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Digital Age as Ethical Maze: Citizen Journalism Ethics During Crises in Zimbabwe and South Africa

Dumisani Moyo

African Journalism Studies, volume 36, issue 4 (2015), pp. 125-144

"This article discusses citizen journalism ethics in crisis settings. It argues for an ontological critique of citizen journalism ethics where the practice must not be judged in relation to the moral taboos of mainstream journalism. Situating citizen journalism within the broader context of liquid m ... more

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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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Memory on Trial: Media, Citizenship and Social Justice

Anders Høg Hansen, Oscar Hemer, Thomas Tufte (eds.)

Wien; Zürich: Lit (2015), ii, 186 pp.

"This book approaches the memory sharing of groups, communities and societies as inevitable struggles over the interpretation of, and authority over, particular stories. Coming to terms with the past in memory work, alone or with others, is always unsteady ground and the activation of memory will al ... 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

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The BRICS Journalist: Profession and Practice in the Age of Digital Media

Svetlana Pasti, Jyotika Ramaprasad (eds.)

African Journalism Studies, volume 36, issue 3 (2015), pp. 1-138

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Journalism and Social Media in Africa: Studies in Innovation and Transformation

Chris Paterson (ed.)

London: Routledge (2015), x, 136 pp.

"Through innovative research studies and expert commentaries, this book documents the fast evolving invention of the relationship between the millions of social media and mobile phone users around Africa and traditional purveyors of news. Whilst social media demonstrates an unprecedented ability for ... more

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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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Re-Conceptualizing the Analysis of Media Development and Trajectories hereof in Post-Colonial Societies

Ylva Rodny-Gumede

Global Media and Communication, volume 11, issue 2 (2015), pp. 131-146

"Using South Africa as a case study, this article presents a new argument for an adaptation of the Comparative Media Systems Model by Hallin and Mancini. The article proposes that factors of race, class and gender and intersections hereof as well as nation-building be added to the model to better su ... more

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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

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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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Grassroots Comics as Participatory Communication in the Khwe Community, South Africa

Andrew Dicks

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

Chima E. Onuekwe (ed.)

Victoria, BC: Friesen Press (2015), pp. 109-132

"The subject of this paper is communicating with indigenous communities via grassroots comics, in this case the Khwe San who live in Platfontein in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The study is largely informed by contemporary shifts in development theory, particularly that of participato ... more

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The Future of Quality News Journalism: A Cross-Continental Analysis

Peter J. Anderson, George Ogola, Michael Williams (eds.)

New York; London: Routledge (2014), xi, 330 pp.

"This new study, a follow-up to 2007’s The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies, includes a comparative analysis of possible alternative business models that may save the future of the quality news business across the developed, intermediate, and developing worlds. Its detailed evaluat ... more

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Puppets for Social and Political Change in South Africa

Marie Kruger

International Journal of Social Political and Community Agendas in the Arts, volume 9, issue 3 (2014), pp. 63-73

"This paper explores the characteristics of the puppet which can be utilized to generate critical thinking and informed choices in a troubled society with reference to projects of historical and contemporary importance. As an animated performance object the puppet has an imagined life which enables ... more

Global Digital Statistics 2014: We Are Social's Snapshot of Key Digital Indicators

Singapore: We Are Social (2014), 181 slides

Armed with Pen and Microphone: Media as Tools for Social Development

Caroline Haidacher

Wien: Frauensolidarität/Women's Solidarity (2014), 78 pp.

"This study shows how women and women’s organisations in Central America and southern Africa use media for social development. One of the milestones of the women’s movement was the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Section J of the Platform for Action, which was a result of th ... more

Global Information Society Watch 2014: Communications Surveillance in the Digital Age

Association for Progressive Communications (APC);Hivos (2014), 283 pp.

"This Global Information Society Watch tracks the state of communications surveillance in 57 countries across the world – countries as diverse as Hungary, India, Argentina, The Gambia, Lebanon and the United Kingdom. Each country report approaches the issue from a different perspective. Some analy ... more

Feature Phone User Survey: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa

London: Balancing Act (2014), 64 pp.

"Feature phone users are significantly more likely to use the Internet almost as much radio and TV for news and information. This is not an either/or set of choices but the Internet is part of the range of media they use. Internet is in second position in Nigeria, third position in Ethiopia and Keny ... more

Promoting Alternative Views in a Multipolar World: BRICS and Their Evolving Role in Developing Media Markets. 9th Symposium Forum Media and Development, 10/11 October, 2013, Berlin

Stuttgart; Aachen: Robert Bosch Stiftung;Catholic Media Council (CAMECO) (2014), 75 pp.

Freedom on the Net 2014. Tightening the Net: Governments Expand Online Controls

Sanja Kelly, Madeline Earp, Laura Reed, Adrian Shahbaz, Mai Truong (eds.)

Washington, DC; New York: Freedom House (2014), 986 pp.

"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fourth consecutive year, with a growing number of countries introducing online censorship and monitoring practices that are simultaneously more aggressive and more sophisticated in their targeting of individual users. In a departure from the pa ... more