"In the Eastern DRC where the 10th Ebola epidemic was coming to an end, the advent of COVID-19 raised additional concern of dealing with two major health emergencies at the same time with implications for effective audience engagement, and compliance to public health measures. These concerns came ag
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ainst the backdrop of audience fatigue with Ebola programming and a seeming lack of trust in the Ebola response – seen by some members of the public as a money-making venture. Similar concern and mistrust are also expressed with the COVID-19 response. Given this, Internews secured funding from BHA/USAID to respond to the growing rumors and misinformation about COVID-19 and provide life-saving information to audiences. By working with local radio partners, Internews produced 23 radio programs and several Public Service Announcements that were aired over 14,000 times on 39 partner stations. This is in addition to expanding its rumor tracking to address community concerns on COVID-19 and building partner capacity on fact-checking and radio programming. In a Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) survey conducted in December last year, 72% respondents cited Internews radio program, Tushinde Corona for improving their knowledge about COVID-19 and 74% credited it for changing certain behaviors and practices that include regular handwashing and use of facemask. While these are notable developments, challenges remain, particularly with the acceptance of and willingness to take COVID-19 vaccine, thus generating heated public debate. The government recently suspended vaccines delivered through the COVAX Facility citing safety concerns thus adding to existing rumors about the efficacy and reliability of COVID-19 vaccines. In the December KAP survey conducted by Internews, only 49% of respondents said they would take a COVID-19 vaccine or recommend it to someone - a figure that is similar to the 46% who said the same in a GeoPoll 2020 report on COVID-19 that focused on six countries including the DRC." (Executive summary)
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"On June 25, 2020, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo declared the end of the Ebola outbreak in Eastern DRC – the 10th in the country’s history and the second largest after the West Africa Ebola outbreak. The outbreak recorded over 3,000 Ebola cases and left over 2,000 deaths1. W
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hile the end of the outbreak marked an important milestone, it underscores the important role of partners including those of government and ordinary people in contributing to the end of the epidemic. In the mix of this, Internews was an integral member of the response effort. Over the course of project implementation, Internews produced over 1,300 radio programs which were aired more than 200,000 times on Internews 46 partner radio stations in North Kivu and Ituri – providing a platform for engaging audiences and affected population with accurate, life-saving, and relevant information.
A KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) survey conducted in December 2020 highlighted the important role and impact of Internews programming on audiences. The survey shows 68.8% of respondents reported to have heard about or listened to Internews radio program, KomaEbola (Stop Ebola). Of those who listened to the program, 93.9% reportedly found it useful and 90.5% credited the radio program for improving their knowledge about Ebola. Also, 91% of respondents attributed change in “certain practices or behaviors about Ebola” to the radio program. The survey also shows that listeners to KomaEbola radio program are 9.6% more likely to take preventive measures to protect their families and 2.8% more likely to name Ebola symptoms correctly as compared to those who did not listen to the program – indicative of the impact of the radio program in improving knowledge, influencing behavior change and promoting positive health-seeking behavior and practices in the fight against Ebola." (Executive Summary)
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"Das Werk bietet, nach Ländern bzw. Regionen aufgeschlüsselt, einen kompakten und aktuellen Überblick über geschichtliche Herkunft, weitere Entwicklungen und aktuelle Herausforderungen der afrikanischen Kirche aus katholischer Sicht. Dabei liegt ein Akzent auf den Beziehungen der Ortskirche zu a
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nderen Konfessionen und Religionen. Experten aus den jeweiligen Ländern bzw. Kenner der jeweiligen Situation vor Ort ermöglichen einen raschen und gründlichen Zugang zu den Besonderheiten der Kirchen und ihrer jeweiligen Rolle in den afrikanischen Gesellschaften heute. Dabei werden die Komplexität und die Vielfalt der verschiedenen Situationen innerhalb Afrikas deutlich." (Klappentext)
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"In the rapidly changing news ecosystems of emerging economies, news outlets are struggling to remain relevant and build loyal relationships with youth audiences (18 to 35 years old). As youth populations continue to grow in low-and-middle income countries, it is critical for independent media organ
