"This study investigates interactive forms of public communication in the Republic of Benin (West Africa) with a specific focus on the emergence of new media actors. Benin’s media landscape features a variety of media formats, which are constantly incorporating interactive elements. These developm
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ents result in novel roles for both media producers and audiences. This analysis examines communication processes in radio call-in shows on social issues in the Republic of Benin that utilize participatory media formats. The primary figures of interest in these shows are frequent callers who participate in grievance-oriented programmes. Known as ‘grogneurs’, these individuals have now established themselves as respected information brokers within the country. What factors contribute to their prominence, and what are the implications of their success for information practices in the region? This study is using ethnographic methods and examines the motives, skills, and strategies that underpin grogneurs’ information acquisition, networking, and legal protection. It also examines grogneurs’ relationships with journalists, authorities, and broader radio audiences. The article argues that, despite potential role overlap between journalists and grogneurs, both groups endeavour to maintain clear distinctions in their roles to safeguard their reputation and foster interactive media formats." (Abstract)
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"Ethnographische Methoden haben heute in alle kultur- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen Eingang gefunden. Auch in der Medienforschung spielen sie eine zentrale Rolle. Dieses Handbuch trägt die Methodendiskussion in der Medienethnologie zusammen und entwickelt sie am Beispiel konkreter Feldfo
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rschungsberichte weiter: Die dichte Beschreibung von Medienpraktiken, eine kritische Verortung der Subjektivität im Feld und der Fokus auch auf die Methoden der Beforschten sind zentrale Elemente der Beiträge." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Neue Mediengesetze und Technologien verändern das Radio in Westafrika. Tilo Grätz analysiert diesen Wandel am Beispiel der Aneignung von Radiotechnologien in Benin. Er zeigt: Die Prozesse vollz
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iehen sich im Wechselspiel von Produzenten, Hörern und technischen Möglichkeiten unter dem Einfluss medien-politischer Institutionen. Es entwickeln sich lokale Radio-Kulturen, die sich in typischen Themen, Sendeformaten und Nutzungspraxen des Radios im Alltag manifestieren. Die erfolgreichsten Programme sind interaktiv und ermöglichen Diskussionen zu sozialen, politischen, aber auch persönlichen Problemen." (Klappentext)
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"Central to the work represented in this issue is what we have called the emergence of new media entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa. These actors generate a multitude of new (and often not easily definable) genres of information as well as entertainment and distraction, but also persuasion and heal
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ing (Böhme 2013). They are often categorized as cultural brokers (cf. Thalen 2011), mediating between dispersed audiences and spaces of communication, and taking advantage of their privileged access to new media technologies and/or advanced positions in the media field. Thus, we propose to refer back to quite classical notions of intermediaries, stemming especially from the realm of political and economic anthropology, such as brokers or middlemen (cf. Boissevain 1974, 148; Lewis and Mosse 2006), interpreting these figures mainly as entrepreneurs who control second order resources such as information, social relations, or channels of communication. In our articles we exemplify the relevance of such a conceptualization for contemporary African media fields, also beyond more functionalist aspects as we discuss their often ambiguous positions as well, caught as they are between contradicting loyalties to clients and colleagues or authorities, and also between professional standards and aspirations on the one hand and the need for income on the other. This category of media entrepreneurs, benefitting fromthese newopportunities and opening new social spaces and realms of creativity, may include journalists, radio producers (cf. Gunner et al. 2011), media technicians, or artists working within private as well as public structures, as well as those who are establishing institutions that offer media-related training, counselling, and marketing. Other media entrepreneurs are, for example, individuals who, thanks to their mass-mediated appearances and particular preaching style, draw large groups of supporters in their role as religious or political actors (Meyer 2003, cf. also the contribution by Sounaye). Examples of such media entrepreneurship also include the rising number of independent media production outlets, studios, or PR agencies doing public or private contract work, and who often profit from the new opportunities raised by national and transnational ventures in commerce and finance which require advertising and publicity. As already indicated, among those who are benefitting most from these new opportunities are many young people, often graduates, who have not always received formal training to prepare them for a job in media production, but who make their way through the various steps of internship, freelance, and contractualwork, often combining severalmedia activities in the press, in radio andTV, or asPRofficers. Some have even been successful at establishing themselves as leading media figures or local celebrities in this field." (Page 49)
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"In the Republic of Benin, we are currently witnessing an enormous proliferation of religious radio broadcasting in various forms, especially with regard to Pentecostal churches. Apart from already established Christian broadcasters such as Radio Immaculée Conception, Radio Alléluia or Radio Maran
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atha, operating on a regional or even on a national scale, various smaller groups and individual pastors, mainly from evangelical and Charismatic churches, are increasingly contracting broadcasting hours with public, private or community radio stations. Furthermore, many pastors have started to record CDs with prayers and gospel sounds to broadcast, or hire professional media production companies to ensure a large media coverage of their appearances in various media. On the one hand, these strategies represent a particular form of media appropriation, an attempt to obtain a greater share in the changing public sphere, and are part of the growing competition between various religious media actors, especially with regard to their ambitions of moral guidance. On the other hand, these programmes could be seen as stages for creative individual religious actors, among them also laymen, offering moments of self-assertion and granting social prestige." (Abstract)
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"Der folgende Text behandelt einige Aspekte der aktuellen Veränderung der Radiokulturen in der Republik Benin. Der Focus der Betrachtung liegt hierbei auf Gebieten, in denen das Radio das wichtigste Massenmedium darstellt. Gerade hier hat die Radiokultur durch die Einführung neuer, unabhängiger R
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adiostationen – meist als assoziative bzw. Gemeinderadios organisiert3 - in den letzten Jahren neue Impulse erfahren. Zunächst werde ich den institutionellen Kontext der Gründung neuer Radiostationen darstellen und anschließend einige Radiostationen vorstellen. Schließlich wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern verschiedene Sendeformen zur Veränderung der Öffentlichkeit im lokalen wie nationalen Rahmen beitragen, und welche spezifischen Genre der Radioproduktion sich derzeit entwickeln. Als wichtigste Akteure in diesem Prozess werden Radiomoderatoren vorgestellt, die neue Formen lokaler medialer Öffentlichkeiten und Radiokultur im Alltag herstellen. Meine Vorgehensweise verläuft zwischen den zwei klassischen Perspektiven einer funktional-strukturellen Analyse (d.h. welche Formen von Öffentlichkeit werden beeinflusst, welche werden gar neu erzeugt; welche Akteure treten dabei in den Vordergrund, wie werden Genre verändert, welche Rolle nehmen sie ein) und einer an Zielgruppen als Teilöffentlichkeiten (Verständnis, Hörgewohnheiten, Reaktionen, Sprachprobleme) orientierten Sichtweise. Radiokultur soll hier verstanden werden als Gesamtheit der Formen bzw. Inhalte von Produktion und Rezeption von Radiosendungen in einem bestimmten öffentlichen Raum. Der Begriff schließt hier die Organisation und institutionelle Gestaltung dieses Mediums im soziokulturellen und politischen Kontext mit ein." (Einleitung)
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"Radio has played a pivotal role in situations of conflict, crisis, change and development on the African continent. Local radio stations are as important as international broadcasters being both the barometers and agents of change. This text examines African radio broadcast cultures." (Publisher de
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scription)
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