Journal of African Media Studies - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2013

With young people at the epicentre of the HIV epidemic, we need to build upon and find ways of sustaining interventions that place youth at the centre of prevention. This article argues that narrative communication is one such strategy, provided it is part of a comprehensive HIV prevention plan. Narrative communication in the form of autobiographical and role model stories in loveLife’s youth magazine, UNCUT, provides an effective mechanism not only for disseminating young people’s experiences of the individual, social and cultural determinants driving the HIV epidemic in South Africa at scale, but also for young people to learn from their experiences through role modelling and identification so they can better negotiate these determinants in their own lives.

This article considers how news stories about piracy off the coast of Somalia reflect E. Said’s concept of Orientalism, that is, the West representing the Rest in ways beneficial to the West. Critical discourse analysis is applied to news stories from the international BBC news website to reveal strategies used to represent a non-western ‘other’ in need of control by a successful West. This legitimates the West’s military presence and actions whilst challenging BBC’s claims of objectivity. An historical account of both Somalia and piracy precede this analysis. The former illustrates how Somalia’s current ‘failed state’ status is in part due to foreign involvement while the latter describes how this status has produced conditions conducive to piracy. Actions by the West together with the BBC’s Orientalist perspective do little to relieve Somalia’s hardship, suffering and ending Somalia’s multiple problems.

This article describes and analyses the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) communication policy in the current world environment where a variety of well-doers attempt to pursue attention. The analysis is reflected against the results of focus group interviews with Congolese women in two refugee camps in Rwanda in November 2010. Although the women are not provided with any form of mediated communication, they do not appear to have any interest in it either. Daily concerns fill their lives in the ‘non-place’ and although that strongly limits their lifestyle and living conditions, it also ensures their safety. This article discusses both the possibility of establishing ‘small media’ or community media in the camps and the possibility of changing the principles of the United Nations (UN) communication policies.

The application of international humanitarian law (IHL) to conflicts in Africa has been the subject of some scholarly and much journalistic discourse about the ending of ‘impunity’ and an extension of the normative principles of transitional justice. The trials conducted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) were brought to audiences in both countries by a media that has had scant experience in grappling with such weighty jurisprudential concepts. A research project is examining attitudes towards the reporting of two of those trials. This article discusses preliminary findings from the research and argues that the media is performing a wider role in legitimizing post-conflict governance by providing a platform for civil society organizations.

This article discusses the role of ‘cyberactivism’ or the role played by new media in paving the way for political transformation, in both the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions of 2011. It starts with a discussion of the potentials of cyberactivism in both of these revolutions, especially how these new types of social media can act as effective tools for supporting the capabilities of the democratic activists by allowing forums for free speech and political networking opportunities; providing a virtual space for assembly; supporting the capability of the protestors to plan, organize and execute peaceful protests, while documenting the protests and governmental reactions to them; and providing forums for collaboration between the Tunisian and the Egyptian activists. It also sheds light on some of the limitations of the role of social media in both of these revolutions and highlights some of the overlaps and divergences between the role of cyberactivism in both of them, through comparing the similarities and differences in contexts, actors and tools.

This article offers some self-reflexive comments on Communication and media studies in South Africa. The discipline in South Africa, presents a very exciting and intriguing posture for the simple fact that it allows for diversity– observable in the variety of labels, emphases and curricula. Equally enviable is the currency of some aspects of the programmes offered in the country and the strong theoretical foundation of research publications. Yet some deficiencies observed in a number of the curricula provoke a call for standardization of programmes offered by the various universities. The lack of regulation could be held responsible for some lapses noticeable in the structure of the various programmes. Drawing on observations of South Africa’s communication and media education landscape, this article argues that the field seems to be withdrawn and too inward-looking that is evidenced by the lack of interest in the affairs of the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE) and what used to be the predominantly locally oriented content of South African journals. Thus, South African academia is tactically excluded from the leadership which it should provide on the African continent. Some cross-references are made to the situation in Nigeria, being the country where the writer had been involved in communication and media scholarship before moving to South Africa.

Kony 2012, Jason Russel (2012) Invisible Children, San Diego, Budget 1,000,000 USD, Runtime 30 mins, Video

Radio in Africa. Public, Cultures, Communities, Gunner, L., Ligaga, D. and Moyo, D. (eds) (2011) Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 320 pp.,hardback, £45. ISBN: 978-1-84701-061-2