Greening Africa's News Deserts: The Search for Sustainable Local Media in Sub-Saharan Africa

"Local media play a critical role in information ecosystems, and their weakness in many African countries mirrors and reinforces social inequalities."

This report, published by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) Media Programme, seeks to investigate the sustainability issues and opportunities facing local and community media in Africa. In light of the worldwide technology-driven crisis facing journalism, it focuses on the characteristics of the African media landscape in the search for solutions to support sustainable, quality local media on the continent.

The report starts by looking at the importance of local media in Africa. The term 'local media' is seen to include a wide range of forms and categories, including alternative and community media, regardless of platform, ownership, or whether they are operated for profit or not. Mostly, it refers to media that works to strengthen the provision of useful information that empowers citizens at the local level. As explained in the report, "Local media play an important role in information ecosystems. They record and publicise events and processes, acting as a watchdog over the exercise of power. They provide a forum for discussion of important local issues and build a sense of community and often of identity. It is a voice for the poor and marginalised". In addition, local media play a particularly important role for economically poor and marginalised communities, where there is little business incentive for commercial media, and they fill gaps left by national and metropolitan media.

A discussion on the local media landscapes in Africa follows, highlighting the extent and nature of news deserts, the lack of local resources, and the ways in which political dynamics may play out, with media being captured by local power-holders. The report makes the point that African media economies are significantly different from those elsewhere. For example, "Newspapers are uncommon outside major cities and the classified ad market...has never been an important feature. Instead, governments have played a bigger role through direct funding and advertising. In large parts of the continent, the most important formal source of information is radio, which is less affected by platform power. Overall, news deserts are a much older problem in Africa than in the Global North, for reasons that have little to do with the tech giants."

The report draws on international experience to develop policy suggestions to support sustainability that fit African contexts. It highlights a number of principles that should underpin policy choices:

• a focus on systemic impact;
• particular attention on the areas where information poverty is greatest;
• platform-neutrality, while preferring platforms used most commonly; and
• ongoing monitoring of developments in and around media at local levels to deal with problems that may arise.

Taking these principles into account, the report outlines several areas of possible support for local and community media:

1. Developing an enabling environment, including legal and regulatory measures and the provision of back-end support in areas such as research and training.
2. Strengthening funding mechanisms, including:
   • indirect subsidy such as tax relief and the zero-rating of news websites;
   • direct public funding, as exists for the media in several countries;
   • the fair use of government advertising, often a major factor in media economies in the Global South;
   • commercial income and ways to support the access of local and community media to advertising markets;
   • responding to the power of digital platforms that need to make a fair contribution to local information ecosystems;
   • improved coordination among international donor agencies in order to deliver greater impact, including support for the International Fund for Public Interest Media; and
   • the development of new business models that draw on diverse sources of income, with particular focus on direct audience support.

The report ends with a set of specific recommendations directed at the different role players: wider society, including civil society groups; governments and regulators; international donors; media organisations and networks; and the digital platform giants. For example:

• For civil society, the report recommends setting up mechanisms to monitor the behaviour of governments, mainstream media groups, and other power holders in and with regard to local and community media in order to guard against local capture and other misuse.
• For governments and regulators, it recommends, among other things, legal frameworks that give clear recognition to the special role and status of community-based, non-profit media, while also valuing local for-profit media that play a constructive role.
• International donor agencies should, for example, improve coordination and strategic coherence in order to ensure that existing media development funds achieve the best outcomes.
• The report also recommends that media organisations themselves need to continue to experiment with different models and approaches and to share information and learning. One of the recommendations for the mainstream media is that they should acknowledge that local media are an important part of information ecosystems, filling gaps the mainstream does not reach. They also provide models, news, a pipeline for talent, and much else that big media benefit from.
• For digital platforms, one recommendation is that they should make a proper contribution to local media and journalism. Existing grant schemes should be extended, but it is more important for them to pay a fair share of tax in the different jurisdictions where they operate.