"This book critically examines how the media assistance and broader "development" sectors have appropriated the catch-all concept of sustainability, originally rooted in economic and environmental fields, to suit their agendas. Analysing 289 project evaluations conducted globally between 1999 and 20
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19, it scrutinizes the tacit discourses underpinning what Pierre Bourdieu termed "the imperialism of the universal" in fostering media systems in the Global South. The book reveals how processes of self-legitimation operate within an increasingly competitive aid market, highlighting a shift from "post-missionary" approaches to business-driven models. Focusing on the often-overlooked African context, it explores nuanced coping capacity in Uganda and the Eastern DRC. Amid questioning of the populist wave as well as power-motivated new entrants, it challenges the recurring aid pattern, emphasizing the urgency of centering social impact and values in media assistance. It offers essential insights for scholars and practitioners navigating the evolving geopolitics of development and public diplomacy. Michel Leroy has been active in media action for over 25 years, both as an implementer and as a consultant. A member of an international research programme on media action, he holds a doctorate from the University of Dortmund. He is now a researcher focusing on the social impact." (Publisher description)
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"This book explores how popular cultural artifacts, literary texts, commemorative practices and other forms of remembrances are used to convey, transmit and contest memories of mass atrocities in the Global South. Some of these historical atrocities took place during the Cold war. As such, this book
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unpacks the influence or role of the global powers in conflict in the Global South. Contributors are grappling with a number of issues such as the politics of memorialization, memory conflicts, exhumations, reburials, historical dialogue, peacebuilding and social healing, memory activism, visual representation, transgenerational transmission of memories, and identity politics." (Publisher description)
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"En contexte d’élections hors pair comme en 2023 en RDC, on s’attendrait à une contestation populaire des résultats. Mais le contraire s’est avéré vrai. Comment expliquer ce paradoxe ? A travers une approche herméneutique, sous-tendue par la recherche documentaire et l’observation dire
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cte, cet article démontre ce paradoxe s’explique par le fait que la CENI a bien managé avec la de communication visant l’intercompréhension à travers le two step flow of communication. En effet, au lieu de s’adresser aux contestataires de droit, les candidats, elle s’est plutôt adressée à l’opinion publique. Mais pour bien atteindre cette dernière, elle est passée par les confessions religieuses, la MOE CENCO- ECC notamment, dont elle s’est servie comme boucliers en même temps qu’elle les neutralisait à travers une subtile dynamique adaptation-résilience. Mais attention ! Certains éléments qui fondent le dialogue, à savoir la vérité : la justesse, la sincérité et la pertinence ont été bafoués. La crise reste donc latente." (Abstract)
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"[...] L’objectif de ce mémoire de DEA était de démontrer la manière dont les journalistes construisent leurs identités lorsqu’ils analysent l’actualité de la semaine sur le plateau de Télé 50. Nous avons considéré l’émission ayant fait objet d’analyse, de discours médiatique.
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C’est pour cela, nous l’avons analysée sous plusieurs facteurs partant des considérations théoriques allant dans le sens du débat télévisé et de l’analyse conversationnelle issue des dynamiques interactionnelles amenant à la construction identitaire des protagonistes. [...] Après l’analyse de l’épisode, nous avons conclu que la visée dominante de l’émission était de faire surgir une vérité, informer voire révéler et pousser les protagonistes à dévoiler leurs positionnements à travers leurs discours. Nous avons retenu dans cette analyse, au regard des identités construites, quatre positionnements des journalistes Kinois. Le premier positionnement est celui des journalistes pro-pouvoir ceux qui sont sous l’inféodation politique des gouvernants. Le deuxième positionnement est celui des journalistes pro-opposition ceux qui sont sous l’inféodation politique des opposants congolais. Le troisième positionnement est celui de ceux des centristes, ceux qui s’efforcent de demeurer Église au milieu du village. Ils ne travaillent pas pour des intérêts partisans mais pour l’intérêt supérieur du public et le bien-être social. Le dernier positionnement est marqué par les journalistes qui sont en quête de positionnement c’est-à-dire ceux qui ne se sont pas encore situés par rapport au régime actuel caractérisé par une mosaïque des partis politiques pro-pouvoir." (Conclusion generale, pages 175-178)
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"In an era when hashtag campaigns like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter capture global attention for victims of injustice, politicians and corporations are now spending billions employing Cambridge Analytica-type consultancies to manufacture disinformation - employing trolls, cyborgs and bots to disrupt
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dialogue and drown-out dissent. In the first study of its kind, this open-access book presents a range of case studies of these emerging dynamics across Africa, mapping and analyzing disinformation operations in ten different countries, and using innovative techniques to determine who is producing and coordinating these increasingly sophisticated disinformation machines. Drawing on scholars from across the continent, case studies document the actors and mechanisms used to profile citizens, manipulate beliefs and behaviour, and close the political space for democratic dialogue and policy debate. Chapters include examinations of how the Nigerian government deployed disinformation when the #EndSARS campaign focused attention on police brutality and corruption; insights into how pro-government actors responded to the viral #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign; and how misogynists mobilized against the #AmINext campaign against gender-based violence in South Africa." (Publisher description)
