachlässigung des Globalen Südens kommen die Lebensumstände von etwa 85 % der Weltbevölkerung kaum in unseren Medien vor. Auch dann nicht, wenn dort Kriege, Hungersnöte oder Epidemien erhebliche Opferzahlen erzeugen. Dabei sind die betroffenen Länd ... more

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Mapping a Surge of Disinformation in Africa

Washington, DC: Africa Center for Strategic Studies, March 13 (2024)

"Disinformation campaigns have targeted every region of the continent. At least 39 African countries have been the target of a specific disinformation campaign. Disinformation tends to be concentrated. Half of the countries subjected to disinformation (20 of the 39) have been targeted three or more ... times, up from just seven countries meeting that threshold in 2022. African countries experiencing conflict are subject to much greater levels of disinformation—facing a median of 5 campaigns– highlighting the connection between instability and disinformation. Countries confronting disinformation typically face multiple disinformation actors. At times, these actors amplify one another’s misleading narratives, while at others, they clash or stay in separate lanes. Nearly 60 percent of disinformation campaigns on the continent are foreign state-sponsored—with Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Qatar as the primary sponsors. Russia continues to be the primary purveyor of disinformation in Africa, sponsoring 80 documented campaigns, targeting more than 22 countries. This represents nearly 40 percent of all disinformation campaigns in Africa. These 80 campaigns have reached many millions of users through tens of thousands of coordinated fake pages and posts. Aggressively leveraging disinformation is a mainstay of Russia’s use of irregular channels to gain influence in Africa. Russia has promulgated disinformation to undermine democracy in at least 19 African countries, contributingto the continent’s backsliding on this front. African elections provide prime opportunities for disinformation. Some employ mercenary disinfo-ops teams. One private Israeli group, dubbed “Team Jorge,” has reportedly implemented disinformation campaigns to disrupt over 20 African elections since 2015. Domestic actors have also increasingly integrated disinformation into their political playbooks, notably during Kenya’s 2022 and Nigeria’s 2023 election. African countries that uphold presidential term limits (i.e., those with stronger checks and balances) are less exposed to foreign sponsored disinformation, with an average of 1.5 campaigns compared to an average of over 3 campaigns for countries without term limits. This underscores the common aim of foreign disinformation to prop up authoritarian actors." (Highlights) more

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Aid and the news agenda: Examining the forces shaping NGO-produced humanitarian media

Michael Sunderland

Bournemouth University, Doctoral Thesis (2024), 268 pp.

"This study examines the external influences that shape NGO-produced news content concerning humanitarian crises in East, West and Central Africa. Employing a thematic analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with humanitarian communicators and a content analysis of the humanitarian press rel ... eases of four major NGOs, it seeks to establish the types of content NGO communications staff consider most effective for achieving mainstream media coverage, how they access such content, and any forces influencing their eventual production of news. In line with notions of media logic (Altheide and Snow 1979; Cottle and Nolan 2007) and news cloning (Fenton 2010), it uncovers a reliance on hard-hitting humanitarian statistics and powerful first-person testimonies, which are considered essential for achieving news coverage. Statistics are found to be most often sourced from publicly available humanitarian datasets, often managed by the United Nations, and are considered susceptible to politicisation by authorities implicated in certain crises. First-person testimonies are usually gathered in-person by NGO staff and are affected by issues of physical access to crisis zones including monitoring by local authorities and demands for media sign-off. Additionally, a humanitarian NGO’s decision on whether to speak out publicly about a crisis is found to be often weighed up against threats to staff and programme safety. Examining these issues through a lens of agenda building theory (Cobb and Elder 1971), this study introduces the concept of agenda erosion, describing the phenomenon by which powerful actors, including host authorities and western governmental and intergovernmental donors, exert influence to undermine agenda building activities by NGOs in the context of humanitarian crises. Methods of agenda erosion might include demanding sign-off of media content, the control of physical access to crisis zones for communications staff, and the politicisation of humanitarian data. Unlike the traditional view of NGOs being producers of information subsidies (Gandy 1982), this concept recognises that, as news producers, NGOs also accept information subsidies, including humanitarian data, from other actors. These subsidies are used by NGOs to increase their own agenda building effectiveness but can also allow other, potentially conflicting, priorities to influence the media agenda too. NGOs are now widely regarded as important players in the production of international news (Cottle and Nolan, 2007; Cooper, 2011; Powers 2018) and these findings suggest agenda erosion is in-part responsible for the continuing adherence of aid organisations to established patterns of news construction (Cottle & Nolan 2007; Fenton 2010; Waisbord 2011; Powers 2018). Only crises with hard-hitting data or emotive personal stories are likely to achieve mainstream media coverage but exposure to such sources is often closely guarded by the most powerful actors in certain crises. As a result, some crises continue to go underreported and NGOs risk being silenced or, worse, used as proxy mouthpieces by powers implicated in the humanitarian context to which they are attempting to respond." (Abstract) more

