"Measuring the quality of news media is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of enabling informed decision-making among citizens. Despite the lack of consensus on its definition and measurement, this paper introduces a practice-oriented methodology for evaluating news media quality across print, ra
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dio, and TV. The methodology utilizes quantitative content analysis based on quality criteria derived from democracy theory and refined by journalism professionals and media non-governmental organizations. Since 2017, we have tested and applied this methodology in Tanzania, demonstrating its effectiveness in tracking overall trends in news media quality and evaluating the performance of individual outlets. The findings from the quantitative content analysis were validated through qualitative interviews with editors and reporters. The conclusions of the qualitative interviews confirm the validity of the measurement tool. This methodology can serve as a model for scholars and countries seeking to study news media quality, thereby ensuring that citizens are better equipped to navigate the complexities of information in today’s rapidly evolving media landscape. Furthermore, this paper makes a significant contribution to the scholarly discourse on assessing news media quality, a field that is still evolving." (Abstract)
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"This report presents findings from the third wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS3), conducted between 2021 and 2025. In this iteration, we focused on journalists’ perceptions of risk and uncertainty in their profession and sought to identify key factors that shape how journalists navigate
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journalism’s changing environment. These risks and uncertainties arise from four partially overlapping domains: politics, economy, technology, and news consumption. Accordingly, the WJS3 questionnaire addressed journalists’ safety, editorial freedom, professional roles, news influences, and labor conditions. Our survey confirms that journalism is under pressure. Journalists worldwide are often undercompensated, and more than one-third engage in secondary employment. Economic pressures on news organizations have intensified in most countries. Nearly half of journalists have been targeted with hate speech, while psychological, physical, and digital threats are more prevalent in the Global South than in the Global North. More than 300 researchers from 75 countries participated in WJS3. This report provides a concise overview of key global findings. Subsequent publications will analyze specific topics in greater depth; please visit worldsofjournalism.org for more information." (Foreword, page 4)
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"This book seeks to expand some of the existing, often western and Global North facing, scholarship in the area of Disability and Media Studies to include African perspectives. Featuring predominantly Africa-based contributors, it studies an array of topics on disability and media in Africa, includi
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ng issues of social media, media ethics, including marginalised voices in the media, and disability representation in the media." (Publisher description)
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"Kwizera" means hope. Since 2020, DW Akademie has been supporting a radio station of the same name in northwestern Tanzania. It provides vital information to refugees and the surrounding communities." (Introduction)
"Laure-Hélène Piron (The Policy Practice Director) undertook an analysis of official development assistance to media and the information environment for the Governance Network of the OECD Development Assistance Committee which was published in June 2024. The report shows that the rhetoric of gover
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nments which support freedom of expression and condemn disinformation is not matched by sufficient resources. ODA for media and the information environment has increased since 2002, reaching USD 1.5 billion in 2022, but this only represented 0.5% of total ODA in that year. When infrastructure support is excluded, ODA for media fluctuated around USD 500 million a year since 2008 (representing 0.19% of total ODA in 2022). This is despite the growth of threats facing media, such as the rise of censorship and the dominance of technology platforms.
