African Media Space and Globalization 3031350596, 9783031350597

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African Media Space and Globalization Edited by

u n wa n a s a m u e l a k pa n

African Media Space and Globalization

Unwana Samuel Akpan Editor

African Media Space and Globalization

Editor Unwana Samuel Akpan Department of Mass Communication University of Lagos Lagos, Nigeria

ISBN 978-3-031-35059-7    ISBN 978-3-031-35060-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Paper in this product is recyclable.

First, this book is dedicated to the founding fathers of Africa’s independence, who fought tirelessly to free their people from the fangs and claws of colonialism; and, second, to Africans who are presently fighting to be freed from the bizarre and barbaric imperial cultures and creeds that are repugnant to social justice: that have caged them for decades in their respective territories.

Foreword

The event of 2020 (COVID-19 pandemic) has taught the world, especially a good number of us in Africa, that the world would never remain the same in the way of our daily operations, hence the need to adapt to the new normal of how the world operates now. In my early days of journalism practice and in academics, the local audience did not have the opportunity to watch or listen to international broadcast contents from other parts of the world from their smartphones. Similarly, the readers too might have to wait forever for the vendor to bring in copies of the newspaper or magazines to his/her doorstep. But today, the story has changed as anyone can digitally hook on to any foreign station from the interior part of Africa via their smartphone. Readers with a slip of finger from their smartphones can read any newspaper article from anywhere in the world. Indeed, a new era has arrived, and if the African media wants to survive in this era of digitization and globalization, then its handlers and operations must flow with the tide. These days, the internet obviously has forever changed the nature and the module of most industries and individual lives globally. The global media space is undoubtedly altered and impacted positively by the internet revolution. The African media is key to representing and changing the negative narratives in, outside, and around Africa. Up-to-date media facilities and faculties are essential in achieving this and it is germane so as to command respect in the community of nations. vii

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The author of this masterpiece did get in touch with me and shared his desire in bringing together core media academics, media professionals, and public health communication experts from various fields across the continent of Africa and beyond to document their years of experiential knowledge in order to help shape the African media industries in the era of digitization and globalization, and immediately I told him, “[Y]ou have my blessing in this.” This is the first time I have come across a book authored and edited by an African media scholar-practitioner, where both media academics and media professionals all converge at a point to offer a way forward for the African media industries at a time the industry is facing a lot of digital, ethical, standard, professional, and skill challenges. This era for the media is beyond being artistically and technically competent, but it is all about being digitally competent in order to be able to meet the yearnings and the standards of the modern global media. The editor has carefully brought in contributors who have developed their content drawing from different fields of the media across Africa. Therefore, it is particularly heartwarming to note that the contributions in this book are drawn from varied professional and even cultural backgrounds across the world. This variety in the choice of contributors underscores the universal nature of the mass media—and interestingly improves the quality and brand of discourse that would help sail the African media industries to the shore of digitization. African Media Space and Globalization is not just a timely collection and parade of relevant and key well-informed contributions on the African media industries to reset it for growth and beauty in a changing media landscape; it is also a unique assemblage of fine blends of media gurus and professors of media and theory. The chapters show a remarkable depth of finesse in scholarship, research, industry experience, and relevance to the modern media narratives as well as a mixed blend of African cultural concepts and idioms of communication with the modern media. The contributors being drawn from the best and brightest minds who have made giant marks and impact in their areas of expertise in and outside the African continent is a major plus for this book. The author equally drew from the wealth of his over 23 years of media and classroom experience in the broadcast industry. A close look at the choice of the

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contributors, themes, the arrangement, and the aesthetic sequence of these themes clearly shows that the author was inspired and guided by the desire to offer the readers with an easy-to-read compendium and a compass to help the managers of the African media industries navigate the uncertainties and the digital-cum-technical challenges that would show up when the continent fully switches from the analogue to the digital realm. This book in my opinion is a very welcome addition to our efforts in our early years of broadcasting in the African continent in concretizing the ever increasingly significant roles which I believe the African media industries must play in the effort to reset the African media industries in the era of digitization and globalization. The book is a sine qua non for media scholars, media professionals, and the general public who are interested in the growth and survival of the African media in the era of digitization and globalization. This is because the author has endeavored painstakingly to assemble a fine blend of media scholars and professionals who are qualified to discuss from their expertise points of view in addressing most essential elements of the subject of digitization and the way forward for the African media. Therefore, I have no reservations whatsoever in recommending this book for academics and industry use. Professor Emeritus, University of Lagos Akoka-Lagos, Nigeria 

H. R. H. Onuora Nwuneli

Preface

In the last few decades, it has been heartwarming to observe academic and professional discussions around the African media, globalization, and digitization in academic books, peer-reviewed journals, and popular literature. Most of the literature centering around this discussion is fueled by the backwardness of some African countries’ inability to fully migrate from analogue to the digital space, especially with the turn of events during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic struck the world on an unprecedented scale, thereby forcing most sectors to gradually migrate to the digital space. It is no longer news that the mainstream media in Africa is gradually migrating to the digital space where there is convergence, and this migration has boosted the African digital economy. The question is, how would this impact on theory, practice, structure, quality assurance, and everyday operation of the traditional media in Africa? As a scholar-­ practitioner with over two decades of broadcast and classroom experience, it was my desire to be among those who would proffer and provide solutions and answers to these questions; hence, the need to pen down and document my thoughts and experiential knowledge, and that of other scholars and practitioners in a book form. The African media industries are among the most robust in the world in terms of content and revenue generation. It has managed to attain this level and remain there using analogue facilities. Imagine the feat it would attain if its xi

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day-­to-­day operation is fully digitized. The media from the rest of the world, especially the media in the developed world, especially the Global North, have long moved and transited from the analogue realm to the digital space and this has helped these various media operating digitally to gain speed, quality, audience, following, and who are commercially successful to stay in business in a changing globally competitive environment. This book was birthed out of a discussion with my host faculty, Communication, Culture and Media Studies (CCMS) at Howard University, Washington D.C., where I serve as a visiting scholar and also had the privilege to conclude my Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the area of diaspora communication. Upon completion of the research fellowship, my host faculty and colleagues at Howard University suggested that I document my work into a compendium in the area of African media industries/research that would serve as a one-stop shop for those (students, scholars, researchers, practitioners, governments, and the general public) who would seek insights in the area of African media industries in the era of digitization and globalization. To add multiple perspectives to the work, I decided to invite some scholars and practitioners to share their thoughts and experiential knowledge on various issues in the thematic area which bother on African media as an industry. The book is an essential text, collected from the continent’s best hands in their chosen field of media expertise, and assembled from a functional perspective for media scholars, media professionals, students, governments, and the general public who are mostly interested in seeing the African media become a major player in a globalized world, as well as move from the analogue stage to the digital stage in order to be able to favorably compete in a globalized world with the media in the developed world. The cascade of years of functional media knowledge, ideas inherent in this book are pragmatic and illuminating. The topics explored in this book range from A to Z of the mass media in positioning the African media for success in the era of digitization and globalization. With its unique approach of positioning the African media in the era of digitization and globalization, this book would be of immense interest to media owners in Africa, governments in Africa, African scholars, and the general

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public. As a scholar-practitioner, I have spent more than 23 years in the broadcast industry and in the classroom, and in the year 2020, I have realized first hand that the African media is not adequately prepared for the challenges of the changing media landscape especially when there is a total switch from the analogue to the digital platform. The African media industries would be challenged in the area of facilities, technicalities, mass power, and management. The African media can lose its competitiveness if it does not adequately prepare to go global and migrate to the digital space. The objective of this book is to assemble African media scholars and professionals to offer their industry and experiential knowledge on how best Africa can navigate the digital terrain in a globalized age. The book is organized into six parts. Part I has six chapters. Part I discusses issues around: “African Mainstream Media Space, Representation and Digitization.” The opening chapter (Chap. 1) of the book extensively explores the African media from the indigenous media, and traditional media to the new media with regard to what would change in the digitized age. The objective of Chap. 2 is to interrogate the media industry in Kenya and how it has struggled with digitization since the global digital migration of 2013. Chapter 3 provides an explanation that looks at the digitization project in Nigeria and how it has experienced diverse encounters which can be considered as milestones, opportunities, and obstacles. Chapter 4 traces the origin of broadcasting in Nigeria and highlights the legal foundations for pluralism and the manifestations of pluralism in broadcasting, but also points out that although features of the three systems exist in abundance, it is the elements of authoritarian and commercial broadcasting that dominate the space in Nigeria, and consequently weigh on programming. Chapter 5 reveals that what will be achieved within the movie industry in Africa depends largely on policies formulated around its creation and application and around the creative prowess and technical depth of practitioners as well as the technologies available for its production. Chapter 6 looks at “Gender Representation in Nigerian Media Contents and Social Reality.” Part II, which is on “Online Media and Usage,” has four chapters. Chapter 7 opens this part. The chapter discusses the fact that as the digital

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divide has narrowed, researchers are taking a closer look at the access to the news, information, and other content developed for Black audiences rather than access to the platforms that provide internet service. Chapter 8 looks at the online presidential discourses that are categorized as politics of identity, schematized around race, religion, gender, age, and ethnicity, and function to advance the power and interests of particular groups or elites in Kenya, and who benefit from the discourse. In Chap. 9, discussions center around the fact that the outbreak of COVID-19 has forced people to avoid physical contact and prompted an urgent global need to shift toward increased use of digital media resources in teaching and learning at all levels of education. This chapter reviews the virtual alternatives that are available for the academic theory and practical study in select state universities in Zimbabwe, with particular reference to online resources in music study. The last chapter (Chap. 10) in this part examines the use of Twitter hashtags to shame and silence women for being vocal about women’s rights and feminism or for violating social norms in the Middle East and North African region. Under Part III, tagged “Music Media and Online Construction,” there are two chapters. Chapter 11, which is the first chapter under this part, narrates that a close listening to most lyrics of some top female Afro hip-­ hop music artistes in Nigeria reveal a lot of erotic, misogynistic, and demeaning sexual lines laced in their songs, and lately this has been seen in Afro-Arab hip-hop which challenges Arabness. Whereas, they are supposed to use their lyrics to correct the perception painted by their male counterparts in the industry that women are not to be seen as sex objects. The chapter compares Afro hip-hop lyrics of select female Nigerian artistes with that of their North African counterparts in terms of sexual objects which challenge the Arabness of this region. The last chapter under this part, which is Chap. 12, discusses the trend where African Afrobeat music floods the American media space, and how it is used by Americans on TikTok and Instagram. Part IV is on “Health Communication and the Digital Space,” and this part has two chapters as well. Chapter 13 discusses the online potential impact of conspiracists ideation (e.g., impeding collective health behaviors when they are needed most), as well as perspectives that consider conspiracist ideation as paranoid, irrational, or bizarre resistance to

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dominant and scientific consensus; we take, in this chapter, a relatively de-pathologized view of conspiracist ideation (i.e., as a particular kind of collective sense-making). Taking stock of traditional research, gray literature, and other lessons learnt in Africa and elsewhere, we examine motives for divergent thinking and proffer specific propositions for managing information needs in new media environments. Chapter 14 discusses how digital platforms are used as trusted sources for health information; health beliefs, health behaviors, and health knowledge; online health information seeking and barriers; major channels of digital health communication sources in the US, especially among Africans; and during recent public health crises. Part V is on “Africaness and the Digital Space.” This part has two chapters. Chapter 15 recognizes the fact that Africans are still under the grip of the west from almost all spheres of life, and that the only means to get out from this type of mental colonization is to decolonize the minds of users of digital space in Africa. Chapter 16 uses critical analysis to offer a contextualized study of culture and cultural identity in the age of digital globalization, the cultural plurality and civilizational unicity of Africa, patterns of representation and misrepresentation of African cultures, and Africa’s need to reclaim its global image in the digital age. The author argues that Africa’s prodigious cultural diversity does not negate its civilizational unicity and that misrepresentations of any African culture are misrepresentations of facets of Africanity or the organic omnitude of African civilizational identity. The last Part VI explores “Sports Communication and Digital Space.” Chapter 17 presents a background of how left-behind footballers’ wives, families, and their typicality use digital technology to bridge communication gaps. They point to the dictates of football and the impact on emerging families bereft of the footballing husband. Thus, it demonstrates to a large extent an ambivalence where the wife wavers on control given to her in her husband’s absence but with the husband’s struggle from distance to maintain powers that are waned or waning. Much of this ambivalence is apparent via the content of telephone, video, and other types of communication that the wife has with the absentee husband. The final chapter, which is Chap. 18, investigates sport journalists’ perspectives of stakeholders’ usage of digitization in sport

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promotion and development via the media space. In addressing this, knowledge of sport journalists on digitization is analyzed through their movements across nations, borders, and continents that can shape or reshape the sport industry in Ghana. In conclusion, this book seeks to provide academic and professional insights into discussions around how globalization would affect media practice in the African media space in a digitized age. Each of the 18 chapters has attempted to do this either by focusing on the continent in general or by focusing on a specific country case. I have a firm belief that by addressing issues surrounding digitization and globalization in Africa, it would further strengthen and refocus the African media for commercialization and quality assurance. Lagos, Nigeria

Unwana Samuel Akpan

Acknowledgments

First, I humbly acknowledge God’s abundant grace, the manifold unsearchable riches of His glory and wisdom upon my life. A project of large proportion such as this would require talents, dedication, commitment, and hard work of many people. I therefore extend my appreciation to the distinguished Professor of Sports Communication, Dr. Chuka Onwumechili, who academically nurtured me at several stages. I am especially grateful to all the erudite scholars who contributed to this edited volume all around the world. I am also extremely grateful to my family, especially my dear wife, Dr. Maureen, who understood and coped in my days of absence, as a result of gathering materials for this work. I also thank my parents who first sowed the seed of education in me. Many people have in one way or the other helped with the writing of this book. In a brief acknowledgment such as this, it will be impossible for me to thank all of them one by one. However, I wish to acknowledge and with thanks the harnessing cooperation which I have received from all the distinguished contributors. Thank you everyone! Unwana Samuel Akpan

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Contents

Part I African Mainstream Media Space, Representation and Digitization   1 1 African  Traditional Media: Looking Back, Looking Forward  3 Unwana Samuel Akpan 2 Kenyan  Media Industry: Digitize or Disappear! 53 Michael Ndonye and Mellitus Wanyama 3 Digitization  of Broadcasting in Nigeria: Opportunity for Participation in Globalization 79 Charles Obot 4 Globalization,  Pluralism and Broadcast Operations in Nigeria 97 Uwem Udo Akpan 5 African  Cinema and the Global Movie Industry: A Survey of the Depth of Nollywood’s Niche in the Age of Globalization and Digitalization117 Ntiense J. Usua and Isomgboawaji Ntente Ruth Ijah xix

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6 Gender  Representation in Nigerian Media Contents and Social Reality145 Abigail Odozi Ogwezzy-Ndisika, Babatunde Adeshina Faustino, Kelechi Okechukwu Amakoh, Tosin Adesile, Samuel Ejiwunmi, and Faith Aanu Oloruntoba Part II Online Media and Usage 171 7 Closing  the Digital Divide Among African American Consumers with Better Content in the United States of America173 Ingrid Sturgis 8 The  War of Words in the Digital Space: Twenty-First-­ Century Presidential Public Address as Power Maintenance in Kenya183 Shamilla Amulega 9 Students’  Use of Digital Online Resources in Music Study at Zimbabwe State Universities in Response to COVID-19211 Edith Weutonga Katiji, Richard Muranda, Weston Chimbudzi, and Vimbai Chamisa 10 The  Culture of Online Shaming Targeting Women from the Middle East and North African (MENA) Region231 Shoaa Almalki Part III Music Media and Online Construction 249 11 Rethinking  Arabness: The Communicative Nexus of Select Lyrics of Female Nigerian and North African Afro-Arab Hip Hop Artistes and Sociological Construction of Women in the Digital Space251 Unwana Samuel Akpan and Shoaa Almalki

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12 TikTok:  Globalization and the Social Identification of Afrobeats287 Kisha Dasent Part IV Health Communication and the Digital Space 303 13 Pandemics  and Conspiracist Ideation: Making Sense of Collective Sense-­Making and Health Information Needs in New Media Environments in Africa305 Jean Claude Kwitonda, Kellon J. Bubb, and Symone Campbell 14 Health  Communication: An International Perspective in the Digital Space323 Jamal Uddin and Wei Sun Part V Africaness and the Digital Space 341 15 Decolonizing  the African Mind in the Digital Space343 Kehbuma Langmia and Muhammad Hamisu Sani 16 African  Cultures and Representations in the Digital Era355 Mohamed Saliou Camara Part VI Sports Communication and Digital Space 371 17 How  Sport, Communication, and Economics Are Changing Power Dynamics in the African Family373 Chuka Onwumechili and Unwana Samuel Akpan

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18 Globalization  and Digitisation in Sport Promotion and Development in Ghana: Sport Journalists’ Perspectives391 Ernest Yeboah Acheampong and Ralph Frimpong I ndex419

Notes on Contributors

Tosin Adesile  teaches journalism and mass communication at Elizade University, llara-Mokin, Ondo State. He is the editor of his departmental journal, Journal of Innovative Communication and Media Studies (JICMS). Before joining Elizade University, Adesile was an authoritative voice in the Nigerian media where he was at various times reporter, assistant editor and editor of an online medium. He holds BSc (Hons) and MSc degrees in Mass Communication, both awarded by the University of Lagos, where he is a doctoral candidate. Ernest Yeboah Acheampong  is professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sports at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. His research is on African football, migration, youth football and education, sport for development, and giving back phenomenon. He has written several academic articles in reputable journals and served as a reviewer for some scientific journals. His current book focuses on African Footballers in Europe: Migration, Community, and Give Back Behaviours. Unwana Samuel Akpan  is a media scholar-practitioner with over two decades of broadcast experience. He has been a visiting scholar in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies (CCMS), where he completed his postdoctoral studies in the School of Communication and Media Studies at Howard University, Washington D.C., USA. He is the editor of the University of Lagos Communication xxiii

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Review. He started his career with The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and was deployed to The National Broadcast Academy, its training arm, after obtaining his Ph.D. in Mass Communication. He is a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Nigeria. He has authored an edited volume titled Nigerian Media Industries in the Era of Globalization. He also has publications in the form of book chapters and research articles in prominent national and international journals. He has delivered several research papers at international conferences. His classes are where research, teaching, and learning interface, and he is dedicated to making students succeed in the classroom and beyond. His research and teaching investigate and explore broadcast contents, sports communication, African communication systems, diaspora communication studies, and media aesthetic. Uwem Udo Akpan is Professor of Broadcast Journalism in the Department of Broadcasting at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, University of Uyo, Nigeria. He is a committed academic with an enduring passion for scholarship. He was trained in the famous Department of Mass Communication at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka—the pioneer School of Journalism in Nigeria (the Jackson School of Journalism)—where he graduated in 1988 with Second Class Honors (Upper Division). He obtained the Master of Arts Degree in Mass Communication in 2001 and Doctor of Philosophy in Mass Communication (majoring in Broadcasting) in 2007 from the University of Uyo, Nigeria. Uwem Udo Akpan, a broadcast journalist, television and radio presenter, and programs producer who once worked with Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC), has combined his rich media background with academic excellence to create synergy and impact on the teaching of mass communication. Among others, his main research interests are broadcast production, broadcast programming, broadcast journalism and journalism as a whole, political communication, the media and public policy, and development communication. He joined the Department of Communication Arts (now Faculty of Communication and Media Studies) at the University of Uyo in December 2007 as a lecturer, and has risen to the rank of professor. To his credit are more than 40 scholarly publications in learned international journals, and still counting. His works can be accessed at www.uwemikangakpan.com.ng.

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Shoaa Almalki  is an Arab Howard University feminist scholar whose research is focused on amplifying marginalized groups’ voices in the health, organizational, and digital communication fields. She works as an FDA postdoctoral research fellow at Howard University exploring best practices in creating culturally sensitive recruitment messages for clinical trials. Her other research projects include culture-based health communication interventions, safety on social media, and corporate social responsibility. Kelechi Okechukwu Amakoh  is a graduate assistant in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, where he graduated with a First Class Honours. At present, he holds a joint degree in Media, Journalism and Globalization from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Aarhus University, Denmark—a programme funded under the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. He has had freelance stints with leading national media organizations in Nigeria such as The Nation Newspaper, Media Career Services and Campus Daily. He was also the editor-in-chief of two campus publications: Unilag Sun Newspaper and MasscopeMagazine.He is a member of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Shamilla Amulega  is an innovative and value-driven communications leader and scholar with more than 15 years of extensive experience shaping communications, public relations, and marketing strategies for highly visible organizations. She is an adept strategist with a proven track record of success in driving influential campaigns while building and executing internal communication programs that champion the organizational narrative and vision. She is a two-time Telly Award recipient in television production. She is also a culture champion, published author, and global communications strategist across North America, Africa, and the Middle Eastern regions who cultivates a collaborative culture and executive trust by supporting cross-functional initiatives with powerful direction. Amulega received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and Electronic Media (TV/Radio/Print/Film) from Daystar University, Nairobi, Kenya; a Master of Arts Degree in Communications and a PostGraduate Certificate in Teaching and Adult Learning from Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota; and her doctoral degree from the

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Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies, Howard University, Washington, D.C. Her communication research areas of interest are critical studies in media and global communications. Kellon J. Bubb  is Associate Professor of Communication at Montgomery College, Rockville Campus, Rockville, Maryland, USA. He is also a climate change communication consultant. He has a background in media, communication, and education. He teaches introductory media and journalism courses at Howard University’s Cathy Hughes School of Communications, including principles of speech, communication theory, and foundations of human communication. His research interests include climate change and its intersections with public health communication. He is particularly interested in interrogating public health promotion’s effectiveness in raising awareness around the health impacts of climate change through a climate justice lens in marginalized communities of color in the USA and the Global South. He also researches disinformation on social media, post-colonial media industries, and media history in the English-speaking Caribbean. Mohamed Saliou Camara is Professor of History and chair in the Department of African Studies at Howard University, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in History on a Fulbright Scholarship from Northwestern University, a DES in Philosophy from the University of Conakry, and an Advanced Professional Degree in Journalism from the University of Dakar. In 2009, Camara was voted Outstanding Teacher of the Year at EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University, where he served as director of the McNair Scholars Program, speaker of the Faculty Senate, and associate vice-president for Academics. Previously, Camara served as an associate chair in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Conakry, journalist for the National Radio Television of Guinea, speechwriter for the Presidency of the Republic of Guinea, and president of the University Press of Conakry. He is the author of His Master’s Voice: Mass Communication and SingleParty Politics in Guinea Under Sékou Touré; Le pouvoir politique en Guinée sous Sékou Touré; The Development of a Trans-National Region in West Africa; Political History of Guinea Since World War Two; Is There a Distinctively African Way of Knowing; Historical Dictionary of Guinea (5th Edition); and Health and Human Security in the Mano River Union.

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Symone Campbell  hails from Syracuse, New York. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Africana Studies and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology. She also holds a Doctorate from the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies, Howard University, Washington D.C., USA. Vimbai Chamisa  holds a B.Sc. Honors in Music and Musicology from Midlands State University (MSU) in 2009 and a Master of Arts Degree from Witts University in 2014. She is a lecturer in the Department of Music Business Musicology and Technology at MSU in Zimbabwe. Vimbai studied ethnomusicology and popular music and her research interests lie in music and identity, indigenous music, and sustainable development in relation to politics. She is currently conducting her doctoral research on Sungura music in Zimbabwe with the University of South Africa. Weston Chimbudzi  is Assistant Lecturer in Music at Midlands State University (MSU), Zimbabwe. He holds a First-Class Honor’s Degree in Music and Musicology from MSU in Zimbabwe. He has just completed his Master of Philosophy in Music Technology from MSU. He wields more than 20 years of experience in the performative arts as a music theory specialist, recording musician, and guitarist composer/arranger/ tutor. He is a researcher who strives to combine music theory with practical knowledge at a high level. His research interests cover performative arts, jazz, the music industry, live sound, music production, instrument construction, and innovation. Kisha Dasent  holds a doctorate from Howard University, Washington D.C., USA. Dasent’s research and teaching focus on diversity, equity, and T.R.U.E inclusion (total respect and understanding for everyone). Dasent examines the historical disparities in academic institutions and the organizational culture which fosters exclusion. Her interests lie in understanding the role of media in cross-cultural experiences, centering voices that have been historically marginalized, and the role of communication in the construction and maintenance of social identities. How one’s culture is reflected in the media affects how we socially identify, how we perceive, and how we behave toward others. The lack of representation informs and guides societal views, behaviors, norms, and political action

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or lack thereof for marginalized groups of people. Representation can be a strong motivator in constructing a sense of self and that is why it is imperative to understand and relay culturally sound ways of communicating. Communication is a skill that is never fully realized; there is always something new to learn and apply. Dasent regularly teaches courses in public speaking, small group communication, race communication, interpersonal communication, and nonverbal communication. Samuel Ejiwunmi  is an assistant lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos. He holds BSc and MSc in Mass Communication from the Prestigious University of Lagos. Prior to joining the University of Lagos, he worked with the Lagos state signage and advertisement agency where he led the team that managed the digital engagement for the Lagos Countdown 2014. He is a recipient of the Erasmus Exchange grant at Birmingham City University, United Kingdom, for PhD candidates. His area of research covers digital media, public relations and advertising, as well as political communication. Babatunde Adeshina Faustino  is a doctoral student in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos. He has participated in several research activities within and outside the Department. He is an Associate Member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (ANIPR) and Associate Registered Practitioner of Advertising (ARPA) and a member of Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN). He is a laureate of Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA). Ralph Frimpong  is a master’s student in the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sport (HPERS) at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. He is working on a funded project by World Badminton Federation (BWF) titled “Badminton: A Model for Promoting Well-Being and Livelihood in Low-Income Urban Communities in Winneba.” Isomgboawaji Ntente Ruth Ijah  is a seasoned broadcast journalist/ singer-­songwriter/media research analyst/consultant with over 12 years’ experience in 3 radio stations (Ray Power, Treasure FM, & Cool FM). She holds Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Port

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Harcourt, Nigeria. With her interest and specialization in broadcast media, Ijah has been investigating the influence of broadcast forms such as music, film, as well as the personalities and consumers of broadcast products. Her high impact thesis is centered on the content of hip-­hop music and the perception of young consumers. As a singer/songwriter, Ijah has written over 100 songs and has an EP titled “Crystal Chandelier.” She is passionate, a leader, team player, and a good-spirited human who believes in equality for all. Her top-rated show “the Roadshow” on Cool FM Port Harcourt is known for bringing the fun and funny to listeners while inspiring them for better living. Edith Weutonga Katiji  is an award-winning actress and musician and an academic. She is the president of the Zimbabwe Musicians Union and vice-­president of the International Federation of Musicians. She holds a B.Sc. in Music Business, Musicology, and Technology from Midlands State University (MSU) and an M.A. in Music in Development from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). With 20 years of practice in the music sector as a performer, mentor, teacher, consultant, and music-in-­community development champion, Edith has presented papers in Malawi, Denmark, and Togo. Jean Claude Kwitonda is assistant professor in the Department of Strategic, Legal and Management Communication, School of Communications at Howard University, Washington, DC, USA. Kehbuma Langmia  is a Fulbright Scholar/Professor and chair in the Department of Strategic, Legal and Management Communication, School of Communications at Howard University, USA. A graduate from the Communication and Media Studies Program at Howard University in 2006, Langmia has extensive knowledge and expertise in information communication technology (ICT); intercultural, cross-cultural, and international communication; Black diaspora communication theory; decolonial media studies; social media; and Afrocentricity. Since receiving his Ph.D. in Communications and Media Studies from Howard University in 2006, he has written 13 books, 17 book chapters, and 9 peer-reviewed journal articles nationally and internationally. In November 2017, Langmia was awarded the prestigious Toyin Falola Africa Book

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Award in Marrakesh, Morocco, by the Association of Global South Studies for his book titled Globalization and Cyberculture: An Afrocentric Perspective. For the last four years he has been selected by Howard University to act as a scholar coach for the Howard University Summer Writing Academy. This year he was selected among the 35 US Professors chosen from a competitive pool of over 100 applicants to serve in the Visiting Professor Program at Fordham University in New York. In addition, he regularly gives keynote speeches on information communication technology, Black diaspora-mediated communication, and social media in prominent national and international universities, including the Library of Congress, the National Intelligence University in the Department of Defense, USA, and National Defense University in the Department of Defense, USA; Morgan State University, Maryland, USA; Bowie State University, Maryland, USA; Melbourne University, Australia; Buea University, Cameroon; Madras Institute of Technology, India; ICT University, Cameroon; and Covenant University, Nigeria; Makerere, University Business School (MUBS), Uganda; and Temple University, Pennsylvania. He was the 2017 Maryland Communication Association Keynote Speaker held at College of Southern Maryland, Waldorf, MD, and Communication Educators’ Association Conference at Winneba, Ghana, in 2019. His most recent books are Black/Africana Communication Theory published in 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan Press; Globalization and Cyberculture: An Afrocentric Perspective and Social Media: Culture and Identity published in 2017 by Palgrave Macmillan Press and then later co-edited with Tia Tyree. He is presently editing two books: Social Media: Safe Spaces or Dangerous Terrain with Dr. Tia Tyree of Howard University, Digital Communication at Crossroads in Africa: A Decolonial Approach with Dr. Agnes Lucy Lando of Daystar University, Kenya, and selfauthoring Black Lives … and Cyber Culturalism to be published by the end of this year. Website: drlangmia.net. Richard Muranda  holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from University of South Australia (UNISA). He is a lecturer at Midlands State University and module promoter at Master’s and Honor’s levels. His areas of focus are music technology, music production, audio post-production and studio design, sound design for motion pictures, digital music program-

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ming, and critical listening. Richard holds his Master’s and Honor’s Degrees in Music Technology from the University of Pretoria after getting a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Africa University. He has presented conference papers in Botswana, China, Finland, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Richard is an mbira, keyboard, and guitar performer. His research interests include audio recording, African music, live sound, audio production, popular music, and live music technologies in the digital era. To date he has 14 publications in refereed journals. Michael Ndonye is senior lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication in the School of Music and Media at Kabarak University, Kenya. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Media from Laikipia University and a Master’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and a B.A. (honors) from Egerton University, Kenya. He is a weekly columnist with The Standard Newspaper. He is the managing editor at Edition Consortium Publishing, a Kenyan peer-reviewed multi-journal publisher. Ndonye is an editor and reviewer with Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communications and the Ghana Journal of Linguistics, a double-blind peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by the Linguistics Association of Ghana. He is a 2017 Governance Institute Laureate with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria), Dakar, Senegal. He is widely published in refereed journals. His research is in the political economy of media, presidential politics, ethnic politics, and comparative electoral systems in Africa. Charles Obot  is Professor of Broadcasting, Development, and Political Communication and head in the Department of Film and Multimedia Studies at University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. He has practiced journalism across the major Mass Media, including ‘The Pioneer’—the Akwa Ibom State Government-owned newspaper—and ‘Master Detective’—a Lagos-based news magazine. He also worked with the Nigerian Television Authority, where he rose to the position of Principal Reporter/Editor before transferring his services to the University of Uyo in 2007. Obot had also taught mass communications on a part-time basis at the Nigerian Christian Institute, Uyo, Abia State University, Uyo Study Center. He spent his sabbatical leave and held an adjunct appointment in the Department of Mass Communication at Akwa Ibom State

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University in 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 sessions, respectively, where he contributed significantly to the building of that department. While there, Charles Obot was the pioneer editor-in-chief and editor of AKSU Journal of Communication Research. Obot attended the University of Cross River State, Uyo, and the University of Uyo, respectively, and has over 36 research publications in national and international journals to his credit. He is on the editorial board and also a reviewer for several national and international journals. Charles Obot is a member of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), International Society for Development and Sustainability (ISDS), Japan, and the European Center for Research, Training and Development, UK. His research interest is in broadcast media, governance, and development. Abigail Odozi Ogwezzy-Ndisika  is the first female professor in the Department of Mass Communication at University of Lagos, Nigeria. At different times, she had served as the head of this department. She is an expert in development communication, public relations, and advertising, with research interest in the gender dimension to development and strategic communication. She has worked on multi-sector projects and with a number of international organizations across Nigeria. She is a recipient of the ELF Petroleum Coy Ltd. and British Chevening scholarships; laureate of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA); laureate of the African Association of Political Science (AAPS)/Harry Frank Guggenheim (HFG); laureate, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Washington, D.C.; Erasmus+ Staff Mobility grant for teaching at Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK; and 1991 best graduating student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Port Harcourt. In addition, she is a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR); Associate Registered Practitioner of Advertising (ARPA); member of the Association of Communication Scholars & Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN); and member of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). She has attended various local and international conferences, and written articles and books locally and internationally.

