Media Development in Africa: POLIS

POLIS is a joint venture by the London School of Economics and the London College of Communication. Its mission is to study and debate the changing relationship between journalism and society in the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally. Click here for more information, or email Polis@lse.ac.uk

Inspired by the July 2006 release of a "white paper" by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) titled "Eliminating World Poverty: Making Governance Work for the Poor", in March 2007, a POLIS conference brought together senior African, UK and international journalists, policymakers, academics and media development professionals to debate the role of the media in building African society. The focus of the conference was on how the potential of the media can be seized to improve development and good governance on the African continent; the aim was not to come up with specific policy recommendations or settled opinions, but instead, to spark ideas and inspire action.


This issue of The Soul Beat features summaries of and links to both the background and session documents created and used as a basis for that conference, and the final report that was the outcome of it.

For a hard copy of the final report, please contact Laura Kyrke-Smith Polis@lse.ac.uk

FUTURE OF AFRICAN JOURNALISM


"The media landscape in which we operate is changing rapidly, and journalism itself is adapting to new circumstances. Journalism is not a given. It changes according to the context it is in. Understanding the shape of the media environment - and where it is heading - is a core component for developing new and better strategies for media development in Africa. By focussing in on journalism we do not seek to exclude other forms of topical communication or forms for the dissemination of information and debate. As we shall explain, we believe that this conference has highlighted how news journalism is changing in a way that allows the possibility for it to be better connected with the diverse flows of informational discourse that contribute to governance and development...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, p. 58.

AFRICAN MEDIA INITIATIVE

"The African Media Initiative (AMI), led by Eric Chinje, lies at the heart of current UK media development initiatives in Africa. An entirely African-led initiative, it is a first in many ways. 'This idea came from Africa, was nurtured in Europe, but they're now looking back to Africa for its implementation - and that's the AMI difference.' (Eric Chinje)

AMI emerged from two processes: the BBC World Service Trust 'African Media Development Initiative' (AMDI), and the 'Strengthening Africa's Media' (STREAM) process spearheaded by Economic Commission for Africa. The two processes were consistent in their findings and in the lessons that can be drawn from past efforts to strengthen media on the
continent. This is how Eric Chinje identifies the mistakes of past donor approaches:

• Journalists have faced numerous problems including pressure from media owners, and financial weakness with interlinked vulnerability to corruption and declining ethical standards.
• Training has been ineffective. Many past attempts at training journalists through courses and workshops were tokenistic; 'nothing more than a culture of per diems'. Editors were reluctant to send their most deserving journalists for training. Those who did attend training lacked commitment, or felt that training offered lacked relevance; either way, they were primarily in it for the money.
• Donors and training providers were uncoordinated, and the first real attempt at coordination - the Partnership for Media Development in Africa (ParMA) - failed to include African media professionals in its conception or delivery, and fizzled out quite rapidly.
• Private sector support has been 'sporadic, unreliable and ineffective'.
• Governments have continued to confine the media in a space where it was unable to flourish and contribute effectively to changing society.

To tackle these issues, the AMI Steering Committee has a clear path of action: bringing forth actionable proposals, and identifying mechanisms for addressing the action areas. AMI is setting up both an advocacy programme and a technical team. The latter will be charged with implementing a five year programme, initially donor dependent but ultimately ensuring that the private sector becomes the focus of media activity in Africa...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, pp. 13-14.

