"This study examined perceptions on the effectiveness, attendant challenges and remedies of community media for effective acculturation in Nigerian languages. The qualitative survey design was adopted with focus group discussions and key informant interviews of 50 purposively chosen informants. It w
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as perceived that community media could serve as veritable platform for effective acculturation in Nigerian languages since they would engender the setting of acculturation in Nigerian languages as national objective or goal. It was further held that the strengths of community media for acculturation were in being goal-defined, ensuring local content and diversification. The study identified that as palatable as the proposal for community media for effective acculturation in Nigerian languages is, it would be fraught with some set-backs or challenges that were very much surmountable. Perceptions pointed towards transient nature of community media and funding as challenges as well as multibased funding as one remedy. Immediate establishment of community media for the purpose of acculturation in Nigerian languages was recommended." (Abstract)
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"Despite the fact that Nigeria's transition from military rule to democracy is over two decades, violence targeting journalists still remains a recurring issue. On this basis, this paper aims to examine patterns of violent attacks targeting journalists in Lagos, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach:
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This study was descriptive and cross-sectional in design. Social disorganisation theory was deployed as theoretical framework. Data were principally elicited through the in-depth interview method. Multistage sampling techniques were used for the selection of 25 journalists across six media organisations in Lagos. Findings: The results showed that assault on journalists is a common phenomenon in the city, with more cases usually recorded during period of general elections. Three major factors were identified by respondents as underlying violent attacks on journalists. Also, security personnel and political thugs were mentioned as the major perpetrators of violent attacks on journalists. Originality/value: This research not only provides a unique and significant insight into the issue bordering on violent attacks that are being directed at media practitioners in Nigeria it equally puts forward some useful and far-reaching recommendations that can be adopted to effectively address the problem." (Abstract)
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"The book goes beyond critiques of the marginality of African approaches in media and communication studies to offer scholars the theoretical and empirical toolkit needed to start building critical corpora of African scholarship and theory that places the everyday worlds, needs and uses of Africans
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first. Decoloniality demands new epistemological interventions in African media, culture and communication, and this book is an important interlocutor in this space. In a globally interconnected world, changing patterns of authority and power pose new challenges to the ways in which media institutions are constituted and managed, as well as how communication and media policy is negotiated and the manner in which citizens engage with increasing media opportunities. The handbook focuses on the interrelationships of the local and the global and the concomitant consequences for media practice, education and citizen engagement in today’s Africa." (Publisher description)
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"This book explores the relationship between the safety of journalists and self-censorship practices around the world, including local case studies and regional and international perspectives. Bringing together scholars and practitioners from around the globe, Journalist Safety and Self-Censorship p
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rovides new and updated insights into patterns of self-censorship and free speech, focusing on a variety of factors that affect these issues, including surveillance, legislation, threats, violent conflict, gender-related stereotypes, digitisation and social media. The contributions examine topics such as trauma, risk and self-censorship among journalists in different regions of the world, including Central America, Estonia, Turkey, Uganda and Pakistan. The book also provides conceptual clarity to the notion of journalist self-censorship, and explores the question of how self-censorship may be studied empirically." (Publisher description)
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"Of the eight countries surveyed here, only four have comprehensive data protection privacy acts in place: Kenya, South Africa, Togo and Uganda. But as these research reports suggest, this is not necessarily a strong indicator of whether a country is committed to privacy rights, or of the efficacy o
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f a country’s legislative environment in ensuring the right to privacy and data protection. Instead, reading across the reports, what can be described as an asymmetry between legislation and practice is evident at different levels. This asymmetry can be political – for example, Togo, an effective constitutional dictatorship marked by fierce government crackdowns on opposition and recent reports of surveillance of religious and political leaders, enacted a data protection law in 2019, and is one of the few countries in Africa to have ratified the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (Malabo Convention). Yet, as the country author suggests, “This interest [by policy makers in digital rights] is not necessarily to protect the citizens but rather out of concern to adapt state policies to the global digital situation.” This asymmetry also concerns the regulatory framework for the implementation of a data protection act. Amongst the countries surveyed here, South Africa was the first to pass a protection of personal information act (in 2013), but still has not implemented the necessary regulations to give practical force to the law. In contrast, while Nigeria’s privacy law is still in draft form, it already has what the country author describes as “watershed” privacy regulations." (Introduction, page 5)
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"This article presents new empirical insights into what people do with conspiracy theories during crises. By suppressing the impulse to distinguish between truth and falsehood, which has characterized most scholarship on the COVID-19 “infodemic,” and engaging with claims surrounding two popular