And not enough aid directly reaches local organisations. Only up to 8% of ODA for media and the information environment (representing only 0.05% of total ODA) is directly channelled to media organisations in partner countries, such as journalists, media outlets or civil society organisations working with media or on access to information. To improve the quality and quantity of ODA for media and the information environment, the report recommends: increasing direct assistance for local public interest media; adopting a broader “information environment” lens; improving coordination between (i) digital transformation and ICT infrastructure and (ii) media and information policies and programmes; improving co-ordination and coherence between development partners (including global initiatives); strengthening the evidence base." (https://thepolicypractice.com)
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"The report has, in summary, shown that although there are positive developments across the Southern African region, meeting the international standards is still work in progress and in some instances, states are regressing. There is evidence of a plethora of challenges that hinder the practice of i
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ndependent journalism and also the continuation of restrictive measures that do not promote press freedom. Journalists who face intimidation, harassment and other forms of violence, in most instances are confronted with the reality of impunity and diminishing political will to protect media workers. As a way forward, it is imperative for states in Southern Africa to adopt the necessary practical measures and implement the 2019 Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa. The calls on States to create a conducive environment for the exercise of freedom of expression, and ensure protection from interference both online and offline." (Conclusion, page 23)
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"Journalists act strategically in response to their political environments, using practices like self-censorship to avoid negative repercussions from powerful actors. But what does self-censorship look like in practice? Grounded in theories of policy response and media sociology, this study uses jou
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rnalistic narratives to examine three strategies journalists employ to publish news while safeguarding themselves in semi-authoritarian contexts with restricted media freedom. Journalists choose among these based on several factors, including the relative power available to them in a particular organizational context, story idea, or angle. The analysis shows that self-censorship is more negotiated and less one-directional than the current literature suggests. The negotiation lens also shows how power dynamics can change on a situational basis, even in contexts where one actor clearly has significantly more power than the other." (Abstract)
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"In 2023, Advancing Rights in Southern Africa (ARISA) through its consortium partner, Internews, undertook the most comprehensive review yet of laws affecting media practice and the freedom of expression, including cyber laws, penal codes, constitutions and acts of parliament, in the sixteen Souther
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n African Development Community (SADC) countries. The Information Ecosystem Analysis (IEA) provides an in-depth overview of the legal provisions that have been enacted or are in various stages of becoming laws in the region, and are being used by SADC governments to stifle and limit press freedom and public debate. Each of the sixteen SADC countries are included as individual country chapters in this report, providing country-specific legal analyses of the relevant Cyber security and related laws used by the respective country’s governments to stifle freedom of expression. The approach used by the researchers considered the legislative environment together with literature on the relevant topics, court cases and media reports about the application of specific laws and focused on incidents of where laws were used, dating from 2020 to present. The respective country analyses have been informed by extensive virtual interviews conducted with journalists, civil society representatives and academics in the region. Attention was also given to countries holding elections in 2023 and 2024." (Executive summary)
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"At a time when uneven power dynamics are high on development actors' agenda, this book will be an important contribution to researchers and practitioners working on innovation in development and civil society. While there is much discussion of localization, decolonization and 'shifting power' in ci
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vil society collaborations in development, the debate thus far centers on the aid system. This book directs attention to CSOs as drivers of development in various contexts that we refer to as the Global South. This book take a transformative stance, reimagining roles, relations and processes. It does so from five complementary angles: (1) Southern CSOs reclaiming the lead, 2) displacement of the North-South dyad, (3) Southern-centred questions, (4) new roles for Northern actors, and (5) new starting points for collaboration. The book relativizes international collaboration, asking INGOs, Northern CSOs, and their donors to follow Southern CSOs' leads, recognizing their contextually geared perspectives, agendas, resources, capacities, and ways of working. Based in 19 empirically grounded chapters, the book also offers an agenda for further research, design, and experimentation. Emphasizing the need to 'Start from the South' this book thus re-imagines and re-centers Civil Society collaborations in development, offering Southern-centred ways of understanding and developing relations, roles, and processes, in theory and practice." (Publisher description)
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"Background: Large-scale social and behavioral change communication (SBCC) approaches can be beneficial to achieve improvements in knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP). Addressing Stunting in Tanzania Early (ASTUTE) included a significant SBCC component and targeted precursors to stunting inclu