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Faith Aanu Oloruntoba is a communication student at Hamburg University, Germany. She loves writing and researching. Chuka Onwumechili  is Professor of Strategic, Legal, and Management Communication at Howard University, Washington, D.C., USA. He is the author of more than ten books focusing largely on several communication issues that pertain to Africa. These books touch on varied subjects including sports, telecommunications, culture, and development. His most recent book is Africa’s Elite Football: Structure, Politics, and Everyday Challenges. His other works on similar subjects have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals. He serves as editor-in-chief of the Howard Journal of Communications and serves on the editorial board of the Communication & Sport journal. It is important to note that before joining Howard University, Onwumechili served as vice-­president for the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) in Nigeria, where his brief included executive visioning, managing, and overseeing training programs at different levels for employees in both the Nigerian telecommunications industry and other interested markets. Muhammad Hamisu Sani  is an adjunct faculty in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, where he teaches courses in African politics. He is also the project coordinator of the Kingston Immigration Partnership (KIP) in Kingston, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication & Media Studies from Howard University, Washington, D.C., and has taught at various colleges and universities around the globe, including Morgan State University, American University of Nigeria, the University of Winnipeg, Bayero University, Kano, Baze University Abuja, the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology (MITT), St. Lawrence College, and Queen’s University. In addition, he has worked as an international broadcaster with the Voice of America (VOA) in Washington, D.C.; communication officer with Success Skills Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba; elections facilitator with Elections Manitoba; and a strategic initiatives consultant for the City of Kingston. His research interests focus on identity politics, political communication, media and politics, social media and democratization, media and globalization, migration, multiculturalism, and human rights. He considers himself a Nigerian as well as a global citizen

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who has lived and worked in several countries in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and North America, including Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the USA, and Canada. Ingrid Sturgis  is the chair in the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University, Washington D.C., USA. Wei Sun  is an associate professor and director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University, USA. She is a Fulbright Specialist in Communications/ Journalism. A native from China, Sun’s research interests include intercultural communication, new media studies, and health communication. Her publications have appeared in the Journal of Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, Journal of Faculty Development, The Howard Journal of Communications, Intercultural Communication Studies, and World Communication. Her scholarly works have been included in many academic books. Recently, she was the guest editor for a special issue on COVID-19 for the Howard Journal of Communications. Jamal Uddin  holds a Doctorate from Howard University, Washington D.C., USA. He is from Bangladesh. His research interests include health communication, community health, global health, health disparity, and social media. Uddin’s scholarly works have been presented at the National Communication Association, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and Central States Communication Association. Ntiense J. Usua  was a celebrated presenter, journalist, and staff writer in Radio Nigeria’s Metro FM, Lagos and Kapital FM, Abuja. For over 15 years in active broadcasting, he excelled in broadcast presentation, production, and news writing/reporting before joining the Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies at the University of Port Harcourt where he rose to a senior lecturer. He is the head in the Department of Broadcasting at the new Faculty of Communication and Media Studies of the university. Usua has also taught in The National Broadcast Academy, Lagos; Edwin Clark University; University of Africa; and the Catholic Institute of West Africa, affiliated to University of Calabar. He was a communications consultant at the National Primary

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Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Abuja (2019–2020). Usua teaches and researches at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in broadcasting, film studies, international communication, and so on, with many books and articles in learned journals within and outside the country. Mellitus Wanyama is Professor of Music (Ethnomusicology and Musicology) at Kabarak University, Nakuru, Kenya, where he has served as the Founding Dean of the School of Music and Media. He was the president of the Pan-African Society for Musical Arts Education (PASMAE) from 2019 to 2021. He is the Chief Editor of Utafiti Foundation Publishers—a Research and Documentation Centre in Eldoret, Kenya (www.utafitifoundation.com). He is the editor-in-chief of African Musicology Online Journal. He is also the editor-in-­chief of Kabarak Journal of Research and Innovation. He holds a Certificate in Education from Mosoriot Teachers College; a Diploma in Education (First Class) from Kisii College; B.A. and M.Phil. from Moi University; and Doctor of Music (DMus) in Ethnomusicology from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

List of Figures

Fig. 10.1 In this tweet, the authors of the post declare they will not purchase products from a furniture company that advertised with the Saudi influencer Hend Al-Qahtani Fig. 17.1 Cyclical curves of multiple cultural reentries involving communication discomfort during each entry into a new culture and network by the footballer and then acculturation and the cycle is repeated at each new entry and upon return home to the family Fig. 17.2 Emerging family structure in Africa as defined by footballer itinerancy. The wife primarily served as the home manager but was subordinated to the husband who was the titular head of family with sole control of budget matters and the key decision-maker on life-changing decisions. The figure here shows that the husband and wife now share the decision on budget and life-changing decisions

236

378

386

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Table 8.1

Modes of indigenous Nigerian communication media Ethnic distribution of cabinet positions of the first three presidents of Kenya Table 8.2 Tactics employed in President Uhuru’s speeches Table 10.1 Participants’ profile Table 18.1 Analysis grid

16 191 196 238 402

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Part I African Mainstream Media Space, Representation and Digitization

1 African Traditional Media: Looking Back, Looking Forward Unwana Samuel Akpan

No one newly-introduced mode of communication or combination of new modes wholly replace or supplant the traditional ones. The fact is that they supplement the old ones or replace some of their functions but never all of their functions. —(Colin Cherry, 1978)

Introduction If you cannot look back, one cannot imagine what is new, especially within the media ecological epistemology. Contemporarily, technically and semantically, radio, television, newspaper and magazine are categorized as traditional media, while the new media are the various social media platforms that are aided by the internet technology. Though some of these traditional media (radio, television, newspaper and

U. S. Akpan (*) University of Lagos, Akoka-Lagos, Nigeria e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_1

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magazine) now have their presence on various social media platforms in order to reach a wider audience who most times are perpetually online; however, the Afro-centric explanation of what the traditional media means for Africans differs. Within the Afro-centric context, the traditional media refers to the various traditional/indigenous means Africans used in communicating among themselves in ancient times. In essence, there were sections of functional indigenous media industries in medieval Africa before the arrival of the Western forms of media; and some of these indigenous African communication systems have represented themselves in modernity, even as new forms of indigenous modes of communication have also emanated in some African cities. This is what this chapter sets out to explore in detail and also what presently constitutes the media industries in Africa in the digital age. Globally, the media plays an important role in influencing and altering the views, beliefs and behaviours of people who consume its contents. Hang and Weezel (2007) while citing Krippendorff (1986) say that “the mass media is the generic term for newspapers, book publishing, radio and television. Other media include the recording industry, movie industry and theatre. All media are associated with more or less elaborate forms of audience participation.” The media can be used to influence and construct what people would believe about a set of people, their systems, ideology and their geographical location. This assertion seems to be true when Africa as a continent is being beamed through the lenses of the Western media, or portrayed by the Western ink. Generally, the larger bulk of what the rest of the world believes about Africa is Western “media-constructed.” Unfortunately, the African continent is the only continent that some Western scholars have relentlessly painted in their writing as epitomizing hopelessness, abject poverty, destitution and backwardness. For instance, The End of Poverty, a book authored by Jeffrey Sachs, clearly showcases African content as artless in documentation of her media artefacts. Sadly, some African scholars such as Semple (1911), Lele (1981), Narayan et  al. (2000), Alagoa (1966), and Obadina (2004), among others, seem to agree with the Western scholars in their writings that Africa is culturally backward, artless in artistic documentation, poor in cultural and traditional heritage and has non-material traditions of oral history. Most often, several attempts by early African scholars to trace the semblance and similarities

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of Western media inventions with that of the early African media inventions are always characterized by variegated experiences (Bianchi & Boniface, 2002; Broadman, 2007; Dieke, 2000; Easterly, 2006; Gamble, 2007), which to some extent, according to some Western scholars, most times these claims of Africans’ conceptual prowess cannot be proven or substantiated due to lack of written documented evidence (Hyden, 1980; Mercer, 2003; Reid, 2008; Saith, 2001). These views are not only factually incorrect and theoretically misleading, but practically unacceptable. This is why a “single story” is very dangerous if we must go by the postulation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2009 Ted Talk, especially in a bid to correct historical errors that are media-related. With these kinds of Western postulations, research in this area to prove these similarities or semblance often become cumbersome, herculean, complex and complicated. That is why in verifying the veracity of Africans’ media creations that have striking similarities and semblance with the Western world’s media inventions should not be studied from the lenses of a Western ontology, axiology or epistemology, but from the eyewitness account of the creators who are still alive, the beneficiaries of such inventions or art creations, and from African theoretical perspectives. Quite a number of Western scholars across disciplines had ignorantly said at one time or the other that Africans do not have documented histories. Some Western historians (McNeill, 1986; van den Bersselaar, 2004; Decker, 2010; Lorenz, 2011; Austin, 2012), Western sociologists (Balandier, 1963; Gamble, 2007; Munro, 1979; Ritzer, 2000) and Western anthropologists (Asad, 1973; Boahen, 1987; Horton, 1971; Mitchell, 1991) have all made this factual error in their postulations about documented historical facts about Africa, especially when it comes to African media inventions that have similarities or semblance with Western culture. Some early Western scholars claim that some Western creations are first of their kind (Rabinow, 1989; Comaroff & Comaroff, 1992; Comaroff & Comaroff, 1997), never found elsewhere in the world; but a closer look at the annals of African historical societal perspectives would reveal a lot concerning semblances and technological similarities with most Western sociological creations. Early African scholars such as p’Bitek (1970), Wilson (1981) and Mudimbe (1988) and of recent such as Yager et al. (2007), Reid (2008) and Akpan (2019) have proven that

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most African artistic creations predate Western creations. Though some contemporary mass mediated forms of communication are not native to Africa, but back in the day, traditional African societies had practical institutionalized and structured systems of communication that were used in expressing ideas among Africans; and there were some striking similarities with the Western media systems. Proponents of African indigenous communication systems (Ascroft, 1969; Hachten, 1971; Opubor, 1981; Moemeka, 1984; Ugboajah, 1985; Ugboajah, 1986; Wilson, 1987b; Ansah, 1988; Ginsburg, 1991; Ansu-Kyeremeh, 2005) have all argued that in what the West calls modern mass media systems, you could have a trace or a semblance of what the traditional African societies had already used as a form of communication. A good example is the Akata night masquerade and the Nsibidi writing which were forms of indigenous communication/media. That is why scholars who concluded that the African indigenous media industries are like the ancient dinosaurs heading for the museum are like scholars who cite Wikipedia to drive home their point in their writings. It is common knowledge among African and Western scholars that Africa as a continent over the years has suffered a one-sided horrified-holistic narrative by European and Western scholars; and Chimamanda Adichie, the African-American Nigerian feminist terms it, “The danger of a single story” in her 2009 Ted Talk. Similarly, the late Professor Chinua Achebe in his epic novel Things Fall Apart proverbially believes that “as long as it is the hunter that tells the story, the lion would continually be the victim.” In other words, the lion needs to find a way and tell its story if it does not want to always be the victim in the hunter’s story. It also indicates that he who tells the story dictates and directs the narrative. It sounds more like the African story from the lens of others who are not Africans. Much like the continent, the traditional indigenous media and modes of communication in Africa have been controversially and consternatively debated among Western (Hyden, 1980; Mercer, 2003; Reid, 2008; Saith, 2001) and African scholars (Alagoa, 1966; Lele, 1981; Obadina, 2004; Sachs, 2005; Semple, 1911) as inconsequential, and these subjects (African traditional/modern media and communication) have undergone massive evolving fortuity that wax and wane based on stages of civilization witnessed globally. It appears as the world is witnessing different stages of development in

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technological advancement and civilization, it seems to deem the relevance of the early African modes of communication due to Western narratives that do not favour African traditional media. This is because the long-aged inferiority complex the continent has suffered as a result of Africa’s colonial experience and the imposition and swift acceptability of Western communication/media constructs, pedagogy and axiologies inform the less emphasis that is placed on the study and value of African traditional media, compared to the Western media. This continued notion has further been emboldened by Africa’s colonial experience where most of our indigenous institutions such as our indigenous media were and still are considered inferior, never given any adequate global attention, thereby leading to the imposition of European and Western communication and media constructs. The Afro-­ ethnocomunicological models used by native Africans in sharing of meaning and for dissemination of information have over the years been made to look inferior, of no use, obsolete and not fit for modernity or the current digital space. It is this sort of Western thinking and imposition of their Western postulation that gave rise to early African scholars of African indigenous communication, who wanted to find out the uniqueness of the indigenous African communication systems (Ascroft, 1969; Hachten, 1971; Opubor, 1981; Moemeka, 1984; Ugboajah, 1985; Ugboajah, 1986; Wilson, 1987b; Ansah, 1988; Ginsburg, 1991; Ansu-­ Kyeremeh, 2005). Mutua et al. (2022, p. 127) dramatically demonstrated the spirit of some of these scholars in their bid to rethink and redefine African indigenous communication cum media thus: In its conception, African communication (AC) means different things to different people, ranging from Leonard William Doob’s characterization of it as searching for boundaries, to William A.  Hachten’s views of it as muffled drums and African failures, to Dhyana Ziegler and Molefi Kete Asante’s defense of it as “thunder and silence.”

Also, as Western literature were churned out to undermine the African indigenous media (Austin, 2012; Decker, 2010; Lorenz, 2011; McNeill, 1986; van den Bersselaar, 2004), and Africa as a whole as a continent engulfed in abject poverty and hopelessness, among others (Alagoa, 1966;

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Narayan et al., 2000; Obadina, 2004), these narratives further drove and sparked up curiosity among other African scholars who sought to study why the native indigenous African media might not be useful in a modern world, as claimed by Western scholars. In their bid to find this out, they found some uniqueness of the African indigenous media channels that helped them to give a definition of what African indigenous media really is. Again, Mutua et al. (2022, p. 132) captured the definition of these early African scholars succinctly: Louise M. Bourgault has said that mass communication in Africa, the field of study on which early AC scholarship was based, is best characterized as a trilogy of oral tradition, an alienated managerial class, and domination by political patronage systems. Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh has focused on Indigenous and traditional African communication, which he defines as a broad category that includes “folk media,” “oramedia,” “informal channels of communication,” and “traditional media” that are “grounded on indigenous culture and produced and consumed by a members of a group.” Colin Fraser and Sonia Restrepo-Estrada add that although traditional media are often associated with rural communities, they portend wide applications in contemporary development planning and program implementation. Francis B. Nyamnjoh has described the African mediascape as a blend of traditions, influences, and technologies, while Charlayne Hunter-Gault described it in more positive terms as “Africa’s renaissance.”

A closer look at these definitions reveals communication and media practices based on shared native experiences that they use in communicating, and that is why Gillies (1989) posits: It is a scholarly theory and a social axiom to say that communication is culture, and that knowing a culture requires knowing its systems and media of communication. “Culture is defined by communication systems [and] since culture is a system of shared beliefs, attitudes, values and behaviour, then clearly there is a communication medium involved. (p. 3)

Therefore, in the primitive era, where the native Africans were found in their natural habitats, before the Western civilization came via the slave trade route, Africans use several indigenous objects to communicate

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among themselves. Again, Mutua et al. (2022, p. 126) in revealing how communication looked like in the early period of human communication reveal: African communication is both a cultural and historical phenomenon. Major aspects of African communication practices existed before the advent of colonialism and modern technology. Today, diverse communicative practices on the African continent are a unique blend of communication forms with elements of African culture and influences of modern forms of communication.

Africans communicated as at then using territorially and culturally based elements to communicate to each other. This was a form of the media for them.

The Concept of Communication The foundation of communication, be it writing, spoken words or gestures, undoubtedly is rooted in symbolism. Many cultures in the medieval period used common objects, symbols and elements that are native to their community to communicate among themselves. That is why communication is native. Communication is indigenous; communication is communal; communication emanates from shared ideology, history, mannerism and mutual trust. Communication is the system by which humans used in sharing and decoding meaning among themselves. Atmadja et  al. (2021) citing Ngurah and Pramiswara (2020) say that communication is a method used by humans to convey a message or intention and opinion to other individuals; and according to Cucklanz (1997); Christina and Nuraeni (2020) and Putri (2020), this interaction happens since all human beings are social beings. Africans are a communal people who like living in clusters close to each other, and share things in common. Therefore, communication in this kind of setting becomes effective and cordial because it is rooted in common shared tradition and history. The tradition of mutual understanding in communication where both the sender and the receiver can decipher messages is what Laurensia

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et al. (2020) call “an attitude of communication.” Historical facts reveal that Africans in their crude natural habitat did not underestimate the importance of communication, as they created several elements that helped them in sharing communication meanings. As social beings, communication played an important role in their daily lives as they sought out ways to socialize and communicate for entertainment and education purposes both individually and in the community. No wonder a Finnish professor, Osmo Anterior Wiio (2009), while penning the general definition of communication, believes that one cannot not communicate. In essence, what he was trying to pass across is the fact that in whatever way, be it cultural or traditional communication, the communicativeness of what is intended or not intended cannot be overlooked. That is why communication is a fundamental factor in any socio-economic, socio-political and socio-cultural factor because diversity cum cultural communication is key to any media industry. Africans, just as other humans, devised institutionalized ways, methods and channels by which they could communicate, persuade, interact and argue among themselves, and that was what gave birth to the traditional African media. As Chaniago (2020) notes, the mass media is the channel by which humans learn of the world. Schmidt (2020) has subgrouped the communication process into verbal communication, nonverbal communication, symbolic communication, oral communication and written communication, interpersonal communication, public communication and mass communication. All these forms of communication are still very much alive and well today, but the mass media as a form of mass communication has undergone a lot of changes and metamorphosed into forms the human mind could not have thought possible. Some of the forms of mass communication that are traditional and are still popular today despite the emergence of the new media are radio, television and the African indigenous media. The African indigenous media came very handy during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the traditional newsman known as the town crier was used in creating awareness for the virus in the rural communities of Africa. The African media industries are about witnessing a digital tsunami if these sectors, such as the radio, television, public relations and advertising, print, cinema,

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movie and music, fail to position themselves and embrace the new normal in information gathering and dissemination.

The Concept of the Media Industries For decades, media scholars have dedicated their teachings, writing and research on the various ways the media have evolved and as a result alter media terrains and help prioritize human taste buds for media contents and audience ideas and activities. For instance, McQuail (2010) is of the idea that the media images and reports increase our curiosity about our environment, while Eisenstein (1999) averred that the printing press was the catalyst and the bedrock of literacy in Western Europe. On the other hand, McLuhan (1964) posed a notion that the invention and the development of television and radio have aided in fostering individualism and communalism globally in what looks like a single “global village” fashion. The term “media,” comes with pedagogical and ontological notions and explanations from different scholars. The media is a general term for channels used for churning out procedural and aesthetically gathered, processed and produced information and entertainment that are disseminated for public attention and consumption. Krippendorff (1986) as cited in Hang and Weezel (2007, p. 45) aver that: The media is “a generic term for systems of production and dissemination of information and entertainment and of exertion of various kinds of social controls. Unlike a channel which is limited to a contiguous physical medium between the sender and a receiver of communications, media include the institutions which determine the nature, programming and form of distribution.”

Hang and Weezel (2007) have revealed that “most often, the media are lumped together as a single entity, while the media actually refers to many forms of communication, including newspapers, magazines, and billboards, radio, television, videocassettes, video games, and computer games. The essence of media is that it can be used to store or deliver information for mass usage, so the most common use in this sense is mass

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media.” Traditionally, categorization of media channels is based on their format, mode of transmission of their messages, how they are accessed and how their information is consumed by the public. There are two main categories of the media, which are the traditional media and the new media. Furthermore, the traditional media has three main classifications consisting of the print media, the broadcast media (audiovisual) and the public relations and adverts (PRAD). The print media consist of newspaper, magazine, photos and book, while the audiovisual media consists of radio, television and music. The PRAD sector most times is the livewire of the traditional media because no radio, television or newspaper house can survive without adverts. There is the new media which is empowered by the internet technology. The products of the social media are the various social media platforms that are redefining and shaping the global media space, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, and recently artificial intelligence (AI) and video reality (VR) have been added to the list of the socially developed media via internet technology. The African media industries therefore include every faculty of institutionalized media that Africans rely on for their daily information and entertainment needs. Lately, the media industries globally have witnessed tremendous technological interruptions and changes in magnitude that beat human imagination. Technological innovations have sparked advancements and developments in the media terrain; and these have opened up new vistas of opportunity for media practices around the world. In fact, it has threatened the survival of the analogue media channel and model in Africa. Up till now, Nigeria is yet to switch from the analogue mode of broadcasting to the digital mode of broadcasting. These days, live streaming technology over the internet via the various social media platforms are challenging the traditional media business model, because adverts would drop, people (politicians, companies, etc.) would now upload their (contents) messages via the multi-platforms available online. This is a threat to the African media industries. According to Hang and Weezel (2007, p. 35): The media industries are defined as the industries that mainly produce and sell information and entertainment products and services. The coverage of

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media industries in this study spans from publishing industries (newspaper, magazine and book), music industry, audiovisual industries (film, television and radio) to the emerging media industries, for instance, new media and other forms of digital media.

Picard (2010) as cited by Hang (2020, p. 39) also agrees: Media industries are also referred to as the content industry, as the content production is among the essential parts of the media business operation. During the content producing process, news gathering, writing, editing and reporting are the core components, hence attracting massive practical and academic attention. While looking into the media entrepreneurship practices, news/content production is a process where innovativeness, creativity and various kinds of entrepreneurial attributes are heavily required. Therefore, for the observation of media entrepreneurship, news production and the other forms of content producing activities are inevitably necessary.

 ystems of Indigenous Communication S in Africa In the study and research of Africa, the indigenous communication dimensions of how Africans used structured communication systems as a media in society are often ignored and marginalized. Indigenous here according to Wilson (2015) means the autochthonous social and cultural attributes and practices that characterized pre-colonial and are still in many cases features of the social and cultural conditions of people in societies across the continent. Wilson (1988) also avers that “in the field of communication, in particular, and more so in mass communication, indigenous forms and dimensions of communication are often dismissed as inconsequential, or only casually mentioned in the mainly eurocentric mainstream research,” and that is why no scholar has been able to decipher the fact that the African media industries right from the days of the town crier have some similarities with what obtains in the modern information system, until now. Also, according to Wilson (2015, p. 23), “the subject

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of indigenous forms of communication may not seem that significant in an age of complex, fast and sophisticated technologically mediated communication systems,” but to a large extent it has now been proven that emergent of the modern media cannot dig the grave of the traditional African media. Communication is a method used by humans to convey a message or intention and opinion to other individuals (Demers, 1996; Ngurah & Pramiswara, 2020; Salomon, 1978). Wilson (2015) has painted a picture of what communication in the early days of human development looked like. According to him: Communication in a pre-literate society can be seen in line as communication in a traditional system and cannot be discussed in isolation from the culture of that society. Rural communication among the people of Southwest and Northwest provinces of Cameroon has some semblance with what obtains in other ethnic groups. Communication, be it traditional, rural or modern involves sending a message (encoder) and receiving a response (decoder) in a particular way (feedback). What constitutes traditional communication is today a hybrid from other fields of study such as religion, anthropology, mythology and an amalgam of multifarious cultural practices, which have become standard. (Wilson, 2015, p. 282)

In Africa, indigenous media are structured under the traditional institutions, and they play critical social and political roles in rural communities in Nigeria prior to colonialism and Western democracy. Today, most of these roles that were played by the traditional institutions are predominantly taken over by the government, so that the rural people can feel the need of government presence. But according to Wilson (2008), “Traditional practices still find fertile grounds in both rural and urban dwellers who, even though exposed to the realities of new religions and western civilization, still hold tenaciously to those aspects of culture that serve their inner identities.” This is the more reason, even some very educated Africans have an understanding that regardless of space and time that technology has bridged, reliance on traditional forms of communication, such as the Akata night masquerade for information gathering cannot be underestimated or underscored. Even these educated Africans have come to appreciate the important position of the Akata night masquerade in secret information gathering and

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destination. This is because its operations span time and it is situated in institutionalized tenets. The plethora of concepts Africans use in the understanding of their communication space and time underscores the prominent position of certain institutionalized elements. The systems of traditional media or communication in Africa were highly institutionalized and structured. The system was skewed with respect to traditional values. The believability of the medium was sacrosanct to their survival and society’s functionality. For instance, in almost every rural community in Ibibio, Annang and Efik lands, there were different forms of instruments and elements used in communicating. In Yorubaland, the talking drum is an instrument used in communication, and in the Annang, Ibibio and Efik lands, the fresh leaf of a palm tree popularly called “eyei” is an element used in communication in these communities. When “eyei” is tied to a vehicle, one automatically knows that the vehicle is conveying a corpse, and if it is tied around a piece of land, it means the piece of land is under dispute, and all parties are restrained from entering the piece of land. The categorization of these systems has been segmented by Moemeka in Akpabio (2003, p. 5), where he categorized indigenous media in Ibibio land into two forms, which are traditional and modern ones such as: social forums, town crier, village market, village school, newspaper and radio. Also, Wilson (2015) tabularized modes used in indigenous communication in the traditional Ibibio, Annang and Efik lands in Africa (Table 1.1): It is clear from the table that the Afro-ethnocommunicological ideology of Africans is an institutionalized and categorized form of traditional media that performs various social and political functions in African communities prior to colonialism and the entrance of Western media.

The Town Crier The major native traditional newsman that was instrumental in information dissemination in the traditional African communities is the town crier. His services are still very valid today in most rural communities in Africa. During elections (Dede, 1997; Ilo, 2011; Infospace, 2017; Nsude

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Table 1.1  Modes of indigenous Nigerian communication media S/ No

Mode of communication

1.

Instrumental

2.

Demonstrative

3.

Iconographic

4.

Extramundane

5.

Visual

6.

Institutional

Media/Channels used Idiophones—Wooden drum, Metal gong Ritual rattle, woodblock etc. Membranophones—Skin drum Aerophones—whistle, ivory horn, reed pipes, etc Symbolography—Bamboo rind, nsibidi, tattoo, chalk marks Music—Songs, Choral/Entertainment Music, Griots, Dirge, Elegy, Ballad, Pop, Rap, Spiritual Signal—Cannon shots, gunshots, whistle call, camp fire, drum. Objectics—Charcoal, Kolanut, White clay, egg, beads, flag. Floral—Fresh palm frond, Plantain stems, boundary trees Incantatory—Ritual, Libation, Vision, Prayer Graphic—Obituary, In Memoriam Colour—White cloth, red cloth, yellow, etc. Appearance—Dressing, hair style, body language. Social—Marriage, Chieftaincy, Festival Spiritual—Shrine, masquerade.

Adapted from Wilson (1987a, 2015)

& Ishiak, 2016), his services are recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2008; WHO, 2020); and employed for sensitization, during health campaigns, (Bibkov & Bibkov, 2020; IOM, 2020; Prusaczyk, 2020), he plays a major role in sensitizing and mobilizing the rural dwellers, and when government wants its citizens to be aware of policies without leaving out the rural dwellers (Majmudari, 2000; Mundy & Lloyd-Laney, 1992; Opubor, 1975; Osho, 2010; Osho, 2011; Ottah & Umar, 2016), the job of the town crier comes handy. Recent studies have shown that the town crier is still seen in major rural communities in Africa (National Open University of Nigeria, 2018; Osho, 2010; WHO, 2020). The town crier was the first indigenous newsman who went around the town to disseminate news of some important meetings, occasions and happenings in the community before the newspaper, radio, television and the internet showed up.

