commbox Africa

Annual Review 2015

London: Book Aid International (2015), 19 pp.

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Publishing for Peanuts: Innovation and the Journalism Start-Up

J. J. Robinson, Kristen Grennan, Anya Schiffrin

Columbia University, School of International and Political Affairs;Open Society Foundation (2015), 200 pp.

"Our remit was to look for innovative media outlets that are producing high-quality news, that are technologically innovative and that might actually survive financially. Accordingly, we spent three months interviewing media innovators around the world and reading what others have written on the sub ... ject. This report is divided into seven sections: 1) this introduction, 2) our main findings, 3) two sets of recommendations, one for the media development community and another set for people starting a media outlet, 4) an “Innovation Index” listing practices that we found around the world, 5) a description of our methodology, 6) a review of practitioner reports we read, 7) write-ups describing 35 media outlets, based on interviews we conducted [...] We were inspired and encouraged by what we saw. All over the world, independent media outlets are innovating and overcoming obstacles. Globally, start-ups are demonstrating the drive to take risks for the sake of a good idea. The challenges facing these outlets—and the innovations employed to tackle them—broadly fall into four categories: editorial, business, distribution and security. Operating with agility, media start-ups are finding creative ways to gather and disseminate information. In India, Gram Vaani uses a mobile phone social network to connect the rural poor and circumvent legislative prohibitions on radio broadcasting. In Zimbabwe, The Source survives in the repressive media climate by focusing on business journalism. Oxpeckers in South Africa uses geomapping to report on rhino poaching. Crikey in Australia has built a successful business model based on soliciting tips and scandal from the same audience it reports on and Kenya’s African SkyCAM deploys drones to avoid negotiating with police for access to disaster zones [...] Instead of finding a clear model for what works, we found confirmation of many things we knew or suspected. Independent media outlets vary in size, ambition and model. Few have fully succeeded, while many do one thing well, which typically reflects the founder’s particular strength—usually in journalism or technology [...] Most media outlets we found are small, run by a few full-time staff supplemented by volunteers and freelancers, and supported by a combination of grants, donations and haphazard business endeavors. The leaders at most organizations we interviewed were motivated by a desire to produce high-quality journalism rather than meet particular financial or audience goals." (Executive summary, page 5-7) more

The Impact of Media Content on Children in South Africa

Youth Research Unit (YRU)

Film and Publication Board;UNISA, Bureau of Market Research (2015), 94 pp.

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Etre journaliste dans les Grands Lacs: Une identité en (re)construction

Marie-Soleil Frère

In: Médias d'Afrique: Vingt-cinq années de pluralisme de l'information (1990-2015)

Marie-Soleil Frère (ed.)

Paris: Karthala (2015), pp. 207-223

"Marie-Soleil Frère propose une analyse de l'identité professionnelle des journalistes en RDC, au Burundi et au Rwanda. Partant d'une perspective historique, elle montre comment la profession a évolué dans les trois pays, de la période du monopole étatique à celle du pluralisme médiatique et ... more

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Le don de livre, mais à quel prix, et en échange de quoi ? (Book donation programmes for Africa, part 2)

Raphaël Thierry

[author] (2015), 76 pp.

"Un des arguments prioritaires du don de livre en Afrique, c’est qu’il n’y a pas (ou pas assez) de livres. C’est en fait, peut-être, l’inverse: il y a un monopole du livre étranger qui ne permettrait pas au livre africain de rayonner suffisamment pour être connu/reconnu dans le monde. L ... more

Media and Journalism in Peace Work

Christiane Kayser, Flaubert Djateng (eds.)

Berlin: Brot für die Welt (2015), 110 pp.

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Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels

Carolene Ayaka, Ian Hague (eds.)

New York, London: Routledge (2015), xiii, 269 pp.

"This book presents a wide ranging survey of the ways in which comics have dealt with the diversity of creators and characters and the (lack of) visibility for characters who don't conform to particular cultural stereotypes. Contributors engage with ethnicity and other cultural forms from Israel, Ro ... more

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Customary Law and Media Regulation in Conflict and Post-Conflict States

Nicole Stremlau

In: Routledge Handbook of Media Law

Monroe E. Price; Stefaan Verhulst; Libby Morgan (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2015), pp. 237-252

"In the process of drafting new media laws for states emerging from violent confl ict, or transitioning towards more democratic governments, the role of customary law is often overlooked. While “best practices” or international standards draw on widely accepted norms of international human right ... more

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Sensational Movies: Video, Vision, and Christianity in Ghana

Birgit Meyer

Oakland, Calif.: University of California Press (2015), xix, 380 pp.

"Tracing the rise and development of the Ghanaian video film industry between 1985 and 2010, Sensational Movies examines video movies as seismographic devices recording a culture in turmoil. Birgit Meyer captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination ... more

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Entertainment-Education for Health Behaviour Change: Issues and Perspectives in Africa

Chima E. Onuekwe (ed.)

