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Journalists' Repression, Harassment and Attacks in Eswatini and Botswana

Magnificent Mndebele, Mbongeni Msimanga, Lungile Tshuma

In: Patterns of Harassment in African Journalism

Lungile Augustine Tshuma; Trust Matsilele; Mbongeni Jonny Msimanga; Sadia Jamil (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2024), pp. 124-140

"Amid growing threats to journalists around the world, this study examines the nature of repression, harassment and attacks on full-time employed journalists and freelance writers in Eswatini. Given that harassment ranges from doxing, surveillance, religious prejudice, threats to harm family members ... more

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South Africans support media’s independence and watchdog role

Asafika Mpako, Stephen Ndoma

Afrobarometer (2024), 11 pp.

"Findings from the most recent Afrobarometer survey, in late 2022, show that most South Africans say the media should act as a watchdog over the government, constantly investigating and reporting on government mistakes and corruption. Citizens value media freedom and reject the notion that the gover ... more

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Media in Africa: Issues and Critiques

Toks Oyedemi, René A. Smith (eds.)

New York; London: Routledge (2024), 232 pp.

"Featuring contributions from global scholars, that represent both new and established voices on the African continent and the diaspora, this volume explores themes of decolonization, media freedom, media censorship, identity, representation, pluralism, media framing, political economy of the media ... more

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Emerging economies in business news: Repositioning leaders in the Global South

Sujatha Sosale, Tania Cantrell Rosas-Moreno

Global Media and Communication, volume 20, issue 1 (2024), pp. 23-42

"Drawing from nation-branding as a recent development in contemporary globalization, and new middle power theory that examines hierarchies of nations, we used thematic textual analysis to examine business press coverage of the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) consortium for business news represent ... more

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The Political Economy of Indigenous Local Media for Minority Languages in Zimbabwe: A Case of Lyeja FM Community Radio

Limukani Mathe, Gilbert Motsaathebe

Journal of Asian and African Studies (2023), 13 pp.

"This article analyses the political economy of indigenous language media for minority ethnolinguistic groups in Zimbabwe. Using political economy as theory, the study engaged members of Lyeja-Nyai Development Trust to analyse socio-cultural and political challenges for Lyeja FM community radio of t ... more

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Reimagining the Role of Media in Mozambique in the Era of Terrorism and Natural Disasters

International Media Support (IMS) (2023), 9 pp.

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Online Harassment of Journalists in Zimbabwe: Experiences, Coping Strategies and Implications

Mphathisi Ndlovu, Nkosini Aubrey

In: New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory and Newsmaking Cultures

Trust Matsilele; Shepherd Mpofu; Dumisani Moy (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2023), pp. 95-111

"This chapter examines the safety risks faced by Zimbabwean journalists as they conduct their day-to-day professional work in online spaces. Given that journalists in Africa are increasingly utilising and adopting social media tools for news production and distribution, it is timely to examine the d ... more

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Digital Citizenship in Africa: Technologies of Agency and Repression

Tony Roberts, Tanja Bosch (eds.)

London et al.: Zed Books (2023), xxi, 234 pp.

"With contributions from scholars across the continent, Digital Citizenship in Africa illustrates how citizens have been using VPNs, encryption, and privacy-protecting browsers to resist limits on their rights to privacy and political speech. This book dramatically expands our understanding of the v ... more

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Hate Speech on Social Media: A Global Approach

Branco Di Fátima (ed.)

Covilhã (PO); Qutio (EC): LabCom;University of Beira Interior;PUCE Publications Centre (2023), 302 pp.

"Hate speech is more complex and diverse on social media. It spreads at high speed and can impact behaviors beyond the borders where it originates. Hate is ubiquitous, interactive, and multimedia. It is available 24/7, reaching a much larger audience. On social media, haters can be anonymous and fin ... more

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Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024
Top Insights

Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Craig T. Robertson, Amy Ross Arguedas, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds.)

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2023), 167 pp.

"In many countries, especially outside Europe and the United States, we find a significant further decline in the use of Facebook for news and a growing reliance on a range of alternatives including private messaging apps and video networks. Facebook news consumption is down 4 percentage points, acr ... oss all countries, in the last year. • News use across online platforms is fragmenting, with six networks now reaching at least 10% of our respondents, compared with just two a decade ago. YouTube is used for news by almost a third (31%) of our global sample each week, WhatsApp by around a fifth (21%), while TikTok (13%) has overtaken Twitter (10%), now rebranded X, for the first time. • Linked to these shifts, video is becoming a more important source of online news, especially with younger groups. Short news videos are accessed by two-thirds (66%) of our sample each week, with longer formats attracting around half (51%). The main locus of news video consumption is online platforms (72%) rather than publisher websites (22%), increasing the challenges around monetisation and connection. • Although the platform mix is shifting, the majority continue to identify platforms including social media, search, or aggregators as their main gateway to online news. Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) identify news websites or apps as their main source of online news – that’s down 10 percentage points on 2018. Publishers in a few Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are showing a weaker connection with news brands than they did in the past. • Turning to the sources that people pay most attention to when it comes to news on various platforms, we find an increasing focus on partisan commentators, influencers, and young news creators, especially on YouTube and TikTok. But in social networks such as Facebook and X, traditional news brands and journalists still tend to play a prominent role. • Concern about what is real and what is fake on the internet when it comes to online news has risen by 3 percentage points in the last year with around six in ten (59%) saying they are concerned. The figure is considerably higher in South Africa (81%) and the United States (72%), both countries that have been holding elections this year. • Worries about how to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy content in online platforms is highest for TikTok and X when compared with other online networks. Both platforms have hosted misinformation or conspiracies around stories such as the war in Gaza, and the Princess of Wales’s health, as well as so-called ‘deep fake’ pictures and videos." (Executive summary, page 10) more

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Data Governance in Zimbabwe: Opportunities and Challenges

Scott Timcke, Hanani Hlomani

Cape Town: Research ICT Africa (2023), 12 pp.