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 he Early Days of African Print T Media Landscape As earlier stated, what is termed as the mass media in the traditional African communities predates most Western modernities. With the exception of Liberia, most African countries attained their independence from the colonial masters shortly after World War II.  Nigeria, Libya, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Madagascar, Congo (Kinshasa) and Libya were among the earliest African countries to gain independence from the firm colonial grip. It is on record (Opubor, 1975; Uche, 1989; Wilson, 2015) that Iwe Irohin Fun Awon Ara Egba ati Yoruba was the first indigenous newspaper, published by Rev. Henry Townsend in 1859, in Nigeria, even before Nigeria’s independence in 1960. There is this scholarly argument that the Kano Chronicle was the first newspaper to be published in Nigeria. But what makes a newspaper is its daily or weekly publication, which Kano Chronicle lacked. Kano Chronicle was a sort of a bulletin of happenings around the emirate, which is the Emir’s palace in Kano. It also was used to give a detailed account of the Emirs who ruled the Kano emirate and therefore cannot be classified as a newspaper and could not be the first newspaper in Nigeria because it lacked inclusion, mileage and secularism. The first newspaper in Ghana was published by Sir Charles McCarthy, the Governor of the British Gold Coast settlements, in 1822, which is 135 years before Ghana’s independence in 1957. The Gold Coast Gazette was said to be the first newspaper to be published in Ghana (Davor, 2015; African Media Barometer, 2013; Afrifa, 2015; Allan, 2006; Gadzekpo, 2008a; World News Paper Achieves, 2022). Similarly, 136 years before Morocco attained her independence from the colonial masters in 1956 in Morocco, the first newspaper in Morocco was African Liberal, which was published in 1820 (Elwood & Holsoe, 1985; Zaghlami, 2016; World News Paper Achieves, 2022). This is a clear indication that across the African continent, there was some sort of media even before some African countries attained their independence. The consciousness of self-governance began to set in when some Africans left the shores of Africa for Europe and America to study. When

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they returned to Africa, their hunger for a free Africa began to grow. The likes of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Mobutu Sese Seko and Kwame Nkrumah, all wanted Africa to be free. Some of them floated newspapers and used the same to drum up independence narratives. Therefore, around the mid-twentieth century, media channels that were politically motivated were established by some nationalists with the sole aim of driving the colonial masters out of the entire continent. The print media was a potent instrument in the hands of these nationalists, mainly because of the development of the printing press technology as at then in Africa. The print medium was more like the social media today which is a darling and an emerging media that is almost everybody’s delight; and Herbert Macaulay’s Lagos Daily Newspaper, Nnamdi Azikiwe’s West African Pilot and Kwame Nkrumah’s Ashanti, among others, across the continent used the new media technology which is the printing press to forge a media war against the colonial masters. They used these newspapers which they founded to be at the forefront of the struggle against colonial dominance in their respective countries (Davor, 2015). Gadzekpo (2008b) avers that the colonial media was politically and strategically designed to achieve political ends. Some classical examples are the West African Pilot, Lagos Daily News and Western Nigerian Television (WNTV) in Nigeria which were all used by their proprietors: Nnamdi Azikiwe, Herbert Macaulay and Obafemi Awolowo, respectively, to promulgate their political desire, thereby aligning a fusion between politics and the media (Babalola, 2002; Ikiebe, 2015; Omoera, 2014). A notable feature of the media terrain under the colonial administration was the dictatorial policies enacted by the colonial governments to checkmate the activities of indigenous media and stiffen public accessibility to information. Nyamnjoh (2005; Anyidoho, 2016) in their analysis narrate that the colonies that were controlled by the French and British suffered repressive laws that barred the media from publishing and distributing newspapers in any part of the colonies. Moreover, it was revealed that “economic regulations were imposed that made it very difficult for Africans to import newsprint and other technological and/or structural necessities for building an indigenous mass media that challenged the rule of major colonial powers” (Nyamnjoh, 2005, online). Consequently, it was gathered, Africans who could read and write were

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forced to entirely turn to the foreign media who used their media channels to spread the interest of their colonial governments. Therefore, the efforts by the West to strangle, stiffened and silence the African voice did not start today.

 he Early Days of African Broadcast T Media Landscape With the exception of Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Zambia, where electronic media (radio and television) was introduced by the British before independence, most of Sub-Saharan Africa established their first television stations after independence (Akindes, 2011; Bourgault, 1995). The introduction of radio in some parts of the British and French controlled territories in Africa was to provide information and entertainment to the British and French protectorates. In many African countries such as Nigeria, the broadcast media contents were controlled and directed by governments (Uche, 1989; Ziegler & Asante, 1992). Government control over these media houses was unapologetically displayed in the news content and structure. Bourgault (1995) as cited by Akindes (2011) posits that African television in the 1970s served as the president’s (or ruling party’s) “personal address system” or as an inexpensive entertainment-provider. Tight government control of media structure and content in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa lingered up to the late 1980s and early 1990s (Uche, 1989). There was a sudden turn of events in the African media landscape in the early 1990s. There were several factors that necessitated the transformation of the African media landscape. The dynamics that changed the African media cloud from the authoritarian nature to the libertarian nature included the deployment of satellite broadcasting, changes in media regulation and laws, and the political democratization of Sub-Saharan Africa (Ba, 1996; Bourgault, 1995; Chalaby, 2005; Eribo & Jong-Ebot, 1997; Hydén et al., 2002). Myton, Teer-Tomaselli and Tudesq (2005), in Akindes (2011), “note that African space for transnational television broadcasters became open due to television technology, telecommunications, and information

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technology, coupled with the liberalization of media.” When media laws in some parts of Africa were changed allowing private individuals to own radio and television stations, media contents changed. Though Akindes (2011, p. 69) acknowledges that “new technologies’ role in the change in the Sub-Saharan African media landscape is acknowledged, political democratization in the early 1990s is seen as the most influential.” But it should be noted that people were no longer interested in the frequent lies that they were fed with in the states’ owned media. This increased their taste and hunger for objective, unbiased and independent media content. Major changes in media landscape across the African continent are often viewed from the angle of democratization perspective, but looking at it critically, the changes in media landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa were sparked up by technological changes in television broadcasting and the transformation of international media strategies. The satellite dishes were very common in most privileged homes in Africa. Ba (1996) confirmed that after the adoption of satellite television, Africa grew exponentially media-wise, just a few years after the technology’s introduction. No wonder Paterson (1998, p. 547) mentioned that the merging of the French conglomerate Canal+ with South African Multichoice, and in partnership with Nethold, placed the group in a dominant position in Africa satellite broadcasting, and this further exposed the viewers to quality and balanced media content they have been yearning for. South Africa’s Multichoice and Africa TV are the two main suppliers of television packages to Anglophone Africa (Akindes, 2011). Myton, Teer-Tomaselli and Tudesq (2005) in Akindes (2011) note that most Multichoice and TV Africa programme providers are outside Africa. Akindes (2011, p. 87) in his narrative believes “since the time of Paterson’s study of satellite television, broadcasting in Africa has continuously evolved over the years.” Lenoble-Bart and Tudesq (2008) have pointed out the frequent changes taking place in the African media landscape due to information and communication technology (ICT). In fact, the penetration of African television airwaves by foreign satellite television broadcasters such as Canal+, Multichoice, DSTV and a host of local private television broadcasters emerged as a result of political democratization and broadcasting deregulation and this changed the colouration of African media content.

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 frica’s Broadcast Sector: Switching A from Analogue to the Digital Space Historically, the idea of switching the UHF analogue terrestrial television to the digital space, as a probable replacement for analogue terrestrial broadcasting, was first conceived and developed in the United States “as an industrial response to Japan’s bid in the 1980s to set global standards for high-definition television (HDTV) using analogue technology” (Leiva & Starks, 2009), and after that, the rest of the world followed suit (Brown & Picard, 2005; Cave & Nakamura, 2006; Galperin, 2004; Galperin, 2007). Leiva and Starks (2009) further reveal that “in 1990 General Instrument announced that it had designed an all-digital HDTV system, the United States industry knew it had a card which would trump Japan’s analogue system and the early digital development work done under the aegis of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) advisory group laid the basis for the ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) set of technical standards for both standard and high-­ definition digital terrestrial television.” In a swift response to Japan’s analogue HDTV digital inventiveness, Europe hurriedly designed and developed its own rival analogue high-definition satellite system, known as Multiplex Analogue Component (MAC) in the 1980s (Leiva & Starks, 2009). Looking at research studies conducted in the area of media industries, there are much less efforts being made in investigating how globalization would impact the African media industries, especially in the broadcast sector when some countries in Africa finally switch from the analogue to the digital space. In an ever dynamic media environment that is characterized by frequent technological advancements in media features and operations, media owners and media talents are vigorously taking advantage of the emerging media vistas and venturing into the new media terrain. Studies have shown digital migration would foster much improved pictorial and sound experience, quality and more spectrum accessibility and availability if broadcasters transit from the analogue to digital mode of television transmission (García Leiva et al., 2006; Given, 2007; Starks, 2007). Migrating from analogue television broadcasting to digital mode

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will usher in an increase in frequencies and allocation, reduce the cost of broadcasting, boost digital capacity and improve viewing qualities in picture and sound for consumers. The director-general of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, in an interview with The Guardian newspaper on 7 March 2021 revealed: With the commitment of N9.4 billion by the Federal Government and the setting up of the Ministerial Task Force by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, there will be accelerated activities toward the delivery of the project. (p. 12)

Going by The Guardian report, Mr Armstrong Idachaba “faulted the belief in certain quarters that the country missed two deadlines—June 2015 and July 2020—owing to poor conception, mismanagement, corruption and bad leadership” (p.  12). Idachaba in The Guardian newspaper interview went on to say: No country has set a date and actualised it on the first set date. In the UK, they had to revise their entire transition strategy after they had pumped in millions of Pound Sterling. Also, in the USA, they had to reset the date over and over before they eventually transited. Comparatively in Africa, Nigeria was miles ahead of many countries in the continent in the DSO process. Only a few countries have been able to complete the process in Africa and when you look at their sizes they are like one sixth of our territorial space and populations. One of them only has one TV station like NTA and when they changed their national broadcasting infrastructure, they declared that they had already transited. By the plans we have, by the middle of 2022, we would have completed the digital switch over in Nigeria. (p. 14)

The Guardian (2021) reported, “The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) says the Digital Switch Over (DSO) project will be completed by the middle of 2022 when the country will fully transit from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.” This is the end of 2022, and that goal has not been achieved. The records of countries with complete digital migration as at 2018 are sketchy. Also, according to Mwale (2018), Africa’s status of analogue switching from UHF terrestrial

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band television broadcasting is still far from reality. According to him, the countries that are almost completing their digital switch are: Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinee-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda. Those yet to migrate to the digital space are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, DRC, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Zambia, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Guinee, South Africa, South Sudan, Madagascar, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Botswana, Cameroun, Mali, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, representing about 15 counties  =  28% of the countries in Africa. Others are at various stages of migration. The lack of complete or precise information on the countries in Africa that have fully migrated from the analogue to the digital space is always blamed on poor data

 hoosing Digital Technical Standards That C Sync with the Continent Digital culture is currently a global trend, you either follow it or are left behind. In television broadcasting around the world, the switchover from analogue to digital television is at present an established-institutionalized global trend for the survival of the sector in a competitive sector such as the broadcast. Though what is being witnessed in the continent, of several changes in dates for digital switch, according to Leiva and Starks (2009, p. 31): Switchover motives vary in emphasis from country to country but the common objective is to achieve greater spectrum efficiency by closing down analogue terrestrial transmission. The spectrum saved at this point can be reallocated or auctioned, for a wide range of broadcasting and telecommunications purposes. Switch-off started at regional level with Berlin in 2003 and at national level with the Netherlands in 2006. Finland and Sweden followed in 2007. Firm target dates have been set for the United States (2009), Japan (2011), the United Kingdom (2008–12) and several other western European countries. In the wake of these pioneers, other governments around the world are following, and the 2006 Regional Radiocommunication Conference for Europe, Africa and the Middle East

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set a date of June 2015 for completing the transition to digital broadcasting. Several of the pioneering countries faced crises at some point, characterized by a stalled market, bankrupt broadcasters or postponed switch-off timetables. Switchover has proved neither commercially nor politically simple.

Each country of the world has designed a digital space that suits its culture, yearnings and ideology, while some other countries have just adopted the one designed by the United States, Europe and Japan. The various countries in Africa should design their own spectrum in a manner that would reflect and showcase the real cultural heritage embedded in the African continent to the world. Leiva and Starks (2009, p. 86) reveal how some countries around the world are faced with the choice of either developing their technical switchover or adopting the American, European and Japanese standards of digital switchover: Clearly not every country can sensibly, or practically, design its own digital technical standards. So around the globe other countries embarking on digital switchover have been faced with a choice between the main standards developed in the United States, Europe and Japan—and indeed the American, European and Japanese proponents of these systems have been competing for their business, since royalty payments for intellectual property are involved. For any country considering which system to adopt, the technology of its analogue television systems (e.g. NTSC or PAL) is a significant factor, as are import patterns for TV receivers and programmes. Canada and South Korea, for example, have adopted the ATSC system. Russia, South Africa and Kenya, among many others, have selected DVB technology.

This of course should not be the experience of Africa, because the continent is capable of designing its own digital capabilities that can reflect and boost Africa’s rich cultural heritage. Failure of these African countries to design and develop their own unique digital capabilities means the continent is still technically colonized and Westernized digitally. Africa should be digitally emancipated. Africa should be digitally free if it must place its indigenous media and communication to compete with the rest of the world. If this is done, the digital design emanating from the

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continent of Africa can aid and position the African media industries to tower above the rest.

Theoretical Explanation This chapter theorizes its standpoint from technological determinism and mediamorphosis concepts. In academic research, understanding the metamorphosis nature of media environment and the extent to which this has impacted various sectors of the media can best be seen from the prism of the technological determinism theory, which is a reductionist theory that believes that a civilization’s technology determines the path and pace at the media improves is solely dependent on how technology is improved by the day. Technological determinism as a term is believed to have been coined by Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), an American sociologist. According to Lievrouw and Livingstone (2009, p. 20), technological determinism is “the belief that technologies have an overwhelming power to drive human actions” which can propel changes in media operations and consumption as we have it today. Propounded in 1962 by Marshall McLuhan, technological determinism states that media technology shapes how we as individuals in a society think, feel, act and how society operates as we move from one technological age to another (Tribal-Literature-Print-Electronics), such as we are about to witness when the continent of Africa fully digitized its media space. Mediamorphosis is a theoretical concept coined and developed by a new media theorist, Roger Fidler in his book Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media. Mediamorphosis is a concept where the technological evolution of communication media emerges gradually from the metamorphosis of old media and when the latest forms of communication media emerge, the older forms do not die but adapt and evolve (Disyembre, 2016). Atmadja et  al. (2021) say “the old form of mass media was replaced by newer and usually more efficient media. But this emerging form of new media does not shift the old media completely.” The mediamorphosis theory is also known as the “digital metamorphosis” that explains and estimates the changes in the digital world and its culture. “‘New Media’ is created to update and upgrade the old media where

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technology is constantly changing, and evolving from time to time” (Disyembre, 2016), and this is the time the African media industries should update themselves so that they should continually remain in business. Fidler explains that mediamorphosis is “the transformation of communication media, usually brought about by the complex interplay of perceived needs, competitive and political pressures and social and technological innovations” (Fidler, 1997). According to Disyembre (2016), “Fidler has identified the six principles of Mediamorphosis: Coexistence and coevolution of media forms, gradual metamorphosis of new media forms from old ones, propagation of dominant traits in media forms in media forms, survival of media forms and enterprises in changing environment, merits and needs for adopting new media and delays from proof of concept to widespread adoption of new media.” Though the media theory in its explanation might sound a little like technological determinism theory, it mediamorphosis simply lends itself towards the technological evolution of communication media from the traditional to the new media. Roger Fidler is of the belief that the old forms of media or the traditional media inspire the invention of the new forms of media. He is of the notion that the traces and features of the old media, or traditional media can be seen in the modes and features of the new media. Therefore, the new forms of media leverage and improve on the new media and cannot be said to be totally a new form of media. And this suits the explanations of early media scholars such as Cherry (1978) and Escarpit (1968) that the new forms of media cannot replace the old ones (radio, television, cinema, newspaper, magazine, the town crier, etc.), but they can only improve on its functions and features. It also means that the traditional media would not or automatically die as a result of the emergence of the new forms of communication; rather the traditional would coexist with the new. Rodriguez (2016, p. 65) reveals: Radio. In the post-World War II era, Media experts predicted that amplitude modulation or AM radio would be the most significant and profitable form of mass communication; they even saw no threats to radio. Yet, by the early 1950s, they revised their statements declaring that radio is in fact on the verge of extinction. However, this medium did not die but it metamorphosed into a new form of mass media—the frequency modulation or FM

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radio. Television. Several media analysts predicted that television will soon undergo coevolution and metamorphosis—well, it did. According to them, viewers will be able to easily aggregate and choose the programs they want to see, whenever and without having to surf channels or program their CDs and VCRs. Examples of which are the American video-sharing websites—YouTube, Netflix wherein you can watch movies and TV shows online and even on mobile phones, tablets and more. Digital boxes and Google’s Chromecast allows the viewer to play audio and video content by streaming it via Wi-Fi from the internet or via local networks. These developments are some of the best examples of mediamorphosis. Television did not die but it developed and created new mediums of visual communication.

In fact, the traditional forms of media such as the traditional African town crier, the Akata night masquerade and so forth would continuously be very effective and useful in information dissemination among the rural dwellers in Africa. According to Rodriguez (2016), “New media (a form of mass communications using digital technologies such as the Internet) do not arise spontaneously and independently—they emerge gradually from the metamorphosis of old media hence the coined term Media-­ morphosis.” It therefore means that the mediamorphosis of these formats of communication would affect and alter the cultural values, lifestyle and communalism especially among Africans as community-oriented people. In those days, Africans had a form of their traditional internet where only the initiates had access to. They used coded cryptic language such as “Nsibidi” writing for the initiates to gain access to the venue of their meeting for knowledge’s sake. The same was seen in the Western world where the Freemasons and other secret societies held sway to knowledge and sent information to members via secret coded messages for the location where they would meet to share this knowledge among themselves. That was a form of the internet where loads of information is available and ready to share. However, today you can only access this information by logging into your system, a practice that was already in operation by Africans through “Nsibidi” writing. To collaborate this, Rodriguez (2016, p. 44) further reveals:

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Electronic mail. Nineteen years ago, the Internet introduced a new emailing platform, Instant messaging (IM) and short messaging service (SMS). These new forms of communication offer real-time text transmission over the internet or local networks. It can also be seen that traditional media companies are creating new ways to distribute information. For instance, Facebook started with a simple online address book of Harvard students then it turned into a social networking platform. On August 9, 2011, it launched the Facebook Messenger that offers instant messaging service and software application which provides text and voice on iOS and Android versions. But, as of 2016, due to the needs of the society, a variety of features were added including video calls (April 2015), group video calls (April 2016), games and sending attachments e.g. pictures, videos and the like. Facebook Messenger Web underwent Convergence where it created another form of media to develop another.

In tying mediamorphosis with technological determinism theory of how technology has interrupted our daily lives, and how the traditional media has evolved and in turn affect lives, such as that of Africans, Atmadja, Menayang, Marta and Widiyanto (2021, p.  18) explain that “this changes are unavoidable and have a massive impact on all aspects of social life, including educational institutions.” Meisyaroh (2013) as cited by Atmadja, Menayang, Marta and Widiyanto (2021, p. 89) confirms: Marshall McLuhan himself argues that the development of communication technology is inevitable which can result in profound changes, both for cultural and social order. Marshall McLuhan furthermore insists that the medium is the stepping stone and the media are an era of mass. This means that presently we live in a unique era in the history of human civilization, namely the era of mass media. In today’s unique era, the media can influence how people think, feel, and behave. Society today exists in the revolutionary era where society evolved into mass due to the presence of mass media. McLuhan argues that the history of human life can be structured into four periods consisting of: a tribal age, literate age, a print age, and electronic age. The transition is always gradual or evolving because of the presence of communication technology. The development of communication technology has changed human culture.

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This therefore means that with the current digital speed swapping across the world, the African media industries need to position themselves to move with the tide if it must survive, but not forgetting its cultural communicativeness, which can be deployed into the digital space and help to showcase Africa’s rich cultural heritage to the world. That is why Respati (2014) pointed out that McLuhan, while stating how the world would be a “global village” furthermore, reveals that human existence is determined by changes in communication models since mass media is an extension of man’s existence. It therefore means, if the African media industries need to exist and flourish, they should embrace digital technology.

 he Coming of the New Media and the African T Media Landscape The internet technology gave birth to the various social media platforms we have today; it is the internet too that has also digitally aided the operations, features, accessibility and the consumption of these social media messages. The arrival of social media platforms changed the gear, speed and the rule of engagements in the media terrain and practice world over. Traditional media (radio, television, newspaper, magazine etc.) owners had to quickly adjust to embrace the digital disruption that swept across the world. The developed countries of the world quickly adapted to the digital disruption and embraced it, while the developing countries around the world are still struggling to fit into the digital train. Africa is not left out of this “digital struggle,” especially in the area of digital broadcasting. Just like Marshall McLuhan predicted, Africans can now stay in their remotest villages and communicate with their loved ones in the civilized cities of New York, Frankfurt, London, Toronto and so forth—they can see each other via video call on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and so forth. The African media landscape is gradually being digitized, but the broadcast sector in Africa is yet to be digitized.

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 frican Indigenous Media: Representations A in Modernity Prior to civilization in communities globally, people had modes and icons that they used in communicating with one another, and that is why I said earlier that communication is native and cultural. For instance, when civilization set in, envelopes were used in putting letters for onward delivery, now you see the sign of an envelope on smartphone screens as a representation of where you can click to check for your emails or short messages (SMS). The same goes for the icon on the smartphone screen for dialling your contacts, which is the symbol of the handle of the old telephone, popularly called candlestick telephone. Twitter also uses the symbol of a chick that clucks or tweets as he follows the mother chicken. In the same manner, Africans had traditional icons they used in communication, and within the African communication scholarship, it is called iconographic communication. Iconographic communication within the African communication context refers to the icons and symbols Africans use in sharing meaning in communication. Des Wilson, a foremost ethnocommunicologist, reveals that most indigenous African modes of communication are indispensable: Those media which have defiled all efforts by Western media to cannibalize them and perhaps supplant them…the continuous process of information dissemination, enlightenment and education used in societies which have not been seriously dislocated by Western culture or any other external influence. (Wilson, 1987b, pp. 24–25) Doob (1966) sees these indigenous iconographic communications as communication based on symbols. Ansu-Kyeremeh (1988) says it is communication designed on symbolic elements, while Wilson (1988) says it is a form of representational communication, and Ogwezzy (2008) sees it as sharing of meaning based on symbols. For Akpabio (2021): Icons are generally regarded as standing for or representing something else. They are signs that through heavy use have acquired rich connotations and consequently convey powerful meanings that are clearly understood1 and are recognizable by members of a community—local, national, state or international. Nelson Mandela through his life and example is a powerful

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South African icon who has transcended his native South Africa and become an icon of hope in the face of adversity as well as of forgiveness and reconciliation. That does not prevent him from still being a husband, father and grandfather to his immediate and extended family members. (p. 5)

In the southern part of Nigeria, especially among the Annang, Ibibio and Efik people, several objects are used in communication. According to Wilson (1988) and Akpabio (2021), these objects are charcoal, kolanut, white clay, egg, beads and flags. For instance, women in these traditional societies wore beads those days so it can act as a form of contraceptive when they meet with their husbands. It also helped them to check their weight. Iconographic communication could come in a floral form such as fresh palm fronds, plantain stems or boundary trees. In the Annang, Ibibio and Efik lands, the fresh palm fronds popularly known as “eyei” is used in summoning people for the traditional court council in order to settle disputes. It is also tied to farmlands to show that the piece of land is under dispute. It is also tied to vehicles conveying corpses. Anytime you see a fresh palm frond tied to a vehicle, it shows that the vehicle is converting a dead body, or a land with fresh palm front, it automatically communicates that the land is under dispute. These days, some of these icons of communication have found their way into the modern technology of communication such as the smartphones. These symbols, or icons, as portrayed by these early African scholars are used as objects on the screen of the smartphones for users for self navigation by telephone users. Therefore, these African symbols are representing themselves in modernity, and there is no way modernity can do away with it. It therefore means that the African traditional media has contributed artistically and aesthetically to the modernization of the media industry globally. For this reason, the call for the African media industry to use its traditionally rich home-rooted, native-rooted, nature-given and generally accepted icons to develop its media industry to the envy of all. Other traditional forms of communication that serve as African traditional media that were common to the West African region include: Nsibidi writing, feminist traditional media socio-activism group known as “Nka Iban,” and the Akata night masquerade.

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Nsibidi Writing: Nsibidi dates back to 5000  BCE—present day in the AkwaCross region of West Africa, Historical Africa (2022, para. 1). A YouTube channel dedicated to forgotten African historical elements notes: Nsibidi is an ancient script used to write various languages in West Central Africa. Most notably used by the Uguakima and Ejagham (Ekoi) people of Nigeria and Cameroon. nsibidi is also used by the nearby Ebe, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo and Uyanga people. The nsibidi set of symbols is independent of Roman, Latin or Arâbic influence, and is believed by some scholars to date back to 5000 BCE., but the oldest archaeological evidence ever found (monoliths in Ikom, Nigeria) dates it to 2000 BCE. Similar to the Kemetic medu neter, nsibidi is a system of standardized pictographs. In fact, both nsibidi and the Egyptian hieroglyphs share several of the exact characters. Nsibidi was divided into sacred and public versions, however, Western èducation and Christiän indoctrination drastically reduced the number of nsibidi-literate people, leaving the secret society version as the last surviving form of the symbols. Still, nsibidi was transported to Cuba and Haiti via the Atlantic slãve trade, where the anaforuana and veve symbols were derived from the west African script.

The nsibidi writing was an ancient form of writing that was used by the Ekpe socio-cultural group to communicate among the initiates of the cult group. The writing was encrypted and could only be decoded, or understood by only the members of the Ekpe masquerade socio-cultural group. The Ekpe masquerade is native to the Efik people in southern Nigeria, in the West African region. According to Ekong (2021, p. 43): Nsibidi, scripts and ideograms were invented in Ekoi (Ejagham) in today‟s Cross River State of Nigeria. It was used for communication throughout the Cross River Basin of South-Eastern Nigeria, and beyond.

Ekong (2021) also reiterated the fact, “In spite of its spread in ancient times, it seems Nsibidi is not accorded adequate prominence in modern art forms.” Nsibidi points to the fact that it is factually incorrect by the Western scholars that Africans did not have any form of African. Nsibidi writing is the prototype of computer binary writing. The members of the Ekpe masquerade used nsibidi as a form of a password to communicate

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among themselves, especially the date, time and venues of their meetings. The Ekpe cult members used ideography, which is ideas or ideology expressed in symbols to communicate among the initiates. This was a form of the modern digital technology password that presents intruders and for security reasons. Ekong (2021, p. 55) reveals: A close examination of Nsibidi symbols in respect to their qualities reveals that they are cryptic—they are replete with hidden meanings that are not easily seen or deciphered. Therefore, systems of the symbols were used for secrecy or brevity. They are indicative by their forms and the relation of their parts to suggest the intended idea(s).

Therefore, before the concept of passwords on our phones, computers and other gadgets, Africans invented the idea of passworded messages. Up till this time, Nsibidi, which is one of the oldest forms of writing in the world, had not gained enough global attention, or interest as a means of communication for Africans in those days, hence the notion by the West that Africans did not have writing history. Ethno-writing studies have shown that despite the plethora of writing systems that originated from the continent of Africa thousands of years ago, Africa as a continent has never been accorded as one of the continents that contributed immensely to the global writing system, and these forms of writing have received inadequate scholarly interest, credit and attention, even off the shores of Africa (Abarbanel, 2007). The National Museum of African Art and Fowler Museum (2007–2008) similarly reveals what they term “incorporated graphic symbols” seen in the art works of African artists for thousands of years “with great ingenuity and creativity.” Nsibidi writing was traced back to the fourth century in Calabar, the West African region in Nigeria, and its symbols are found in pottery, prose, tales and ceramic writings (Agbo, 2019; Ekong, 2021; Endangered Alphabets, 2018–2020; Onyeakagbu, 2020; Umoren, 2019). Nka Iban: Nka Iban means the committee of women, in Efik, Ibibio and Annang languages. It was a social-activism group founded in the old Abak-Ikot Ekpene region of southern Nigeria that fights for the rights of women in the society. This was a replica of today’s feminist media activism. These were a cluster of elderly women who were mostly married

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to the traditional rulers in the community and would collectively attack the male folk in the community who verbally or physically abused a woman. If a man abuses any lady, the victimized lady would report the same to the group. The group would visit the compound of the violator all stripped naked, and he would be flogged and made to pay a certain amount of money, a life cow and a box full of wrapper to the victimized woman. If the abuser cannot afford to pay, his piece of land would be confiscated. This was a prototype of the modern feminist ideology. It was a social-activism space where women as at then expressed their rights not to be abused by men in whatever way. Their crude way of rough-handling the erred man, ceasing his ancestral piece of land, put fear in men and made men to be careful how they relate with women. Steiner (1983) points out the ways that the early feminist press and activists went about in order to create a sense of dignity and community among early advocates for suffrage and other women’s rights in the community. The African women in the traditional days did this to protect themselves from the abuses of the male folks. Therefore, feminist media activism was alive and well in the continent prior to modern feminism. Akata Night Masquerade: Early scholars of traditional masquerades have traced the origin of Akata night masquerade to the Ejagham-­ speaking peoples of Cross Rivers State (Talbot, 1912, Onor, 1994). According to Essien and Oqua (2020, p. 43), “one popular song tends to support this opinion: ‘Ekpri Akata oto Ekoi—This small Akata comes from Ekoi.’” It has now been widely accepted that the Akata night masquerade is native to the Ejagham people. The traditional arts and skills of the masquerade were admired by the artisans who were from the Annang, Efik and Ibibio lands, and upon their return to their homeland, they transported the Akata art to their homelands. Due to their admiration of the night masquerade, they offered themselves to be initiated into the Akata cult. For the Ejagham and the Efik people, Akata night masquerade was a cult and an art, and only the initiates knew themselves. But for the Annang and the Ibibio people, the Akata night masquerade was not a secret cult, but a strictly secretive masquerade whose art is only known by only its members. Akata is likened to today’s news broadcast on radio or television, where the rural people would stay awake late at night in order to hear the cans

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of worms of people in the village the Akata masquerade would roll out. Akata masquerade is a revelatory means of communication that is satiric and used in bringing to light atrocities and social misdemeanours of individuals and groups within a society. The Akata reports are always investigative and damaging to peoples’ reputation, and because it is institutionalized, people tend to believe its reports. As a young man who grew up in the rural areas of Ibibio, Annang and Efik lands, I have always noticed that Akata displays its performance at night between the hours of 1:00 a.m. untill about 4:00 a.m. In the course of the masquerade’s display, he would be dancing and dishing out revelatory singing about the evil deeds of unscrupulous individuals or groups in the community. In the course of the display, the stem of a plantain tree is pitched in the offender’s compound. The plantain stem is a form of iconographic communication by the Akata masquerade to the offender or those involved in the act to desist from heinous acts or be ready to be disgraced publicly. The generality of the people regarded the Akata as the eyes and the mouthpiece of the society in exposing evil deeds of scrupulous elements in the community. The Akata masquerade was not a mere masquerade, but its existence is hinged on societal functionality. The people in the rural areas of Annang, Ibibio and Efik land depended on the Akata masquerade then, to furnish them with hidden information, the behaviour of people that they carried out in the dark. The Ibibio, Annang, Efik’s Akata masquerade is a kind of traditional means of indigenous media serving their community in secret service information gathering and dissemination. The Akata night masquerade in those days essentially engaged in surveillance of the environment (looking out for deeds that were done in secret), correlation of parts of the society (putting the pieces of the information together) and transmitting this information to members of the public. The Akata night masquerade serves its community three distinctive functions, which are to entertain, inform and reveal secret deeds in the community. Essien and Oqua (2020, p. 23) opine: Angbo-Akata is a masquerade performed by the Qua, Efut and Efik lingual groups in Calabar—the Capital of Cross River State, Nigeria (plate 1). As part of a sacred cult, the hallmark of Akata (as it is popularly called) lies in

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the entertainment it provides and the secret detective characteristics it possesses. When performed in the afternoon and while touring the communities, it exchanges pleasantries with prominent individuals. The voice is disguised to avoid the masker’s recognition. Intermittently, it raises songs that captivate its hearers.

