"Cest la Vie!" (CLV) is a serial drama that entertains, educates, and promotes positive health behaviors and social change for West African audiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if watching the CLV Season 2 series online had an impact on people’s health knowledge, attitudes, and nor
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ms, focusing on populations in francophone West Africa. Between July 2019 and October 2019, viewers of CLV and non-viewers were recruited from Facebook and YouTube. We conducted an online longitudinal cohort study that assessed changes in health knowledge, attitudes, and norms (KAN) between these groups. Participants completed a baseline survey prior to the online airing and up to three follow-up surveys corresponding to specific health stories in the series, including sexual violence, emergency contraception, and female circumcision. We used descriptive statistics to describe viewers and non-viewers, and an item response theory (IRT) analysis to identify the effect of viewing CLV on overall KAN. A total of 1674 respondents participated in the study. One in four participants had seen one of the three storylines from CLV Season 2 (ie, CLV viewers). At follow-up, viewers were more likely than non-viewers to know when to correctly use emergency contraception and to believe that the practice of female circumcision should end. Compared to people who did not see CLV, viewers of the series had 26% greater odds of answering pro-health responses at follow-up about sexual assault, emergency contraception, and female circumcision. Further, the level of engagement with specific storylines was associated with a differential impact on overall outcome questions." (Abstract)
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"Examples from Sierra Leone, Uganda, and India show how ‘ignorant public’ framings are used as explanation for vaccine hesitancy through assigned roles for institutions and publics, and the consequences this narrative has for vaccination encounters. These examples are based on ethnographic field
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work and media analysis carried out before, during, and after outbreaks, of newly introduced vaccines for both human and animal health. Drawing on science communication and development studies, we show how this narrative then positions governmental concern about vaccine hesitancy as being a (largely) imagined issue of public ignorance. We argue that when institutions tasked with strengthening vaccine uptake see public ignorance as the key problem, this can obscure other problems, such as competing interests and experiences, and also minority group treatment. As a result, public governance is rationalised by assigning the ignorance label to certain public groups that stand in contrast to scientific and government expertise, and so accountability for low vaccine uptake is transferred onto the public." (Abstract)
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"This article examines the connection between political parties’ perceptions of the importance of news media as source of political information, and the extent to which they adapt their communications to the standards, routines, formats and logic of the news media in Cameroon. This, with the objec
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tive of being attractive to the news media and gain coverage. The contextual focus of the study is the 2018 presidential election campaign in Cameroon. Theoretically, the study is guided by the mediatization of politics hypothesis. Empirically, it utilizes in-depth interviews with spokespersons of political parties which presented candidates to the election. The findings show that most parties cared very little about adapting their campaign communications to the news media logic, because they believe the news media in Cameroon have a negligible significance for election performance. Instead, political parties largely focalized their strategies on oral face-to-face rallies and door-to-door canvassing, which they perceive as more effective and efficient for reaching the electorate." (Abstract)
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"Each year, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) publishes a list of the ten most neglected displacement crises in the world. The purpose is to focus on the plight of people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines, who receive no or inadequate assistance, and who never become the centre
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of attention for international diplomacy efforts. This is the list for 2021. For the first time, all of the ten crises are on the African continent. That many African countries are figuring high on the list is far from new. For example, the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has become a textbook example of neglect, featuring in this list six times in a row. Most international media outlets rarely cover these countries beyond ad hoc reporting on new outbreaks of violence or disease, and in several African countries the lack of press freedom is exacerbating the situation. Then there’s donor fatigue, and the fact that many African countries are deemed to be of limited geopolitical interest. The low level of funding limits the ability of humanitarian organisations both to provide adequate humanitarian relief and to do effective advocacy and communication work for these crises, creating a vicious circle." (Page 4)
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"This thesis uses a comparative case study to examine Tanzania and Ghana, two countries where China has contributed or sold large amounts of infrastructure, but who have seen different political reactions to and uses of this infrastructure. It poses the question: how do we explain the differing path
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s these two emerging democracies take in their political utilization of unregulated digital infrastructure investment? By analyzing elections and regulation in both countries over a period of roughly 15 years, this thesis examines the role that the timing of the introduction of digital infrastructure plays in each country's political reaction. It argues that in Tanzania, where digital infrastructure was adopted later than Ghana, country leaders perceived the internet as a threat to their hold on power and therefore internally developed a 'normal' standard of behavior and governance that was much less open. Ultimately, it concludes that countries combine internal concepts with outside rhetoric, both from China and the Global North, to justify their actions internationally." (Abstract)
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"This report provides an in-depth overview of the current state and trends of data protection regulation of seven North African countries – namely Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Libya, Sudan, and Tunisia. The st udy tackles regulatory approaches, key principles, and selected instruments. Fro
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m the outset, the analysis was limited to a textual analysis of the respective data protection laws, including constitutional law (i.e., the “law in the books”). In detail, the study engages with the development and status of regional and sub-regional data protection frameworks in Africa. Political as well as international influences on the development (or the lack of) of data protection laws in North Africa were considered. In addition, for countries with a comprehensive data protection laws (i.e. Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia), the comparative assessment also looked into the scope of alignment and of divergence with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)." (Back cover)
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"Digital switchover (DSO) allows countries to use less broadcast spectrum due to the greater efficiency of digital terrestrial television (DTT). By improving spectral efficiency in this way, countries can reallocate spectrum for mobile broadband. At the same time, consumers can enjoy a broader array
