Media and Development in Africa
In celebration of World Press Freedom Day on May 3 2006, this issue of Soul Beat Africa covers Media and Development in Africa. It offers information on a range of media projects related to development and media freedom, strategic thinking and evaluations around the role of the media and materials, events and trainings that can offer support to media and media organisations in Africa.
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"STRENGTHENING AFRICA'S MEDIA" ONLINE FORUM
Register - click here
Soul Beat Africa is part of The Taskforce on the Strengthening Africa's Media Initiative which is currently in the consultative phase to determine the priorities for strengthening media in Africa.
The 'Strengthening Africa's Media' online forum is part of this broader consultation process which will also include physical meetings, both at sub-regional level and on specific issues of concern. Your views will form the basis of a proposed document called 'A Strategic Framework for Strengthening Media in Africa' that is intended to make the case for enhanced investment in media. What you have to say will also be of critical importance in framing the issues for a Stakeholder Conference, to be held in September 2006, at which the priorities for strengthening Africa's media will be further discussed and agreed upon.
The online forum provides a platform for African media actors, in collaboration with their support partners, to articulate concerns and perspectives, identify priority issues and areas requiring support, and propose concrete initiatives and programmes towards a strengthened media sector.
Discussion has already commenced - join now!
Or if you would like to register directly - click here.
1. African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) - Africa
The Africa Commission report "Our Common Interest" highlighted the critical role of the media in creating government transparency, internal accountability and greater responsiveness, as well as recommending that this be addressed through the establishment of an "African media development facility" to boost support for the sector. In response to this, the African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) was launched by the BBC World Service Trust in January 2006 as a process which aims to mobilise a range of African and international stakeholders to boost support for the development of the state, public and private sector media in Africa. AMDI is a consortium of partners that hope to provide funds and expertise to create an African media development facility.
Contact Dr Lilian Ndangam l.ndangam@ru.ac.za OR Professor Guy Berger g.berger@ru.ac.za
2. African Journalists for Development Network (JADE) - Burkina Faso and Mali
The African Journalists for Development Network (JADE) is a section of JADE Afrique, an association of journalists that specialises in multimedia production, publishing, communication for development and training. JADE Burkina has been in operation since 1994, when it was recognised as an association by the administration of Burkina Faso. It supports rural and community radios in two regions of Burkina Faso and southern Mali. In Mali,the project is experimenting with the use of the Internet to enrich the contents of the Sigida Yeelen magazine on the environment, which is produced with radio Kéné and village-based local communicators.
Contact Jacques Philippe Da Matha jpda.matha@fasonet.bf OR Moussa Keita URTEL@cefib.com
3. Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) - South Africa
his is an amalgamation of three former anti-apartheid organisations, aimed at guarding the freedom of expression and media pluralism in South Africa. This organisation exists to maintain freedom and media independence in a country burdened by conflicts of the past. Activities include promoting a free and independent media, promoting freedom of expression in daily media work, working for increased media pluralism, fighting for increased access to information, broadcasting politics and working for the discrimination of censorship.
Contact fxi@fxi.org.za
4. Media for Peace in Africa Programme - Africa
Media for Peace in Africa Programme is a Panos project that aims to influence the attitudes and behaviour of conflict-affected communities across Africa and to seek non-violent solutions through the media. The programme aims to help journalists and media organisations deal with the challenges of reporting on conflict situations, and to mobilise the potential power of the media to contribute to a culture of peace in Africa. It does so by providing grants, carrying out research, developing and disseminating resources, and carrying out workshops and other education projects.
Contact albino@panoseasternafrica.org.ug
5. Independent Journalism Centre - Nigeria
The Independent Journalism Centre (IJC) is an independent non-governmental and non-profit organisation that works for the independence of the media and extension of freedom of expression in Nigeria. The organisation was created with a vision of evolving and sustaining highly skilled and knowledgeable media professionals who work to ensure the sustenance of democratic ideals and human development. Activities include training of working and prospective journalists, research on contemporary media issues, media documentation, and publishing and implementation of media projects that contribute to the uplifting of Nigerians who live in rural areas.