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ding KAP related to maternal and child health, antenatal care, WASH, childhood development, and male involvement. METHODS: Baseline, midline, and endline surveys were conducted for a total of 14,996 female caregivers and 6726 male heads of household in the Lake Zone region of Tanzania. Regression analyses were used to estimate differences in KAP from baseline to midline and endline. Results: Women’s knowledge of handwashing and infant/child feeding practices, and attitudes related to male involvement, consistently improved from baseline to midline and baseline to endline. Women’s practices related to antenatal care, breastfeeding, and early child development improved from baseline to midline and baseline to endline. Improvements in KAP among male heads of household were varied across indicators with consistent improvement in practices related to child feeding practices from baseline to midline and baseline to endline. Conclusion: Many changes in KAP were observed from baseline to midline and baseline to endline and corresponded with SBCC programming in the region. These results provide support for the value of large SBCC interventions. Public health efforts in settings such as Tanzania may benefit from adopting these approaches." (Abstract)
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"Populists and the Pandemic examines the responses of populist political actors and parties in 22 countries around the globe to the Covid-19 pandemic, in terms of their attitudes, rhetoric, mobilization repertoires, and policy proposals. The responses of some populist leaders have received much publ
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ic attention, as they denied the severity of the public health crisis, denigrated experts and data, looked for scapegoats, encouraged protests, questioned the legitimacy of liberal institutions, spread false information, and fueled conspiracies. But how widespread are those particular reactions? How much variation is there? What explains the variation that does exist? This volume considers these questions through critical analysis of countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, by leading experts with deep knowledge of their respective cases. Some chapters focus on populist parties, others on charismatic populist leaders. Some countries examined are democracies, others autocracies. Some populists are left-wing, others right-wing. Some populists are in government, others in opposition. This variation allows for a panoramic consideration of factors that systematically influence or mediate populist responses to the pandemic. The book thus makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the intersection between two of the most pressing social and political challenges of our time. The book will be of interest to all those researching populism, extremism, and political parties, and those more broadly interested in political science, public policy, sociology, communications, and economics." (Publisher description)
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"In Tansania etablierten sich seit der Unabhängigkeit des Landes neue und eigenständige Praktiken in der Verwendung kolonialer Hinterlassenschaften. Ausgehend von den aktuellen Gebrauchsweisen dreier Fotografien aus dem späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert zeigt Eliane Kurmann, wie Tansanierinn
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en und Tansanier sich solche Bilder seit den 1960er Jahren aneignen und sie umdeuten, um sie in die postkoloniale Geschichtskultur einzubinden. Dabei widerspiegeln sich die tiefgreifenden Verschiebungen, die tansanische Geschichtsbilder seit der Kolonialzeit erfahren haben. Das Buch geht auch den Entstehungskontexten dieser Fotografien und ihren früheren Verwendungen nach und entschlüsselt die medialen Konstellationen, in denen sie einst ihre kolonialen Bedeutungen erhielten. Die drei Fotogeschichten veranschaulichen, wie koloniale Fotografien zu Bildern der tansanischen Geschichte geworden sind." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective examines how conspiracy theories and related forms of misinformation and disinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic have circulated widely around the world. Covid conspiracy theories have attracted considerable attention from researchers, journalists,
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and politicians, not least because conspiracy beliefs have the potential to negatively affect adherence to public health measures. While most of this focus has been on the United States and Western Europe, this collection provides a unique global perspective on the emergence and development of conspiracy theories through a series of case studies. The chapters have been commissioned by recognized experts on area studies and conspiracy theories. The chapters present case studies on how Covid conspiracism has played out (some focused on a single country, others on regions), using a range of methods from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, politics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Collectively, the authors reveal that, although there are many narratives that have spread virally, they have been adapted for different uses and take on different meanings in local contexts." (Publisher description)
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"Theatre for Development is one of the most dynamic and controversial theatre movements on the global South. Emerging in Southern Africa in the 1970s to address social and economic problems using theatrical techniques, today it is taught in theatre departments across sub-Saharan Africa and employed
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in numerous contexts from health care to agriculture. This book investigates the emergence of TfD from its beginnings to its transformation into a coherent organizational field capable of attracting significant governmental and NGO funding. Drawing on leading African scholars and practitioners the volume examines the complex transnational processes that led to the institutionalization of Theatre for Develoment." (Publisher description)
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