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"Ce numéro porte un regard critique sur la crise que traverse actuellement la Province du Nord Kivu, et la RDC en général, à cause de la nouvelle guerre imposée au pays par le mouvement rebelle M23. Connaissant une période sécuritaire sombre qui y a motivé l’instauration d’un État de si
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ège, la Province du Nord-Kivu, et plus particulièrement dans les Territoires de Rutshuru et Masisi, est encore objet d’attaques du Mouvement du 23 mars (M23). Dans ces Territoires et dans une moindre mesure celui de Nyiragongo, le son assourdissant et macabre des armes n’arrête pas de sonner dans les oreilles des citoyens contraints à fuir leurs lieux de résidence pour vivre à la merci des intempéries et d’une pénurie humanitaire sans nom dans des camps des déplacés comme refugiés de guerre dans leur propre pays. Il trouble la tranquillité de ces derniers et les assomme, prétendument suite à la non-exécution des accords dits du 23 mars 2009 entre le Gouvernement congolais et le Congrès National pour la Défense du peuple (CNDP)." (Dos de couverture)
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"Greater North Kivu is a region in the East of the DRC characterized by an unending socio-cultural and political crisis that has brought about insecurity, war, massacres, and land conflicts since 1996. Efforts to resolve this war crisis to restore justice and peace have not been successful. The aim
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of this research was to evaluate the film practice in the Greater North Kivu region in the context of this war situation and if those films which were set against this reality had messages that focused on sustainable peace. The specific research questions of the study were: What could be the varying contexts of war and related conflicts from which each of the selected films acquires its character? In what way do the cinematographic messages reflect the context of war in the Greater North Kivu? How do the thematic messages aim to sensitize the population towards peace in the region? What are the opportunities and challenges of film making for peace in the region? What construct emerges as a typology of context and types of persuasion messages that may emerge from selected films of the study. The study adopted a qualitative research design, and constructivism and interpretivism philosophical research paradigms. The target population consisted of film makers in the Greater North Kivu, civil society, community and government leaders. The study concluded that the multiple contexts of the war manifest in the character of the variety of films produced but that the film codes reflecting this reality aim to break and change it thereby creating a new grammar for a new context. In addition, the film for sensitizing works with strategies of arousing emotions that are carefully selected with great sensitivity because of the fragile context of the war situation in its causes, consequences, and what is to be done. The thesis of this study is that the many contexts of the war situation in the region of study manifest themselves in the selected films chosen for the research. In a simultaneous manner the film maker’s codes aim to break the existing contexts to new beginnings. While the film codes may be of the grammar of existing context, their very ambition and motivation is to introduce a new grammar for a vision of a new context, transforming the old one. Based on the findings of the current study, the study recommends the film makers to continue to use potent symbolism in their stories to effectively sensitize the population to the situation and promote the necessary actions. The study recommends to the government and policymakers makers to allocate resources towards the Ministry of Arts and Culture to support local film production, recognizing its potential as a tool for peacebuilding and societal change." (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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"This book focuses on the politics, ethics and stereotypical pitfalls of representational practices surrounding Gender-Based Violence (GBV) from a global perspective. The originality of the volume is linked to its cross-disciplinary perspective as the topic of representing GBV is analyzed across the
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domains of philosophy/epistemology, fiction and the arts (including literature, film, television series and music) and non-fictional representations in the media (including broadcast media, online/print journalism, transmedia activism). The volume identifies contemporary representational practices and the theoretical and critical responses, examining various aspects of popular culture from around the world. In doing so, the editors put feminism in conversation with global trends to identify its cultural frontline." (Publisher description)
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"Hidden information, double meanings, double-crossing, and the constant processes of encoding and decoding messages have always been important techniques in negotiating social and political power dynamics. Yet these tools, "cryptopolitics," are transformed when used within digital media. Focusing on
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African societies, Cryptopolitics brings together empirically grounded studies of digital media to consider public culture, sociality, and power in all its forms, illustrating the analytical potential of cryptopolitics to elucidate intimate relationships, political protest, and economic strategies in the digital age." (Publisher description)
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"Le présent bulletin présente l’analyse des rumeurs récurrentes collectées au cours de la période allant de 01 au 20 mai 2022. Au cours de cette période, 156 rumeurs ont été collectées dont 36 sur les réseaux sociaux et 120 rumeurs dans la communauté. La plupart des rumeurs évaluées