Contact info@ijc.nigerian.net
6. Community Media Programme - Kenya & Sub-Saharan Africa
This programme focuses on the development of community-based media in Kenya and East and Southern Africa. Composed of many groups in an international network, the project works to support advocacy and training activities of the Kenyan Community Media Network, co-ordinate fundraising, and support the technical and training aspects of an east African pilot project to establish three community radio stations. The premise for this work is that media owned and controlled by the community can play an important role in promoting communication and debate on development, governance and human rights at the local level and in the preservation and promotion of local culture and indigenous knowledge.
Contact L. Muthoni Wanyeki wanyeki@iconnect.co.ke
Also see:
Gender and Media (GEM) Commentary Service - Africa
Zambia Community Media Forum (ZaCoMeF) - Zambia
Journalists Under Fire - East and Southern Africa
7. Our Common Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa
Excerpts Relevant to Development Communication & Media Development March 2005.
The Africa Commission Report was released March 11 2005 in London, UK and aims to define the challenges facing Africa and toprovide clear recommendations on how to support the changes needed to reduce poverty. In this report, there is extensive reference to and approval of core processes and programmes that are an essential part of development communication. Some of these processes and programmes relevant to development communication and media development have been excerpted here.
8. Responsible Media Critical for Development
By Economic Commission for Africa
Development objectives such as the MDGs must be publicised, explained and discussed or their impact will be small. This is especially true for developing countries where the media have a huge role to play in getting the message out. However, effective action depends on effective information. This article outlines some of the challenges facing journalists in Africa who do not have easy access to information. Raw data are difficult to come by, so reporting authoritatively is a challenge. Communication channels can break down and lack of press freedom in some countries is a constraint. Generally, press standards and dissemination vary widely from one African country to another, so that media coverage is patchy.
9. How The Internet Is Affecting The Practice Of Journalism In Nigeria
By Uche Nworah
In this article the author explores the impact of the internet on journalism practice, including news practitioners in the print media (journals, newspapers, magazines), as well as the electronic media (Radio, TV, Film, Web etc) in Nigeria. According to the author, it can be argued that, the internet has led to a decrease in the revenue of some of the media organisations in Nigeria, while at the same time increasing their costs, as money would have to be invested into setting up such web sites, and also paying the staff that would maintain them. The article also looks at how journalists have benefited from the internet as it has made newsgathering easier, and journalists can now file in their reports easily from any part of Nigeria where there is internet access.
10. 'But Where are our Moral Heroes?' An Analysis of South African Press Reporting on Children Affected by HIV/AIDS
A Joint Working Paper of the Children's Institute, and the Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town
By Helen Meintjes and Rachel Bray
Messages conveyed both explicitly and implicitly in the media play an important role in the shaping of public understanding of issues, as well as associated policy, programme and popular responses to these issues. This paper applies discourse analysis to a series of articles on children affected by HIV/AIDS published in 2002/2003 in the English-medium South African press. The analysis reveals layer upon layer of moral messaging present in the reporting, the cumulative effect of which is the communication of a series of moral judgments about who is and who is not performing appropriate roles in relation to children.
11. Media for Sustainable Development Content Survey - A Baseline Study Report On Sustainable Development Content/Themes For Community Radio Stations in Africa and Central America
By AMARC Africa, Panos Southern Africa, PronaturaChiapasMexico and Open Society Foundation, South Africa
The aim of the study was to assess the level at which community radio stations in Africa are involved in programming of content on sustainable development themes and topics. Investigations conducted by both AMARC and Panos respectively indicated that in general, community radio stations are still struggling with producing content on sustainable development. One of the reasons is the lack of understanding and distinction of what sustainable content is especially in the specific context of the different communities. Findings however also indicate that despite challenges faced by the sector, community radio stations are making some efforts to produce programmes on sustainable content although they are also faced with challenges on identifying and working with relevant stakeholders for content development. This report also makes specific recommendations on how community radio station can improve on sustainable programming.