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izations to understand and respond to the changing news habits of younger generations. A snapshot of youth news consumption habits in Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Thailand highlights that the predominance of smartphones, and increasing access to the internet and social media, is fundamentally altering how youth access, interact with, and value independent news. Youth audiences tend to access news through their smartphone, relying more on social media algorithms and news aggregators than loyalty to particular news brands. Youth generally do not feel that the traditional, mainstream news media reports on issues that are important to them, preferring to access a wider variety of news alongside other kinds of information and entertainment. Despite relying on social media for news, youth are wary about whether the information they see on the internet is true. There is a tension between the convenience social media provides for accessing news and its propensity to amplify misinformation and increase political polarization." (Key findings)
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"Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa is not left out in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak that continues to ravage the entire universe. The deadly virus as of 26th June 2021 has infected more than 181.3 million people and killed over 3.9 million people globally. In Nigeria alone, it h
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as infected over 167 thousand people and killed 2,119 people between February 27th, the day the first case was recorded and 26th June 2021. Unfortunately, as the virus continues to spread worldwide, there is also a rapid increase in the rate of infodemic - information overload majority of which are fake, disinformation and misinformation - about the virus, its transmission and cure. Thus, this paper interrogates the present reality of the infodemic in Nigeria, especially in the present COVID-19 pandemic and the vision of media and information literacy. The problem concerned the extent to which infodemic could precariously engineer crisis, disgust, fear, hostility and panic which might degenerate to conflict, insecurity, stigmatisation and eventual death. Combining textual analysis with receptor oriented, the article critically examined the social media platform posts and activities in this domain. Major findings apart from revealing that the free and unlimited access to information on social media platforms have been the active driver of the current experience, also showed that the inability of people to discern the veracity and authenticity of information within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic have made many vulnerable. Thus, the present article concluded that media and information literacy is a necessity in fighting the challenge of infodemic in Nigeria and promoting healthy information in media and technological environments. Therefore, among others, the introduction of media and information literacy to both literate and illiterate sectors of society is recommended." (Abstract)
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"Before the outbreak of COVID-19 from the city of Wuhan, China in December 2019, many people across the globe, Nigerians inclusive already relied on social media to gather and disseminate information and news. Since the outbreak of the virus on February 27th, 2020 in Nigeria, people have depended on
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social media to obtain information about the virus. No doubt, social media has a lot of potentials to keep the users abreast of many areas such as academic, economic, socials, health, religions etc. Nowadays, social media are often seen as fast and effective platforms for searching, sharing, and distributing health information among the general population. During sudden outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the public needs access to timely, objective and reliable information about the disease symptoms, preventions and cure. Regrettably, these same platforms are also being deployed to spread fake news, rumours about the virus and cause fear, panic and death. Certainly, the scenario poses danger to both individual and public health in Nigeria. Based on this, the present article employed conceptual analysis with a receptor-oriented method to examine the extent to which the potential of social media can be beneficial or injurious to public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was discovered among others that; social media causes more harm to people’s health during the pandemic. Therefore, social media literacy and media content censorship among others were suggested as the way forward in promoting public health during a pandemic situation." (Abstract)
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"Why and how can records serve as evidence of human rights violations, in particular crimes against humanity, and help the fight against impunity? Archives and Human Rights shows the close relationship between archives and human rights and discusses the emergence, at the international level, of the
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principles of the right to truth, justice and reparation. Through a historical overview and topical case studies from different regions of the world the book discusses how records can concretely support these principles. The current examples also demonstrate how the perception of the role of the archivist has undergone a metamorphosis in recent decades, towards the idea that archivists can and must play an active role in defending basic human rights, first and foremost by enabling access to documentation on human rights violations. Confronting painful memories of the past is a way to make the ghosts disappear and begin building a brighter, more serene future. The establishment of international justice mechanisms and the creation of truth commissions are important elements of this process. The healing begins with the acknowledgment that painful chapters are essential parts of history; archives then play a crucial role by providing evidence. This book is both a tool and an inspiration to use archives in defence of human rights." (Publisher description)