AFRICAN OWNERSHIP

"’Are Africans in sufficient control of the media development agenda? What is the place of Africa in the scheme of things?' Professor [Fackson] Banda considers four key components of 'ownership':

• Ideological ownership: how do we reconcile competing ideological approaches to the forms that media development takes? Is media development an extension of ideals of liberal democracy? Of human development? Or should communitarian principles guide our approach? How can we effectively balance US-favoured commercial, European-favoured public service broadcasting, and other more rooted community approaches to media?
• Conceptual ownership: who determines the meaning of the concepts surrounding media development? What are the competing 'developments' and 'journalisms' being envisioned? Should we accept the current South African trend towards 'developmental journalism' at the very moment when many in 'the West' consider it a Marxist or neo-Marxist hangover? Are Africans able to articulate the kind of journalisms that can respond to their specific types of situations?
• Procedural ownership: do previous and current processes - such as AMDI and STREAM - resonate with African societies?
  Are they media-led? Are we giving the process the political legitimacy it needs? Successful processes, Professor Banda argues, will need to involve political actors at both national and pan-African levels; incorporating political elites at country level and in organisations such as NEPAD.
• Contextual ownership: how do we ensure that ownership is localised to account for the many 'African realities'? 'To speak of Africa might not be entirely accurate.'..."

-Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, pp. 16-17.

POLIS BACKGROUND

POLIS Conference: Background Paper

by James Deane

This 5-page paper offers context for the March 22 2007 conference, which sought to explore the implications of a £100 million "Governance and Transparency Fund", which was announced in DFID's "Eliminating World Poverty: Making Governance Work for the Poor". This fund is designed to support media, as well as civil society, trade unions, and other actors, to help "hold governments to account." Deane's background paper focuses on two of the main preoccupations of current development policy in relation to the media which the new "Governance and Transparency Fund" has brought to light: advocacy and accountability. The paper begins by examining the current international development context, exploring why budget support means that development strategies are increasingly dependent on effective and plural media. A key goal of the POLIS conference is to spark a more structured dialogue between those in the media for development community and a broader set of actors in the non-governmental, bilateral, academic and other development-related communities. To that end, several examples of initiatives intended to spur conversation and action in this area are shared here.

Contact James Deane James.Deane@bbc.co.uk

REMARKS FROM THE WORLD BANK

"Paul Mitchell sees several components of improving the 'empowered communication environment', with the caveat that they must be specifically implemented according to individual country context:

• Reforming Ministries of Information to improve access to information and to conceive of communication as a means of delivering better services to their citizens;
• Decentralising communication beyond the capital cities;
• Improving the functioning of private media;
• Funding studies to assess the media market - the means of receiving and sharing information;
• Developing a market for the ancillary services to media, such as fostering the growth of advertising and creative industries;
• Developing effective media legislation, including taxation, freedom of information laws, regulating and licensing arrangements and criminal liable acts;
• Encouraging civil society to act as a watchdog in governance and the markets;
• Strengthening academia, especially research and training in media studies;
• Taking advantage of the opportunities created by new media, especially mobile phones.

With these components in mind, Paul Mitchell urges a concerted effort to encourage donors - as well as governments and policymakers - to consider communication as a sector in itself, equal to health, the environment or finance, for example...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, pp. 15-16.

REMARKS FROM ALL AFRICA GLOBAL MEDIA

"Amadou Mahtar Ba argues that it is crucial in current initiatives to recognise the sheer diversity of the media in Africa. Within the same media organisation you find outstanding professionalism alongside poor quality journalism. Yes it is possible to identify areas that need investment more than others. On the whole the media in English-speaking parts of Africa is far better developed than in Francophone countries; the latter should be a particular focus.

It is also vital to view the media as a business: essentially, the media needs to sell to survive. The international community must to be more imaginative in assisting media organisations to talk about issues - and many developmental issues fall in to this category - that won't automatically sell papers.

Finally, the political and economic conditions of the country in which the media operates cannot be neglected...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, pp. 18-19.