However, as it is a night masquerade that reveals secrets, people were scared that Akata could be used against them for things they did not commit. As it was a secret informer and a watchdog in the society, there were fears that people could be defamed, and it is what is happening today with the creation of online deep fake where people’s voices, pictures and videos are manipulated to engage in activities that they did not engage in. The Akata night masquerade went on to do this by collecting money to defame people. Therefore, the Akata night masquerade acted as today’s society’s watchdog, investigative journalist, secret service and deepfake.

 ewly Created Indigenous Modes of African N Communication Used in Major African Cities There were some schools of thought who thought at different stages of technological disruptions and developments in the communication and media space that the African indigenous media would not survive the technological tsunami, and that the like of the town crier is like a dinosaur heading to the museum. At the early stage of radio and television invention and development, some scholars missed it when they said the traditional forms of communication would be archived with the invention of radio and television (Barnouw, 1990; Douglas, 1987; Gerbner, 1996; Gomery, 2000; Kellner, 1990; McAllister, 1996; McCarthy, 2001; McChesney, 1993; Onabajo, 2005), and time proved that they were wrong. Also with the coming of the digital age of the internet, some scholars also spelt doom for the traditional forms of communication, in fact, they said those forms of communication would die without resurrection (Askew & Wilk, 2002; Bakardjieva, 2005; Miller, 1995; Spigel, 2010); and they were wrong again. There is no way the African

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indigenous media would be faced completely out due to the high level of illiteracy, abject poverty, poor infrastructure, government mismanagement, poor leadership and the strong desire by Africans to maintain their cultural and traditional values and heritage. This explains why Gillies (1989) posits: It is a scholarly theory and a social axiom to say that communication is culture, and that knowing a culture requires knowing its systems and media of communication. “Culture is defined by communication systems [and] since culture is a system of shared beliefs, attitudes, values and behaviour, then clearly there is a communication medium involved. (p. 3)

It is generally believed that Africans are cultural, traditional and community oriented (Mudimbe, 1988; p’Bitek, 1970; Wilson, 1981). It is the shared belief of Africans in their forms of communication as a cultural heritage that would continually sustain the relevance of the traditional African media as a communication of choice for rural Africans and as a sense and symbol of pride for the elite Africans. This is obviously what happens in the case of the Akata night masquerade as a traditional medium where the people use it as a recognized institutionalized medium for conveying and revealing secret activities and information that were carried out in the dark; though the Akata medium was later abused to serve selfish purposes of cheap blackmail and slandering as in the case of the modern deepfake. Also, this is the obvious reason the traditional newsman popularly known as the town crier is still very relevant in reaching and convincing the rural Africans (Majmudari, 2000; Mundy & Lloyd-Laney, 1992; Opubor, 1975; Osho, 2010; Osho, 2011; Ottah & Umar, 2016). The failure to use the town crier to reach the rural Africans for health campaigns and awareness (Bibkov & Bibkov, 2020; IOM, 2020; Prusaczyk, 2020; WHO, 2008; WHO, 2020), electioneering (Dede, 1997; Ilo, 2011; Infospace, 2017; Nsude & Ishiak, 2016) and the dissemination of government policies (Majmudari, 2000; Mundy & Lloyd-Laney, 1992; Opubor, 1975; Osho, 2010; Osho, 2011; Ottah & Umar, 2016) means the failure of the entire process (Akpan, 2019). Gillies (1989) citing Ferguson and Ferguson (1980, p. 4) went further to stress that, “conversely, where there is a communication system, the users will in some measure constitute a culture,” just like the case of the African

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people where they use created cultural traditions such as the Akata night masquerade and the traditional town crier for communication purposes. It is shocking to find out that in some cosmopolitan cities of Africa, even in this digital age, instead of these African modes of communication dying, it is shocking to find out that, new forms of African traditional modes of communication have sprung up. Those residing in sophisticated cities such as Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt in Nigeria and Accra and Kumasi in Ghana are very familiar with the traditional sound of communication artisans in their neighbourhood make in order to draw the attention of the residents of their presence, just in case they have the need for their services. These peasant artisans are tailors who help to patch and amend torn clothes, shoemakers who amend shoes that are torn, nail cutters, refuse collectors and dealers of condemned metal or aluminium materials. These residents at hearing the uniquely self-devised sound that these artisans make using their instrument of trade automatically identify whose sound is that, whether it is the tailor, the shoemaker, the refuse collector, the buyers of unwanted metals, nail cutters. These artisans offer these residents their services in the comfort of their homes without having to drive out or going to the shoemaker, nail cutter or tailor who has a shop in the neighbourhood, and would charge them exorbitant prices. But these artisans who go about in their neighbourhood do not charge a high fee for their services because they are not renting a space for shops, and they are competing with their counterparts who own big shops and would charge high. The Peasant Artisan Shoemaker: He carries a small wooden box that contains his tools. As he goes about, he uses a tiny metal to beat the box, and it produces a unique hollow sound that signifies that the shoemaker is around with his tools. Upon hearing this sound, the resident who has shoes to amend would step outside and call him into his compound to repair his shoes, and maybe with that of the other family members. Urban dwellers have become conversant with the sound of the peasant shoemaker roaming his residential estate for years. The Peasant Artisan Tailor: On the other hand, the peasant tailor uses his giant scissors and jams the two blades together to produce some sort of sound that draws the attention of the residents who need his services. The giant metal scissors produce a unique gong-lone sound that alerts the

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urban dwellers in Africa to know that the peasant tailor is around. It should however be noted that tailors who own big shops do not like amending torn clothes, because according to them, it is like, they are being belittled, and looked down on as someone who sows torn clothes (personal interview). The gong-like sound produced by the clanging of the giant scissors signifies the presence of the tailor in the neighbourhood. The Peasant Artisan Nailcutter: In the same vein, the peasant artisan nail cutters use finger size scissors and clang the blades together to announce their presence. Buyers of Discarded/Unwanted Metal: The buyers of unwanted metals and aluminium also jam two heavy metals against each other, so those who have discarded/unwanted metals, aluminium, and so forth can sell these items to them. Obviously, a new form of African indigenous communication has been birthed in the urban areas in Africa that the people are so used to. It therefore means that there is no way the African indigenous media can be buried and forgotten as a result of the emergence of new forms of communication. As long as there is economic hardship in the continent of Africa, people would always look for goods and services that are cheap, and these peasants artisans in a bid to offer goods and services to the urban dwellers would keep devising traditionally based, communication means, even in this digital era, that can attract the attention of the urban dwellers, and at the end force them out of their homes to patronize their goods and services. That is why in another of Des Wilson’s texts, Wilson (2008, p. 54) maintains that “traditional communication is a mixture of social conventions and practices” such as these peasant tailors, nail cutters, shoemakers, and buyers of unwanted metals and aluminium, roaming the urban cities of Africa, which have “become sharpened and blended into veritable communication modes and systems.”

Conclusion and Recommendations It has been established that the indigenous African media industries cannot be extinguished by the numerous technological interruptions in the media terrain; rather, new forms of indigenous communication have

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been birthed that help the rural and urban Africans to share meaning. It was also revealed that the early days of the African media during and after colonialism were characterized by government tight-fisted checks, especially for the print media. And the broadcasting media was more like a propaganda machine for the government of the day. It has been recommended that the contingent should have her own digitally designed specification that would reflect and showcase the uniquely rich cultural and traditionally endowed heritage of Africa. This assertion collaborates with Mutua et al. (2022, p. 133) belief: It is time to consider ways to harness understandings of old/traditional and new/modern to draw attention to the roles that African cultures play in giving new meanings to African communication in the 21st century.

Also, Mutua et  al. (2022, p.  135), while citing Wiredu (2000), aver that: Since the ethic of culture is a most important part of it, we may reformulate our problem as one that is concerned with how we exploit all the resources of the modern world for the benefit of our society without jeopardizing the strong points of our culture. It therefore means Africa as a continent should look inwards in order to map out its own digital terrain fit for the African story, experience, and where it is headed.

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2 Kenyan Media Industry: Digitize or Disappear! Michael Ndonye and Mellitus Wanyama

Introduction The object of this chapter is to interrogate the media industry in Kenya and how it has struggled with digitization since the global digital migration of 2013. The digital migration diversified the media and created an opportunity for television to proliferate. The government of Kenya, between 2013 and 2022, has placed measures that have hurt the media and forced it to remember that its future lies in digitizing, which gives any media a global appeal. The questions in this chapter are: What impact digital migration has on the Kenyan media industry? What has been the journey of media in all its forms towards digitization? How has digitization affected the global operation of media? Is the media able to sustain its operations through the revenue generated on digital platforms? What then is the future of digitization in the media industry? The study relied on observation (desktop research and literature review) in collecting data

M. Ndonye (*) • M. Wanyama Kabarak University, Nakuru, Kenya e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_2

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that answered the research questions. The obtained secondary data was used to arrive at answers which generated conclusions and prospects for the future of digitization. The findings show that in Kenya, the media reluctantly switched to digital. The migration saw a proliferation of television, among other related platforms. As the print media circulation dissipated, the government of Kenya withdrew their advertising revenue, leaving the media to innovate through digitization. Resultantly, the two leading newspapers (The Nation and The Standard) moved online and started charging fees for digital version readers. The findings also show that although there is a slow update of digital content, there is no other way that the media industry will survive apart from digitizing. The study adds to the existing literature on global digitization of media and related research on media studies. Moving Kenya’s analogue telecommunications system to a digital platform is known as “digital migration.” The fundamental concept is straightforward: Whether using an analogue or digital platform, information—such as sound or pictures—is transferred as an electric signal in both cases. However, in analogue transmission, information is converted into continuous electric pulses, whereas in digital communication, information is converted into discrete ones and zeros (Maina, 2015). The advantages of digital broadcasting are clear: numerous TV stations transmitting in the same region can use the same frequency without encountering interference. This indicates that switching from analogue frees up the critical spectrum for increased consumer allocation. The army, the police, telecom companies, radio and television stations, emergency services, sports (such as the Safari Rally), and other entities use the radio spectrum (Maina, 2015). So far, broadcasting has been at the centre of the dispute in Kenya, not the other users. One of three transmission methods—terrestrial, satellite, or cable-based broadcasting—which can all be analogue and digital—relay your TV and radio shows to your home. Kenyans receive their TV and radio programming through a system of transmission and booster towers because the majority of broadcasting in Kenya is terrestrial (Tabu, 2014). This is partly because radio and television broadcasts are susceptible to interference from various sources. For example, the atmosphere absorbs some radio signals, others are

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affected by weather, and hills, mountains, and other geographical features block others. The towers are positioned on hilltops in part because of this. The frequencies used for TV and radio broadcasts are also measured in Hertz and fall into one of two wave bands: VHF (very high frequency), which ranges from 30 megahertz to 300 megahertz, or UHF (ultra high frequency), which ranges from 300 megahertz to 3 gigahertz.

Advantages of Digital Migration Increased channel variety, which results in more content for subscribers, was one of the frequently touted advantages of the digital shift (Wainaina, 2016). Because digital signals consume less bandwidth, more channels are now available in Kenya. Additionally, because a digital signal carries much more data than an analogue signal, multiple channels of television content can be broadcast simultaneously. Multi-channelling is the term for this (Tabu, 2014). This has enabled numerous stations to emerge, including Inooro TV, Aviation TV, Ebru, and many others who would have found it challenging. This has benefitted customers by enabling them to watch a variety of programmes. Additionally, it has improved the platform on which content providers can display their work. The goal of digital migration has been achieved mainly because end users like us have found so much fascinating information on these platforms. Broadcasters may now offer improved picture quality thanks to the switch from analogue to digital because the digital signal can be reduced much more than the analogue one (Maina, 2015). In addition, stations can fit more information in the signal thanks to compression. This indicates that a digital television signal produces crisper images than an analogue signal. Although digital transmissions lose strength with distance, just like analogue signals do, the quality of the former won’t suffer. You will receive a crisp image if there is a signal (Maina, 2015). The availability of more bandwidth has another benefit. Local broadcasters can provide more programmes to their audience with digital broadcasting than they could with an analogue feed. Multicasting, which is  using one frequency to broadcast many programmes. If your local

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station offers multicasting, you can use it if you own a digital-to-analogue converter box and a terrestrial antenna (Tabu, 2014).

 enyan Media Response to the 2013 K Digital Migration One of the most divisive topics in Kenya in 2015 was the discussion of digital migration (Wainaina, 2016). The situation was so severe that the three major media organizations, Nation Media Group, Standard Group, and Royal Media Services, suspended broadcasting in protest for a few weeks. Additionally, the three began a legal battle that resulted in a Supreme Court ruling favouring the digital migration procedure. Three years after an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Member States Conference ratified the GE06 Regional Agreement, the digital migration process in Kenya began in 2009 (Ochieng, 2015). The agreement established a deadline by which member countries were required to transition from analogue to digital signals. Most of Kenya’s resistance stemmed from anxiety about the future and, in some cases, outright media misrepresentation. For instance, some journalists claimed on social media that employment losses would result from the digital migration process. Additionally, there were inaccurate and malicious reports in the national media that the Communications Authority oversaw the switching off (Wainaina, 2015). However, most Kenyans were genuinely concerned about their ability to pay for set-top boxes or their monthly pay-TV subscriptions. One of the most heated topics in the migration discussion was signal distribution. Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s subsidiary SIGNET received the first Broadcast Signal Distributor (BSD) licence (Gicheru, 2015). Pan African Network Group (PANG) earned the second BSD licence in an open competition, and each of the two recipients received at least two frequencies in each broadcast area. Through the ADN Consortium, the three media organizations Standard Media, Nation Media, and Royal Media Services created a unified face. This was also given a signal distribution licence totalling 21 digital TV frequencies.

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Due to a dispute over the transition from analogue to digital transmission, three of Kenya’s primary private TV stations were inaccessible to most of the nation (British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, 2015). Over the weekend, the analogue signal for KTN, Citizen, NTV, and its subsidiary QTV was shut off. The TV stations then turned off their digital feeds in protest. This is the most recent development in a long-running legal struggle over converting to digital broadcasting. According to Anne Soy of the BBC in Nairobi, most Kenyans have been in the dark and confused. However, the publicly funded KBC and the Uhuru Kenyatta family-owned K24 TV were still broadcasting (BBC, 2015).

Implications of Kenyan Media Switching Itself Off Due to the cost of set-top boxes being out of reach for many people, concerns have been raised about Kenya’s ability to make the transition smoothly as the deadline for global digital migration draws near (Daily Nation, 2012). Bitange Ndemo, the permanent secretary for information and communications, revealed last week to Smart Company that the Treasury had rejected his ministry’s request for set-top box subsidies to make them cheaper. “The Treasury has declined to release the Cabinet note, particularly considering the government’s current financial constraints. There are also worries that some people would take advantage of the situation and export discounted set-top boxes, according to Dr Ndemo” (Daily Nation, 2012). Following the failure of a tariff waiver on imported set-top boxes, which are devices that convert digital signals into a format compatible with analogue TV sets, the ministry sought a subsidy from the government. At least four million analogue TV sets in the nation will need to be connected to set-top boxes to get the digital broadcast (Githinji, 2014). However, even in locations already served with the digital signal, turning off the analogue signal has been challenging due to the exorbitant price, which is currently retailing at well over Kshs 5000. Francis Wangusi, director-general of the Communications Commission of Kenya, declined

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to commit to a new timeline by which the nation should have completed a complete switchover after missing his own self-imposed goal of June 2012 (Githinji, 2014). The global analogue switch-off deadline expired at midnight, with more than 1.3 million Kenyan households still without television service, bringing home the reality of what had in recent months appeared to be mainly a power struggle between media companies and the government (Business Daily Africa, 2015). The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), a broadcasting industry watchdog, reported on Wednesday that, of the 3.5 million households expected to have television sets, just 2.2 million had purchased set-top boxes. These devices convert analogue television signals to digital. At the media briefing for the global analogue switch-off on Wednesday, CA director-general Francis Wangusi stated, “Little more than 1.1 million homes have yet to purchase the set-top boxes.” Wangusi blamed a poor distribution of set-top boxes around the nation, particularly in isolated rural areas, for the enormous number of people who continue to live without television (Business Daily Africa, 2015). The authority’s earlier in the year assertion that Kenya was prepared to switch to digital contradicted that assessment. The CA and Information Ministry aggressively rejected the media owners’ request for additional time to move because of the accessibility and affordability of the set-top boxes.

Overall Impact of the Digital Migration Since the Kenyan government began to promote digital migration in 2015, the country has made significant progress. The following paragraphs list a few facts about the migration’s effects by 2015, as presented by Ndegwa (2017). 1. According to the Communication Authority of Kenya’s (CA) most recent figures, 4.3 million Kenyan households now own TVs, up from 3.5  million when the nation switched to digital migration in February 2015.

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2. The CA reports that 4.26 million digital set-top boxes had been purchased by the end of December, with 722,196 being pay TV and 3.5 million being free-to-air. This is an increase from the 3.04 million pay TV and 95,493 free-to-air set-top boxes bought during the same time last year. 3. The regulator estimates that 66% of Kenyans now have access to the TV signal, up from just 50% when analogue service was available. 4. Kenyans may now watch over 60 free local channels in addition to international ones, up from around five before the major transition. In its quarterly report, the CA noted that 66 free-to-air TV channels were available on the digital terrestrial platform as of December 31, 2016, an increase from the 63 channels. 5. The average cost of a free-to-air set-top box in Kenya has dropped from around $50 to $35 since the changeover. 6. Pay TV, on the other hand, requires customers to spend between $25 and $60 to purchase the device (down from as much as $100) and as low as $2 a month for a subscription. 7. There have been two factors that have significantly increased the number of TVs in Kenya. The first is the expanded signal coverage, which has reached previously unreached areas and caused people there to purchase TVs. Second, the government’s initiatives to bring energy to the most rural areas of the nation have given people access to power, fuelling the demand for TVs. Many folks held off on purchasing TVs because they lacked electricity, but now that their homes are powered, why not? 8. There are just two pay TV service providers on the digital terrestrial television platform, GoTV and StarTimes. They both have decoders that are easily accessible in all the main cities. All telecom carriers and some ISPs are already deploying 4G using the freed-up TV whitespace; thus, the main advantages of this move are already underway. This will improve nationwide broadband internet coverage. Through the Mawingu initiative, users in a remote part of Nanyuki can access fast broadband internet over TV whitespace (Ndegwa, 2017). Some TV whitespace has also been utilized for testing internet access concepts by global companies like Microsoft. Kenyans’ access to

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news and other media via television and radio has changed thanks to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). FM is still in use, and the transition to digital radio will take some time since most cell phones, phones, and other gadgets except set-top boxes lack a receiver, the majority of the physical infrastructure required to support digital radio is already in place, and some players even come with channels. Future mass deployment of 5G and other digital/broadband services will be possible thanks to the freed-up TV whitespace created by the digital switchover. Furthermore, the government will receive much-­ needed funding from the significant licence fees the operators will pay as they roll out these new technologies (Ochieng, 2015). In addition, due to the latest advancements, there are more job openings in the media and internet sectors. From technicians to marketers to content producers and advertisers, new opportunities continue to appear and will continue to do so as these sectors expand and develop.

Literature Review Digitization and Globalization in the Media Industry In many aspects, the media sector is ideal for globalization or the expansion of trade across traditional political borders. Because media has such low marginal costs, expanding their customer base results in substantially higher profit margins for media corporations. Shipping charges for information are typically insignificant because they are not tangible goods. Finally, the media’s international reach makes it pertinent in several nations (Santos, 2001). Some have countered that the media is not merely another globalized enterprise but one of its causes. The transmission of a media product will likely influence the recipient’s culture because media is a cultural product. Technology is increasingly driving globalization as well. Technology makes fast communication, coordinated transportation, and effective mass marketing possible by technology, facilitating the spread of globalization, particularly in the media (Terrill, 2007).

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Globalized Culture, Globalized Markets Although the term “globalization” as a term for a global economic movement typically refers to the lowering of trade barriers, it also has a lot to do with culture. The transfer of culture opens up these same markets, just as the transfer of industry and technology frequently promotes external influence through the inflow of foreign capital into the economy. A particular community may grow to absorb and personalize American cultural ideas as globalization gains traction, and it economically approaches that country more closely. Depending on the exact situation, the result of this diffusion may be homogenization (the local culture becomes increasingly similar to that of the United States) or heterogenization (aspects of American culture coexist with local culture, causing the culture to become more diversified), or possibly both (Rantanen, 2005). It can be challenging to make sense of this wide range of options, but it helps to understand that various distinct elements are at play. The globalization of media follows a different model than the globalization of other products due to cultural variations. On the most fundamental level, much press is built on language and culture, which does not always translate well to other countries. Media globalization frequently follows more general “means of organising and creating media” (Jan, 2009) and takes place on a deeper structural level. This way, a media firm can have a wide range of culturally diverse brands while maintaining an economically sustainable corporate structure.

Vertical Integration and Globalization Vertical integration in international media firms becomes a vital component of understanding globalized media since globalization affects the corporate structures of media companies just as much as the products a media company creates. Moreover, vertical integration is a strategy used by many sizable media companies. For example, newspaper chains handle their reporting, printing, and distribution; television networks oversee their production and broadcasting, and even small film studios frequently have parent companies operating internationally (Jan, 2009).

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Globalization and vertical integration are frequently very advantageous to media companies. Media outlets can use similar distribution structures with few changes because of the spread of American culture worldwide. A vertically integrated corporation can do all of this worldwide rather than in a localized market since media rely on the quick capacity to react to current events and trends; different branches of the company can easily manage diverse needs. Vertical integration enables, for example, a single film studio to create higher-budget films than it might otherwise be unable to develop without the help of a distribution company with a global reach. This is because production values for single-country distribution are essentially the same as those for multiple countries (Rantanen, 2005). Globalization raises valid concerns about the preservation of indigenous culture in numerous ways. However, simple fears about cultural transmission are not the sole or significant worries brought on by the diffusion of American culture and values.

Digitization of the Media industry The media and entertainment (M&E) sector is rapidly undergoing a digital transition (Widerfunnel, 2022). M&E marketers must first comprehend the significant developments occurring if they position their companies as leaders in resilience and success both now and in the future. Marketers should familiarize themselves with changes in production funding and consumer preferences. Innovation is fuelled by new platforms and technologies, such as subscription-based offerings, curation, and personalization based on cutting-edge behavioural research and user testing.

Status of Digital Transformation in Media Every year, a more significant percentage of the total industry sales come from digital sources. In 2023, the worldwide M&E industry was forecast to earn an estimated $2.6  trillion in revenues, and

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PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicted that over 62% of that amount would originate from digital sources. This prediction was made before the pandemic (PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, 2019). Of course, the pandemic’s effects on M&E have caused PwC to revise its short-term projections to a 6% reduction in overall global sales for 2020 (PwC, 2022). However, here is the intriguing part. While traditional television and film saw sharp declines, businesses that embraced the digital revolution have prospered. According to PwC research, subscription video on demand (SVOD) and over-the-top (OTT) video (including streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix) are expected to soar and reach more than twice as many people in 2024 than the box office. Compared to print, which was severely affected by the pandemic, internet advertising also held its own. Moreover, online advertising has a bright future ahead of it, according to PwC, which expects it to keep expanding. However, the funding, production, and consumption of media are being disrupted by digital technology. As a result, marketers must embrace the digital transition and be open to trying new things if they want to stay relevant (PwC, 2022). One of the benefits of digital transformation for the M&E sector is the potential for worldwide expansion. The most significant entertainment and media revenue increase, amounting to $83.9  billion over the next five years, is anticipated in China alone. In fact, by 2024, the nation’s entertainment and media industry will be expected to grow more rapidly than the US for the first time (Widerfunnel, 2022). It is simple to see how media in all forms is being affected by digital transformation while also being given more prospects for expansion and resilience. Consumers have shifted significantly to internet shopping just in the previous ten years. There is little question that mobile use is fast increasing in nations where the technology has not yet achieved saturation, and that smartphone data consumption will soon surpass fixed broadband usage globally. As a result, the future of M&E marketing is digital. It should be no surprise that by 2023, media sector marketers plan to devote more than half of their resources to digital advertising. Additionally, M&E marketers stated that they spent 14% of their 2017 budgets on enhancing their online presence and websites. This economic focus is compatible with the

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industry-wide movement to re-platform websites to give users rich, dynamic, and personalized experiences, claims Gartner (Pemberton, 2016). And that is a good thing because M&E marketers need to stay up with the consumer’s digital shift. But while some media organizations have spent the better part of a decade researching how to adapt and take advantage of the increasingly digital market, others are still having trouble making that first leap. Consider online news as an example. According to the 2019 Digital News Report (Gadringer et al., 2019), 1. The number of readers who pay for online news has only slightly increased, despite the efforts of the news sector. 2. Most of those who pay for their internet news have just one subscription. 3. In certain nations, most readers still prefer to spend their meagre resources on leisure media rather than news, even though 50% of readers in the US currently encounter at least one barrier each week while attempting to read news online. However, M&E businesses can overcome these obstacles by leveraging the potential of personalization to boost consumer and subscription-­ based revenue.

 frican Media Industries in the Era A of Globalization The emergence of digital media has completely altered the media environment. Due to live tweeting, blogging, and citizen journalism—all of which were unheard of only a few years ago—the news cycle moves at a breakneck pace (Musau, 2016). Fibre optics have changed the telecommunications sector, and more communities are connecting to the internet, even in rural parts of Africa, as it has become more affordable and faster. More individuals than ever before are using their smartphones to access digital information. Traditional media professionals in Africa are adjusting to a new media landscape that is time-sensitive and more interactive to stay accessible.