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"Burundi’s scrutiny and control of media and nongovernmental organizations, and the conviction after deeply flawed proceedings of 12 journalists and activists in exile have a continued chilling effect on their work, Human Rights Watch said today. Almost one year after President Évariste Ndayishim
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iye’s inauguration, the authorities have sent contradictory signals. They have lifted some restrictions imposed on civil society and media since the country’s 2015 political crisis. But they have also doubled down on human rights defenders and journalists who are perceived to be critical of the government. A human rights activist and a former member of parliament convicted of abusive charges remain in detention. “The government should go beyond symbolic gestures of good faith to address the entrenched system of repression under the late President Pierre Nkurunziza,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Substantive reforms are needed to address the lack of judicial independence, politicized prosecutions, and the absence of accountability for abuses committed since 2015.” (Introduction)
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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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"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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"This edited volume considers why the African language press is unstable and what can be done to develop quality African language journalism into a sustainable business. Providing an overview of the African language journalism landscape, this book examines the challenges of operating sustainable Afr
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ican language media businesses. The chapters explore the political economy and management of African language media and consider case studies of the successes and failures of African language newspapers, as well as the challenges of developing quality journalism." (Publisher description)
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"Gender perspectives in media development are common in grey literature produced and promoted by media development actors. Yet, academic research investigating gender dimensions in media development practice and discourse remains scarce. This paper wants to contribute to filling this gap. The empiri
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cal data results from my PhD field research with women journalists in proximity radios in Burkina Faso. Based on the perspective of women journalists, the study gathered transversal data that sheds light on how they experience and perceive media development activities. The data was collected in 2019-2021 through interviews and audio diaries with a total of 10 female journalists. This paper examines media development activities and their effects on women journalists’ lived experiences. The analysis uses an intersectional lens to grasp the interdependences of different power structures. Findings show how media development interventions might have both positive and negative effects on women journalists’ everyday life. As such, media development activities shape the power structures within the media environment, enabling and restricting women journalists’ access, interaction, and participation in content production and decision-making. The data also shows how the security situation in Burkina Faso affects women journalists in a different way and sheds light to blind spots in the efforts of NGOs to incorporate gender dimensions in their approaches. The analysis reveals the complexities in which media development interventions at times challenge and reinforce existing inequalities in the media sector." (Abstract)
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"Kann Gerechtigkeit eine Bedingung für Vergebung und Versöhnung sein? Diese Frage wird selten gestellt, ist aber für die Frage der Friedenspolitik in Nachkriegsgebieten von großer Bedeutung. Kriege in den Ländern in Mitteleuropa wie auch in der Region der Großen Seen Afrikas haben deren sozial
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e Gefüge schwer beschädigt. Umso schwerer waren Prozesse der Vergebung und Versöhnung. Die Suche nach der Wahrheit, auch wenn sie komplex, wenn nicht illusorisch ist, scheint ein entscheidender Faktor für die Verwirklichung von Gerechtigkeit, Vergebung und Versöhnung zu sein. Diese Themen standen in vergleichender Perspektive im Mittelpunkt der Debatten und Konferenzen der Girubuntu Peace Academy (GPA); die Ergebnisse werden in diesem Band dokumentiert." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Le journalisme congolais se pratique dans un contexte délicat qui allie la liberté d’informer, les contraintes qu’appelle le respect des lois et règlements ainsi qu’une véritable prise de conscience de la responsabilité des acteurs et des instances médiatiques. C’est pourquoi la prati
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que journalistique en RDC se transforme en une exigence contraignante pour les acteurs et les instances médiatiques. Ces derniers sont obligés de conformer la conception qu’ils ont de leur métier, basée sur la liberté d’informer, aux exigences juridiques et à des prescrits appelant à leur responsabilité. Les médias doivent ainsi difficilement s’arranger pour pratiquer leur métier : en jouissant de toute leur liberté et en faisant en même temps l’effort de respecter les lois et les règlements, afin de ne pas tomber dans les abus et les dérapages, qui les pousseraient à enfreindre les valeurs éthiques et déontologiques de leur métier." (Dos de couverture)
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