12. The Power of Information: Evidence From a Newspaper Campaign to Reduce Capture
By Ritva Reinikka and Jakob Svensson
The authors exploit an unusual policy experiment to evaluate the effects of increased public access to information as a tool to reduce capture and corruption of public funds. In the late 1990s, the Ugandan government initiated a newspaper campaign to boost schools' and parents' ability to monitor local officials' handling of a large school-grant programme. According to an evaluation the capture was reduced from 80 percent in 1995 to less than 20 percent in 2001. The authors use distance to the nearest newspaper outlet as an instrument for exposure to the campaign. Proximity to a newspaper outlet is positively correlated with the head teachers' knowledge about rules governing the grant programme and the timing of releases of funds from the center, but uncorrelated with test scores of general ability. A strong (reduced-form) relationship exists between proximity to a newspaper outlet and reduction in capture of school funds since the newspaper campaign started. This pattern contrasts sharply with the outcomes in the five-year period prior to the campaign. Instrumenting for head teachers' knowledge about the grant programme, the authors find that public access to information is a powerful deterrent to capture at the local level.
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NEW SECTION ON STUDIES IN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION
Do you know of any African universities or colleges offering courses in development communication, development journalism or courses in ICT with a development focus?
Please send information to Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
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13. The Media: Making Democracy Work
Tool Box 1-4
by Christel & Hendrik Bussiek
These Tool Boxes aim to encourage and support the translation of the African principles on the legal and political framework for media into reality, using media policy documents of the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as benchmarks. The Tool Boxes highlight positive (and negative) experiences of those countries that can be considered as the most advanced in the move towards democratic, participatory and effective legal and political reforms. The tool boxes cover media law, broadcasting regulations, public broadcasting and free access to information.
14. So This is Democracy? State of media freedom in southern Africa (2004)
In the period between January and December 2004, MISA recorded a total of 169 media freedom and freedom of expression violations against individual journalists and institutions in the SADC region. Although this figure marks a decrease of 10 percent from the previous year, the nature of alerts and their bearing on the psyche of journalists have culminated into an environment in which journalists practice self-censorship, where media organisations are either closed down by governments through the application of repressive legislation or as a result of degenerating economics conditions, and where the pursuit of independent journalism is often labelled as unpatriotic. This book details events affecting media workers in most of Southern Africa, specifically focusing on the events that took place between 2003 and 2004. The book is aimed not only at media activists but also at scholars and others interested in plotting the trends and identifying the various devices used to undermine media freedom and the free flow of information.
15. Southern Africa Media Training Needs Assessment
Commissioned by the NSJ Southern Africa Media Training Trust with the Support of NIZA
By Colleen Lowe Morna and Zohra Khan
This report presents the findings of an assessment of media training needs in Southern African commissioned by the Maputo-based NSJ Trust in collaboration with the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) based in Namibia; the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in South Africa and the Zambia Mass Communication Institute (ZAMCOM). Some of the findings included the fact that there is a rapid increase in the number of journalists in the SADC region, that there is a low level of formal qualifications in the media, a demand for training and better quality training accompanied with a rapid increase in providers of training.
16. Reporting AIDS: An Analysis of Media Environments in Southern Africa
This report shares the findings of five studies of media coverage of HIV/AIDS, carried out in Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe by the Panos London AIDS Programme, with the support of Johns Hopkins University. The studies aimed to explore some of the issues and tensions involved in the relationship between the media and HIV/AIDS. In particular, they aimed to identify how the media could better fulfil its potential role in responding to the epidemic, for example by 'moving beyond awareness raising' and acting as a channel to encourage individual and social change, providing a forum for debate and holding decision-makers to account.
See also:
Undue Restriction: Laws impacting on media freedom in the SADC
Human Rights Handbook For Ghanaian Journalists
All Sides of the Story, Reporting on ChildrenL A Journalist's Handbook
A Guide to Media Law in Zimbabwe
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The Soul Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Soul Beat to the Editor - Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
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