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COVID-19 conspiracies—on 5G and on Bill Gates—in South Africa and Nigeria, we illustrate how conspiracies morph as they interact with different socio-political contexts. Drawing on a mixed-method analysis of more than 6 million tweets, we examine how, in each country, conspiracies have uniquely intersected with longer-term discourses and political projects. In Nigeria, the two conspiracies were both seized as opportunities to extend criticism to the ruling party. In South Africa, they produced distinctive responses: while the 5G conspiracy had limited buy-in, the Gates conspiracy resonated with deep-rooted resentment toward the West, corporate interests, and what is seen as a paternalistic attitude of some external actors toward Africa. These findings stress the importance of taking conspiracy theories seriously, rather than dismissing them simply as negative externalities of digital ecosystems. Situating conspiracies in specific dynamics of trust and mistrust can make an important difference when designing responses that are not limited to broadcasting truthful information, but can also enable interventions that account for deeply rooted sentiments of suspicion toward specific issues and actors, which can vary significantly across communities." (Abstract)
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"For the first time, a complete mapping of the film and audiovisual industry in 54 States of the African continent is available, including quantitative and qualitative data and an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses at the continental and regional levels. The report proposes strategic recomme
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ndations for the development of the film and audiovisual sectors in Africa and invites policymakers, professional organizations, firms, filmmakers and artists to implement them in a concerted manner. The film and audiovisual industry in Africa has the potential to create over 20 million jobs and generate US$20 billion in revenues per year." (Short summary, page 2)
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"The 20 October 2021 marks the first anniversary of the shooting of unarmed protesters by the Nigerian military. The movement pushing to abolish the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has proved how social media can make the voices of the weak heard. However, recent developments surrounding social me
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dia regulations in the aftermath of the shooting show that the right to freedom of expression is at risk of regression." (Abstract)
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"Efforts to establish or improve national identification systems in Africa have coincided with the increasing deployment of mobile technology. This has led to the prioritisation of digital “solutions” for facilitating forms of identification and registration – often via biometric attributes [.
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..] Research ICT Africa (RIA) and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) partnered in 2020 and 2021 to investigate, map, and report on the state of digital identity ecosystems in 10 African countries. The project looked at local, digitised (in full or partially) foundational ID systems in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The project set out to contribute to the broader question of whether digital identity ecosystems increase choices and opportunities for Africans, or whether they exacerbate the multidimensional aspects of digital inequality on the continent." (Executive summary)
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"The study aims to gather information and develop a better understanding of the community radio landscapes in different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, in order to identify needs, opportunities and potential partners for developing a programme of support for community radio on the continent. The envisa
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ged programme of support should be based on a productive model that takes into account the range of circumstances in Sub-Saharan Africa, its subregions as well as the selected countries. This report presents a descriptive analysis of the community radio landscape in 11 francophone, lusophone and anglophone countries from West, East and Southern Africa." (Purpose of the study, page 12)
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"The role of information technology in today’s society has made digital infrastructure a critical aspect of geopolitics. Although the private sector has traditionally led such developments, there is increasing evidence that countries are now slowly getting involved. This paper argues that as part
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of its Digital Silk Road (DSR) initiative, the People’s Republic of China (“China”) is incentivizing private actors, such as Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, to build digital infrastructure abroad, so as to generate security externalities for China. This is evidenced by our case study involving Huawei’s involvement in Nigeria in the realm of digital infrastructure development, the formulation of digital strategies, and associated standards." (Abstract)
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"This article shows how Information and Communication Technology (ICT), incorporating social media, can lead to accountability and transparency in a government's budget. Specifically, it examined how a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) used ICT to foster citizenship engagement in the Nigerian gove
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rnment budgetary process. The article, using abductive reasoning, presents four citizen empowerment stages and four social marketing transition stages through which government budget transparency can be improved and corruption reduced. A model was also inferred that can help lessen the exclusivity around the government budget to encourage dialog and openness around the government budget in similar contexts. Furthermore, this article shows that the social transformative role for NGOs using ICT to increase government budget transparency and reduce corruption is a process that happens over time." (Abstract)
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"Africa.s history of publishing is long and multilayered and within these layers is Heinemann.s African Writers Series founded in 1962 to nurture indigenous creative writing. This research addresses the contemporary relevance of Heinemann.s African Writers Series (AWS) in Nigeria. It examines the cu
