"This book places television in Africa in the digital context. It addresses the onslaught of multimedia platforms, digital migration and implication of this technology for society. The discussions in the chapters contained in this book encompass a wide range of issues such as digital disruption of t
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elevision news, internet television and video on demand platforms, adaptations, digital migration, business strategies and management approaches, PBS, consumption patterns, scheduling and programming, evangelical television, and many others." (Publisher description)
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"For the first time, a complete mapping of the film and audiovisual industry in 54 States of the African continent is available, including quantitative and qualitative data and an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses at the continental and regional levels. The report proposes strategic recomme
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ndations for the development of the film and audiovisual sectors in Africa and invites policymakers, professional organizations, firms, filmmakers and artists to implement them in a concerted manner. The film and audiovisual industry in Africa has the potential to create over 20 million jobs and generate US$20 billion in revenues per year." (Short summary, page 2)
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"Deriving from innovative new work by six researchers, this book questions what the new media's role is in contemporary Africa. The chapters are diverse - covering different areas of sociality in different countries - but they unite in their methodological and analytical foundation. The focus is on
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media-related practices, which require engagement with different perspectives and concerns while situating these in a wider analytical context. The contributions to this collection provide fresh ethnographic descriptions of how new media practices can affect socialities in significant but unpredictable ways." (Publisher description)
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"This book brings together fresh evidence and new theoretical frameworks in a unique analysis of the increasing role of social media in political campaigns and electoral processes across Africa. Supported by contemporary and historical cases studies, it engages with the main drives behind the variou
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s appropriations of social media for election campaigns, organization, and voter mobilization. Contributors in this volume delve into changing and complex aspects of social media, offering an appraisal of theoretical perspectives and examining fascinating case studies which social media use is redefining elections across Africa. Contributions show that new media ecologies are resulting in new policy regimes, user behaviors, and communication models that have implications for electoral processes. The book also provides preliminary analysis of emerging forms of algorithm-driven campaigns, fake news, information distortions and other methods that undermine electoral democracy in Africa." (Publisher description)
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"The results of the study indicate that copyright industries make a significant contribution to the national economy of Botswana. In 2016, these industries contributed 5.46 per cent to value added and 2.66 per cent to the total labor force; meanwhile, in foreign trade they contributed 1.28 per cent
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to exports and 3.47 per cent to imports, yielding a negative trade balance of 1,988.80 million Botswana Pula, as imports exceeded exports by this amount [...] The contribution of the copyright industries in Botswana compares well with that of other countries, especially in Africa, that have undertaken similar studies. They contribute 5.46 per cent to value added compared to 11.1 per cent in the USA, which is the global highest. In Africa, Botswana’s contribution is the highest, followed by Kenya’s at 5.3 per cent. In terms of employment, the highest contribution is 11.1 per cent in the Philippines and the lowest is 1.9 per cent, in Ukraine, while Botswana’s contribution stands at 2.66 per cent. Compared to other African countries, Botswana contributes the least to employment." (Executive summary, page 7)
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"In the past two decades or so, Botswana has witnessed a spectacular growth of prophetic Christianity and experienced a media revolution through the emerging use of new media. While studies have generally focused on either the growth of Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity or the new media revolutio
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n, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of emerging prophetic ministries, entailing the appropriation of new media and how this has accelerated the development of religious practices in Botswana. In light of positioning and mediatisation theories, this paper examines the ways in which prophetic ministries position themselves and shape the religious landscape of Botswana and how prophetic ministries have adopted and appropriated the use of new media technologies. It argues that the synergy between prophetic ministries and technological developments of new media opens a new space for cultural production of religious practices and experiences as well as religious imagination, experience and identity." (Abstract)
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"This report maps the current landscape in respect of digital rights and online freedom of expression in East, West and Southern Africa. It looks at the trends regarding law and policy developments, as well as recent litigation, within these regions. The report focuses on 18 countries – 6 per regi
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on – and tracks the recent developments that have taken place in these countries. Part I of the report provides an overview of the litigation before the ACHPR and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) in respect of freedom of expression. Parts II, III and IV of the report look at the trends generally in East, West and Southern Africa respectively, as well as some of the key legal and civil society actors working on digital rights and online freedom of expression, and include a snapshot of some of the notable developments – both positive and negative – that have occurred in the 18 countries under consideration in this report, as well as reflections on opportunities and challenges for vindicating digital rights within each of the countries. Lastly, Part V considers what the next possible opportunities will be for digital rights and online freedom of expression litigation in the region." (Pages 5-6)
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"This book is about news and journalism in Botswana, which is an underresearched topic. It is aimed at students of journalism or media studies but is also useful to media practitioners interested in learning about the environment in which they work. The idea for the book came to me after I left the
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University of Botswana where I had taught and researched for six years. During that time I amassed a large amount of information that I used in lectures and research seminars that were delivered to relatively small numbers of people. I have taken that information and repackaged it, added to it, and produced this book. There are nine chapters covering a broad range of topics including history; law and media freedom; ethics; gender; how media contribute to good governance; election coverage and representations of LGBTI people." (Introduction, page 4)