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moyen risqué abordent les questions de théorie de complots ou de la corruption au tour de la gestion de la pandémie. Bien que les rumeurs collectées sur les réseaux sociaux dans la plupart un bas risque (83%), elles reflètent par contre soit le sentiment de frustration (43%), de tristesse (29%), de peur (14%) de la part de la population." (Page 1)
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"The pandemic made inequality, discrimination, exclusion and structural inequity more palpable, and rather than stagnating in indignation, it reactivated a sense of rebellion and contestation. The strength and sharpness with which we connect social justice, gender justice, environmental justice, eco
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nomic justice and racial justice with the potentials and limitations of digital technologies is undeniable. Using this intersectional lens, we need to document and build our own narratives about the challenges that we face related to the impacts of the pandemic and reflect on how our advocacy priorities as well as the ways we do advocacy are changing and keep being modified and adjusted. At APC we have strengthened capacity to design and implement collective and contextual community responses to the multiple challenges and crises that we face, while having a greater awareness of the kind of global responses that should be prioritised, based on shared but differentiated responsibilities [...] GISWatch 2021-2022 focuses on responses to some of the fundamental questions brought by the pandemic to inform civil society’s advocacy around digital technology issues and their potential to shape future horizons. As illustrated on our cover, a sustained struggle will be necessary in the years ahead, but not only in the public spaces. A nuanced approach to advocacy will be essential to open multiple ways to bring about positive change." (Preface, page 6)
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"A survey in Cameroon revealed that journalists are faced with some challenges (such as lack of training and lack of resource persons) in covering environment topics, especially those related to forest and climate change adaptation. In order to address these challenges and contribute to the improvem
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ent of the journalistic style of reporting topics on forest and climate change adaptation with more scientific knowledge and to create a stronger scientific base of event coverage, pilot capacity-building initiatives were initiated with the specific objectives as follows: (1) training of journalists during workshops; (2) fellowships award for research activities to communication master students; (3) mentoring of senior and junior journalists and (4) open reflection on how to mainstream forests and adaptation to climate change in curricula of communication schools in Central Africa. This last initiative of mainstreaming forests and adaptation to climate change in the school curricula was seen as a possible sustainable way to promote scientific and environmental communication in Central Africa. These activities initiated by CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research) under the framework of CoFCCA project (Congo Basin Forest and Climate Change Adaptation) were pilot initiatives aiming to inspire others on capacity building and research related to scientific and environmental communication in Central Africa." (Abstract)
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"UNESCO’s support to the DRC in 2020 and 2021, through its Kinshasa Office, has mainly focused on the construction and consolidation of a strategic dialogue between the government, state agencies, the media, social society, academia and international organizations. This way, UNESCO helped pave the
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way for the involvement of all concerned stakeholders in discussions to develop policies and strategies to create an environment conducive to the respect and protection of freedom of expression, access to information and the safety of journalists. In October 2021, Congolese authorities approved the holding of a General Assembly of Communication and Media (Etats généraux de la communication et des médias), which will take place on 24-27 January 2022." (Page 2)
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"Each year, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) publishes a list of the ten most neglected displacement crises in the world. The purpose is to focus on the plight of people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines, who receive no or inadequate assistance, and who never become the centre
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of attention for international diplomacy efforts. This is the list for 2021. For the first time, all of the ten crises are on the African continent. That many African countries are figuring high on the list is far from new. For example, the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has become a textbook example of neglect, featuring in this list six times in a row. Most international media outlets rarely cover these countries beyond ad hoc reporting on new outbreaks of violence or disease, and in several African countries the lack of press freedom is exacerbating the situation. Then there’s donor fatigue, and the fact that many African countries are deemed to be of limited geopolitical interest. The low level of funding limits the ability of humanitarian organisations both to provide adequate humanitarian relief and to do effective advocacy and communication work for these crises, creating a vicious circle." (Page 4)
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"This survey had two main goals: 1. Report on gender equality in the media in four countries across Sub-Saharan Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 2. Draw up a strategic document pinpointing the needs of industry players in these four countries, along with r
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ecommendations to inform the agency’s stance on designing and implementing new projects to support gender equality." (Introduction, page 4)
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