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Advocacy journalism is expanding rapidly as bloggers and citizen journalists organize for various issues, such as good governance (Ndonye et  al., 2015). However, even if media operations and technology have significantly changed in the past 15 years, society still relies on the media to fulfil its traditional functions of informing, educating, and entertaining the public. The media is considerably more critical for fostering and institutionalizing democracy in Africa. As states assume additional obligations in a globalized world, citizens must be informed. According to Chinje, for the media to properly fulfil its mission, it must perceive itself as contributing to maintaining and enhancing the societal quality of life. Eric Chinje (Musau, 2016) leads the African Media Initiative (AMI), a pan-African organization with a Nairobi headquarters that aims to enhance the media across the continent. He claims that Africa needs media that innovates and supports innovation to advance as a modernizing continent that not only grows but also fosters societal progress. Moreover, it requires journalism that not only creates the concepts that power social change but also controls the arguments that result from these cultural shifts. For instance, during the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria, the media ramped up efforts to force government accountability and assist the opposition in spreading its message to the populace. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an investigative journalist in Ghana, has exposed numerous cases of organized crime and corruption. Governments have been forced to be more vigilant due to the rise in investigative reports exposing corruption in many other nations on the continent, even those with authoritarian regimes. The media has been particularly vocal in informing the public and telling about social issues in Kenya, North Africa, and South Africa (Musau, 2016). Few contest the role of the media in society, but the myriad difficulties they encounter in Africa threaten to undo the progress made so far. Digital media were embraced throughout the continent, but many media organizations still have difficulty adjusting to new media technology (Ihechu & Uche, 2012). Moreover, because of unreliable internet connectivity and outdated technology, journalists may not have access to the essential tools of their trade or may have to make do with subpar digital systems, which could impede their work. However, according to

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Chinje, the most significant problem facing African journalists is a lack of resources to carry out their jobs well (Musau, 2016). He adds that many of them lack experience in evaluating complex material, especially data that requires competent interpretation, and that “you cannot inform if you are not informed.” Lacking a reliable funding source, media organizations across the continent have historically experienced financial difficulties. This is partly because the majority relies on arbitrary government advertising to survive (Ndonye, 2022). Any slight criticism might lead to the cancellation of thousands-dollar-worth of advertisements. The largest advertisers in many nations are the government or its agencies. Journalists must look for the gaps and contradictions in these messages, even though governments frequently issue self-serving press releases that boast about how well they govern the nation to secure favourable media coverage. As readers and listeners turn to free digital information, traditional media (newspapers, TV, and radio) are also losing revenue streams in Africa and worldwide. The dominance of traditional media and advertising revenues decline when people go to alternative news sources (Ihechu & Uche, 2012). In addition, press freedom in Africa is in peril because of the media’s newly discovered brave voice and anticorruption exposés, with the press being more targeted for restraint or even shut down in some nations. For instance, Nigeria attempted unsuccessfully last year to enact a vaguely worded social media law that implied harsh penalties for posting offensive content online. Social media was restricted during elections in Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Uganda, and even in ostensibly democratic nations like Ghana (Musau, 2016). The government shut down the privately held Voice FM in Liberia this year. Five countries—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan—saw the death of a journalist while on the job in 2015. Threats and attacks against journalists, whether from the government, armed groups, or terrorists, make it risky for them to accomplish their jobs. The world of digital media is growing, and with it come new difficulties. Without editorial control, information is unregulated, and rumours are more likely to be believed than the truth. Governments are now much less willing to conduct press interviews than previously due to stories of

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corruption and other blunders by public officials that have spread like wildfire on the internet. Mbaku claims that various African media outlets struggle with poor or non-existent infrastructure for printing and disseminating newspapers, poor internet connectivity, and inadequate training of media workers, in addition to government censure, which makes it difficult for them to do their jobs effectively (Musau, 2016). Media companies must adjust to societal demands to develop more robust strategies and weather the storm. Migration to mobile devices, the internet, and the creation of material in regional languages to make it available to the bulk of the population are the two most important survival strategies for the media in Africa (Ihechu & Uche, 2012). Most African media utilize English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese—all European languages—except a small number of outlets in North Africa that publish in Arabic and a small number in East Africa that publish in Swahili. Because most people are illiterate in these languages, news items may not be readily available. Even if the government and media in many African nations are at odds, the media is still regarded as the “fourth estate” after the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary (Ndonye, 2022). “Media and the government are opposite sides of the same coin. If they fight, the coin is destroyed,” says Chinje. To improve the ideas and their implementation for the benefit of society, “the government brings policy, and the media should bring knowledge about those policies.” African governments must give the media the tools they need to be effective for growth and coexistence. According to Mbaku, this can be achieved by including a guarantee of press freedom in the constitution and removing various obstacles, such as state censorship, that have prevented the press from efficiently and freely carrying out its role.

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 edia and Revenue Generation M Through Digitization The worldwide entertainment and media (E&M) landscape has undergone an irreversible transformation due to digitization (Vollmer, 2018). More immersive and on-demand content has emerged. The proliferation of digital platforms has made distribution more direct and individualized. The battle for user attention and money has never been fiercer. All of these changes have considerably influenced the flow of E&M revenues. The days of TV networks, movie studios, and businesses of all kinds surviving on one, two, or even three stable revenue sources are long gone. Today, having five, six, or even more income streams—a sometimes fluctuating portfolio of bets on businesses and products that expand beyond traditional monetization sources—is increasingly necessary for profitable growth (Yang et al., 2015). Historically, many prosperous E&M businesses have profited from a variety of income sources, including carriage fees and advertising for pay-TV networks, tickets and popcorn for theatre owners, and individual sales, subscriptions, and ads for magazine and newspaper publishers. A more arid monetization environment-driven sense of urgency is what is new today (Vollmer, 2018). The top digital platforms are consuming a large portion of the growth in digital advertising while traditional subscription and advertising revenue sources dwindle. Spending and consumption patterns are changing remarkably quickly. Many businesses, meanwhile, continue to be unduly dependent on reducing traditional media revenue streams. The strategy options for these businesses will unavoidably be limited to continuing cycles of cost-cutting and getting ready for their eventual consolidation in the absence of substantial new sources of revenue growth. Despite these difficulties, some businesses are succeeding in creating enticing new revenue sources, including subscription services, digital micro-transactions, membership, consumer goods, live events, and advanced advertising. They are developing collections of interconnected and complimentary experiences that capitalize on the marketability of their most ardent consumers: their fans. The reasoning makes tactical

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sense. Fans engage in more activities such as watching, listening, sharing, advocating, and creating. Most importantly, fans are more persuasive to advertising and spend more money (Vollmer, 2017). However, many E&M organizations still struggle with generating numerous revenue streams, especially those used to achieve their financial objectives by relying on a small number of dominating revenue sources. Operational silos, outdated incentives, and behavioural inertia constrain many E&M firms. New revenue growth initiatives are further thwarted by poor coordination, inadequate alignment, and execution that moves more slowly than planned (Vollmer, 2017). Some businesses lack the consumer marketing expertise to attract and keep customers in a direct-­ to-­consumer setting. Others have not yet made the necessary investments in analytics knowledge. Finally, yet significantly, too many CEOs fall victim to the hype cycle, flocking to the same chances as bees to a hive— remember the collective “pivot to video” among digital publishers? Making substantial changes to the strategy, operational model, and culture of E&M organizations is necessary to generate new revenue sources. The good news is that many models show potential, as explained below, and it is obvious what supporting skills must be created and developed to apply them.

 ayment for Digital Content: Does the Media P Earn Enough from the Platform? According to Eaton (2016), content producers typically use a few main models when it comes to monetising digital material: 1 . Make the content available through a paid subscription 2. Provide free material and then use advertisements to make money 3. Make the content accessible free, then profit from the customer information. Customers typically have no problems with at least one of these business models; when they feel that they are paying for content twice, with

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information or ad income and actual money, that friction arises for content providers (Eaton, 2016). There are many well-known subscription-based content providers available today. Some businesses, including Newsweek, Netflix, Hulu, and The New York Times, depend on membership fees to make money. Other providers, like Spotify, provide different subscription tiers, including a free version with ads and ad-free premium service (Yang et al., 2015). In either case, all content providers gather and analyse data on subscribers. Companies sometimes use this to analyse customer behaviour and choose the most acceptable content; other times, it’s done so that the data can be given to outside parties. Of course, businesses gathering client data is not a secret. The widespread knowledge of data collection, however, may deter some customers from purchasing digital subscriptions. Many users believe they should not pay for a subscription as the content provider already benefits from advertisements and consumer information. Data and Cash Payments Are Not New Practices. Although all three of these approaches to monetising content date back many years, that line of reasoning seems to picture data collecting and advertising in premium content as a novel (Eaton, 2016). Compared to traditional print media like newspapers and periodicals, subscription services today are more convenient. The latter had you pay for the material, but there were still advertisements. Furthermore, statistics like TV ratings and reader or viewer demographics have long been thoroughly examined. This is especially true for media that covers a narrower topic, such as periodicals or TV programmes aimed at particular hobbyists. This reasoning does not seem to help Clients Bridge the perception gap between those more real services and digital subscriptions. Customers are expected to pay with data, ad income, or cash in the present but never with all three (Yang et al., 2015). Differing Customer Expectations from Reality. Of course, the issue is that what people anticipate—in this case, receiving quality content and giving less in return—is not necessarily a reality. Customers’ perceptions and content providers’ situations are at odds. In many circumstances, a single source of income is insufficient to finance an entire business while simultaneously providing the calibre of material that consumers need.

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Many readers assume that since newspapers and magazines generate more than enough revenue from advertising and digital data, there is no need to pay for the content. In reality, digital products only made up 25% of total ad revenue for newspapers in 2015, which was more a result of a sharp decline in print ad revenue than an increase in digital ad spending (Pew Research Centre, 2016). For media outlets, print content typically serves as a form of subsidy for digital content. Still, consumer desire to pay for digital content is not keeping up with the decline in demand for print. For example, only 6% of UK citizens said they would be prepared to pay for news information online at the beginning of 2016; therefore, for these outlets to continue to be successful, they will need to understand what their audience expects from new media (Eaton, 2016). Many consumers disagree that they will have to pay for content while still subject to data collection and advertisements. You don’t need to have studied any behavioural economic texts to understand that it will be difficult to charge someone after training them to anticipate things for free, as Paul Fishlock argues in his explanation (Jones, 2016). The important thing is to resist the temptation because doing so will only result in a vicious cycle of subpar content and higher consumer expectations. Instead, digital retailers will need to concentrate on retraining what customers anticipate from their encounters with digital content. Consumers must be aware that high-quality material isn’t inexpensive and that, eventually, they’ll have to pay to play. The issue is how much each consumer is ready to fork over in cash to avoid ads or data. Offering a multi-tiered subscription service is conceivably one of the best strategies that news organizations can use. For instance, a news source might offer five to ten pieces per month to readers who are not subscribers for free, but the rest of the content would require a subscription. The outlet may even provide an ad-free service for a higher fee, depending on whether the model will ultimately be lucrative for the company (Eaton, 2016). The following types of customers might be drawn to this model: • The casual reader, who probably only peruses a few articles each month. Going subscription-only would completely cut off this reader, but by providing a free, constrained service, the outlet can still make money from ad views from the casual reader.

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• The devoted reader accepts the occasional ad and is willing to pay for limitless access to the material. • The wealthy premium reader is more than willing to pay to access content without being exposed to advertisements (Eaton, 2016). Gaining customers’ acceptance of the idea of willingly purchasing content will not be easy. However, that move will become more and more vital for content media as consumer demand for content shifts from traditional to digital. Otherwise, the favoured material will not be able to survive, which would be detrimental to everyone.

Future of Digitization of the Media Industry More than before, there are many different types of communication, including messages from notable brands to their customer base and private conversations with friends, family, and co-workers (Maryville University, n.d.). In addition, early in the 1990s, the internet became widely used, bringing various innovative communication tools, including digital media channels that enable users to send messages more swiftly and across longer distances. These technological advancements opened the door for digital media to significantly influence how companies and brands build relationships with their customers. They affect conventional communication careers as well. New job descriptions and a new communication environment are the results. For entertainment, news, and business purposes, the media has continued reliance on technological advancements and presents enormous financial prospects. The Pew Research Centre (2016) reports that the digital media market is expanding and that 86% of Americans get some of their news online. The number of platforms increases in tandem with the size of the online media audience. Businesses must keep an online presence that enables them to engage with customers successfully.

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Future of Digital Media Trends In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has maintained the rapid acceleration of digital media use in professional and personal communication. People are now using the internet more frequently due to lockdowns, infection worries, and limitations on in-person business. For instance, according to market research firm GlobalWebIndex (GWI) statistics, the epidemic caused 43% of customers to use social media more frequently in August 2020 (Trifonova, 2020). A RAND American Life Panel Survey also revealed that 25% of participants indicated they had increased their internet buying since the pandemic began (Ecola et al., 2020). Several digital media developments are likely to permanently change the digital world in ways that communication professionals need to be aware of, using the pandemic as the basis. The following are a few future trends that may affect digital media.

Social Movements Growth Social activists and regular people increasingly use social media to spread the news about important topics and encourage others to support their cause. For much of the 2020 summer, social media was dominated by the Black Lives Matter campaign. Younger customers and activists frequently anticipate that the companies they support will participate in the discussion. Companies that speak out about significant issues must know how to communicate in ways that enhance rather than damage their reputations and brands (Maryville University, n.d.).

Social Media Vigilance Holding Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies responsible for some of the content distributed over their networks has gained momentum. That movement reached a critical mass in 2020. The coronavirus and the presidential election were the flashpoints for exaggerated rhetoric and false information.

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Politicians have raised awareness of social media businesses through congressional hearings and legislative proposals. Additionally, several customers and even staff members have voiced their displeasure with how these social media behemoths have responded thus far. As a result, in the future, these businesses will probably have to comply with government restrictions or impose stricter internal content rules (Maryville University, n.d.).

The Influencer Economy Hundreds of thousands of people follow social media influencers. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, a recent study by the marketing firm Amra & Elma discovered that an increase in influencer engagement accompanied rises in social media usage associated with pandemics. Its findings show that at the onset of the pandemic, influencers saw a 67% increase in likes and a 51% increase in comments (Maryville University, n.d.). It’s also noteworthy that influencers’ fees for their postings grew just 3.1%, despite increased engagement rates. According to the poll, “slightly higher prices indicate that companies are now likely to receive much more reach for the same money as they would have before the pandemic.” The survey also showed that marketers could benefit from a decreased cost per impression thanks to increased engagement and moderate increases in the price of influencer-sponsored content (Maryville University, n.d.).

References BBC. (2015, February 16). Kenyan TV Channels Off Air After Digital Migration Row. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-­africa-­31485671 Business Daily Africa. (2015, June 17). Digital Switch-Off Leaves 1.3m Homes in TV Blackout. Business Daily Africa. https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/ Corporate-­News/Digital-­switch-­off-­leaves-­1-­3m-­homes-­in-­TV-­blackout/-­ /539550/2755674/-­/eyfa1c/-­/index.html Daily Nation. (2012, November 25). Global Digital TV Migration Could Switch Off Millions of Kenyans. Daily Nation. https://nation.africa/

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kenya/life-­a nd-­s tyle/smart-­c ompany/global-­d igital-­t v-­m igration-­c ouldswitch-­off-­millions-­of-­kenyans-­837878 Eaton, M. (2016, October 17). Premium Or Bust: Will Customers Pay for Digital Content? Talking New Media. https://www.talkingnewmedia. com/2016/10/17/premium-­or-­bust-­will-­customers-­pay-­for-­digital-­content/ Ecola, L., Lu, H., & Rohr, C. (2020). How Is COVID-19 Changing Americans’ Online Shopping Habits? RAND. Gadringer, S., Holzinger, R., Sparviero, S., Trappel, J., & Gómez Neumann, A.  M. (2019). Digital News Report 2019. Detailergebnisse für Österreich, Salzburg: Fachbereich Kommunikationswissenschaft, Universität Salzburg. Gicheru, M. (2015, February 17). Facts on Digital Migration You Should Pay Attention to. Techweez. https://techweez.com/2015/02/17/facts-­ondigital-­migration/ Githinji, K. W. (2014). A Critical Analysis of Factors Affecting Digital Migration and Its Uptake Within Nairobi. Master’s thesis, University of Nairobi. Ihechu, I. P., & Uche, U. (2012). The Challenges of Digitization of Broadcasting in Nigeria. New Media and Mass Communication, 5(2012), 38–44. Jan, M. (2009). Globalization of Media: Key Issues and Dimensions. European Journal of Scientific Research, 29(1), 66–75. Jones, S. (2016, September 15). Digital Subscriptions Stalled by Readers’ Reluctance to Pay ‘twice’, Claims Agency Boss. Mumbrella. https://mumbrella.com.au/digital-­subscriptions-­stalled-­readers-­reluctance-­pay-­twice-­ claims-­agency-­boss-­395707 Maina, W. (2015, January 24). Digital Migration: The What and Why. Nation. https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-­opinion/opinion/-­digital-­migration-­thewhat-­and-­why-­1062846 Maryville University. (n.d.). The Future of Media: Concepts and Trends for Communication Professionals. Maryville University Blog. https://online. maryville.edu/blog/future-media/ Musau, Z. (2016). A New Era for African Media: Enter Digital Media with Tweets, Blogs and a Plethora of New Voices. United Nations. https://www. un.org/africarenewal/magazine/august-­2016/new-­era-­african-­media Ndegwa, R. (2017, November 16). The Success That Is Digital Television Migration and Its Impact on Future Mobile Broadband Internet in Kenya. Medium. https://medium.com/@ruiriendegwa/the-­success-that-isdigital-­television-­migration-­in-­kenya-­437aaa4d9c76 Ndonye, M. (2022, August 22). Uhuru Kenyatta and Kenya’s Media: A Bittersweet Affair That Didn’t End Happily. The Conversation. https://the-

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conversation.com/uhuru-­kenyatta-­and-­kenyas-­media-­a-­bitter-­sweet-­affair-­ that-­didnt-­end-­happily-­188832 Ndonye, M. M., Khaemba, J., & Bartoo, P. (2015). Digital Migration and the Battle of Terrestrial Titans in Kenya: Issues and Prospects. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 2(3), 2302–2308. Ochieng, R. K. (2015). Position Paper Impact of Digital Migration on Broadcast Television in Kenya. Pemberton, C. (2016, December 2012). Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2016-2017 shows marketing budgets continue to climb. Gartner. https://www.gartner. com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-­c mo-­s pend-­s urvey-­2 016-­2 017-­s hows-­ marketing-­budgets-­continue-­to-­climb/ Pew Research Centre. (2016). State of the New Media. http://www.journalism. org/2016/06/15/newspapers-­fact-­sheet/ PricewaterhouseCoopers. (2019). Getting Personal: Putting the me in Entertainment and Media. Perspectives from Global Entertainment & Media 2019–2023. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/entertainment-media/outlook-2019/entertainment-and-mediaoutlook-perspectives-2019-2023.pdf. PricewaterhouseCoopers. (2022). 2022 Outlook Segment Findings: Markets and Industries. Pricewaterhouse Coopers. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ industries/tmt/media/outlook/segment-findings.html. Rantanen, T. (2005). The Media and Globalization. Sage. Santos, J.  M. (2001). Globalisation and Tradition: Paradoxes in Philippine Television and Culture. Media Development, 48(3), 43–48. Tabu, B. M. (2014). Consumer Attitude Towards Analogue to Digital Migration of Television Broadcasting Technologies in Nairobi County. Doctoral dissertation, University of Nairobi. Terrill, R. (2007). Globalization in the 1990s. The University of Iowa Centre for International Finance and Development. Trifonova, V. (2020). How the Outbreak Has Changed the Way, We Use Social Media. Global Web Index. Vollmer, C. (2017, May 8). How to Make Entertainment and Media Businesses ‘fan’-tastic”. Strategy + Business. https://www.strategy-­business.com/article/ How-­to-­Make-­Entertainment-­and-­Media-­Businesses-­Fan-­tastic Vollmer, C. (2018, May 7). The Revenue Stream Revolution in Entertainment and Media. Strategy + Business. https://www.strategy-­business.com/article/ The-­Revenue-­Stream-­Revolution-­in-­Entertainment-­and-­Media

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Wainaina, E. (2015, June 17). Facts, Hits and Misses of Kenya Digital Migration as Global Deadline Arrives. Techweez. https://techweez.com/2015/06/17/ facts-­hits-­and-­misses-­of-­kenya-­digital-­migration-­as-­global-­deadline-­arrives/ Wainaina, E. (2016, July 2016). Digital Migration in Kenya: One Year Later. Techweez. https://techweez.com/2016/07/20/digital-­migration-­kenya/ Widerfunnel. (2022, June 1). The Future of Media & Entertainment: Part 1 – Rapid Digital Transformation. Widerfunnel. https://www.widerfunnel.com/ blog/future-­of-­media-­and-­entertainment/ Yang, L., Ha, L., Wang, F., & Abuljadail, M. (2015). Who Pays for Online Content? A Media Dependency Perspective Is Comparing Young and Older People. International Journal on Media Management, 17(4), 277–294.

3 Digitization of Broadcasting in Nigeria: Opportunity for Participation in Globalization Charles Obot

Introduction Since the advent of broadcasting in Nigeria in 1959 with the establishment of Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) in Ibadan by the Western Region Government (the first monochrome television station in Africa), television broadcasting has been expanding across the country. It grew from the era of government monopoly until 1992 when the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida deregulated the broadcast industry, leading to private ownership of broadcast stations, pioneered by the Africa Independent Television (AIT), established in 1996. Another milestone in broadcasting in Nigeria was witnessed when the pilot digitization of broadcasting was launched on April 30, 2016, in Jos, Plateau State. Also, on December 23, 2016, the Abuja/FCT roll out of the Digital Switchover took place. Since then, the project has experienced

C. Obot (*) University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_3

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diverse encounters which can be considered milestones, opportunities and obstacles.

 igitization: A Catalyst for Globalization D of Broadcasting According to Idachaba (2018), digitization is the process of conversion of analogue information in any form: text, photographs, voice and so on to digital form with suitable electronic devices, such as a scanner or specialized computer chips, so that the information can be processed, stored and transmitted through digital circuits, equipment and networks. As at 2014, Nigeria had 155 analogue broadcast stations. According to Obot and Inwang (2017, p. 111), “analogue broadcasting has been in existence in the country for a long time and has contributed to the development of the broadcast industry over the years. The advent of digital technology will revolutionize broadcasting and solve many of the problems that were inherent in the analogue system.” In the opinion of Dudek (2008, p. 3), “digital transmission has two fundamental features: errors correction is very easy to implement robustly, and signals can be reliably encrypted. A third feature that arises indirectly from the fact that digital technologies are much more modern is that signals occupy less bandwidth, meaning more of them can be transmitted using the physical conditions.” Digitization enhances convergence and convergence drives globalization. Pavlik and McIntosh (2011, p. 8) state that “convergence is known broadly as the coming together of computing, telecommunications, and media in a digital environment. Perhaps the most easily visible aspect of convergence is the rise of digital media and online communication networks. Technological convergence refers to specific types of media, such as print, audio, and video, all conveying into a digital media form.” As noted by Herman and McChesney (2004, p. 206-107), “when combined with satellite communication and fibre optic-­wired communication networks, digital communication becomes the ‘information superhighway’ or the ‘Global Information Infrastructure’ (GII), whereby individuals

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potentially can have instantaneous and global access to all forms of data, and can communicate with virtually anyone via personal computer. The shift to digital communication and other technological developments are breaking down barriers between traditional media industries and also between the broader media and communication sectors. The shift to digital formats and the ability to send all digital information over the same networks is removing the distinctions between them. This is broadly referred to as convergence, whereby the media, telecommunication (meaning primarily telephony), and computer industries find their activities are becoming increasingly the same. The traditional functions of telephones, television sets and personal computers are merging,” Herman and McChesney (2004, p.  107). This is what Hutchison and Sauyer (2000, p.  129) call digital convergence—“the technological merger of several industries through various services that exchange information in the electronic, or digital format used by computers. The industries are computers, communications, consumer electronics, entertainment and mass media.” The Internet plays a crucial role in technological convergence as it affects the media. The Internet engenders easy access to digital contents. Corroborating this, Herman and McChesney (2004, p. 118) say, “The WWW offered access to seemingly limitless information and data and unprecedented possibilities for interactivity.” Explaining this further, Pavlik and McIntosh (2011, p. 17) state that “the Internet enables audiences around the world to participate in a global dialogue about the world’s events and issues and can bring individuals into direct contact with each other though they are separated by thousands of miles and political and cultural boundaries.” The global village concept and globalization phenomenon are further enhanced by the Geneva 2006 (GE 06) Agreement by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which set June 17, 2015, as the deadline for the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting in the ultra high frequency (UHF) bands IV and V and June 17, 2020, as deadline for analogue broadcasting on the very high frequency (VHF) band. Globalization may be defined as the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale. According to Matos (2012, p.  2), “the mass media are seen today as playing a key role in

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enhancing globalization, facilitating culture exchange and multiple flows of information and image between countries through international news broadcasts, television programming, new technologies, film and music.”

 roadcast and Social Media: Opportunities B for Integration In the opinion of Pavlik and McIntosh (2011), convergence means the coming together of computing, telecommunications and the media in a digital environment. With regard to broadcast and social media, convergence occurs at the technological level. “This refers to specific types of media; such as print; audio and video, all converging into digital media form. Activities that used to be separate or cumbersome are now easier and folded into the media experience” (Pavlik and McIntosh, 2011, p. 8). This is made possible by the computer and the internet. Before the emergence of the internet, mass communication was largely one way, from the source of the message to the receiver or the audience. The audience was relatively large, heterogeneous and anonymous. Audience members had relatively few means by which to communicate either with each other on a mass scale, or with the creators and publishers. However, “audiences in the age of convergence can communicate via email, online forums, and other interactive media more easily and quickly with each other and with those who create and publish mass communication content. In addition, they can create the content themselves and reach larger audiences for much lower costs than they could have with traditional media” (Pavlik and McIntosh, 2011, p. 12).

Types of Social Media Pavlik and McIntosh (2011, pp. 260–266) identify the following types of social media: Email: Email or electronic mail is an exchange of messages via telecommunication between two people. It is quite easy for an individual to

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create a mailing list and send out a single message to several people, in a sense “broadcasting” the message. Media organizations have taken advantage of mailing lists to help attract internet users to their sites or to send them information they have specifically requested. Discussion Boards and Web Forums: A discussion board is a type of online “bulletin board” where internet users can post messages that can be seen by others coming to the discussion board and in which they can post responses to previous messages, or post, or create their own discussions on a new topic. Discussion boards also allow for the formation of newsgroups. Separating newsgroups by general categories, as well as letting anyone create their own newsgroups on any topic, helps make finding discussions of interest to users easier and facilitates users starting their own communities. Now most media organizations have seen that providing a forum for readers to discuss news stories or other topics of interest related to the news has increased readers’ engagement with the organization. At times, the conversation about a single news article may take on a life of its own, even perhaps outweighing the original article in terms of the value of information provided. Chat Rooms: A chat room is a “virtual room” in which a community of users can visit and talk with each other through text messages, in real time. Like discussion groups, chat rooms are usually divided by topic, ranging from highly technical computer issues to pop stars to sex. Chat rooms differ from instant messaging, which also takes place in real time, in that instant messaging usually involves an online conversation between two or at most a few people. Since chat rooms are synchronous, or take place in real time, they can be effectively used by media organizations to promote special guests online and let the audience “speak” directly to them, much like a radio station would have a musician visit the station and talk to callers. Blogs: Weblogs, or blogs, are web pages of short, frequently updated postings by an individual that are arranged chronologically, much like a series of diary entries or journal pages. Wikis: A website that lets anyone add, edit or delete pages and content. Social networking sites: What distinguishes social networking sites from other types of social media is that in some manner they allow users to show the connections they have, or they allow others to see their social

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networks. Examples of social networking sites are Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Tribe.net.

