Sensationalism comes in many forms. The New York Times and the Daily Mail’s use of photographs showing faces and bodies of victims of the Kenya attack was one of them. They failed journalism. Read more
New media platforms are now firmly part of Africa’s public culture and any attempt to stop, frustrate or undermine their significance in public life is bound to fail. Read more
The news media is usually one of first casualties of bungled or contested elections. From the recent US elections, the UK’s Brexit vote to Zambia’s controversial 2016 presidential elections, the mainstream news media bore the brunt of much of the criticism that followed. In Africa, biased media coverage, most often in favour of incumbent presidents, […] Read more
National governments remain the single largest source of revenue for news organisations in Africa. In Rwanda, for example, a staggering 85-90% of advertising revenue comes from the public sector. In Kenya, it’s estimated that 30% of newspaper revenue comes from government advertising. In 2013, the government spent Ksh40 million in two weeks just to publish […] Read more