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Russia, Disinformation, and the Liberal Order: RT as Populist Pariah

Stephen C. Hutchings, Vera Tolz, Precious N. Chatterje-Doody, Rhys Crilley, Marie Gillespie

Ithaca: Northern Illinois University Press (2024), ix, 327 pp.

"Through the prism of the first comprehensive account of RT, the Kremlin's primary tool of foreign propaganda, Russia, Disinformation and the Liberal Order sheds new light on the provenance and nature of disinformation's threat to democracy. Interrogating the communications strategies pursued by aut ... more

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Constructing Africa in Chinese international news reporting: Peace or conflict journalism?

Valerie A. Cooper, Innocent Chiluwa

Critical Discource Studies (2024), 17 pp.

"China’s extensive media presence in Africa aims to distinguish itself through the use of constructive journalism in contrast with the perceived dominance of conflict journalism by Western media outlets. However, many scholars have raised questions of consistency surrounding Chinese media’s use ... more

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Analysis of Peruvian Newspaper Portrayal of Chinese Foreign Direct Investments From 2001 to 2020: An Exploration of Factors Influencing International Economic News Reporting

Longxing Wang, Yicheng Zhu, Juan Diego Zamudio Padilla, Ruitong Huang, Zejia Bi, Yue Shu, Haoyi Chen

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 2598-2625

"In recent years, the economic exchanges between China and Latin American countries have been further deepened, and news about Chinese foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the region responds to economic reality and the different stages of changing international relations and media characteristics. ... more

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‘Keeping an Eye on the Other Side’: RT, Sputnik, and Their Peculiar Appeal in Democratic Societies

Charlotte Wagnsson, Torsten Blad, Aiden Hoyle

International Journal of Press/Politics, volume 29, issue 4 (2024), pp. 1109-1133

"The reach of illiberal international propaganda outlets rests on citizens in democratic countries as recipients and potential disseminators. However, little research has scrutinised the audiences for such platforms. Why do audiences in democratic states consume content from such outlets, and how fa ... more

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Historical Media Memories of the Rwandan Genocide: Documentaries, Films, and Television News

Tommy Gustafsson

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2024), xii, 297 pp.

"The Rwandan genocide is the second most audio-visually recreated genocide after the Holocaust, with approximately 200 films and documentaries produced in 39 countries between 1994 and 2021. Historical Media Memories of the Rwandan Genocide studies the construction, the development, and the recreati ... more

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The cost of media stereotypes to Africa: The relationship between media, investment and economic development

Marie Wilke, Matthew Ferreira, Chuma Mashita, Sheena Shah, Steen Joffe, Stephen Adjignon, Luel Hagos

Africa No Filter; africapractice (2024), 32 pp.

"Africa could be losing up to $4.2 billion annually in interest payments on its loans primarily due to stereotypical narratives that dominate global media coverage of the continent. The media’s portrayal of Africa has long been dominated by persistent stereotypes. This report explores the econom ... more

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Learning along the Digital Silk Road? Technology transfer, power, and Chinese ICT corporations in North Africa

Tin Hinane El Kadi

Information Society, volume 40, issue 2 (2024), pp. 136-153

"While much attention has been paid to how China’s rise as a digital superpower could threaten US hegemony over cyberspace, much less has been written on what the Digital Silk Road, or the presence of Chinese tech firms in developing countries more broadly, means for technological upgrading and de ... more

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Russian Collective Identity Construction in State Media During Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine

Polina Eremenko

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 14, issue 1 (2024), 20 pp.