MEDIA AND POWER

Session 1: Media and Power: How Can the Media Hold Governments in Developing Countries, International Financial Institutions and Donors to Account?

by Mark Wilson

This 2-page paper provides background for the first session of the conference. Building on the assumption that "free media is an essential component to the healthy development of a society, and indispensable to any possibility of real accountability within it", this paper (and the session for which it offers context) explores the media's role in holding the powerful to account, with an emphasis on African media. Citing UK-based journalist John Lloyd, Wilson provides specific suggestions for how the media can undertake the process of becoming pluralistic in both form AND content. They must, he says, "tell truths in three ways. The first is truth through the 'clash of opinion' that characterises the political process. The second is truth uncovered through investigation that fuels the engine of accountability. The third is the truth of citizenship - the explanation of context and events, of which the narrative of opinion and revelation is part..." The session focused on several questions, such as how different UK stakeholders could boost African media's ability to promote wider engagement, participation, and accountability - constituting what Wilson calls "deep democracy".

Contact Mark Wilson Mark.Wilson@panos.org.uk

POLITICAL CLIMATE

"...while communications must be viewed as a viable sector of its own, the communications environment is of course part of a broader political and economic context upon which it is dependent for survival. We must stimulate an economic climate which promotes sustainable investment in the media. It will also be necessary to get more African politicians on board, for little can be achieved without political support - and because ultimately, as Nigeria has proven in the past, media development is fundamental to promoting good governance at all levels of society...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, pp. 19-20.

MEDIA AND THE MDGS

Session 2: Media and the MDGs - Advocacy or Debate: What Role for the Media in Achieving the MDGs?

by James Deane

This 3-page paper provides background for the second session of the conference; as detailed in the paper, the session set out to explore 2 themes that characterise discussion related to the role of the media (both within communities and transnationally) in supporting achievement of the MDGs. These themes include: the media's role in advocating for, and actively working toward the achievement of, the MDGs; and the media's role in both providing information to people most affected by development-related issues that shape their lives and sparking opportunities for them to voice their perspectives through public debate. The session was designed to "explore the extent to which an informed, inclusive public debate on these issues is possible without an informed, engaged and plural media capable of representing a variety of perspectives in society." Participants were also asked to reflect on whether the media in developing countries have the capacity and/or interest in covering issues that enable people to form opinions on the policies that affect them, and to articulate their perspectives on those policies.

Contact James Deane James.Deane@bbc.co.uk

EMPOWERED COMMUNICATIONS ENVIRONMENT

"...if the public is now the producer then they must be empowered and educated to engage and create journalism. An empowered communications environment works to strengthen civil society in this way, educating 'audiences' to be media literate, strengthening capacity for research in universities, and encouraging action to promote development and good governance by engaging people in public debate. This dimension of the communications environment is particularly important in Africa, where informal face-to-face communications, unmediated, continue to determine how people react and interact in society...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, p. 60.

MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

Session 3: Media and New Technology: Can the Digital Revolution Boost the Impact of African Media on Development and Governance?

by Gerald Milward-Oliver

This 4-page paper provides background for the third session of the conference; the paper begins with a section titled "Postcards from Africa", which provides snapshots of the state of media and technology use on the continent - and the intersections of these trends with efforts to address democracy and governance issues. Milward-Oliver explores whether the digital revolution in Africa can boost the impact of the media on development and governance. One key for drawing on information and communication technologies and digital media as tools for holding governments to account, Milward-Oliver says, is ensuring that people can buy and use the tools and that governments do not hinder access. The 4 specific elements that the author suggests be explored during the session for which this paper was prepared were: infrastructure; regulation; continuation of influence of "old" media; and power of "new" media.

Contact Gerald Milward-Oliver gerald@theanimacentre.org

NETWORKED MEDIA

"Globally, we are witnessing a transition from conventional modern journalism to networked journalism. Conventional journalism is hierarchical, professionalized, and formulaic: it has deadlines, packages, and messages for its mainly passive consumers. Networked journalism retains the core functions of journalism: to report, analyse and comment, and to filter, edit and disseminate. But there are key differences, too. Networked journalism changes from a linear process to networked interactivity, where there is constant communication and exchange of information between journalists and society...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, p. 58.