Victoria, BC: Friesen Press (2015), xix, 271 pp.

"Entertainment-education for Health Behaviour Change: Issues and Perspectives in Africa is a collection of essays from some of the leading scholars in entertainment-education, including writers from South Africa, Nigeria, and the United States. Chapters cover a wide range of application and strategi ... more

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TMF 2015-2018 Strategy: Strengthening Media for Accountability

Tanzania Media Fund (TMF) (2015), 51 pp.

"By October 2015, the TMF project will have transitioned from being a donor initiative to a new legal entity. Since 2008, the TMF project has been using grants as a way to increase quality content in as well as to strengthen the Tanzanian media landscape. This new strategic plan, which outlines the ... more

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Pluralism with Little Diversity: The South African Experience of Media Transformation

Jane Duncan

In: Media Pluralism and Diversity: Concepts, Risks and Global Trends

Peggy Valcke; Miklós Sükösd; Robert G. Picard (eds.)

London: Palgrave Macmillan (2015), pp. 237-251

"This chapter explores the South African experience in attempting to achieve a more diverse and representative media that articulate the aspirations of the country, after decades of apartheid which skewed the media towards white people. South Africa has not developed a diversity measurement tool, su ... more

Untold Stories: How Corruption and Conflicts of Interest Stalk the Newsroom
Top Insights

London: Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) (2015), v, 82 pp.

"This report, which has been produced by a group of distinguished journalists and their supporters, examines the broad scope of the crisis. It covers countries where media are on the frontline of tough political battles, such as Egypt and Turkey. In Ukraine, for instance, the practice of paid-for jo ... urnalism is a tool routinely used by politicians at election time. The same is true in India. In other countries, including Nigeria, Philippines, and Colombia the precarious working conditions of news staff provide fertile conditions for corruption and “brown envelopes” or under-the-table cash payments to reporters and editors which are a routine feature of journalistic work. The struggles facing journalists in settled democracies, such as the United Kingdom and Denmark, are less brazen, but no less challenging and in a range of countries across the Western Balkans with a shared and painful history, media corruption hinders aspirations to break free from the legacy of war, censorship and political control during decades of communist rule. The story is of an uphill struggle. Everywhere there is a crisis of confidence inside newsrooms caused by crumbling levels of commitment to ethics, a lowering of the status of journalistic work and a pervasive lack of transparency over advertising, ownership and corporate and political affiliations. Government control over lucrative state advertising, which is often allocated to media according to their political bias, remains widespread. At the same time, the elimination in most countries of the invisible wall separating editorial and advertising has created a surge of so-called “native advertising,” hidden advertorials and paid-for journalism. It was this conflict of interest that plunged the crisis-prone UK press into a new bout of handwringing in February 2015 when Peter Oborne, a leading political journalist, quit his job at the Daily Telegraph accusing the management of censoring stories about HSBC bank, a leading advertiser caught up in a tax scandal. These reports tell essentially the same story of deep cuts in editorial investment, undue pressure on newsrooms, and media increasingly dependent upon atypical models of ownership in which media have become the trophy possessions of powerful figures and institutions in pursuit of wider corporate and political objectives." (Introduction, page iii-iv) more

Explosive Connections? Mass Media, Social Media, and the Geography of Collective Violence in African States

T. Camber Warren

Journal of Peace Research, volume 52, issue 3 (2015), pp. 297-311

"Growing evidence indicates that the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can substantially alter the contours of collective violence in developing nations. However, empirical investigations of such effects have generally been hampered by an inability to systematically meas ... more

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The Emergence and Growth of Vernacular Radio in Kenya: A Case Study of Radio Having a Positive Economic Impact

Edwin Okoth

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2015), 32 pp.

"Edwin Okoth, a business journalist at the Daily Nation in Kenya, has examined whether the recent boom in vernacular radio stations in his country has improved the livelihoods of ordinary citizens. In his research paper Edwin uses a case study of how one vernacular radio station called Ramogi FM, wh ... more

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African Journalism Studies: The First 60 Years

Jo Ellen Fair

African Journalism Studies, volume 36, issue 1 (2015), pp. 22-29

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Moving Stories: International Review of How Media Cover Migration
Top Insights

Aidan White (ed.)

London: Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) (2015), 106 pp.

"We asked writers and researchers to examine the quality of coverage and to highlight reporting problems as well as good work. The conclusions from many different parts of the world are remarkably similar: journalism under pressure from a weakening media economy; political bias and opportunism that ... more

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Free Speech and Censorship Around the Globe
Top Insights

Péter Molnár (ed.)

Budapest; New York: Central European University Press (2015), x, 552 pp.

"This is a book about free speech narratives. Stories about how imagination and rational thinking in wildly different cultures capture, imagine, and conceptualize what freedom of speech means. 1989 and 2011 are only two recent (in historic perspective) turning points when freedom of speech and freed ... more

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