"In the evolving landscape of communication technology, the interplay between media and collective identity becomes crucial due to its ability to shape the socio-political dynamics of nations. This article aims to address the role of collective identity construction in Russian state media, arguing t ... more

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Problematic Encounters with Wolf Warrior II: Antithetic Reception of “China in Africa” Amongst Chinese and African Audiences

Yu Xiang, Xiaoxing Zhang, Jiarong Zhang

Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, volume 20, issue 2 (2024), pp. 50-70

"China in Africa’ has become an irresistible topic in any discussion of China, with the former’s growing engagement with the latter. The unprecedented popularity of Wolf Warrior II in China, which is set in Africa, is a testament to how official propaganda of national selfconfidence can be affir ... more

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Bound by Exile: Exploring Kinship Dynamics and Role Perceptions among Diaspora Journalists

Tomás Dodds, Rana Arafat, Wang Ngai Yeung

Journalism Studies (2024), 20 pp.

"The escalating dangers journalists face globally have led to a marked increase in media professionals seeking safety away from their home countries. As a result, journalists are increasingly forced to choose between silence and survival, with many opting for the latter in the form of diaspora reloc ... more

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Structural aspects of the Brazilian experience in international broadcasting

Augusto Santos

Global Media and Communication, volume 20, issue 1 (2024), pp. 91-110

"International broadcasting services are typically designed to serve public diplomacy and soft power objectives. Traditionally, Western powers have explored and benefited from this state-sponsored media category. However, countries in the Global South, like Brazil, have endeavoured to establish cros ... more

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Global Media Index for Africa 2024

Wallace Chuma, Rutendo Faithful Nyaku, Trust Matsilele, Grace Itumbiri

Africa No Filter; Africa Center (2024), 46 pp.

"The Global Media Index for Africa assesses and ranks online news stories of the 20 leading news providers that offer primary coverage of Africa for the world. It is also a tool that aims to provide much needed regular 'health checks' on how Africa is framed in the media. The outlets selected are th ... more

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Constructing the Establishment – Foreign Enemy Conspiracies: A Comparative Analysis of the Media Framing in the USA and Egypt

Tamer Farag

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 14, issue 1 (2024), 19 pp.

"Conspiracy theories present a relevant phenomenon in society and are studied within dif-ferent disciplines. One of the aspects of analyzing conspiracy theories is understanding the pattern whereby social movements utilize the media to construct and spread those narratives. In that regard, social mo ... more

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Winning the Battle of Ideas: Exposing Global Authoritarian Narratives and Revitalizing Democratic Principles

Joseph Siegle

Washington, DC: National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (2024), 23 pp.

"Rather than selling authoritarianism as such, authoritarian narratives focus on themes that have popular appeal—while attributing a wide range of visceral grievances to the shortcomings of democracy. Authoritarian narratives fall into four broad categories: 1. Noninterference, Choice, and Threats ... to Sovereignty: Narrative attempts to invoke universal themes such as sovereignty, noninterference, and choice which are presented as under threat from the spread of democracy. 2. Exploiting Grievances in the Global South: Tactics designed to attribute the numerous grievances in the Global South to exploitation by the West. 3. Democracies Failing to Deliver: A narrative that takes aim at the efficacy of democracy and, by implication, amplifies the ill-informed narratives about effectiveness of authoritarian governance. 4. Need for a New World Order: Collectively, the claims of Western interference, exploitation, and governance failures are intended to generate disillusionment with democracy and receptiveness to nondemocratic rule. Autocrats use a variety of channels to disseminate these preferred narratives at scale. The four following methods are particularly noteworthy: 1. Social Media: Authoritarians have taken advantage of the enormous—and still growing—social media sphere to promote narratives legitimizing autocracy. They exploit many users’ limited digital literacy skills through information influence campaigns and the employment of bots and online “troll farms” to peddle their preferred worldview. 2. State Broadcasters: Authoritarian actors also disseminate narratives through state media like RT, Sputnik, Xinhua, and China Global Television Network (CGTN). These outlets have the tone and imprimatur of an official news service, giving them a veneer of credibility that expands their reach. 3. Partnerships with Local Media: Authoritarian state-backed outlets aim to embed their content within national information environments. By disseminating preferred narratives through local media outlets and training foreign journalists, authoritarian actors are able to propagate norms of state control over the public information sphere. 4. Foreign Media Cooptation: Finally, authoritarian states are forging partnerships with other state broadcasters. These relationships have the indirect effect of incentivizing self-censorship and enable the intimidation of journalists and activists who criticize authoritarian leadership." (Executive summary, page 1-.2) more

An unbroken spirit: Afghanistan exiled media since the Taliban takeover Deep Insights

An unbroken spirit: Afghanistan exiled media since the Taliban takeover
Deep Insights