"The clear message to international organisations and donors is not to be afraid of creating a space in which their policies are contested; for ultimately this is to their benefit, as well as to the benefit of the communications sector itself. A developmental intervention will succeed if there is genuine debate between all actors involved in and expected to benefit from its implementation. The networked media is the logical space for this debate to take place...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, p. 63.

MEDIA AND FRAGILE STATES

Session 4: Media and Fragile States - Where Governments Are 'Unwilling or Unable' to Perform their Basic Functions, Should We Abandon Media Development Altogether?

by Sophie Middlemiss

This 2-page paper provides background for the fourth session of the conference. The title of the paper poses a question, and the article proceeds by outlining one view indicating that the answer is "no". The author explores the idea that media development need not be abandoned in the nearly 50 states worldwide classified as "fragile" by the Department for International Development (DFID). From this perspective, even where governments are "unwilling or unable to carry out their basic functions", activities such as building media councils and journalists' associations and providing training for journalists in new technologies can (and should) continue. The paper indicates that fragile states have radically diverse characteristics and contexts; thus, there is no universally applicable media development "formula". Urging that an appropriate, targeted media strategy must be contextualised and customised, the author nonetheless offers here some broad reflections. For instance, to achieve the greatest change, a media development intervention works at all 4 of the following levels: systems (policy, legislation); organisations (media owners/managers, individual ministries); practitioners (journalists, media workers); and populations (audiences).

Contact Sophie Middlemiss Polis@lse.ac.uk

MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY

"Interaction has to be understood as a two-way process: citizens must view the media not just as a tool of communication of their own grievances or concerns, but as a means of listening to others too. Responsible 'citizen journalism' is about listening too...."

- Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society, p. 61.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

[Final Report] Development, Governance and the Media: The Role of the Media in Building African Society

by Charlie Beckett and Laura Kyrke-Smith (eds.)

This 68-page paper is the final report to emerge from the conference. The opening sections of the report explore the context for, and motivation behind, the conference. The report covers topics including: how can the media hold governments in developing countries to account?; how can more effective media development improve development more widely?; what is the impact of the digital revolution in Africa?; and, are there fragile states in which media development must be abandoned altogether? Although neither the report nor the conference was designed to advance specific policy recommendations or settled opinions, in the interest of sparking ideas and inspiring action, POLIS included in this report 8 papers that offer strategies for capitalising on the potential of the media to improve development and good governance on the African continent. The final piece in this report, titled "The Future of African Journalism" and authored by the editors (Beckett and Kyrke-Smith) culls out some key themes to emerge from the papers. The report was launched to the public on June 27 2007 with a keynote address by Eric Chinje (Communications Director, African Development Bank).

Contact Charlie Beckett and Laura Kyrke-Smith Polis@lse.ac.uk

Future POLIS actions:

• RESEARCH: with the launch of the MSc Media, Communications and Development, at their department at the London School of Economics (LSE), there will be a research and study capacity for more detailed investigation, and with case studies. POLIS will be publishing further reports based on that work in the future.
• FORUM: POLIS will continue to act as a forum for debate of these issues and they are planning another conference to revise and reflect on progress after AMI's first stage of operation.
• AFRICA: POLIS will also be seeking to contribute to debate and study within Africa with media and academic partners in Africa, as well as providing Fellowship opportunities at LSE for African journalists.

For more information on any of the papers summarised above or on the POLIS project, or to receive a hard copy of the final report please contact:

Laura Kyrke-Smith

Assistant to the Director

POLIS

London School of Economics

Houghton Street

London WC2A 2AE

United Kingdom

Tel: 020 7107 5249

Polis@lse.ac.uk

POLIS website

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Also see the following archived issues of The Soul Beat:

The Soul Beat - Issue #61 -
"Media and Development in Africa"

The Soul Beat - Issue #49 - "Journalism: Rights & Peace"

The Soul Beat - Issue #32 - "Journalists & Development Communication"

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Please send material for The Soul Beat to the Editor - Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com