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of content offerings and clearer image quality through DTT. The DSO process creates a digital dividend, shared by these two services, and this work has important implications for individuals, economies, and societies. This report provides background, recommendations, and insights from the DSO process in Sub-Saharan Africa. Key lessons and recommendations are provided by the DSO experiences of five Sub-Saharan African countries, Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, and Tanzania, the uptake of mobile services in relevant frequency bands, and the greater benefits these countries derive from this spectrum. While each country had a unique experience, there are common threads and challenges, as many faced the same trials experienced by other middle-income countries with their analogue to digital television transitions." (Executive summary)
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"This paper measures how often audiences in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa consume Chinese media, and investigates whether a positive relationship exists between the consumption of English language Chinese media and attitudes towards China. Method: We analyze three waves of survey data collected in
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2017/2018, 2020 and 2021 (N = 5876) in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Findings: We show that, while Chinese State-owned news media have a growing but limited following, the minority of media users who report getting news from Chinese media have better attitudes towards China than those who don’t. Implications: Our findings suggest that Beijing’s external communication activities might have the potential to fulfil Beijing’s goal of improving the country’s image overseas, provided that media reached a wider audience." (Abstract)
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"This book uses decolonisation as a lens to interrogate political communication styles, performance, and practice in Africa and the diaspora. The book interrogates the theory and practice of political communication, using decolonial research methods to begin a process of self-reflexivity and the cre
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ation of a new approach to knowledge production about African political communication. In doing so, it explores political communication approaches that might until recently have been considered subversive or dissident: forms of political communication that served to challenge imposed western norms and to empower African citizens and their histories. Centring African scholarship, the book draws on case studies from across the continent, including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana." (Publisher description)
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"The article draws on the concepts of “felt needs” and “politics of listening” widely used in community development and applies them more broadly to the humanitarian crisis suffered by internally displaced persons in Burkina Faso. It investigates the two-way communication stream between radi
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o journalists and listeners drawing on feedback collected remotely from 153 representatives of internally displaced and host communities in Burkina Faso during COVID-19. It argues that while a voice must be given to marginalised communities, it must also be listened to and acted upon. Rather than radio journalism being a loudspeaker for top-down messaging, the study argues that alternative approaches should be adopted in conflict- and pandemic-affected areas. It finds that a balance is needed between the information that listeners feel they need in their new extreme circumstances and the information that radio journalists, drawing on their expertise, feel would be strategically empowering." (Abstract)
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"Although journalism practice exposes media workers to different levels of occupational hazards, research on the coping strategies is limited. This study made an effort to extend literature in this direction by providing a model that explains the coping strategies of Nigerian journalists who covered
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the 2020 ENDSARS protests in Nigeria. The researchers surveyed a total of 470 journalists who were sampled through a respondent-driven chain referral sampling technique. It was found that journalists who covered the protests faced occupational hazards such as physical attacks, disgrace, threats, trauma, anxiety as well as fear. The coping strategies were found to include seeking social support, selective appearance, self-censorship as well as self-motivation. It was further found that perceived behavioural control significantly moderates the implementation of coping strategies. The researchers explored the implications of these results on theory, practice and scholarship." (Abstract)
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"The book traces communication in Nigeria back to pre-colonial indigenous communication, through the development of telecommunication, broadcasting networks, the press, the Nigerian flm industry (‘Nollywood’) and on to the digital era. At a time when Western voices still dominate the academic li
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terature on communication in Africa, this book is noteworthy in drawing almost exclusively on the expertise of Nigeria-based authors, critiquing the discipline from their own lens and providing an important contribution to the decolonisation of communication studies. The authors provide a holistic analysis of the sector, encompassing print journalism, broadcast journalism, public relations, advertising, flm, development communication, organisational communication and strategic communication. Analysis of the role of digital technologies is woven throughout the book, concluding with a fnal section theorising the future of communication studies in Nigeria in light of the digital media revolution." (Publisher description)
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"This volume explores and calls into question certain commonly held assumptions about writing and technological advancement in the Islamic tradition. In particular, it challenges the idea that mechanical print naturally and inevitably displaces handwritten texts as well as the notion that the so-cal
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led transition from manuscript to print is unidirectional. Indeed, rather than distinct technologies that emerge in a progressive series (one naturally following the other), they frequently co-exist in complex and complementary relationships – relationships we are only now starting to recognize and explore. The book brings together essays by internationally recognized scholars from an array of disciplines (including philology, linguistics, religious studies, history, anthropology, and typography) whose work focuses on the written word – channeled through various media – as a social and cultural phenomenon within the Islamic tradition." (Publisher description)
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"This collection engages with alternatives to mainstream radio systems, histories and concepts. It addresses the impacts and challenges that alternative, community and pirate radio represent." (Publisher description)
"This book Visual Cultures of Africa tells stories of the past, present, and future and how intricately linked cultures and identities are. The book explores the complex histories and discusses how people have used images, objects, and artefacts to describe what is going on in society and give expre
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ssions of their fears, hopes, and resolutions for centuries." (Preface)
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"This essay examines the history of the PAIGC radio station Rádio Libertação, broadcast from Conakry from 1967. The essay asks how to read the radio station today, and suggests we might see the radio station as a manifestation – albeit limited in scope and life span – of the commitment Amílc
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ar Cabral sketched out in his theoretical writings to collapsing the dichotomy between the practical-utilitarian and the poeticartistic. The essay reads the radio-magazine as a form that responded to the Portuguese colonial authorities’ information mania, but also as an heir to the journal cultures that sustained black internationalism in earlier decades. It takes the radio as a form in flux, emerging from and remediating the PAIGC’s print journal Libertação. The essay aims to show how the radio-magazine can help us understand the evolution of anticolonial debates about form, culture and society in the 1960s and 1970s." (Abstract)
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