Characteristics of Social Media The Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University identifies the following five fundamental ways in which people’s media habits are changing, and which provide an excellent framework within which to better understand social media: Choice: This means that more media types and channels are competing with each other to attract the attention of the audience. Conversation: Conversation has remained a defining characteristic of social media. This has been enhanced by social media compared to what was possible with the traditional or mainstream mass media. Curation: On social media, people are empowered to do more with contents, they act as their own filters, classifiers and reviewers. Creation: Social media users have the opportunity to create and share content. Collaboration: The willingness of people to collaborate on a common good for no personal gain is perhaps one of the biggest surprises one encounters when first examining social media.

 ocial Media and Broadcasting Integration: S Empowering More Voices in a Globalized Mediasphere People use both the broadcast and social media to connect to society. Balnaves et al. (2009, pp. 225, 226) note that people go online to connect with the news of their community, whether this is a geographical community or one formed around some other common bond. Weblogs or blogs, part of the social media, are regularly updated online journalism-­ websites where commentary, original reporting and links to other content on the web are sorted in reverse chronological order (newest items on top). Items posted to blogs typically are short. Most blogs are a quick read. Blogs offer interactivity and timeliness. All blogs offer audience

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members the opportunity to respond to what they read, see and hear and often the responses are incorporated into the blog (Obot, 2013, p. 71). Social media serves as the “voice of the voiceless.” Their contents are an aggregation of the opinions, views or expressions of the people. Social media provides a potpourri of the opinions or ideas of the people. With equal access and use, users of social media enrich the public cyber space with robust inputs on issues of public interest, which the traditional media of mass communication can tap from or build their agenda around. Social media provide inexhaustible sources of citizens’ contributions to national discourse such as the federal government’s removal of petroleum subsidiaries on January 1, 2012, planned introduction of N5000 notes, air crashes and terrorist attacks/bombings. Social media have helped immensely in fulfilling Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which states that the right to freedom of opinion and expression includes “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Likewise, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) stipulates that the right to freedom of expression “comprises the freedom to seek out, to receive and communicate information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontier whether in oral, printed or artistic form, or by any other means of the individual’s choice” (UNESCO, 1981, p. 35). In no other channels is “the right to impart information” made more possible and easier than the social media where everyone is a co-producer and user of information. Communication in the age of social media has become more of a matter of human rights. According to UNESCO (1981, p. 172), “it is increasingly interpreted as the right to communicate, going beyond the right to receive communication or to be given communication. Communication is thus seen as a two-way process, in which the partner-individual and collective— carry on a democratic and balanced dialogue. The idea of dialogue, in contrast to monologue, is at the heart of much contemporary thinking, which is leading towards a process of developing a new area of social rights.” Many of the social media such as Facebook and YouTube provide avenues for the exchange of ideas on issues of public and personal concern. It is in this regard that McQuail (2010, p.  156) notes that the big advantage of the new media “is the ready access for all who want to speak,

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unmediated by the powerful interests that control the content of print media and the channels of broadcasting. The potential of the new media to bypass established institutional channels does also seem to improve the chances for the many and reduce their dependence on the various monopolistic sources of information and influence.” Social media are not only “marketplaces of ideas,” but are virtual communities. Quoting Baghdady (2008), Obot (2013, p. 74) describes a virtual community as “social relationships forged in cyberspace through repeated contact with a specified boundary or place (a conference or a chat line) that is symbolically delineated by topic of interest.” One of the current virtual communities is Facebook, which is a social utility that connects people worldwide. Facebook is a free-access website that allows users to join networks, such as a school, place of employment, or geographic region, to connect and interact with other people. “Users can post messages for their friends to see and update their personal profile to notify friends of happenings in their life.” To enrich their contents or improve their audience-generated contents, mass media should integrate social media into their channels. While the media have the potential for structuring issues for the public, those issues many of the times also become major issues for discussion on social media. Quoting Shaw and McCombs, Littlejohn and Foss (2008, p. 293) assert that “the mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about.” In other words, agenda—setting establishes the salient issues or images in the minds of the public. Quoting Littlejohn and Foss (2008), Obot (2013, pp. 72–73) explains that there are two levels of agenda-setting. The first establishes the general issues that are important, and the second determines the parts or aspects of those issues that are important. In many ways, the second level is as important as the first, because it gives us a way to frame the issues that constitute the public and media agenda. Media depictions frame events in ways that affect how audiences can interpret these events. This can happen by various textual features of the “story” such as headlines, visual components, metaphors used and the way in which the story is told, to name only a few of the ways framing functions. They identify what they call “a three-part process” of agenda—setting function. First, the priority

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of issues to be discussed in the media, or media agenda, must be set. Second, the media agenda in some way affects or interacts with what the public thinks, creating the public agenda. Finally, the public agenda affects or interacts in some ways with what policymakers consider important, called the policy agenda. In other words, the media agenda affects the public agenda, and the public agenda affects the policy agenda. Often, what is in the media and public agenda ends up as or simultaneously becomes social media agenda. It is a general knowledge that there is a high traffic of users in social media. Social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube provide fora where discussions on personal, national and international issues take place. Social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter provide a constant source of alternative news sources for users. Social media can also serve as sources of or cues for investigative or follow-up stories in the mass media. Broadcast and social media integration can be presented in the following model:

4

1

Social media

2

3

SM-BM Broadcast INTERFACE Media

Information Society

A model for broadcast and social media integration for audience/civic engagement, Charles Obot (2017) 1. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microbloggings, wikis, social networks, podcasts, videos/pictures. 2. Social Media: Broadcast media interface for enhanced audience/civic engagement. Here social media users set or build an agenda for issues

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of concern to them and their communities. Similarly, the broadcast media which have presence or accounts on the social media have constant interactions with their audience members (social media users). 3. Broadcast Media: These include radio, television and film. 4. Information society: Modern society where digital information and communication technologies have become part of the daily lives of the people. This is also a society where most members of the community have at least one “push” technology that enables them to become part of the virtual community. Social media has also led to the creation of virtual communities. Quoting Howard Rheingold, Baghdady (2008, p.  168) explains that virtual communities are “social aggregations that emerge from the net when enough people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feelings, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.” Social media are the only form of mass media that have either surpassed or rivalled radio as a mass medium in terms of audience following. In the opinion of Jan Fernback and Brad Thompson, quoted by Baghdady (2008, p. 169), virtual communities are “social relationships forged in cyberspace through repeated contact with a specified boundary or place (a conference or a chat line) that is symbolically delineated by topics of interest.” Social media have not only served communication functions, but also fulfilled social categories. In the traditional news media the question often asked is “is it newsworthy?”, but in social media, the question is “to whom is it newsworthy?” Lee (2010, p.  273) notes that “digital camera users have often posted their pictures on the webs to create self-presentations and to enhance social relationships. As bloggers, they provide particular pictures and information related to a local site, and they share them with their intimates or the public to be acknowledged by them. When people search the web for information about a locale, they are able to get a sense of the place before getting there, and to visit the locale based on this information. Personal photographs provide visual details of numerous places, make them aesthetic and desirable, and consequently extend the pool of destinations that are considered worthy to visit.” Social media provide platforms for documenting or making comments “on everyday topics

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that shape people’s lives in our neighbourhoods and in our towns, it involves reporting on all manner of personal tragedies, fires, auto accidents, crimes, etc.” (Lauterer, 2006, p. 26). Broadcast and social media can be effectively utilized or integrated for an enhanced audience and civic engagement. This can be done in several ways which include the following: i. Storytelling on social media: While it is true that many mass media audience members may not be interested in watching news on television, listening to news on radio or reading same in the print media, broadcasters can adapt or repackage their news to fit into the peculiar features or dynamics of the Facebook, Snapchat, personal blogs, official pages and Twitter for a better appreciation of users. This should be short, but capture the key points or parts of the story, since online users hardly have the patience required for the mainstream mass media. According to Corcoran (2015), “given that presenters and reporters have just as much social clout on their personal accounts as the stations they work for, it is an obvious option…presenters and reporters can now reach huge audiences themselves on social media.” ii. Live streaming of events: With a smartphone and internet access, one can live-stream any event or anything anywhere and anytime. This could be news/breaking news, sports or anything of human interest. iii. Platforms for news sourcing: Social media can be used as effective avenues for information gathering and synthesis. They can serve as platforms through which broadcasters can gather valuable information; opinions, voices and sometimes find better materials for a story line. Vox pox on issues of public concern or current issues of general consequence can be conducted on social media by broadcasters. Often many news stories are inspired or influenced from social media contents, such as posts, comments and videos. However, I do acknowledge some of the challenges or risks involved in using social media for news sourcing. Among these challenges are credibility of

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information, issues relating to absence of gatekeeping by the producers of information published in the social media, absence of ethical compliance in the course of content creation as well as internet availability, access and affordability. Moreover, many of the social media content producers were not trained in journalism and as such, any journalist who utilizes social media contents for his professional practice has to tread with caution. iv. Social media as marking/branding tools for broadcasters: Broadcasters and stations can use the Twitter hashtags # and Facebook page to promote their programmes or interest with their followers (audience members) or conduct research. According to Chakraborty (2012), “internet tools like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are increasingly changing the way media is being produced, distributed and consumed. Unconventional social media platforms like blogs are also redefining journalism these days where individuals are expressing their opinions on relevant issues. Almost all journalists these days have their own blogs and are active on Twitter where they interact with their followers to do their research.” According to the author, every celebrity, show, broadcast station and journalist has (or should have) a Twitter account where they engage and communicate with their fans and followers or promote themselves or their shows. Chakraborty emphasizes that “hashtags are extremely popular for promoting an event or a cause.” YouTube is a veritable marketing or branding tool for broadcasters. Many people who do not watch television watch their favourite shows on YouTube. Broadcasters— presenters and reporters can also utilize blogs to interact with their fans and followers on a more personal level. Television shows use Facebook as the primary social media platform to promote launches, new episodes or even the programme in general. It is an incontrovertible fact that the broadcast media and social media have over the years shared a symbiotic relationship where both are dependent on each other for content and audience/civic engagement. v. Social media gives audience members a voice in broadcast contents: According to Jacob (2016), the best broadcast programmes

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reflect the vibe, attitude and zeitgeist of their audiences. By studying what people are saying, posting and doing on social media, one can get much closer to the pulse of one’s audience. Integrating the social and broadcast media would further engender democratization of communication. UNESCO (1981, p.  166) defines democratization of communication as a process whereby: a. The individual becomes an active partner and not a mere object of communication b. The variety of messages exchanged increases c. The extent and quantity of social representations or participation in communication are augmented With creativity in broadcast programming, appropriate technology and social media presence, audience and civic engagement would be achieved. Freeman et al. (2012) have identified some of the ways in which broadcast stations/broadcasters can use social media to enhance audience and civic engagement. “They assert that the social media not only provided more bidirectional communication between the station and the audience but also improved awareness, loyalty and the station’s reputation and brand image” (2012, pp. 3–4). Social media also afford broadcast stations the possibility of programme streaming. Social media, according to Freeman et al. (2012, p. 4), can be used specifically in the following ways: “Firstly, can be created, edited or commented (authorizing). Secondly, users can share existing information or content such as audio and video (sharing). Thirdly, user-driven scoring and filtering features are offered. These modes of usage are interrelated.” Facebook in particular offers authoring mainly via its functions to comment, to send private messages and to publish microblogs as status updates to friends. Sharing refers to the possibility to upload or link photographs, videos or other content. The authors further explain that while some broadcast stations have “Fan” pages, there are some stations that are running on “friend” pages; the difference being that one must be personally accepted as a friend—rather than getting the automatic

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acceptance from “Liking” to be connected. Friend pages have limits of 5000 friends, but there are no limits to the likes one can receive on a fan page. Many broadcast stations either migrate to the fan pages—which are identical in appearance to friend pages—or maintain both accounts. Broadcast stations/broadcasts can have social media presence to generate engagement, promote benchmark listening, promote/project on-air personalities, encourage sharing of posts and links, video/photo-­share, contents and scoring. The “wall” is an outstanding feature of Facebook as it contains “posts” from the station and users. According to Freeman et  al. (2012, p.  7), the wall posts can be categorized into three areas, namely: (i) designed to generate engagement; (ii) promote station benchmarks and listening and (iii) promote on-air personalities. Generating engagement: The posts on broadcast stations’ walls are generally designed to generate engagement on subject matters that are either topical or of great human interest. Promoting benchmark listening: Driving users to the broadcast programme or content seems to be the main aim of stations’ Facebook efforts. Specific special events that reoccur on-air at specific set times are called benchmark. These benchmarks are unique specialty features that attempt to create return visits (habitual tune-ins) to the station. Most benchmarks are branded with a specific time that they broadcast as part of their name, and at times mentioning the day it broadcasts if it was/is not a daily feature. Examples are programmes such as 60 Minutes and Tuesday Live. Promoting personalities: Promotion of on-air personalities is tied to the station benchmarks and appointment posts. Sometimes, programme promos are tied to celebrity/guest appearances or a popular on-air personality. For example, we can have a personality promo such as “Keep a date with Charles Obot at 8pm every Friday.” Sharing: The method of “sharing” comes in the forms of posts that are often designed to create station website traffic, interaction through station blogs, sharing videos and photo-sharing and contests. Posts and links: Topics are generally based on current events that directly relate to the target audience of the station. Contests: Broadcast stations’ contents are designed to attract and retain listeners/viewers. Broadcasters have always devised creative ways for their

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audience members to participate in contests. These may take different formats such as “text to win” and “question of the week.” Scoring: One key objective for stations, it seems, is to get social media (Facebook) users to “Like” the Station’s page which immediately connects them to the station newsfeeds. The newsfeeds serve as solicited advertisements from the station, reminding users to tune in, surf the site and view items on their Facebook page. Those that visit pages can “Like” specific topics, posts and pictures or connect by clicking on the “Like” button located by each of the posts.

 igitization of Broadcasting in Nigeria: Milestones D and Roadblocks Following the ratification of the Geneva 2006 Agreement which put in place an all-digital plan for the use of frequencies in the VHF (173–230  MHz) and UHF (470–862  MHz) bands, Nigeria launched her pilot digitization of broadcasting on April 30, 2016 in Jos, Plateau State after failure to meet its earlier target date of June 17, 2012. According to Idachaba (2018), a digital television is a TV broadcasting system that can transmit images with 720–1080 horizontal lines of resolution as compared with 480 lines of the ordinary (analogue) television system. Digital television offers interference-free, CD-quality sound and multiplexing of up to six channels under one bandwidth. Bandwidth is “the speed at which digital data can flow between computers” (Herman & McChesney 2004, p. 119). Also, on December 23, 2016, the Abuja/ FCT roll out of the digital switchover took place. According to Idachaba (2018), the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has authorized 13 set-top box manufacturing companies—30 million set-top boxes were estimated to be needed for the Nigerian market. In order to ensure that the signals of various channel owners are compressed into multiplexes and well-packaged before transmission to consumers, and to protect the Boxes from hacking and piracy, the Commission engaged the Middleware operator—Inview Nigeria Limited. What the company does is to provide the software that rides on the Box, provide features such as Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), information

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services guide on the TV without an internet connection with updates daily. The Company also provides features that enable the subscriber to have video on demand on the same Box. They also have encryption on it that it is those who have been registered on the NBC National Box that will have access to the programmes and also collaboration with Pay Wizard on their software which allows the NBC to collect the digital access fee (DAF) and manage a lot of other services. Another indigenous company—Cable Channels Nigeria Limited (CCNL) is managing the marketing and aggregation of the channels on behalf of the content owners and the signal distributors. The Digital Switchover (DSO) White Paper makes provision for the reservation of a licence for an independent signal distribution operator to be created out of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria, using the existing Infrastructure invested by the government over the years for the deployment of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network in Nigeria. The newly created company is known as Independent Television Services (ITS) Limited. The second company which emerged through an expression of interest and evaluation of bids was Pinnacle Communications Limited. Pinnacle won the second licence from NBC. These companies are in operation. The next phase of the Digital Switchover would be implemented in Kwara, Delta, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna and Osun States. The Signal Distributors—ITS and Pinnacle Communications Limited—are reported to have already set up transmitter sites at those locations. According to the Director General of NBC—Modibbo Kawu—the phased DSO will continue until the national roll-out is achieved. The slow pace of Digital Switchover in Nigeria is caused by a combination of factors, namely inadequate power and infrastructural development, inadequate funding for procurement of equipment and gadgets, availability of set-top boxes and requisite manpower issues. There is no doubt that digitization of broadcasting in Nigeria holds a lot of promises including improved signal quality and more effective spectrum management leading to digital dividend because some of the frequencies earlier taken up by analogue broadcasting would be freed and allocated to new uses.

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Conclusion The interconnectedness of human society postulated by the concept of a “global village” is further enhanced by globalization of the mass media. Globalization thrives more with the digitization of broadcasting. With the improvement in signal quality, reach, access, pluralism and interactivity, digitization of broadcasting obviously provides a great impetus to globalization.

References Baghdady, I. E. (2008). Playing at Cyber Space. In N. Pecora, E. Osei-Hwere, & U. Carlsson (Eds.), African Media. African Children. Livrena AB. Balnaves, M., Donald, S.  H., & Shoesmith, B. (2009). Media Theories and Approaches: A Global Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. Chakraborty, S. (2012). The Impact of Social Media on Broadcast Media. https://firestmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3768/3194. Corcoran, L. (2015). Five Ways Broadcasters are Using Social Media. https:// www.newswhip.com/2015/04-­five-­ways-­broadcasters-­are… Dudek, G. (2008). Digital Television at Home: Satellite, Cable and Over-The-Air. Y-one-D books. Freeman, B. C., Klapczynski, J., & Wood, E. (2012). Radio and Facebook: The Relationship Between Broadcast and Social Media Software in the U.S., Germany, and Singapore. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index-­php/fm/article/ view/3768/3194. Herman, E.  S., & McChesney, R.  W. (2004). The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism. Continuum. Hutchison, S.  E., & Sauyer, S.  C. (2000). Computers, Communications, and Information. Irwin McGraw-Hill. Idachaba, A. (2018). Digitization of Broadcasting in Nigeria: Policy and Implementation. Retrieved August 21, 2022, from https://www.researchgate. net/publication. Jacob, F. (2016). 6 Good Reasons Why Radio Needs Social Media. Retrieved June 16, 2019, from https://jacobsmedia.com/6-­good-­reasons-­why-radioneeds-­social…

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Lauterer, J. (2006). Community Journalism: Relentlessly Local Chapel Hill. The University of North Carolina Press. Lee, D.-H. (2010). Digital Cameras. Personal Photography and the Reconfiguration of Spatial Experience. The Information Society, 26(4), 266–275. Littlejohn, S.  W., & Foss, K.  A. (2008). Theories of Human Communication. Wadsworth. Matos, C. (2012). Globalisation and the Mass Media. In Wiley-Blackwell’s Encyclopedia of Globalisation (pp. 1–14). Wiley-Blackwell. McQuail, D. (2010). McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory. Sage Publications Ltd.. Obot, C., & Inwang, I. (2017). Awareness of and Preparedness for Digital Broadcasting Among communication Practitioners and Educators in Uyo. Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communications., 3(2), 107–123. Obot, C.  D. (2013). Social Media: Enlarging the Space for User-generated Community Journalism. New Media and Mass Communication., 19, 69–75. Obot, C. D. (2017). Awareness of and Preparedness for Digital Broadcasting Among Communication Practitioners in Uyo. Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communications., 3(2), 107–123. Pavlik, J. V., & McIntosh, S. (2011). Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication. Oxford University Press. UNESCO. (1981). Many Voices, One World. Ibadan University Press.

4 Globalization, Pluralism and Broadcast Operations in Nigeria Uwem Udo Akpan

Introduction In decades past, different countries, Nigeria inclusive, depending on the disposition of their political leadership and the political, economic, cultural and social circumstances of their countries, adopted different orientations in broadcast operations in their countries, namely authoritarianism (government-owned and government-funded), paternalism (public service broadcasting) and permissivism (commercial broadcasting). However, due to globalization, Nigeria is no longer operating a single broadcast orientation but has adopted and incorporated features of the three broadcast philosophies into its broadcast system, such that the country’s broadcast system is now a hybrid called pluralism. This chapter traces the origins of broadcasting in Nigeria and highlights the legal foundations for pluralism and the manifestations of pluralism in broadcasting but points out that although features of the three systems

U. U. Akpan (*) University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_4

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exist in abundance, it is the elements of authoritarian and commercial broadcasting that dominate the space in Nigeria, and consequently weigh on programming. The history of broadcasting in Nigeria is well documented by broadcast historians. It is a story that has its origins in 1932. Perhaps, unlike in other countries, the origins of broadcasting in Nigeria had three striking features. First, broadcasting came to Nigeria through an unconventional route. It arrived in the country via wired broadcasting, otherwise called Radio Distribution Service (RDS), following the decision of the then Colonial Government to extend broadcast services to its colonial territories. According to Otu (2006, p. 2), “The Posts and Telegraphs Department (in Nigeria) came up with an experimental system of relaying BBC programmes to listeners on subscription through re-diffusion boxes. This method, christened ‘Radio Distribution Service (RDS)’ was based on Radio Relay exchanges and involved piping BBC programmes by landlines to loudspeakers in subscribers’ homes.” Uche (1989, p. 36), citing Milton (1955, p. 13), confirms: “The programmes in this system are distributed by land lines from the studio to the various listening boxes for which the subscribers pay a small fee. Amplification is needed at some locations and was provided by a makeshift and homebuilt apparatus.” This wired broadcasting through the RDS subsisted until April 1, 1951, when the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) was established as a full-­ fledged indigenous broadcasting system. This was in Lagos. The second striking feature in the origins of broadcasting in Nigeria is that broadcasting came 28 years before the Independence of Nigeria, and this gave broadcasting the ample time to mature, and for Nigerians, particularly politicians, to be used to broadcasting long before Independence. The third and perhaps most striking feature in the birth of broadcasting in Nigeria is that in the days leading to Independence, broadcasting found itself in the midst of competition among the component parts of the Federation. This competition was to impact heavily on the development of broadcasting in the country. Although competition might have fizzled out at some point in the broadcast development curve during the era of the military, it has remained the mainstay and driving force of broadcasting in Nigeria.

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Competition, being an outcome of the lopsided, subjective services by the NBS, which later metamorphosed into the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), gave birth to the first television station in Nigeria— the Western Nigeria Television Service in Ibadan. As Uche (1989, p. 61) puts it, “The irony here is that while it was the Federal Government that started the first radio broadcasting in the nation, it was the Regional Government that first ventured into television broadcasting. It was on October 31, 1959, that the former Western Region sent out the first television signal in the whole of Nigeria and Africa.” The development and expansion of broadcast services has, till today, followed the path of competition—between the federating regions/states and the federal government; and since August 24, 1992, between the government and private stations on the one hand, and among private stations on the other. August 24, 1992, is the commencement date of the National Broadcasting Commission Act No. 38 of 1992 which not only brought the NBC into existence but empowered it to receive, process, consider and recommend applications for the ownership of radio and TV stations, including cable television services, direct satellite broadcasting and any other medium of broadcasting in Nigeria. According to Otu (2006, p.  46), “The establishment of the National Broadcasting Commission served the government effectively as much as it served agitators of deregulation of the broadcast industry. For, while the government would still regulate broadcast contents through the NBC, it deregulated the establishment, ownership and operation of broadcasting. The deregulation increased the number of players in the broadcast industry, heightened competition and stepped up creativity amongst the players.”

Globalization and Broadcasting in Nigeria There is no doubt that today’s world—politics, environmental, economics, security, the media and so on—is shaped by globalization, a term which is rarely satisfactorily defined, and whose boundaries can, at times, be nebulous. Yet, its effects which, can be seen and felt, have helped to explain the concept of globalization, particularly as it pertains to the media. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics

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(2021), “globalization is the word used to describe the growing interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information.” It is “the increasing integration of economies around the world, particularly through the movement of goods, services, and capital across borders” (IMF, 2008). One of the major vehicles of globalization is the mass media, especially radio and TV as well as the internet. The mass media are involved in the four basics of globalization, namely trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people and the dissemination of knowledge. Nations and transnational corporations (TNCs) deploy the media to achieve economic globalization, cultural globalization and political globalization. It is cultural globalization which is the concern of this discourse. Cultural globalization, according to Thompson (2017), is “the rapid movement of ideas, attitudes, meanings, values and cultural products across national borders. It refers specifically to the idea that there is now a global and common mono-culture— transmitted and reinforced by that internet, popular entertainment, transnational marketing of particular brands and international tourism— that transcends local cultural traditions and lifestyles, and that shapes the perceptions, aspirations, tastes and everyday activities of people wherever they may live in the world.” Lutkevich (2021) states, “Globalization is the process by which ideas, knowledge, information, goods and services spread around the world…It is driven by the convergence of cultural and economic systems. This convergence promotes—and in some cases necessitates—increased interaction, integration and interdependence among nations. The more countries and regions of the world become intertwined politically, culturally and economically, the more globalized the world becomes.” The major vehicles in the acceleration of globalization generally and cultural globalization in particular are radio, television and the internet. That explains the assertion by Lutkevich (2021) that “the internet has increased the sharing and flow of information and knowledge, access to ideas and exchange of culture among people of different countries. It has contributed to closing the digital divide between more and less advanced countries.”

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The global sharing and flow of information, knowledge and ideas has also touched on the way broadcasting is being run worldwide. Globally, there is a shift away from traditional broadcast orientations, which were once particular to countries, towards an orientation that transcends the social and political cultures of nations. Akpan (2017, p. 14) explains a broadcast orientation as “a national system of broadcasting which entails the philosophy which guides the operation of broadcasting in a country, particularly as it relates to broadcast programming, finance and control.” From the inception of broadcasting, each country’s leadership decides the path that it wants its country’s broadcast operations to follow. And this is defined by the leadership’s attitude towards the citizens—are the citizens thought of as being capable of rational discernment? Even when the public are discerning, should they be guided to avoid any derailment? Or are the citizens, without any guidance, capable of taking independent, rational decisions that they consider to be in their best interest? These considerations dovetail into three distinguishable broadcast orientations which Head (1985) identifies as authoritarianism, paternalism and permissivism but adds the fourth which he calls “pluralism or mixed system” and that there is a worldwide tendency towards it. The major indicators of a broadcasting system revolve around answers to three key basic questions: How is broadcasting to be financed? How is it to be managed? And what are the criteria for programming? These questions have been answered differently in many countries by the political leadership taking cognizance of their opinion on the citizenry as well as the political, social, cultural and economic circumstances of the country. Political leaders that compel their citizens to obey a set of rules or laws, especially the ones that are wrong and unfair, go for the authoritarian orientation of broadcasting which is characterized by government monopoly of the system. Private funding is outlawed; only the government funds the system; control is by the agents of government so appointed while programming is based on what the government decides as best for the people. In a country where political leaders see their citizens as capable of discernment but need guidance in the exercise of such discretion, the broadcast system that evolves from the political philosophy of the leadership is paternalism in which the audience are regarded as rational

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enough to deal with ideas, unlike in authoritarianism where political leaders lack faith in the capacity by the masses to take decision. Paternalism provides audience needs and protects the audience from the ravenous fangs of market forces. According to Watson (2003), paternalism is state and consumer-funded; it is managed by the professionals while programming is shaped by consumer preferences and the need to curb the excesses of commercialism in broadcast content. In countries where the political leadership has a liberal view of the citizens, the outcome, in terms of the broadcasting system, is permissivism which Head (1985) says connotes autonomy, and emphasizes what the audience want rather than what the government or broadcasters think the audience need. Akpan (2017, p. 150) further explains: “Permissivism implies that the system allows the station owners and operators to offer a programme diet that is in line with the tastes and preferences of audience members…the permissive broadcast orientation relies more on market forces than government supervision or control to survive. Market forces mean a situation in which only programmes that are capable of drawing advertising support as a result of audience preference for such programmes are put out to the public.” The system advocates and relies on advertising for the sustenance of the broadcast stations.

Broadcasting and Pluralism Pluralism denotes heterogeneity which produces a diversity of norms, values, interests and personal perspectives within societies (Watson & Hill, 2015). Embedded in pluralism is competition for dominance or influence among the different groups in the society. Pluralism implies the availability of alternatives. In media terms, it is “diversity—of ownership, style, content and standpoint. A pluralist society is one in which there are many choices and many interpretations of meaning” (Watson & Hill, 2015, p.  238). In many countries of the world today, there are many perspectives regarding funding, management (control) and content (programming) in the broadcast media. There exists the perspective of government funding, control and programming (which is referred to as the authoritarian orientation). There is also the perspective of public

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service broadcasting where the government partly funds the system but control and programming is in the hands of the professionals who tend to balance between what the audiences want and what the professionals think is a healthy programme diet. And there is the perspective in which the system is privately owned, funded and operated, and advertising is the main source of revenue for the sustenance of the system. Programming is defined by what the audience wants, and only programmes with a large audience base and which are able to attract sponsorship by advertisers can remain on the air. This is commercial broadcasting or the permissive perspective. The above three perspectives are backed by different ideological orientations. Yet, as a result of globalization—in which only physical boundaries exist—countries the world over have imbibed some of the features of the different perspectives to broadcast management, so much so that it is difficult, if not impossible, to see a particular perspective in its purest form in a particular country today. By adopting the features of other perspectives, even if not wholly, a country becomes pluralistic in its broadcast orientation defined by answers to the questions: How should broadcasting be financed? How should it be managed? What shall be the criteria for programming? Answers to these questions, though a product of what the political elites think of these issues at a particular time, give a country’s broadcasting a distinct orientation—authoritarianism, paternalism or permissivism. As the world has become a global village, and political and economic views—hitherto intolerable across a national boundary—have been accepted and accommodated beyond the physical boundaries of countries, broadcast orientations have similarly crossed national boundaries, to the extent that what exists in countries is now a hybrid system which Head (1985, p.  90) calls “pluralism” or “mixed” system and defines as “the existence of multiple motives as driving forces within a national system, usually the profit motive (commercial component) and the public service motive (non commercial component).” Nigeria being a player on the global broadcasting stage is not an exception to pluralism in broadcasting. In Africa, Nigeria leads the pack with the mix of stations that are government-owned (funded from advertising revenues and government grants) and privately owned (sustained wholly by advertising revenues).

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F oundations for Pluralism of Broadcasting in Nigeria After precisely 60 years of government ownership and control of broadcasting as well as the accompanying one-way programming orientation, the government of Nigeria bowed to the irrepressible force of pluralism in broadcasting across the globe. To set the tone for that shift from all government ownership and control of broadcasting, the government enacted Act 38 of 1992 (amended by Act No. 51 of 1999) which set up the NBC to oversee the process. Among other things, the new Commission was and is saddled with the task of: receiving, processing and considering application for the ownership of radio and television stations including—cable television services, direct, satellite broadcast and any other medium of broadcasting; recommending applications through the Minister to the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for the grant of radio and television licenses. (Section 2(1) (b) and (c), National Broadcasting Commission Act No. 38 of 1992)

The above Act liberalized and deregulated broadcasting to the extent that ownership, operation and management of broadcast stations were no longer the exclusive reserve of government. Private individuals or organizations can now establish, own and operate broadcast stations. Within one year of the establishment of the National Broadcasting Commission (from August 24, 1992, to June 1993), the first set of licences, 14 of them, were issued to private operators. And according to Otu (2006, pp. 52–53), citing NBC Handbook, “seven (7) others were issued in 1997 and between 1999 and 2002, additional twenty (22) broadcast licenses were issued. By 2004, there were seventeen (17) private radio stations, fourteen (14) television stations, three (3) direct-to-House television, thirty five (35) cable stations using MMDS channels, and two (2) Direct Satellite Stations, DBS.” Implied in the deregulation of broadcasting is the fact that broadcast stations, whether privately or government-owned, would enter into a competition for survival. To equip government stations with the power to compete with the privately owned stations, the government put in place

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Act No. 43 of 1992—the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act— which enabled the broadcast stations to assume the full status of a money-­ making institution. Senam (2017, p. 174) states: “With this regime of media commercialisation, the National Broadcasting Commission, through the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, recognises the commercial status of the broadcast media.” The deregulation is in line with the global trend which has seen broadcasting move from a single orientation to a plural orientation, an orientation which combines the existing three broadcast philosophies to produce a composite. By 2021, there were 625 functional radio stations in Nigeria, according to the director general of the National Broadcasting Commission, Balarabe Ilelah. In 2022, Infoguide Nigeria (http://cultureintelligence.ynaija.com) put the number of TV stations in Nigeria at more than 103, with 50 of this number being privately owned. This is in addition to the 159 radio and TV stations that the Federal Government of Nigeria licensed in September 2021. This is pluralism at work and has been the feature of broadcasting since its deregulation in 1992. It is inconceivable that Nigeria would isolate itself from the current global trend towards a mixed or plural system of broadcast orientation when the realities of funding as well as the pressure to open up the airwaves for more and diversified operators and contents have made governments in different countries, including former communist countries where the profit motive/private ownership was abhorred, to tap the irresistible advertising source and also attempt to encourage competition in the industry.

The Pluralistic Broadcast Orientation in Nigeria This orientation has emerged as a result of the combination of three broadcast philosophies in Nigeria, the very reason Nigeria is said to be practising a mixed or plural system. The features of all the broadcast orientations are in operation. Of all the orientations, it is the features of the authoritarianism orientation which seem to be more manifest. Authoritarianism derives from the authoritarian political system. Under this system in Nigeria (and elsewhere that it operates), broadcast stations are established, owned and operated by the government. Funding is

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borne by the government; control is by the agents of the government so appointed, while programming is dictated by what the government thinks is best for the people. It is not surprising that government ownership and control of broadcasting has been an ever-present feature of broadcasting in Nigeria. Since its inception in Nigeria in 1932, and up till 1993, all the broadcast outfits were owned by the government. The admission of private operators into the system has not slowed down the government’s investment in the sector. At the Federal level, the government has established radio and television stations in all the 36 states of the Federation and Abuja to further consolidate on its stranglehold of broadcasting. Many of them are poorly funded, though. Today, the number of government stations far outstrips the number of private stations. Although the broadcast stations owned and controlled by the government draw additional funds from supplementary sources, the bulk of the cost of operations rests on the shoulders of the government through budgetary and non-budgetary provisions. It is a feature of authoritarianism for the government to want to control the means by which information is disseminated to the people. According to Akpan (2017, pp. 145–146): Government controls the system indirectly through regulations and the appointment of persons to take charge. In some situations, government’s indirect management is a two-step process. First, the government appoints a board of directors to provide policy direction in line with ‘national interest’. At the second level, a chief executive officer is appointed to oversee the daily operations of the system…The funding and management of broadcasting dictate the criteria for programming. The general policy on programming is determined by political leaders and to some extent by the broadcasters…The system does not appreciate audience preferences and disdains catering for frivolous tastes and wasting time on entertainments which are ideologically barren, that is, do not promote the brainwashing and integration of the citizenry into the viewpoint of the political leaders. Therefore, programming criteria are more a factor of what the government wants than what the audience and broadcast professionals want.

