"Although some studies have previously indicated that the stereotypical western mainstream media narratives about Africa may be shifting, this Special Issue highlights the stickiness of the stereotypes, and some of the platforms on which they continue to be repeated. Some of these studies further sh
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ow how African media are also responsible for ongoing circulation of the stereotypes. While the data are discouraging, there are pockets of hope on digital media (including social media), where women and youth are taking back the proverbial pen using storytelling and humour to show that Africa is neither monolithic, nor all doom and gloom. Even through the COVID-19 pandemic, Africans entertained the world with music, dancing and comedy, proving resilience and optimism, against Afropessimistic narratives." (Abstract)
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"This study identifies who is talking about climate change in Africa, both in the mainstream media and on Twitter, and analyses the key messages emerging from the different platforms. For the mainstream media, we used Google’s Global Database of Events, Language and Tone (GDELT) platform to access
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articles using the search terms ‘climate change AND Africa’ or ‘climate change’ and the name of all 54 African countries. We then identified the top five countries with the most articles in the sample and using random sampling, undertook a frame analysis of the articles. Regarding Twitter, we downloaded tweets containing ‘climate change AND Africa’ or ‘climate change’ and the name of all 54 African countries, identified who was tweeting and what they were tweeting about. We also identified key African climate change activists and analysed their tweets. While the nature of mainstream media coverage varies across the top five countries, a slight shift towards articles focused on adaptation and mitigation was observed, away from purely disaster narratives. Worryingly, for Twitter, very few African voices are tweeting about climate change and what they are tweeting does not draw much attention to pertinent issues on the continent in respect of climate change." (Abstract)
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"Africa is a diverse and complex continent, consisting of 54 countries, 5 regions and about 2,000 languages. This report identifies what influences African youths' attitudes and decisions. It is based on a survey of 4,500 people, aged 18–35, in nine African countries: Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Ivory
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Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe. These nine countries act as proxy for the continent and provide evidence of a wide range of attitudes to the issues raised." (Page 2)
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"Storytelling is the most powerful way for donor and non-governmental organisations to convey their work because stories allow audiences to connect on both intellectual and emotional levels. However, much of the storytelling about development work in Africa is unethical and perpetuates harmful and s
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tereotypical narratives about the continent. Stories that reinforce stereotypes about Africa often arise from the power dynamics between those who are telling the stories and those about whom stories are being told. This practical guide aims to address some of these issues by providing practical, ethical guidelines for storytellers to share their work on the continent [...] This handbook considers the challenges of ethical storytelling and provides practical examples of how difficulties might be overcome. It looks at all the stages of the storytelling process: conceptualising a project, planning, gathering material, producing a draft, gathering feedback on it, and producing a final version before disseminating it. As part of the process of developing this handbook, we reviewed 36 academic papers and books chapters covering the subject. We also interviewed eight African storytellers, including filmmakers, photographers, radio producers and writers who were researching and producing material about Africa for an international audience or for donor agencies." (About this handbook, page 1)
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"The literature on African youth narratives about Africa is sparse. Only one report in the literature review focussed on youth narratives, and it indicated that youth did not value their own stories, but relied on western tropes in storytelling. We came across nine recent reports based on attitudina
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l surveys (six of which were done by the British Council) but they did not explore youth narratives, and also mainly interviewed youth in higher education, even though the bulk of African youth are not in higher education. Nevertheless, we found 23 journal articles, book chapters and theses on African youth identity, which will be explored in more depth in this report." (Executive summary)
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"In 2018 the fictional country Wakanda from the film Black Panther was the fourth most mentioned African country on Twitter, after Egypt, South Africa and Kenya. The fact that Africa’s 4th most talked about country doesn’t exist tells us two things: pop culture is a powerful tool for narrative w