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rrent value of the AWS for secondary school students, teachers and retailers, as the examination board in Nigeria continues to recommend the AWS among the prescribed texts for the study and assessment of literature in English. This study is important because these classics represent more than a set of prescribed texts of an academic program for the present-day audience. In fact the AWS is important not only for the history of publishing in Africa but also for teaching African literature. The research approach adopted in this dissertation is qualitative combined with empirical research which was obtained from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The findings from the research identified how the AWS shifted its focus from a general readership market to providing texts for school; it also critically analysed its general relevance on the African literary scene and focused on its enduring significance for secondary school students and teachers of literature in English. In addition, it provides insight into the role of school book retailers as agents of distribution for the authorised AWS texts. The principal conclusions drawn from this study are: the AWS has an enduring legacy. It epitomises historical, cultural, literary and symbolic value for students and teachers and is a pivotal point in the discussions on the culture of publishing in Africa. However, there is need to study the challenges of traditional adherence to canonical lists, to add contemporary voices who address current issues to the prescribed list and resolve the imbalance between demand and supply which affects availability of core texts and encourages piracy." (Abstract)
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"Digital feedback has large potential for consumer protection. The customer experiences shared in the different social media channels have proven to be a rich source of information with the potential of answering a large number of questions. Who will make use of this data and methods going forward,
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and how will it benefit people? Regulators, who can apply new approaches to have automated tools for market monitoring, providing real-time statistics and early warning signs on action that should be taken, so that issues can be addressed earlier, with the potential for more cost-effective interventions; financial Inclusion donor organizations, which have a mandate to ensure that the growth of financial services goes in line with consumer protection and is socially responsible; Innovation for Poverty Action, by adding a new data approach to inform new experimental interventions; consumers themselves, as digital communities begin to form around creating transparent information about providers." (Executive summary)
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"The EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU SDGN) project funded by the EU employed a ‘social media first’ approach to strengthen the political knowledge, understanding, discussion and efficacy of young (18-24 years) women and men across all 36 states and FCT in Nigeria. High-impact
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social media content in the form of infographics, short factual films, still photographs, short drama skits and Public Service Announcements were produced and posted under the EU SDGN project (and MI-VotE project) across our BBC Media Action Arewa (Hausa) and Naija (English) Facebook and Instagram platforms to share balanced information on electoral and political processes, role model political participation, and engage young Nigerians in social issues that matter to them. The project also strengthened the capacity of media organisations across Nigeria to provide more trusted, accurate and balanced social media content that meets audience needs." (Page 1)
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"Social media technology is having a dramatic impact on social and political dynamics around the world. The contributors to this book document and illustrate this "techtonic" shift on violent conflict and democratic processes. They present vivid examples and case studies from countries in Africa, So
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uth and Southeast Asia, Latin America as well as Northern Ireland. Each author maps an array of peacebuilding solutions to social media threats, including coordinated action by civil society, governments and tech companies to protect human minds, relationships and institutions. Solutions presented include inoculating society with a new digital literacy agenda, designing technology for positive social impacts, and regulating technology to prohibit the worst behaviours." (Publisher description)
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"In this paper, we investigate to what extent Nigerian newspapers practice peace journalism by emphasizing underlying causes of conflict in their reporting rather than stressing ethnic and religious divisions. We make use of a sequential mixed methods approach, which combines a quantitative content
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analysis of news reports with semi-structured interviews with Nigerian newspaper editors and journalists. Our results indicate that Nigerian newspapers do not explicitly use divisive language when discussing conflicts, but they rarely stress underlying structural causes either. While there is a willingness among Nigerian journalists to avoid potentially escalatory language, a dearth of resources and capacities impedes independent and in-depth analysis concerning the underlying drivers of conflicts." (Abstract)
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"The intersection between media and politics remains very strong in several countries under study. In these conditions, there is often little transparency on media ownership and a lack of transparency on local funding sources of media. Relatedly, in some cases, a change in government policies was ra
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ised as an important precondition to possibly change the negative discourse towards the (public) media. A different political climate may benefit the financial conditions of a media outlet, for instance by lifting difficulties in acquiring media licenses or access to (governmental) funding by independent media. The advertisement markets for media are, in many of the countries under study, still controlled by a few large, more traditional media outlets. Generally, the advertising market is driven by a number of factors, including a network, political patronage, and the ability of media owners to utilise relationships with the corporate sector. Due to the digitalisation of media and the advertising market, the market has further changed over the past years. There is limited to no regulation in the distribution of advertisement funding based on quality standards for journalism. Some media practitioners proposed to address this problem by stimulating national governments to support regulatory bodies for media advertisement. While digital advertisement is on the rise, most revenue of online (media) advertisement is directed to big tech companies. An increased amount of advertising money is flowing towards social media platforms, and Internet advertising has been rising exponentially, as observed in all countries under study. The media sector as a whole is suffering from this trend, particularly the more traditional print media who are struggling to make the transition to online media. In some countries under study, media are not even eligible to generate an income on the large social media platforms. Policies to regulate online advertisement is imperative to strengthen the competition position of traditional media." (Global trends, page 9)
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