Journal of African Media Studies - Volume 6, Issue 2, 2014

This article takes a look at the African perspective of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and examines Nigeria’s communication strategy for its implementation. Against the backdrop of endemic corruption in Nigeria and her news commercialization policy, the article examines the extent to which the media have been mobilized or motivated to be partners in the MDGs campaign. Also, it tries to bring to the fore how the citizens have been carried along in the campaign and what roles (if any) they have been made to play.

Sources used for the data for this article include public communication and media advocacy literature, interviews with key informants with knowledge about Nigeria’s MDGs and a survey of Nigerian editors. Some information also came from the Conference on MDGs campaign organized at the University of Uyo in November 2011.

It was found that, because government media dominate the Nigerian media environment, a paternalistic relationship seems to be the expectation of the MDGs’ implementers in their dealings with the media. That is, the MDGs’ implementers tend to expect the media to go after them rather than them looking for the media. Besides, the MDGs’ implementers expect the Federal Ministry of Information and the National Orientation Agency to handle the publicity of the programmes for them. The result is that the MDGs’ campaign roadmap, which promised a behavioural change communication, has not been implemented and the attempt at the campaign lacks design and strategies. Neither are new media used for the campaign nor are the editors and journalists impressed by the awareness level about MDGs among Nigerians.

Broadcasting, in order to assist development, has its roots in the aspirations of Public Service Broadcasters. It is likely to increase in the years ahead because broadcasting is the most effective and cheapest way to influence mass opinion and attitudes. It fits with the basic objectives of Public Service Broadcasting. Proving its effectiveness is difficult, but methodologies are improving.

This article analyses how ethnicity influences the ethical decisions of journalists at the Nation Media Group (NMG) in Kenya. Ethnic identity is regarded as one of the key factors that shape the political beliefs of Kenyans in general, and for journalists and media practitioners in particular ethnic identities also influence their normative positions. The conflicting loyalties between ethnic belonging and journalistic norms of professionalism and independence especially come to the fore during democratic processes such as general elections and national referenda. Based on Shoemaker and Reese’s Hierarchy of Influences Model, the article draws on qualitative interviews of journalists at the Nation Media to argue that the highly ethnicized publics as audience and the media institution at the macro level and individual journalists at the micro level act as key levels of ethnic influence in the news production process at the NMG in Kenya. Shoemaker and Reese in their model argue that the power to shape content is not the media’s alone, but is shared with a variety of other sectors in the society, including the public. The article then proposes the inclusion of ethnicity as a ‘key level of Influence’ in Shoemaker and Reese’s model, especially when applying the model to the African media context. The article will address the following questions: How does ethnicity at the micro level of individual journalists and at the macro level of the media institution influence the ethical decisions of journalists at the NMG in Kenya? How do the highly ethnicized publics in Kenya influence the decisions of journalists at the NMG? How does this ethnic level of influence impact on the Nation Media’s capacity to fulfil its democratic roles in the society?

Every year, several international organizations monitoring press freedom worldwide issue reports in which they underline the occupational hazards faced by journalists while reporting. Some African countries, such as Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia or Equatorial Guinea, have been regularly pinpointed at the bottom of these annual rankings. A few others (Cap Vert, Namibia, Niger, Ghana, South Africa) are crawling among the top 50 countries in the world. How do the indicators used by those organizations reveal a specific understanding of the professional practices and of the risks associated with it? Are they relevant to the reality of the daily practice of journalism on the African continent? Has this image led to particular measures aimed at preventing or self-regulating potential abuses in view of the risks incurred? Are there other ‘high-risk’ areas of the professional practice that these indicators fail to cover, and why? Starting from a reflection on the criteria used internationally to assess press freedom, and on the ‘risks’ associated with the profession, this article tries to show that the threats upon media professionals on the African continent are much more complex than those rankings and their indicators would suggest.

In an attempt to obtain linguistic evidence for the ‘imagined community’, this article investigates the bonds that are created in twenty letters to the editor of the Daily Sun, a popular South African tabloid. A concordancer is used to establish shared concerns across the corpus, following which an appraisal analysis of these letters shows how the imagined community attempts to align its audience around common evaluations of their experiences. These evaluations represent the bonds around which community identities are constructed and are evidence of the shared feelings that unite the communities of readership. The ways in which community members view their group cohesion are revealed by inferences drawn from the appraisal information. Main findings show that the Daily Sun community values a good education for the youth, and is dissatisfied with the government and political leaders. The choices made by the writers also expose the advisory nature of the tabloid’s community.

This article is concerned with how the environmental crises on Lake Victoria is addressed by the media in Uganda, while confining its focus on a single radio case study, and presents a critical textual analysis of the discourses and discursive practices of the Victoria Voice environmental radio documentaries aired on Uganda’s Central Broadcasting Service (CBS) radio in 2005. The analysis focuses on two representative episodes of the Victoria Voice radio series relating to the situation on Lake Victoria. It argues that the framing and construction of the situation on Lake Victoria tend to privilege the wealthy or powerful elite rather than address the root causes of environmental degradation. The marginalization of the powerless (or ordinary people) recurs in these episodes, and while their voices are included in the programmes, they are framed by the more socially powerful.

Tango With Me: A Step Forward with the New Nollywood Film: Tango With Me (2010). 104mins Release Date: 24 August 2012 (UK) Producer/Director: Mahmoud Ali Balogun Author: Dapo Oshiyemi Talking Drum Entertainment Stars include: Joseph Benjamin, Bimbo Manuel, Genevieve Nnaji Production Company: Brickwall Communications Production Cost: 50 Million Naira (estimated cost) Website: http://www.tangowithmefilm.com

The Media and Conflicts in Central Africa, M. Frere (2007) London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 287 pp., ISBN: 9781588264657 (pbk), $22,33