"Recent legislation on data linking national security and cybersecurity undermines the creation of a trustworthy data environment. Restrictions on information flows have immediate and medium-term costs to digital economic activity, which in turn have knock-on effects for the prospect of any subseque ... more

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Information Disorders in Africa: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Countries

Scott Timcke, Liz Orembo, Hanani Hlomani

Research ICT Africa (2023), 35 pp.

"This annotated bibliography compiles relevant literature on information disorders in Africa published in peer-reviewed academic journals in English. It is organised into several thematic sections, and has a particular focus on Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. While one must not lose sight of the d ... more

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Women's Activism Online and the Global Struggle for Social Change

Carmit Wiesslitz (ed.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2023), xxi, 310 pp.

"This book showcases the online activism of women's groups around the world in the post-#MeToo era, and presents an overview of the diversity of its current expressions. The focus of this book extends beyond campaigns against rape culture to include women's struggles on other political and environme ... more

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Elections Reporting and Peace Journalism Manual

Zimbabwe Media Commission (2023), xii, 116 pp.

"The main objective of coming up with the manual is to equip media practitioners and media houses with the necessary knowledge and skills on how to report elections to assist in the creation of a conducive environment for the holding of free and credible elections. The manual gives media practitione ... more

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The State of Press Freedom in Southern Africa 2023

Harare: Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) (2023), 78 pp.

"The report has, in summary, shown that although there are positive developments across the Southern African region, meeting the international standards is still work in progress and in some instances, states are regressing. There is evidence of a plethora of challenges that hinder the practice of i ... more

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Is ChatGPT a Friend or Foe in the War on Misinformation? A South African Perspective

Burgert Senekal, Susan Brokensha

Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa, volume 42, issue 2 (2023), pp. 3-16

"The release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 met with fears and optimism. One particularly important avenue of research that is emerging revolves around ChatGPT's ability to provide accurate and unbiased information on a variety of topics. Given the interest that Google and Microsoft have shown in sim ... more

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YouTube vlogging and dissidence in Zimbabwe: Opportunities from authoritarian media policies

Wishes Tendayi Mututwa, Gift Gwindingwe

Journal of Alternative and Community Media, volume 7, issue 2 (2023), pp. 199-214

"This article explores the use of YouTube in the increasing practice of vlogging in Zimbabwe. Vlogging counters authoritarian media policies that restrict the entry of new media players and democratic participation in existing traditional media. This dearth of public debate on traditional media has ... more

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Climate Change Journalism in South Africa: Noticeable Improvements, Less Than Adequate

Enoch Sithole

Fojo Media Institute (2023), 58 pp.

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Os Angolanos rejeitam as restrições governamentais sobre o direito à informação

Asafika Mpako, Carlos Pacatolo

Afrobarometer (2023), 11 pp.

"De acordo com a mais recente pesquisa do Afrobarometer, os Angolanos concordam amplamente que a imprensa deve agir como um fiscalizador do governo, investigando os seus erros e os casos de corrupção para os reportar. Os cidadãos valorizam a liberdade de imprensa e rejeitam a noção de que a inf ... more

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Effect of Short, Animated Video Storytelling on Maternal Knowledge and Satisfaction in the Perinatal Period in South Africa: Randomized Controlled Trial

Maya Adam, Zwannda Kwinda, Mithilesh Dronavalli et al.

Journal of Medical Internet Research, volume 25, issue e47266 (2023), 13 pp.

"Innovative mobile health (mHealth) interventions can improve maternal knowledge, thereby supporting national efforts to reduce preventable maternal and child mortality in South Africa. Studies have documented a potential role for mobile video content to support perinatal health messaging, enhance m ... aternal satisfaction, and overcome literacy barriers. Short, animated storytelling (SAS) is an innovative, emerging approach to mHealth messaging. Objective: We aimed to measure the effect of SAS videos on maternal knowledge and user satisfaction for mothers enrolled in antenatal care programs at 2 public health facilities in the Tshwane District of South Africa. Methods: We used a randomized controlled trial with a nested evaluation of user satisfaction. Participants were randomized 1:1 into Standard-of-Care (SOC) Control, and SAS Intervention groups. The intervention videos were delivered through WhatsApp, and 1 month later, participants responded to telephone surveys assessing their knowledge. The intervention group then participated in a nested evaluation of user satisfaction [...] Conclusions: While the SAS videos resulted in high user satisfaction, measured knowledge gains were small within a participant population that was already receiving perinatal health messages through antenatal clinics. The higher knowledge scores observed in older participants with higher education levels suggest that boosting maternal knowledge in younger mothers with lower education levels should continue to be a public health priority in South Africa. Given the high maternal satisfaction among the SAS video-users in this study, policy makers should consider integrating similar approaches into existing, broad-reaching perinatal health programs, such as MomConnect, to boost satisfaction and potentially enhance maternal engagement. While previous studies have shown the promise of animated video health education, most of this research has been conducted in high-income countries. More research in underresourced settings is urgently needed, especially as access to mobile technology increases in the Global South. Future studies should explore the effect of SAS videos on maternal knowledge in hard-to-reach populations with limited access to antenatal care, although real-world logistical challenges persist when implementing studies in underresourced South African populations." (Abstract) more

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 Top Insights

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024
Top Insights