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"The volume digs beneath the standardised and universalised veneer of professionalism to unpack routine practices and normative trends shaped by local factors, including the structural conditions of deprivation, entrenched political instability (and interference), pervasive neo-patrimonial governanc
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e systems, and the influences of technological developments. These varied and complex circumstances are shown to profoundly shape the foundations of journalism in Africa, resulting in routine practices that are both normatively distinct and equally in tune with (imported) Western journalistic cultures. The book thus broadly points to the dialectical nature of news production and the inconsistent and contradictory relationships that characterise news production cultures in Africa." (Publisher description)
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"This exploratory study [.] argues that in a continent where traditional media organizations are increasingly failing to hold power to account, not-for-profit organizations are leading by example, setting the agenda and constantly scrutinizing those in power. This study further looks at the motivati
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on behind the formation of three not-for-profit investigative organizations, their funding model, as well as their impact in their respective countries. The following organizations are being studied: South Africa’s Amabhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism; Nigeria’s Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism; and Botswana’s INK Centre for Investigative Journalism. This study also argues that although these organizations are playing a crucial role in keeping power in check, their overreliance on donor organizations may spell doom for some of them." (Abstract)
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"Botswana’s government as one of the celebrated postcolonial democracies in Southern Africa continues to have the state owning and controlling the media – in particular, broadcast media. The history of government-owned and controlled media in Botswana can be understood through colonial lenses
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it stands out as a product of historical entanglements with the influence of apartheid South Africa’s role, and the invention of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) hegemony. These were further mitigated by other factors that include the sections of Information and Broadcasting’s own internal politics and growth, and, within the geopolitical prism, the Cold War period. This article focuses on the history of radio in Botswana showing its multiple origins and the conflicting visions as to the role and nature of broadcasting in the colony and postcolony. We posit that the aims of modernization, nationalism, national identity and public versus government ownership all had their place in the establishment of radio in the country. Further, we argue that the powerful presence of a coercive and quite overbearing neighbour, South Africa with its South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and a paternalist British voice alongside an anxious postcolonial government, all shaped the eventual identity of Radio Botswana." (Abstract)
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"The top six roles, all with means above 4.5 and standard deviations below 1, for Botswana journalists, were a mix of those aligned with a liberal press (e.g., report things as they are) and those relevant to development journalism (e.g., support national development). “Report things as they are
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(mean=4.80) and “Educate the audience” (mean=4.70) were the top two roles for these journalists (see Table 1) with 96.2 percent and 94.1 percent of the journalists respectively saying that they considered these roles “extremely” or “very” important. The least important roles, both with means below the midpoint of three, were “Be an adversary of government” (mean=2.62) and “Convey a positive image of political leadership” (mean=2.40); these journalists did not want to take a seriously adversarial stance with government but neither did they want to convey a positive image of political leaders." (Journalistic roles, page 1)
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"Batswana overwhelmingly express support for media and individual freedoms. This suggests that freedom of expression – both personal and collective – is regarded by the Batswana as an essential attribute of a functioning democracy. Despite recent government attempts to suppress the media and ind
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ividual freedoms, Batswana have remained firm in their commitment to these freedoms. These findings were revealed by the recent Afrobarometer survey of a representative sample of 1200 adult Batswana conducted in October 2008 by faculty from the Departments of Political and Administrative Studies, Sociology and Statistics at the University of Botswana." (Page 2)
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"Observing the emergence of public service broadcasting on the eve of colonialism in Botswana (early 60s to early 2000s), the central thesis of the article is that the roots of control of the media in contemporary Botswana can be traced to British anxieties about the possibility of a nationalist rev
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olution in the protectorate, following political trends of the anti-apartheid black nationalist movements in neighbouring South Africa. To understand the continuing deep-seated fear of letting go of state ownership of particularly Radio Botswana, the Botswana Daily News and Botswana Television (BTV) is to understand the fragility of Africa's postcolonial nation states, and thus its bureaucracies. Common belief has it that because Botswana is ethnically homogenous, it therefore experiences very little threat to its nation-building project, the truth is that stifling debate has been an important function of government control of the media. Even with the advent of social media platforms and their unprecedented influence in African politics (as in the Arab Spring), in Africa broadcasting will remain a vehicle for mobilising power and states seem intent on maintaining that control for the foreseeable future." (Abstract)
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"The study has shown that as a developing country, Botswana has done well to develop and structurally position the mobile telephony sector for the benefit of its citizens. This is evidenced by the high rate of subscription of mobile telephony countrywide and continuous attempts by the government to
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network under-served communities. However, the sector has been left in the hands of a quasi-governmental corporation and private individual businessmen. In addition, there is serious competition for subscribers amongst network operators, uneven diffusion of network technologies and inadequate communication signal in some remote areas. Therefore, this study argues for additional reforms, with a view to strengthening and positioning the sector for effective use in order to deliver social services and increase diversification of the economy." (Abstract)
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