Journal of African Media Studies - Volume 9, Issue 3, 2017

In the 1990s following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in Germany and the death of Apartheid in South Africa, several cross-national initiatives were undertaken in Africa to strengthen the role of the media in nascent democracies. Some 30 years later, several of these initiatives are dead while the surviving ones are on the brink of folding. This discussion takes a critical historic synopsis by exploring the conjectural and chronological foundations for such media initiatives, in particular, in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It concludes that while much was accomplished, these foreign-inspired endeavours are no longer valid, useable or germane and ought to be abandoned. That way, Africa shall define its own urgencies, priorities and destiny without the external stimulus.

Since 1994, the call to de-westernize journalism education and training curricula has been a major narrative in South Africa’s transformation discourses. Journalism education and training institutions have responded to this call by holding conferences, colloquia, seminars and symposia to try and find ways of de-westernizing journalism curricula, which they argue are ill-suited to meeting the needs of a ‘new’ democratic and transforming South Africa. However, though these calls have been consistently made both inside and outside Africa, there is no agreement amongst scholars what exactly the process of de-westernization of journalism curricula would entail. This article reflects on the possible trajectories that the process of de-westernization would follow, as well as interrogates the feasibility of de-westernizing journalism curricula in the post-1994 South African context. The article highlights the contradictions and complexities inherent in the de-westernization narrative in South Africa.

In this article I discuss some of the prevalent and oppositional discursive strategies employed in the media and in talk show programming. I elaborate on the normative underpinnings of these strategies and offer a contrasting approach rooted in the harmonious, cohesive and relational notions of power and human relations associated with the African moral philosophy of ubuntu. By drawing on examples from specific talk show samples, I highlight how some key elements of discourse can be reconceptualized towards ‘deliberative’ ends. Informed by ‘I am because we are’, my model has a practical rather than theoretical thrust.

The sixth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) co-hosted by China and South Africa in Johannesburg was historic in that it was an event to chart the next stage of China-Africa relations. The event was also symbolic in showcasing that FOCAC is co-owned by China and Africa. In view of the growing China-Africa relationship under FOCAC, this study investigates how the media from four main regions in Africa framed this FOCAC. The voices that narrate the FOCAC story, dominant themes and tones were examined from the selected media in South Africa (The Star), Kenya (Daily Nation), Nigeria (Vanguard) and Egypt (Ahram Online). The findings shows that voices of Chinese officials dominated the media in South Africa and Kenya while African voices were given overwhelming focus in Nigeria and Egypt. Optimistic frames and themes were largely used by the media. On the whole, there is evident convergence of outcomes of FOCAC and the narratives in the media which suggests more balanced representation of the China-Africa relations. However, there is bias towards hard and event focused news at the expense of in-depth features that create understanding on fundamental issues such as how FOCAC interacts with the African development goals. Against this view, it is argued that the challenge for the media in Africa is to explore more approaches for effective narratives that dispel misrepresentations and resultant misunderstandings about FOCAC and the China-Africa relationship.

When US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel shed tears on his TV show about the killing of a lion that had been nicknamed Cecil, he helped unleash a storm of media coverage, social media response and comment that shed an interesting light on media coverage of wildlife and conservation issues. The killing of the lion in Zimbabwe in July 2015 led to media coverage of an unprecedented nature. The media hits on the story were greater than for any previous conservation story in living memory. But the tone and content of the stories was also as important as the scale. The use of language was hyperbolic, the attention to detail poor and the use of sources fell outside what is normally considered good journalistic practice. This article analyses the coverage of the story in the British media and the likely effects for the understanding of lion conservation and wildlife in general.

This article examines two main research questions: what factors justify celebrity endorsement as an election campaign strategy given the increasing doubts associated with celebrity involvement in politics? Did celebrity endorsement of political aspirants influence young adults’ voting behaviour during the 2015 elections in Lagos? Using mixed method approaches, and supported by source credibility and celebrity endorsement debates, a survey was conducted with a sample of 375 students of the Yaba College of Technology. Three semi-structured interviews with members of successful campaign teams were also conducted. Our findings revealed that campaign managers have a huge confidence in the celebrity endorsement strategy for several reasons and would employ the approach in future. Further, the young people interrogated revealed that while two-thirds of them are fans of Nollywood stars and music icons, they were not influenced to vote on the basis of the celebrities’ say-so. These findings are somewhat consistent with extant literature, but suggest the need for further studies regarding how celebrities translate fandom to votes.

Popular theatre occupies a special space in Matabeleland because it is situated in the everyday lives of ordinary people, and is able to articulate their experiences and to create spaces for them to ‘speak to power’. In the wake of the Gukurahundi massacres and perceived marginalization of Matabeleland in the 1980s, theatre groups used their plays to probe issues that were shunned by mainstream media. We argue that theatre has been used as part of radical citizen media in a context in which mainstream public spheres are restricted. We also demonstrate that theatre groups in Matabeleland have shifted between ‘Matabeleland particularism’ and addressing broader, ‘national’ concerns, reflecting historical context. However, theatre is not always used to express views that support the downtrodden against the establishment. In the Matabeleland case and also Zimbabwe as a whole, theatre has also been employed by the state and other pro-establishment groups for ideological mobilization.

This article introduces semiotic myth theory as a methodology for the analysis of both political narratives and media policy discourse. In particular, this is applied to the country of South Africa and traces the historical rhetorical mechanisms employed by the majority African National Congress (ANC) party from 2007 to 2016 in its criticisms against the country’s press regulatory system, the Press Council of South Africa (PCSA). This is done as a demonstration, by application, of how political myth-making works in action or conversely, fails to work and loses relevancy. While semiotic myth theory has not been routinely applied to either political speech, and less so to media policy debates, and while the theoretical approach of applying semiotic myth theory to political discourse or rhetoric adopted here is applied to a very particular context and issue, it could serve well in application to a variety of political narratives, discourses and debates globally.

Global trends indicate that the media is often directly involved in influencing the citizenry through its political communication role. In some established ‘liberal’ democracies, the media actively campaigns for some political parties whilst denouncing others. In this research paper the concept of the press as a political actor in South Africa is examined. This is done through the analysis of online comments responding to the Mail & Guardian’s editorial message/communiqué on its political position during the country’s most recent provincial and national elections. Primarily, the main objective of the research article is to draw conclusions on reactions and perceptions emanating from the newspaper’s political message. For the purpose of this article, I used agenda-setting theory to indicate that the editorial message is an extension of the media’s objective of focusing our attention on certain issues. In this instance, that objective was a call by this respected national weekly publishing media platform to dilute the votes of the governing African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. To make sense of research results, the data underpinning this article was imbedded within the qualitative research paradigm and for the purpose of analysing patterns in the research data; I applied the thematic analysis approach by dividing the comments into subgroups. In reference to other nuanced roles of the media, the results of the research indicate that in South Africa, little is understood about the functions of the media beyond its role as a conveyer belt of communicating information in a neutral and objective manner.

Nation as Grand Narrative: The Nigerian Press and the Politics of Meaning, Wale Adebanwi (2016) Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 391 pp., ISBN-13: 9781580465557, h/bk, $125