1st Edition
Media Ownership in Africa in the Digital Age Challenges, Continuity and Change
Who owns the media and communications in Africa today and with what implications? The book elegantly answers this urgent question by unpacking multiple dimensions of media ownership through rare and authoritative perspectives, including both historical and contemporary digital developments. It traces the evolving forms of ownership of media and communications in specific African contexts, showing how they interact with broader changes in and outside the continent.
The book also shows how Big Techs, such as Meta (formerly known as Facebook), are involved in a scramble for Africa’s digital ecosystem and how their advance brings both opportunities and concerns about ownership and control. The chapters analyse evolving forms of ownership and their implications on media concentration and democracy across Africa. The book offers a nuanced account of how media ownership structures are in some instances captured with an ever-growing and complex ecosystem that also has new opportunities for public interest media.
Offering a significant representation of the trends and diversity of existing media systems, the book goes beyond the postcolonial geographical divisions of North and Sub-Saharan Africa to highlight common patterns and significant similarities and differences of communications ownerships between and within African countries. The contributors expose media and communications ownership patterns in Africa that are centralised and yet decentralising and in some cases, battling, resurging and globalising.
Chapter 1: Introduction: Rethinking African Media Ownership in the Digital Age, Winston Mano and Loubna El Mkaouar Part One: Regional and Tech mapping: an overview of Media structure in North and Sub-Saharan Africa Chapter 2: Big Tech’s Scramble for Africa: An Afrokological Critique, Winston Mano Chapter 3: The African "Hidden Media Capture" Julia Cagé & Elisa Mougin Chapter 4: Perverted Loyalties: Media Capture, Control and Patrimonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Hayes Mawindi Mabweazara, Cleophas Taurai Muneri, Faith Ndlovu Chapter 5: Media from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean Communication Systems in Portuguese Speaking Africa- Aslak Orre and Helge Rønning Part Two: The Current State of Private and State-Owned Media Models: Policy, Licencing and Advertising Chapter 6: Telecommunications & Broadcasting Regulation in Ethiopia: A Dialectical Discussion of Policy and Politics- Téwodros W. Workneh Chapter 7: Economic Precariousness and Political ownership of Media in Nigeria: Implications for Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria- Babasola Shina Chapter 8: Media Ownership, Politics and Propaganda: The Nigerian Example- Anthony Akaeze Chapter 9: Privately Owned But Government "Tele-Guided": The Paradox of Private Media Broadcast in Cameroon- Floribert Patrick C. Endong Chapter 10: The Senegalese Council for Broadcasting Regulation: A giant with feet of clay- Layire Diop Chapter 11: Cosmetic reforms and elite continuity of media ownership patterns in post-colonial Zimbabwe- Stanley Tsarwe and Admire Mare Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Media Ownership and Development in Post-Qaddafi Libya- Nabil Ouassini & Anwar Ouassini Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Egyptian Media Ownership and Pluralism: Overview, Performance and Challenges- Dr. Rasha Allam Part Three: Change and Challenges: The way ahead Chapter 14: Community Media Ownership in the Context of Donor Funding- Rose N. Kimani Chapter 15: Media Ownership and Digital Authenticity in Slum TV- Daniel Paul O’Brien Chapter 16: Are traditional platforms muffled by cyber-media? A review on the shift in media ownership in Nigeria- Janet Aver Adikpo, Peter Iorper Ugondo, Tivlumun Gabriel Nyitse
Biography
Winston Mano is a Reader, Course Leader of the MA in Media and Communication and a member of the top-rated Communication Research Institute’s at the University of Westminster, UK. He is also the Founder/Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of African Media Studies and a senior research fellow at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Loubna El Mkaouar is a Lecturer and Deputy Course Leader of the MA in Media and Communication and a member of the top-rated Communication Research Institute’s at the University of Westminster, UK.