The global pressure of pluralism has, however, made Nigeria to accept and adopt the features of other broadcast philosophies and relax some of the brainwashing associated with authoritarianism. Even the government

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stations, which are no doubt under the tight control of the government, have been given the window to adjust in terms of funding and content. This shift was noticed when the government acquiesced and later legalized the major features of permissivism which are private ownership of broadcast stations and the right of stations to canvas for advertising revenue. Station operators are allowed to offer a programme diet that is in line with the tastes and preferences of audience members. They create programmes that are able to draw advertising support. Government-­ owned stations have leveraged on this to raise additional revenue to support their operations in the face of dwindling government grants. Yet, they are careful not to sacrifice “government interest” synonymous with “national interest” on the altar of additional funds. Private radio stations have brought competition, creativity, invention and opportunities which were hitherto deficient in Nigeria’s broadcast industry. The once-sleeping giants (government-owned stations) have been forced out of their slumber to fight for survival in the hearts and minds of the audience. In the process, they toe the line of private broadcast operators and accept the unwritten but imperative code of commercialism—any programme that cannot command the sponsorship of advertisers does deserve to “die” and be off the air because advertisers are only willing and ready to commit their resources to programmes that have a large audience. There are exceptions, though, if the government unveils its interest in some programmes. Truly speaking, the commercial broadcast orientation really took effect in Nigeria from when regional and state-owned stations started accepting advertising—a core feature of permissivism. Subsequent reforms have only strengthened rather than weakened this feature. The Privatisation and Commercialisation Act of 1992 provided the legal teeth. The Nigeria Broadcasting Code (2020) has alluded to commercial broadcasting. Broadcast organizations under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) have emphasized aggressive marketing of programmes and exploitation of other commercial sources of revenue for their members. How interesting that those government-owned stations, already enjoying the largesse of government funding in the authoritarian orientation, are at the forefront of the fund drive (Akpan et al., 2014; Akpan & Senam, 2012, 2013!

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A vital component of commercial broadcasting in Nigeria is audience research. While the stations owned and operated by the government can afford not to embark on research (although they always claim to) because government funds are always there for them, commercial stations, whose survival hinges on audience tastes and preferences, strive to determine what the audience want or do not want. This can only be ascertained through audience research. Mytton (1992, p. 2) captures the essence of audience research: The question “who is listening?” or “who is watching?” are surely not unwarranted or even remarkable questions to ask. Certainly broadcasters need to know something about the people who are watching or listening. In all kinds of communication activity we think about the person or persons with whom we are communicating…every time we speak, write a letter, and make a phone call… we consider with whom we are communicating. If we don’t know, we do a little research.

Competition in broadcasting, many a time, translates into creativity in programming; quite a lot of times, too, it descends into a fight for the greatest possible number of listeners and viewers and advertisers. In the face of competition such as it is being experienced in the broadcast industry today, sometimes leading to lower forms of mass appetite which Idiong (2017) calls “tabloidization—the catering for frivolities by the media in order to survive—a research into what the audience want and the subsequent satisfaction of those wants will pull audiences to stations and entice advertisers in the process.” This underlines the importance of consumer sovereignty which is “associated with market-driven approaches to the operation of economic activities, including the production and distribution of media contents” (Akpan, 2018, p. 207). In the global era of commercial broadcasting, Nigeria’s broadcast stations have striven for ratings, shares, resonance and reach—some, by themselves through the following on their social media pages. The goal is to gather such data and use the same to attempt to impress both the advertisers and the audience that their station is the leader of the pack. Watson and Hill (2015, p. 18) define rating “as the estimated percentage, in case of television, of all the ‘TV households’ or of all the people within a demographic group who

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view a specific programme or station. A share refers to the percentage of the overall viewing figures which a particular programme commands.” “Resonance occurs when messages match the expectations of the receiver, when they are in alignment with or confirm the experiences, perceptions, values, beliefs or attitudes of the receiver” (Watson & Hill, 2015, p. 271). According to McQuail (2005, p. 413), audience reach “is the overall portion of the potential audience that is reached over a particular period of time.” The ratings, shares, resonance and reach of a station can only be fairly estimated through audience research. Stations strive to fairly ascertain these in order to channel resources into programme areas that have the potential to generate profitable returns on investment. Hence, broadcasters in Nigeria have a four-pronged purpose for audience research, according to Akpan (2017, p.  157): “To ascertain what the audience want and their possible changing tastes and preferences; to determine the extent of penetration of programmes aired; to measure the size of the audience that a programme has commanded; and to ascertain audience reaction to the programme bouquet offered to them.” Commercial broadcasting in Nigeria, marked by the licensing of a litany of operators, has led to what Emwinromwankhoe and Akpan (2022, p. 14) describe as “hyper competition” which they say “is pervasive and has disrupted the broadcasting terrain so much so that only the fittest and most formidable broadcast stations can make some headway.” Beside the many broadcast stations that are in operation, the hyper competition has been exacerbated by information and communication technologies (ICTs), according to Emwinromwankhoe and Akpan (2022, p. 34): Within the past two decades, ICTs such as the internet, computers, laptops, smart phones, iPhones, iPads and tablets have tremendously penetrated the broadcasting sphere and consequently affected the way broadcast information is sourced, processed, packaged and disseminated to members of the audience. Due to the influence of ICTs, there has been a rapid and massive expansion of broadcast markets. This is because many broadcast stations across the world have tapped into the vast potentials of ICTs and created online broadcast platforms to complement their traditional radio and/or television transmission.

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Despite the increasing dominance of audience-centred broadcasting which is a feature of commercialism, the paternalistic broadcast orientation abounds in Nigeria. Many broadcast stations in Nigeria still consider the needs as well as wants of the audience (consumers) and curb market forces (advertising). Paternalism comes between the extremes of predominantly government and private ownership of broadcasting. Paternalism seeks and combines the best of both systems. It defines limitations on government control and market forces manifesting in audience needs and wants as well as advertising. The audience are regarded as rational enough to deal with ideas unlike in authoritarianism where political leaders lack faith in the capacity of the masses to make decisions. This explains why broadcast stations, especially government-owned, in the effort to protect the audience, reject some advertisements that the (the stations) feel are not healthy for consumption by the audience, notwithstanding the profits which could have been generated from such contents. To a great extent, therefore, broadcasters are still fatherly in their approach to the audience because, as McQuail (2005) has stated, the media have obligations to the society; media ownership is a public trust, and the news media should follow agreed codes of ethics and professional conduct. It is ironic, but it must be noted, that sometimes broadcast stations reject some contents not on account of their conviction but on account of compulsion by the government through its agencies, such as the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the regulator of broadcasting in the country. Thus, the NBC, through its Code, has set out contents that cannot be admitted into the airwaves and has been sanctioning through fines and threat of licence-withdrawal stations that it regards as having violated the code. The NBC says it intervenes to safeguard the public interest which is as defined by the government. This very act is a feature of authoritarianism, disguised as paternalism. Yet, public service broadcasting, a feature of paternalism, is clearly evident in Nigeria’s broadcasting space. According to McQuail (2005, p. 179), “the general rationale for such systems is that they should serve the public interest by meeting the important communication needs of the society and its citizens, as decided and reviewed by way of the democratic political system.” Public service broadcasting in Nigeria is mostly practised by

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government-owned stations that, though engaging in commercial broadcasting, still endeavour to meet the original goals for which they were established. Given the diversity of ethnic nationalities across Nigeria, government stations attempt to provide for all the main tastes, interests, beliefs and needs as well as for special minorities. This, as Lorimer and Gasher (2007, p. 207) have stated, is connected with social value: “The social value is that the audience might generally benefit from such exposure and that compatriots might see themselves as members of a single nation.” Indeed, single nationhood has remained the theme of most of the contents on national TV and radio, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), respectively. The same theme is canvassed by broadcast stations owned and operated by state governments. At this point, their “object is not to demonstrate the existence of a market or pursue profit as a primary goal” (Lorimer & Gasher, 2007, p. 206). To achieve the above, broadcast operatives limit frivolous entertainment, and as a matter of fact, not all programmes can pay their way through. Control is exercised over what may give offence.

 he Pluralistic Orientation: A Point T of Convergence The aforementioned discourse has indicated that the three broadcast orientations—authoritarianism, permissivism and paternalism—are in operation in Nigeria. Globally, there is a trend towards a tripartite system. Akpan (2017, p. 152) aptly captures the plural orientation in Nigeria: Nigeria is not an exception to pluralism in broadcasting. The government-­ owned stations are an authoritarian feature and it does affect programming as well as the way broadcasting is managed and funded which is chiefly government. Yet the permissive features are clearly evident, typified by some degree of dependence on advertising revenue by government-owned stations and wholly by privately owned stations. Where revenue is generated through advertising, then programming must strive to meet the needs of the audience in order to sustain a large audience and use the same as a

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scorecard of performance to convince advertisers to patronize the stations… Despite the profit motive and government ownership of stations, professionals still retain some measure of control in programming matters. This is paternalism.

The system may not be used impartially; it may not have prevented domination by either government or advertisers; and may not have been able to regulate both the amount and contents of advertising, but it still allows the broadcast professionals to exercise some degree of control over programming, especially as it may affect offence to the public. They strive to maintain a healthy, balanced programme diet. Herein lies the indispensability of the paternalistic broadcast orientation in the face of dominance by authoritarian and permissive orientations.

Summary Today, Nigeria is in the comity of nations with multiple motives as the driving forces in broadcast operation. Leading other factors which have accounted for this is globalization which has shrunk national boundaries and turned the world into a global village such that events and trends in one country are not only viewed in another within minutes of their breaking, but also draw instant reactions, some in support, some against. Countries are no longer immune to events in other countries. And as most of the world moves towards a market economy, broadcasting inclusive, Nigeria could not isolate itself from the global influence. This affected the political disposition of Nigeria’s leadership and culminated in the enactment of two laws which provided the legal framework for Nigeria’s broadcasting to shift from the mainly government-owned orientation to the pluralistic orientation which accommodates the features of a government-controlled system and commercial broadcasting. The two laws were Act No. 43 of 1992 (the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act) and Act No. 38 of 1992 (the National Broadcasting Commission Act). While the former provided the legal authorization for government-owned establishments (including radio and TV stations owned by government) to operate as commercial

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enterprises, the latter established the institution to provide the framework for deregulated broadcasting which would involve both government and private investors in the sector. One may argue, and rightly so, that it was the changing mood of the political leadership in the country that made the above laws and the consequent pluralistic orientation possible; it is, nevertheless, true that the global trend towards a market economy had a substantial influence on the leadership. This is even truer when it is recalled that although the demands for deregulated broadcasting had been strident, the leadership only gave in when pluralism in broadcasting was becoming a global trend. Perhaps, it is worth adding that the downturn of the economy which negatively affected government finances had made it increasingly difficult for the government to wholly fund its broadcast stations. Thus, deregulation of broadcasting—licensing private investors and allowing government-owned stations to accept advertising—was a way out for the government in the face of funding difficulties. Since 1992, the broadcasting coast has been expanding. In 2021 alone, 159 new stations were licensed with the prospects of more in the coming years. This is in addition to Direct Satellite Broadcast and Internet Broadcasting which are fully commercial. Thus, Nigeria has the features of the three broadcast orientations overtly present. It is important to note, however, that although Nigeria is pluralistic in broadcast philosophy, authoritarianism (government ownership) and permissivism (commercial broadcasting) outweigh paternalism (public service broadcasting). This is because the government owns most of the radio and TV stations in the country, and this allows the government to retain its status as the largest player in the broadcast industry in Nigeria. Advertising revenue provides the funding for all stations—government stations, partly and private stations wholly. It is, therefore, natural that these two orientations would also bring their weight on daily broadcast operations in Nigeria.

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5 African Cinema and the Global Movie Industry: A Survey of the Depth of Nollywood’s Niche in the Age of Globalization and Digitalization Ntiense J. Usua and Isomgboawaji Ntente Ruth Ijah

Introduction Film or movie, as a medium of communication, a piece of art or a platform for creative expression as well as an industry that has engaged a wide range of practitioners, remains one of the most engaging and influential media, attracting policy formulators and stimulating discussion and research interests among scholars. Taken together, its entertainment value and use in cultural propagation, in political mobilization, in diplomacy and international politics, and in economic engagement combine to place the movie in its revered position within the mass media space. But what will be achieved with film depends largely on policies formulated

N. J. Usua (*) University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria e-mail: [email protected] I. N. R. Ijah Cool FM, Port Harcourt, Nigeria © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_5

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around its creation and application and around the creative prowess and technical depth of practitioners as well as the technologies available for its production. Formulation of policies and regulation of film, based on the perceived influence of the medium on the society and the goals set for the sector by governments, impacts the production and character of the industry itself as no government will, as a matter of duty, be willing to hand over the society to the whims of movie makers. Players in the industry, operating in their different capacities but with the necessity for the marriage of efforts and creative abilities to blend into authentic art with high educational, informational, entertainment and cultural value for the purpose of moulding opinions and influencing behaviour of the audience then, also impact the industry. However, as far as the film medium is concerned, its beauty, if not realization, owes itself to technology. In a sense, film as a means of entertainment and medium of mass communication was born the day its technology was invented, and the ultimate pleasure has since then depended on and developed along technological evolution. Since film thrives on the tripod of the environment of its production, the expertise behind the production and the technology that drives it, with the disadvantaged position of the Third World in terms of policy formulation and implementation, management of resources including human endowments and general reluctance towards media funding, which has equally negatively mugged off on movies made in this slice of the globe in economic and technological terms, must be of interest to observers and scholars. With the need for the Third World itself to make a statement in a globalizing world, a world that is only understood and benefited from by people who play actively in the process of globalization and who speak the digital language and are in the technological haul, how Nollywood as a movie culture has made it to its billing as the second largest movie industry and how it will sustain that rating are equally worthy of attention. This chapter looks at how Nollywood has weathered the storm created by unfavourable policies, technological deficiencies and poor funding to create its niche. It examines how available platforms created by convergence and new technologies have been taken advantage of by the practitioners. But, more importantly, the chapter postulates ways that the industry can leverage emerging technologies in the digital

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age, particularly as that age is driven by digitization not only in sustaining its position but in matching whatever future challenges may threaten its existence and relevance.

 istorical Perspective of the Nigerian H Film Industry Like other media of mass communication, film owes its birth in Nigeria to colonial government and missionary efforts. It could not have been otherwise because both colonial administrators and drivers of missions in the country had noted the benefits of the medium in Europe. With the commercial potential of film firmly established following the improvement in story-telling and creative production alongside other elements of filmmaking like costume, lighting, expertise in technical aspects and dimensions of aesthetics which all led to the heightening of audience interest, and with the need to capture and keep the African audience under the influence of religion and colonialism, film was identified as a potential vehicle and means of engaging the then underdeveloped countries of that continent. Film had also made its impact in America, France and later the Soviet Union. There was, therefore, no doubt that it would serve the missions of the missionaries and the colonial masters in Africa. Hence, by the time these sets of visitors got to Nigeria, it was a ready tool in their hands. The deliberate application of the art of film for whatever objective— didactic or propagandistic, ideological and even individualism and gender issues, its use for national issues such as was seen especially in Europe and America, there was no reason to doubt that it would serve missionary and colonial interests in Africa. The African continent itself, upon exposure to the film medium, was fascinated by its entertainment value, its supposed realism, emotional impact and general popularity that came with it. The indoctrination potential, its effectiveness in mobilization and persuasion and its success in diplomacy and war propaganda, as illustrated by Frank Capra’s series (in Usua, 2014), had also been noted before it was introduced in Nigeria by the colonial masters and missionaries.

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Even though the missionary and colonial governance factors were there, the business part of it was not totally lost, at least not initially. Commercial or mercantilist interest, therefore, completed what Ayakoroma (2014) describes as the three frontiers that drove the introduction of film in Nigeria. Since film was seen to be a popular medium and well received in Nigeria, it was considered worthwhile for mercantilist motives, championed by Asian businessmen from India, Syria and Lebanon, to distribute films just for economic profit (Nwosu & Agoha, 2019). Opeyemi (2008) is, however, of the view that the need to promote the idea that Africans were really in need of civilization and Christianization must have been the reason for European relations with Africa, the role of merchants in pre-colonial Nigerian film history lost its prominence and so the role of colonial government in filmmaking because the most obvious one especially during the Second World War when England struggled to get Africa to accept its views against those of Germany about the war and during plagues like the dysentery in the Lagos protectorate during which film was to be used in teaching people basic hygiene. England, therefore, established the Colonial Film Unit (CFU) and particularly charged it with the responsibility of making films for the colonies. The application of the film medium in disseminating World War information and propaganda as well as its use in the campaign against diseases further confirmed the effectiveness of this medium of communication so that when the war and plagues ended, it would be used to address other human and social issues. In the case of Nigeria, the colonial government found it expedient to shift attention to instructional filmmaking and exhibition. By 1946, when the CFU was renamed the Federal Film Unit (FFU), the foundation was laid for what would become the Nigerian film industry (Shaka, 2007). But before the full take-off of Nigeria’s film industry, the Colonial Film Unit under the Central Office of Information in London had done a few things which later supported the birth and growth of the Nigerian film industry. Besides making films available to government agencies, including the army, the police, the prisons, as well as non-governmental agencies, churches and commercial companies, it served to train filmmakers that would midwife the Nigerian film industry. It not only established film schools in the West Indies, Cyprus and Ghana but also

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ensured that Africans, including Nigerians, benefited from the training programmes offered by the film schools. Some notable names in the early history of Nigerian film who benefited from such training according to Shaka (2007) include Yakubu Aina, Adamu Halilu, A. A. Fajemisin and J. A. Oliba. These trainees, in turn, came up with films like Empire Day Celebrations in Nigeria (1948), Smallpox (1950), Leprosy (1950), Port Harcourt Municipal Council Elections (1950) and Queen Elizabeth 11’s Visit to Nigeria (1956). With the training of Nigeria’s filmmakers and their efforts in producing films in Nigeria, along with the establishment of six film units by the CFU, including one in Nigeria, the country was ready to take up the challenge of running its own industry so that, as Ekwazi (in Usua, 2014) noted, between 1951 and 1960, when the CFU was phased out, the old structure became dismantled or restructured and feature films began to be made against the predominantly documentaries and newsreels of the CFU.  From around 1970, indigenous filmmakers began to make remarkable progress and impact in feature film production, but particularly in 1975, as noted by Shaka (2007), the likes of Ola Balogun, Eddy Ugboma, Francis Oladele, Sanya Dosumu and Jab Adu returned from Europe and America to enliven the industry, contributing in feature filmmaking. Such productions served as a break from the past and ended an era in which people who knew little about Nigerian communities were the ones producing films about Nigeria. Interestingly, while post-­ independent Nigerian film industry was mostly organized and run by Nigerians, true independence was not reflected in narrative techniques (Shaka, 2007; Ukadike, 2013), this was first observed in films like Kongi’s Harvest, which was made in 1970, Bullfrog in the Sun (1971) and Golden Woman (1971), among others. But, it did not take away the fact that an industry was given birth to and that indigenous filmmakers like Ola Balogun, Eddy Ughoma and Adamu Hiladu, among others, contributed in midwifing that birth (Shaka, 2007; Usua, 2014) The early indigenous filmmakers in Nigeria were first prominent in stage performance and they brought their stage experiences and orientation to television and film. The Yoruba travelling theatre players were notable stage entertainers who, as Hynes and Okome (1997) have observed, played a remarkable role in the growth of film in Nigeria.

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Colonial films had sufficiently whetted the appetite of the local audience. They would naturally and expectedly welcome productions in Nigeria, by Nigerians and for Nigerians. The policies of the new indigenous government, one of which was national consciousness, meant that the new indigenous film industry must produce films to portray the new nation. But the government did not make adequate preparations for what was ahead. It was a case of a ready and willing audience not having enough to consume. Hynes (2011) captures it well as he observes that Nigeria, as a part of Africa, also experienced what was the general case with African film audiences as the nation consumed cinema but could not produce much of it. The few Nigerians who were trained by the CFU brought their experiences to bear on the production, but since just a handful were able to access the expensive production equipment and materials that would yield the quality that was comparable to those that were sent by the CFU, it was understood why practitioners had to devise strategies to stay in business which affected the number of films made in Nigeria at that time. The Nigerian film industry could be said to be run under a condition of struggle from the time of its birth through early independence and up to the 1980s which was itself a peculiar decade. It was a peculiar industry in a peculiar economic environment which required that the Yoruba theatre practitioners involved themselves simultaneously in stage productions and in television, film and photo-play magazine engagements to diversify their sources of income. The 1980s was a decade characterized by many woes. The economic difficulties that Nigeria, like other developing countries, went through which forced small investments, particularly in the informal sector to go down, also negatively affected the film industry (Ayakoroma, 2014; Usua, 2014; Adesanya, 1997). That was one of the reasons that the Yoruba travelling theatre straddled the various media—stage television and then film—just as they straddled origins and genres to stay afloat (Hynes & Okome, 1997; Usua, 2014). But the theatre practitioners were all the same encouraged by the success of one of the pioneers of improvisation in the Nigerian film industry, Ola Balogun, who produced Ajani Ogun, using reversed stock for production (Adesanya, 1997). The trend of adapting reversed stock for feature film continued until such stock were nowhere to be found, at which point

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they settled for video tapes (Shaka, 2007). The author also observes that the adoption of video film became the reason for sporadic and occasional use of celluloid in filmmaking in Nigeria while video technology gradually took the industry into a phase in its history that is yet unfolding and characterized by debilities and possibilities, as well as controversies among practitioners, scholars and policymakers.

The Video Film Era and the Birth of Nollywood Nigeria’s contemporary film industry, known as Nollywood, is unique yet controversial in a number of ways. From the adoption of its name, its history, operation and significance, the industry has manifested its inimitability. Nollywood’s operators and producers may break conventions, marketers may adopt out-of-this-world strategies and film consumers may go about patronage in very strange ways. It is perhaps that uniqueness and the controversies around the industry that have kept it an interesting chapter of film history and development. A number of observers and scholars have wondered where Nollywood has taken its name from, if not a witty mimicry of the American and Chinese film industries, as they worry about the lack of originality and portrayal of the Nigerian nation (see Adeoye, 2015; Anyanwu, 2019 etc.). Video film production was conceived and given birth to as a matter of business rather than the creation of art. The way Nwosu and Agoha (2019) put it is that video filmmaking happened as a survivalist strategy in which filmmakers were more interested in the commercialization of tapes and jackets than in content and narrative. Therefore, when the economic situation began to bite harder in the country in the 1980s, all other considerations were done away with and producers settled for the format that was going to be just affordable. As stated above, the economic hardship in Nigeria of the 1980s and the resultant difficulty in the importation of materials for celluloid film production would impact negatively on the emerging film industry. There were equally challenges around marketing and distribution. The tax policy in the country then did not help matters just as the low purchasing power of the citizens were forces that would help stall the

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growth of the Nigerian film industry during the period. Yet, the resilience of the members of Yoruba travelling theatre provided the staying power. Their ingenuity in the face of difficulties and their creative thinking, though pushed by survival instinct, which explains the adoption of reversed stock and tapes as well as their straddling of the three media of stage, television and film, all kept the idea of film alive. Even though they came from the theatre belt, as Ekwuazi (in Usua, 2014) describes it, bringing with them the Yoruba folkloric theatre, they entered into a new mode of filmmaking through an unprecedented transition strategy that Nigerian film production turned out to be. Hynes and Okome (1997) say they conceived of video film simply as the cheapest possible way of making audio-visual material to be projected for audience consumption. These were taken around some cities in Nigeria notwithstanding that the productions were of poor technical quality, attracting not just the expression of disappointment but fierce criticism from the viewing public. It is reported that in at least one circumstance, poor technical quality warranted the destruction of a theatre in one of the cities in Western Nigeria (Shaka, 2007; Usua, 2014). But that initial technical challenge associated with video film was not enough to deter the generation of filmmakers who were taking filmmaking through the video technology route. If anything, the disappointment that the public expressed would bring about some hitherto undiscovered inventiveness in them. One of the evident advantages which gave them the impetus to push on was the stories that were told in the technically deficient video films they were making because audience members were evidently interested in those stories. Even Living in Bondage, the first in the video film category to make commercial success, was not particularly good in technical terms but it was a great story. The producer of Living in Bondage, Kenneth Nebue, himself an entrant from the theatre belt into filmmaking, had served his apprenticeship with the Yoruba Traveling Theatre Company mostly as a promoter and distributor. His foundation was, therefore, more in the business of film than in the art of it. But from distributorship and promotion, he ventured into making video films first by producing Aje Ni Iyami for Sola Ogunsola (Usua, 2014; Atakpo, 2006). That was perhaps all he needed in terms of experience and training if the success of Living in Bondage was anything to go by. The film pointed

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at possibilities in video film, it stirred interests and it changed opinions about the relationship between movie quality and patronage at least in the Nigerian context. To that extent, Living in Bondage re-shaped the Nigerian film industry. The commercial success of Living in Bondage attracted a deluge of video film producers—Okechukwu Oyunjiorfor, Dan Oluigbo, Francis Agu, Zeb Ejiro, Bolaji Dawodu, Chico Ejiro, Yusuf Lawson, Amaka Igwe and Tunde Kelani, among others, who followed (Shaka, 2007). Similarly, the new video film rave produced household names who acted in movies made in video format. Besides the popular Yoruba travelling theatre actors like Sola Ogunsola, Adebayo Salami, Gbenga Adewusi, Muyi Aromire and Jide Kosoko who first came into video film through Aje Ni Iyami, Living in Bondage introduced and popularized actors some of whom were of Igbo origin. Many of those who joined the league of prominent early Nollywood stars have remained household names and are still active on the screen. The likes of Olu Jacobs, Richard Mofe-­ Damijo, Joke Silva, Liz Benson, Ejike Asiegbu, Sola Fasudo, Bob-Manuel Odokwu, Kate Henshaw, Sam Dede, Hilda Dokubo, Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade Ekehinde, Ini Edo, Mercy Johnson, Ramsey Noah, Nkem Owo and others are just a few of the numerous stars that Nollywood has produced. Many more players continue to arrive on the scene as filmmakers and actors in Nollywood as an expanding industry. The industry has similarly engaged many Nigerian youths in other film production activities below the line: from scriptwriting to camera operation, costume and makeup, lighting and sound engineering, as well as business management related to filmmaking, marketing and distribution. The industry has indeed been a source through which food is put on the tables of many families. According to Adesanya (1997), the video film industry of Nollywood from its birth produced distributors who established themselves through the distribution outlets in many cities in Nigeria with some establishing their presence in Ghana, South Africa and Liberia, among other places. Thus, Abubakar (2008) notes that as young people participate in acting, singing as well as trading and other services in video production, the industry has become the rallying point of the army of Nigerian youths who otherwise would be jobless. This aligns with the views of several other scholars (Atakpo, 2006; Alozie,

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2010; Usua, 2014). But Nollywood is believed to have done more than just present a means through which producers and actors blaze their trails and in providing livelihood for a large population of Nigerian youths. It has not only been a source of entertainment for many disenchanted Nigerians but has equally made itself an important part of the Nigerian economy by attracting a percentage of the nation’s foreign exchange, as Shaka (2002) has observed. Nigerian video productions are also believed to have made some impacts on the nation in cultural and political realms because they not only retell, recreate and play upon the story of the Nigerian society but also promote images and identities of the nation. The films have been used to concretize the sense of belonging of the Nigerian people; they have served as a means of promoting and preserving cultural values of the nation while also trying to take them to the rest of the world. The films, especially the language ones, have explored the folklore and folktales of indigenous communities in Nigeria, and their traditional performances have been infused to convey and promote inherent messages, values and precepts in them. Nollywood films have also acted upon the hitherto held notion about the nation as one only made up of fraudsters to portray it as a country which also boasts of hordes of talented and creative people, and people with self-worth. The film industry to that extent has helped in improving the country’s battered image (Opeyemi, 2008; Omoregie, 2010, Alozie, 2010; Usua, 2014; Atakpo, 2006). Other areas where Nigerian films have made useful contributions include history, women’s rights and related campaigns, as well as political awareness, family values and cohesion, among others. But Nollywood has not been an all-positive story. While not denying that the film industry is a large one, its impact on European and American markets for instance is in the manner of what Gibson Graham (in Usua, 2014) describes as “non-reciprocal penetration”. Usua (2014,) insists that “notwithstanding the number of films that may have sneaked into the global market, Nigerian films hardly make expected impact because what is being received is yet to make appreciable impact on non-Africans” (p. 89). This is because until Nollywood films can influence non-African citizens the way non-African films influence Nigerians, Nollywood cannot be said to have reached the point that it can compete with

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Hollywood, Bollywood and other film industries that are operating in today’s global community. This view has been expressed differently by other scholars who argue that Nigerian video film industry may produce quite a number of films every year to earn itself the title of the second largest filmmaking industry in the world, but in terms of standard and profit, it has little to boast of (Collins, 2022; Loria, 2020, Kiprop, 2018, etc.). The issue of technical quality and related questions of funding have remained unresolved for as long as the video era has lasted. Other reasons for the fierce criticism of Nollywood productions, especially in its early history, which have all lingered to a reasonable extent, have had to do with training and orientation of players in the industry, professionalism in thematic treatment of Nigerian film and organization of plots. Issues around artistic direction, casting, marketing and distribution, among others, are still hydra-headed. All of these combine to affect the performance of the industry as it competes with players from other parts of the world. If, as Nwaozuzu (2004) has observed, many of those calling the shots in the Nigerian film industry are more of artisans and traders than trained specialists in movie making, especially after the generation of experts in early days of post-independence, and if factors other than professionalism continue to attract people to the industry, it should be understood why industry watchers find reasons to disparage film products in Nigeria. While financial gain is an impetus for many in their involvement in the industry because in any case filmmaking is a business involving heavy investment, its role in telling the people’s story and in promoting the interest of the producing nation as well as its use as an expression of their creativity need not be thrown overboard. Therefore, the dominance by people who lack professional training and whose interest is strictly financial gain and cheap popularity, as Alozie (2010) has suggested, becomes an issue of concern. Till date, there is a tendency for a great number of people to believe that people with neither formal nor professional training can do well in production, acting, scripting and in other aspects of filmmaking just by indicating interest to do so. This is to the extent that even though some of the players have had education and apprenticeship in the discipline, a good number of stakeholders remain untrained and unconcerned.