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ork and we need to do more to make Africa’s 51 remaining real countries more compelling. This data point was unearthed during a literature review to understand what insights already exist about narrative in Africa in the media. The review was part of our mission to unpack narrative and give some real substance to that well used phrase “we need to change the African narrative!’ We analysed 56 documents of literature (post 2000) including research reports, books, chapters, and academic journal articles [...] So, what did we find? A few surprising facts like the one about Wakanda, but admittedly nothing we didn’t already suspect. Things you need to know Western narratives about Africa in the media are around two narrative strands, i.e. Afro-pessimistic and Afro-optimistic. The main themes we found were: Poverty is rife, how this narrative has shifted the most however, is with a rise in business reporting; African leaders are depicted as poor leaders, who exercise weak governance, leading to failing or failed states; Incomprehensible violence is prevalent; Africa is rife with diseases, especially HIV/AIDS and Ebola; Africa is mostly a place of wildlife and nature, but this is being rapidly eroded by urbanisation and poaching ..." (Executive summary)
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"This book investigates the role of media and communication in processes of democratization in different political and cultural contexts. Struggles for democratic change are periods of intense contest over the transformation of citizenship and the reconfiguration of political power. These democratiz
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ation conflicts are played out within an increasingly complex media ecology where traditional modes of communication merge with new digital networks, thus bringing about multiple platforms for journalists and political actors to promote and contest competing definitions of reality. The volume draws on extensive case study research in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Serbia to highlight the ambivalent role of the media as force for democratic change, citizen empowerment, and accountability, as well as driver of polarization, radicalization and manipulation." (Publisher description)
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"It is often assumed that a robust, free and independent media will contribute to the deepening of democracy by keeping governments accountable and broadening citizen participation in deliberative democratic debates. But in new democracies such as South Africa, the deepening and broadening of democr
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atic participation is often curtailed by challenges such as unequal access to the media, the orientation of mainstream media towards elite audiences and renewed attempts by sources of power to control the free flow of information. Despite the promise of a peaceful, equitable and democratic society after the end of apartheid, conflicts continue to erupt due to continued social polarisation, vast socio-economic inequalities and new struggles for power. In South Africa these conflicts include social protests on a daily basis, repeated outbreaks of xenophobic violence and disruptions to the parliamentary process. This paper probes the role of the media in these conflicts from the perspective of journalists who have reported on these issues. The paper explores ways in which journalists critically reflect on their abilities to perform the roles expected of them within a normative framework informed by the Habermasian ideal of deliberative democracy. The reasons they offer for not fulfilling these roles, and the conditions underpinning these failures, lead them to question the ability of the South African media to contribute to an emerging democracy." (Abstract)
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"Given that the nature of civil society in different countries is different, and also often shifting in response to political changes, examining the relationship between civil society and media production (mainstream and alternative) in Egypt, Kenya, Serbia and South Africa involves being sensitive
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to both specificity and commonality. The types of civil society organisation across these country contexts are diverse, challenging the construction of a simple definition, with different types of activism emerging across time. Even as countries make shifts towards democracy, gains can be easily lost and recouped, as Egypt has shown in recent years. Unpacking the relationship between media and political activism is also complex, given that there are a range of activisms including social and political activism which also sometimes overlap. The terrain is currently extremely dynamic: while the mainstream media may follow old routines of news gathering, and may be subjected to both state and self-censorship, the new media terrains open to possibility for dialogue and exchange, but also for the spread of dissent. New forms of activism also challenge the mainstream media routines, such that, for example, the media workers also monitor social media for story leads." (Conclusion)
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"This paper explores how Egyptian, Kenyan, Serbian and South African civil society organisations (CSOs) use communication and relationships with media to engage in democratic contestation. Individual interviews were conducted with 91 CSO members who participated in the various democratisation confli
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cts listed in MeCoDEM’s research design [...] The study found that key sources of conflict identified by the interviewees included group identity (e.g. religious and ethnic identity) and contestations around notions of citizenship. Interviewees also identified the distribution and control of power was another key source of conflict - Egyptian, Serbian and South African activists all placed significant importance on networked civil society. Thus, communications among members and with the outside world was key to redistributing power. However, Kenya’s CSOs saw their power as stemming from the ability to build healthy relationships between different groups of people, and so the primary communication activities centred on citizen education. Egyptian, Kenyan and Serbian activists viewed regular elections as a key marker of democracy, and the media was correct to focus on such issues. But South African activists suggested that the media focussed too much attention on elections, and not enough given to local participatory mechanisms of listening to citizens." (Executive summary)
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