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It is believed that the large number of non-professionals, the inability of industry players to upgrade their skills at the required speed to catch up with the demands of the times and the unwillingness of producers to engage people with proper competences in the various specializations of filmmaking are some of the reasons that many of the movies that have come out of Nollywood are below international standards. With that, plots are loose and predictable, and unnecessary and boring story lines are equally frequently encountered. On themes, Usua (2014), taking support from a number of scholars (Atakpo, 2006; Omoregie, 2010; Alozie, 2010; Opeyemi, 2008 etc.), summarizes that the way many Nigerian films are themed, there is a concern about the image of the nation. With the themes themselves being shallow, ill-conceived and ill-treated, resulting mostly in mere catalogue of series of episodes, highlighting charm-fighting spiced with a recitation of incantations, they exaggerate and turn people into cynics who believe that people are out to harm. In that way, they succeed in encouraging people to engage in immoral and vile activities. The country is portrayed in the films as violent, money-­ loving people who indulge in just anything, including trade in human parts, ritual practices, robbery and fraud to make money. Along with the above, the portrayal of women in a manner that suggests the pursuit of their annihilation (portrayed as gold-diggers, cruel, treacherous, under pressure to find husbands, witches etc.) which, as a result of cultivation effect, leaves them losing self-confidence, has equally flawed the thematic treatment of many Nollywood films. Other areas of concern besides untidy plots and shallow themes—lack of cinematic energy, overdose of dialogue, lacking in the use of imagery, minimal scenario, irrelevant business, unrehearsed cameo appearances, non-committal attitude to the application of heightened action and several other issues—have often been associated with Nollywood. The catalogue of woes is completed with shallow characterization, poor casting and selection of actors based on connections and other primordial considerations, playing known and popular faces often even before or without audition and using people who do not exhibit commitment to the job, among others (Shaka, 2002; Hynes & Okome, 1997; Adesanya, 1997; Nwaozuzu, 2004).

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Marketing and distribution of movies play an important role in the development of the film industry. While producers in Nollywood may find it difficult to recoup their investment as a result of marketing and distribution problems, and since the overwhelming number of copies of Nigerian films in circulation does not translate to financial reward, thus raising questions about the activities of marketers and distributors (Usua, 2014), it is the capacity of movie producers and genuine distributors to place the films adequately on the global marketplace and have sufficient impact on that market, which are of greater concern at a time the whole world has become globalized and digitized. With the hordes of demerits of Nollywood films and deficiencies of the industry in general, can it face other big players who have already secured their places on the global stage?

 mbracing the Digital Revolution in Film E Production, Marketing and Consumption There is no doubt that the world has become a global village. Globalization is a process that involves the networking of economic, cultural, social and political entities beyond national boundaries (Yeates, 2001), manifests integration that is driven by fast-paced technological advancements and increased mobility of people, capital, goods and services around the world (United Nations, 2017). The resultant developmental trends have created an unending well of opportunities and have changed economies in different countries worldwide. Although the concern of Westernization replacing the idea of globalization persists, it can be agreed that there is a slow but sure integration of ideas, people and industries across the world. This is even more evident in the world of entertainment as music, film and art, among others, are being produced, marketed and consumed by people with different backgrounds, cultures and even languages across the world. This has resulted in terms such as “Korean/K-Pop or Hallyu wave”, “Afrobeat wave” and “Latino wave” all coined in popular culture to depict a form of “takeover” or increasing popularity of these industries in the Western world. For example, the Hallyu/K-Pop wave brought about the appreciation of Korean popular culture (K-Pop) in the West as

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music, movies, TV shows and games became increasingly popular and drew a large and ardent fan base not only in Western countries but worldwide. Stars such as the singing group BTS whose songs have topped the US Billboard charts (even with lyrics in Korean language) as well as popular actor Lee Min Ho, whose dramas have won hearts around the world, among others, have become global phenomena. They are known and loved by heterogenous and widespread audiences worldwide even though many of those audiences do not understand their language. Subtitles are created in their films and music videos while lyric translations are available online. Similarly, afrobeat and reggaeton music originating from African and Hispanic communities, respectively, have also become popular in the United States, the United Kingdom and other parts of the world. The song Essence by Nigerian singer Wizkid became the first Nigerian song to crack the top 10 of the US Billboard charts (Li, 2017), while another Nigerian artist Ckay’s Love Nwantiti, through a boom on the TikTok App, became the most streamed song by an African on Spotify with over 1 billion streams (Courage, 2022). In 2016, Latin artists Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s song “Despacito” became the first reggaeton song to spend 16 weeks at number one on Billboard Hot 100 while its music video became the most streamed music video on YouTube (Trust, 2017). The film industry is not left out in this globalization boom. Foreign productions such as Parasite (Korean), Money Heist (Spain), Roma (Mexico) and Squid Game (Korean), among others, are examples of movies/TV shows that became globally popular in recent times, winning several international awards, including The Academy and Emmy Awards. In 2021, the Korean television show Squid Game took the world by storm becoming the most streamed TV show on Netflix, with over 111 million users and over 1.65 billion hours users spent watching in its first 28 days, obliterating the record previously set by the period drama Bridgerton, an American production (Sharman, 2017; Maglio, 2022). Observably, in Nigeria, the music industry seems to have taken off and is far ahead of the film industry (Nollywood) in terms of global appeal. This could be a result of Nollywood’s poor integration of modern technology in production, marketing and access. Although Nollywood is the second largest in the world in terms of production (Osinubi, 2017),

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it is not in the top 10 in terms of profit (Loria, 2020; Kiprop, 2018). Nollywood produces over 2500 films every year only second to India (Collins, 2022). According to UIS, UNESCO (2016), this is because a majority of the Nollywood films are produced in video format. In other words, they are more of home videos and fail to meet the standard of actual films. India, which is the top producer of films, also made into the top 10 list of most profitable film industries (Loria, 2020; Kiprop, 2018). The film industry is the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, comprising film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-­ production, post-production, film festivals, distribution and actors (“Film Industry”, 2022). This definition clearly shows Nollywood’s deficiencies. Although some of these categories could be found in Nollywood, such as actors and production companies, among others, the question is do they fit the technological standards. Having investigated the success of the Indian Film industry (Bollywood), Osinubi (2017) in a PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2017 report outlined six areas challenging the sector. These are financing, infrastructure, copyright infringement and piracy, capacity building, distribution and marketing channels as well as taxation. The investigations revealed that the effects of modern technology and implementation of government policies initiated in these areas resulted in the rapid growth of Bollywood in terms of profit. The film industry is an integral part of any economy. It contributed over $136 billion to the global economy in 2018, with the United States and China being the highest earners (IBISWorld, 2021). Notably, this revenue was not only generated via box office sales but also through home entertainment. Advancement in technology brought about the emergence of streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and ShowMax, among others. These services make access to films easier and cheaper as they bring entertainment into the homes and private spaces of the audience members. Films and TV shows are now accessed via mobile devices, personal computers and smart televisions. Advancements in technology have also brought about a new kind of marketing—digital marketing. Yogesh et  al. (2019) describe digital marketing as the marketing of products and services using digital technologies such as the

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internet, mobile devices and display advertising, among others. This means that films are not just marketed in traditional media outlets such as television, theatres or posters and billboards. The internet has become a major force in the marketing sector. There are many digital tools both online and offline that are used in marketing films. One of the most powerful online tools is social media. In recent times, social media marketing has become a veritable tool for promoting films. Social media accounts are created for the films where information/content concerning the film is shared such as photos, posters, GIFs, teasers, trailers, short videos and interviews. These contents could be posted and reposted, thereby reaching a wide range of audience members across the world. Film companies use these social media tools to generate much publicity for their films. Marketing strategies which include drip marketing, which involves slow and steady release of information about a product or service (Marketing Library, 2021), are used in social media marketing. In fact, the drip strategy is very popular in marketing music and film on social media platforms. For instance, months before a film is set for release, graphics, teasers and trailers of the film are posted consecutively over a period of time, with each successive post revealing more information about the film. This helps create anticipation and buzz about the film before its release. A typical example is the spin-off of the highly popular television series Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon (HBO production) which was set for an August 2022 release and already has social media accounts such as Twitter and Instagram. Its first post across these social media platforms was on April 26, 2021, confirming the production of the series with its tagline ‘Fire will Rain’ and a photo of cast members in a table reading (House of the Dragon Twitter, 2021). It also posted specified hashtags created for the film on said day. The next posts were pictures on the set of filming followed by introduction of actors playing the characters in the film, thereafter short clips of scenes and thereafter the official date of release. The account keeps a slow and steady update of information for its intended viewers, thereby building the anticipation before its release. Moreover, with paid advertisement tools on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, the potential for a film to reach millions of users who are not followers is quite high. In addition,

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film promotions have gone further and become more complex with the creation of mobile applications where fans can connect with the film on a deeper level. Examples include Men in Black III, Hunger Games and Star Trek where fans connect with each other and gain access to exclusive content regarding the movies (Parker, 2016; Taylor, 2021). Further, advancements in technology have also brought about high-­ quality visuals in film, thereby creating a mesmerizing experience for the audience. This is a result of the digitization of cinema. Ganz and Khatib (2006) see digitization of cinema as a technological phenomenon which involves the use of digital or electronic media in producing and distributing film. In other words, it involves using modern digital technology in capturing, editing and distributing films. This could be through the use of high-quality cameras and equipment, computer-­ generated imagery (CGI), 3D imagery, digital projectors and streaming services, among others. Simply put, Films can be recorded or created on computer; they are edited on computer; if they have special effects they will be created on the computer. The physical limitations of the medium, which defined many of the practices of traditional cinema, have become more or less irrelevant. (Ganz & Khatib, 2006, p. 24)

Modern technology has also brought about safer and more sustainable ways of filmmaking which are kinder to the environment (Parker, 2016). Digital technology in film is fast-evolving with digital cameras shooting more than 4k resolution, equivalent to the 35 mm film (ARCHAMBAULT, 2015). Regarding distribution of films, digitization is speedily becoming the main means of film distribution as many countries’ cinemas across the world are either partly or fully digitized. Instead of the traditional reel of films shipped to movie theatres across the globe, digital storage such as hard drives or Blu-ray discs is used to store and relay films in cinemas. Films can also be transmitted via the internet from digital workstations anywhere in the world or by satellite transmission (360 Research Reports In News Channel Nebraska, 2022). Navarro (2021) records a 34% global growth of digital cinema screens from 2016 (155,500) to 2021 (208,000). As at 2012, 68.7% of cinema screens were digitized, with countries such

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as Denmark, Norway, South Korea and Singapore fully digitalized (Barraclough, 2013). In Africa, Nigeria alongside Egypt and South Africa are projected to dominate the digital cinema screen market. There is no doubt that digitization of film in terms of production and distribution has become the present and future of the film industry. However, has Nollywood fully embraced these advancements in film technology?

 ollywood, the Digital Space N and the Global Audience As earlier stated, Nollywood is one of the highest producers of movies in the world. It is also one of the fastest growing film industries in the world (Collins, 2022); however, the majority of its movies do not meet the standards set in the global film industry. Having said that, it must be noted that there have been some improvements, albeit slow, within the Nigerian film industry. Nollywood has always been bursting with potential given that it has the human capital, abundance of stories to be told and a very large and diverse audience. This presents opportunities for international production companies to tap into the underutilized sector. Streaming giant Netflix did just that and since the introduction of the organization into Nigeria in 2016, the company has licensed and co-produced several Nollywood productions, many of which are exclusive to it and can only be accessed legally via the Netflix streaming platform. Due to this, the films licensed for streaming on their platforms must meet a certain standard, thereby giving the audience a much-improved quality of entertainment. Herdiger and Agina (2020) have noted that: The Nollywood-Netflix relationship is not just a thrill for local and global audiences interested in African film; Nigerian filmmakers are equally delighted at the prospect of reaching global audiences, and benefitting from the licensing or acquisition fees paid by Netflix, which turns out to be another source of film funding. Independent filmmakers like Ekene Mekwunye said his three-year deal for Light in the Dark (2019), from August 2020, earned him thrice the amount of money realised from theatrical exhibition. He said “my film was a disaster in the cinemas. If not

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for Netflix, I would have been biting my fingers now. Netflix saved the day for me because in this country, 95% of the films that go to the cinemas do not make their money back”. (p. 2)

In as much as this is a welcomed development, there are still concerns about creative freedom as filmmakers have to follow certain strict protocols prescribed by the streaming giants. Also, licensing agreements may vary from film to film. The concern is whether the film producers are getting the adequate remuneration and value for their intellectual property. With the domination of Netflix, there is no doubt that other local streaming services such as IrokoTV and Nollyland would suffer. This could result in a lethargic and snailish growth of the industry. On the other hand, more competition for Netflix would increase bargaining power for Nigerian film producers which would most likely lead to more profit and funding for better productions. Regarding digitization in production, not many people, especially those outside the shores of Nigeria and Africa, will be comfortable watching dull and poor pictures in movies when there are better alternatives. Ajiwe and Uwa (2019) have argued that the significance of visual communication depends mostly on the improved quality of images to complement personal skills applied to story-telling, and that there are convincing reasons to link poorly made films to poor equipment. Since Nigeria is not generally known to do well in media funding, and practitioners virtually fund themselves in production, it is not difficult to explain why Nollywood has lagged behind other industries in technical quality. It is, however, in recognition that picture quality is as crucial as the story that there seems to be a level of awareness about the need for improved technical quality of Nigerian films. Yet, a lot seems needed. The return of cinema, as well as digital distribution services, has inspired more professional productions of Nollywood movies. Okhai, in Osae-Brown (2013), opines that cinemas will not project poor-quality films and in the cases where they do, the filmmakers’ flaws would be blown into large proportions to fit the size of the screen. Also, top streaming platforms such as Netflix will not relay such movies. However, in comparison with productions from developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France and South Korea, it is quite

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clear that there is much room for improvement in Nollywood movies. In 2013, Half of a Yellow Sun, an adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi-­ Adichie’s highly acclaimed book with the same title, became the most expensive film production from Nigeria (Osae-Brown, 2013). The movie directed by Biyi Bandele was shot in Tinapa Film Studio and in the United Kingdom with a budget of 8 million dollars. Although it received polarized reviews, it was generally praised for its high-resolution picture quality. However, it is still listed as the most expensive Nigerian movie till date which means that no other Nigerian movie production has matched or exceeded it till date. Nevertheless, all hope is not lost as production companies such as EbonyLife Films, responsible for box office hits such as The Wedding Party and King of Boys, are constantly working on partnerships with foreign film companies to better improve the quality of Nigerian films. In February 2021, Sony Pictures Television’s international division announced a partnership with Ebony Life TV and Films to develop scripted series on African culture (Ebirim, 2021). Similarly, in late November 2021, they signed another deal with BBC Studios to produce a six-part heist thriller called Reclaim (Wiseman, 2021). It is hoped that these international partnerships would help to further increase the standard of Nigerian films. With respect to digital marketing, Nollywood films are yet to fully utilize key tools of digital marketing. The popular tool used in promoting Nollywood movies is social media. However, they are still deficient in strategic social media marketing. Commonly, the movies get promoted as ads on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, among others, usually when the film is about to be released. This is usually when the movies are backed by big companies such as Netflix. They also make use of specified hashtags and promote them on the personal pages of the actors or other influencers. Specific accounts for the films are not created on the social media platforms. Teasers, photos and short clips, among others, are underutilized. The drip strategy is basically non-existent. This weakens the anticipation for these films and only die-hard Nollywood fans would intentionally seek information regarding them, thereby putting them at a loss for gaining potentially new audience members. In developed countries, steps are taken to create more content for the online pages of movies such as recording interviews and games with cast members which

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could be done during the filming or after the film is released. This adds a flair to the promotion of these films as viewers connect with the cast on a more personal level. Also, clips from press conferences and premiers could also be shared on the social media pages of the film. However, these are rarely seen in Nollywood. For instance, the remake of the 1994 popular Nollywood classic Glamour Girls was released on Netflix in late June 2022. Prior to its release, there was not much heard about the re-launch. News about its pre-production stage was only heard among industry professionals. It was until its release that some buzz was created. Even then, it was more of the reviews of the film by early viewers that spread its news online than the actual marketing of it. The reason for little or lack thereof of digital marketing in Nollywood, as well as other deficiencies, could all be traced back to the lack of funding. Funding brings about better technology in production and distribution as well as in capacity building. With adequate funding, filmmakers acquire much better and standardized equipment and training which would enhance their crafts. Funding will aid training on how to use more sophisticated hardware and software, scriptwriting, method production, acting and cinematography among others. It would also give some creative freedom in terms of shooting location, welfare and security. Creative freedom also brings about diversity in film. There are many genres and subgenres of film which include action, drama, historical, horror, noir, etc. Many of which have been left untapped in Nollywood. There are many Nigerian stories (fictional and non-fictional) to be told. However, the production costs might deter producers from taking on such tasks. Instead, making them stick to stories that require a smaller budget. Stories about Nigerian historical figures are very rarely portrayed in Nollywood. With Hollywood portraying stories of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln), Elvis Presley (Elvis) and Aretha Franklin (Respect), among others, as well as portrayals in other film industries such as the Korean Red Sleeve Cuff set in the Joseon era, it almost seems like Africa has scanty history or no original stories to tell. Nigeria, being the entertainment bedrock of Africa, should be able to boast of different genres of quality films as there are abundant stories to be told. Historical figures such as King Jaja of Opobo, Princess Amina of Zaria and Funmilayo Ransom Kuti are a few of the

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many Nigerian historical figures whose stories need to be portrayed in film. International companies will not do much if the market is not attractive enough because they have their eyes on profits. However, with government funding, policy initiatives and implementation, Nollywood could go on and live up to its expectation by becoming one of the largest, diverse and profitable film industries in the world in the new digital age.

Conclusion Film rode on the crest of its relevance in nation-building, in cultural propagation, in national image-building and in mobilization of citizens for predetermined actions into Nigeria. Its use for indoctrination and spread of ideology as well as its entertainment value also provided the impetus for the introduction of the medium into the country. The success and acceptance of the medium during the colonial era, its popularity and its deployment for mobilization of citizens and for raw entertainment meant that it would become a significant part of Nigerian history. The efforts of the CFU in training Nigerians in film production at the time it was becoming obvious that the Nigerian nation would seek liberation from colonial rule; and upon the achievement of that goal, yielding the desire for and institution of indigenization policy, the front porch of opportunity for indigenous Nigerian filmmakers to take-over from where the CFU stopped was opened. The first generation of indigenous filmmakers were said to adopt at least to a reasonable extent, the known and accepted principles, techniques and technologies in filmmaking even though not without some challenges and shortcomings. The influence of Europe, for instance, where they had served apprenticeship, was no doubt one of such shortcomings, but because they were telling Nigerian stories from the Nigerian perspective, something that resounded well with the people, the early films were well applauded. Film, therefore, was an authentic entertainment in Nigeria just as it served its purpose in education, record of history and culture and development all delivered with appreciable level of picture quality and professionalism. This was to be, only until the difficult times that the industry faced in the 1980s, which necessitated improvisations to remain in business, then

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resulted in the video film phenomenon. The resilience of the generation of entertainers who incidentally straddled the stage, television and the film medium, bringing the performance of the stage first to the silver and then video screens, as well as the potential that the ingenuity pointed at, is actually the story of the birth of Nollywood. Yet Nollywood emerged with great potential and possibilities. Nollywood for decades has been a great source of entertainment for families in many Nigerian and indeed African homes. And having equally made some in-roads into other parts of the world, to earn itself the reputation of the second largest film industry in the world based on the volume of production (Osinubi, 2017; Collins, 2022), there appears to be euphoria among practitioners about the strides of the industry. While not denying the size of Nollywood, and in acknowledging the inventiveness of players in the industry, it is important to bear in mind that in the contemporary epoch, the success of the industry will, besides the number of movies released into the Nigerian and to some extent, African market, be measured by the impact it is making globally in cultural, economic and political terms. If the view that Nollywood does not generate profit commensurate to its volume of production (Kiprop, 2018; Loria, 2020) suffices, and the contemporary Nigerian film industry suffers non-reciprocity in penetration (Graham, in Usua, 2014), then it is to be stated that on every count of its success story, there is a corresponding condition that challenges the profundity of niche of Nollywood. Until it becomes obvious that non-Nigerians intentionally and regularly seek and access Nollywood films to consume and are influenced by that consumption, the way Nigerians look out for the latest American release and are culturally impacted by their consumption of the films, Nollywood may not be sure of being counted as one of the top flying movie making industries in the coming decades. Recognizing the industry as cultural and political tool and one particularly useful in the promotion of the national interest of the producing nation, appropriate policies for an enabling environment, training and funding need to come from government for up-to-date equipment to produce films that are meant for the global market while promoters and marketers pursue global visibility with vigour, using digital marketing tools and platforms.

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6 Gender Representation in Nigerian Media Contents and Social Reality Abigail Odozi Ogwezzy-Ndisika, Babatunde Adeshina Faustino, Kelechi Okechukwu Amakoh, Tosin Adesile, Samuel Ejiwunmi, and Faith Aanu Oloruntoba

Introduction In the light of the MDG No.3 and SDG No.5 which are aimed at achieving gender equality and women empowerment, examining the representation of women in the Nigerian media becomes imperative. Data for this entry were mined from various researches conducted and supervised by the lead author, and findings show that women are still represented in traditional housekeeping mother roles, stereotyped, objectified, and under-represented in the Nigerian media. The traditional African

A. O. Ogwezzy-Ndisika (*) • B. A. Faustino • K. O. Amakoh • S. Ejiwunmi University of Lagos, Akoka-Lagos, Nigeria T. Adesile Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Nigeria F. A. Oloruntoba University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_6

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concept of motherhood is still being promoted in media contents. These are visible in all the media messages examined. So, there is the need to eliminate gender stereotypes in media representation. Therefore, the media should avoid stories with stereotypes. Also, content producers should be careful not to entrench stereotypes that promote sexuality in stories (depiction of traditional “feminine”/“masculine” characteristics and male/female roles, thereby making them appear normal and inevitable and excluding other possible traits and functions for men and women in society). Advertisements should be more liberal and balanced in terms of gender and roles given to male and female, advertisers and advertising agencies should view themselves as social leaders and pace setters. They should, therefore, not adhere strictly and religiously to culturally motivated prejudice, most especially gender motivated ones. Commercials should begin to address the negative portrayal of women in advertisement through the committed enlightenment of the copywriter who should utilise the paradigm shift in the use of women in television commercials in order to avoid reversing the gains of the campaign for gender equity. In the light of the MDG N0. 3 and SDG No. 5 which are aimed at achieving gender equality and women empowerment, examining the representation of women in the Nigerian media becomes imperative. Data for this entry were mainly mined from various researches conducted and supervised by the lead author, and findings show that women are still represented in the traditional African concept of motherhood of housekeeping, stereotyped, objectified, and under-represented in the Nigerian media. These are visible in the advertisements, music videos, and news reports examined. So, there is the need to eliminate gender stereotypes in media representation. Specifically, advertisements should be more liberal and balance in terms of gender and roles given to males and females in advertisements. Also, advertisers should not adhere strictly and religiously to culturally motivated prejudice, most especially gender motivated ones; instead they should begin to address the negative portrayal of women in advertisement through the committed enlightenment of the copywriter, who should utilise the paradigm shift in the use of women in advertisements in order to avoid reversing the gains of the campaign for gender equity. Again, the media should avoid stories with stereotypes, while content producers generally should avoid stereotypes that promote sexuality,

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depiction of traditional “feminine/masculine” characteristics, and male/ female roles; rather use contents to counter negative portrayal and under-­ representation of women in the media. Furthermore, media managers should reduce the gender imbalance in terms of the positions women occupy in the workforce of media and communication organisations. The mass media occupy an increasing central place in the lives of women and men all over the world. They have contributed to social changes and developments, influencing people’s opinions, attitudes, and relationships. But what do we see and hear in the media about women? The mass media tend to reinforce traditional attitudes and often present a degrading and humiliating picture of women which does not at all reflect changing attitudes in society, and especially, the changing roles of the sexes (UNESCO, 1989 in Ogwezzy, 2011). Women are under-­ represented and stereotyped in the media. Men are often depicted with characteristics of strength, leadership, decision-making, independence, and women with the reverse to those roles. According to UNESCO (1989) as cited by Ogwezzy (2011, p. 13), a global review of various research studies on the media portrayal of women states thus: A consistent picture emerges from those research studies which have investigated the media’s portrayal of women. At the very best, the portrayal is narrow; at worst, it is unrealistic, demeaning and damaging.

Again, Gallagher (1981), as cited by Ogwezzy (2011), stated that virtually throughout the world, women are portrayed in the media either in terms of traditional domestic roles or in terms of sexual appeal to males. This two-dimensional image is not sufficiently counteracted by an alternative portrayal, reflecting their significant contributions to contemporary society. There are many negative features of media treatment of women. They include media under-representation of women and women’s concerns; the use of women as a commodity in advertising; an ambivalent attitude to women evident in certain stereotyped images in which women are exclusively and unalterably “good” and “pure” or definitely and unchangeably “bad” and “immoral”.

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Furthermore, Wood (1994), as cited by Ogwezzy (2011), stated that women are often discriminated against by the media because they are under-represented, portrayed in stereotypical ways that sustain socially endorsed views of gender, and the relationships between men and women are depicted in such a way that traditional roles are emphasised. She argued that women are often discriminated against by the media because they are under-represented, portrayed as “weak”, and this has negatively affected women’s participation in politics. Thus, the media helps to buttress the cultural definitions of stereotyped actions of men and women, because the way women are projected in the media goes a long way in affecting the public’s view of them. Hence, the media is a critical variable in the calculus of gender and representation. Arguing further, McQuail (2010), as cited by Ogwezzy (2011), and Ogwezzy-Ndisika et  al. (2017) corroborated the fact that the media have marginalised women in the public sphere, purveyed stereotype of femininity and masculinity gendered content. So, the issue is simply not what the media say, or how they say it, that creates stereotypical perceptions of women; equally important is what they do not say and there are indications that women have been excluded or silenced in many media forms. In Ogwezzy-Ndisika et al. (2017), empirical data revealed that women are so invisible as news subjects because research from every region of the world indicated that in all media categories, particularly on broadcast television and radio, women are grossly under-represented and occupy less central roles than men. The 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) studies revealed that women are grossly under-represented in news coverage in contrast to men. A global monitoring exercise in 71 countries in January 1995, where 15,500 stories were analysed, it was found that only 17% of the people interviewed were women and only 11% of the reports dealt with issues of special concern to women or contained any gender perspective (United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, 1996, p. 6). Also, the 2000 study in 70 countries (including Nigeria), which aimed to assess the situation five years on and at the start of the twenty-first century, revealed that women account for 41% of the presenters and reporters of the world’s news, but only 18% of news subjects. The study revealed that women featured more in stories on arts and entertainment (35%) or

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celebrity news (26%). They barely appeared as news subjects in stories on sciences (12%), politics (12%), war (11%), international crises (11%), environment (11%), sports (12%), or national defence (6%). However, women accounted for 25% of news subjects appearing in photos as opposed to 11% of male news subjects (WACC, 2001). Again, according to the Global Media Monitoring Project, in 2005, women were 21% of news subject; in 2010 women were 24% of news subjects, and in 2015 women were 39% of news and “[n]ews continue to portray a world in which men outnumber women in almost all occupational categories, the highest disparity being in the professions”, with obvious implications for the visibility of women in politics. So, only 18% of the people heard or read about in print, radio, and television news are female. In contrast, 82% of the people in the news are male (“Who Makes the News” Global Media Monitoring Project, 2015). Again, the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2020 report notes that the news media lag in offering inclusive spaces for women, vulnerable and historically marginalised groups. The findings of GMMP 2020 reinforce the perception that there is still a long road ahead to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, that is, Sustainable Development Goal 5. Looking at advertising, Ogwezzy-Ndisika and Esan (2016, p.  12) argue that women are shown in traditional female occupations and as subordinates to women with little or no power status. Stating the arguments of proponents of the use of stereotypes, Ogwezzy (2010a) citing Jhally noted that “Advertising … does not work by creating values and attitudes out of nothing but by drawing upon and rechanneling concerns that the target audience (and the culture) already shares. As an advertising executive puts it, ‘Advertising doesn’t always mirror how people are acting but how they’re dreaming. In a sense what we’re doing is wrapping up your emotions and selling them back to you.’ Advertising absorbs and fuses a variety of symbolic practices and discourses; it appropriates and distills from an unbound range of cultural references. In so doing, goods are knitted into the fabric of social life and cultural significance. As such, advertising is not simple manipulation, but what ad-maker Tony Schwartz calls ‘partipulation’, with the audience participating in its own manipulation.”

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Again, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON, P. 16) Code for instance devotes attention to the subject. Section 4.18:2 of the APCON Code states that “The African woman in an advertisement shall be in reality an African woman and not a caricature of the Western woman”(viii). The code states further in Section 4.19:3 that “advertisements shall portray the African virtues of care, hospitality and high moral standards” and that “every advertisement shall refrain from stereotyping”(xi). In as much as with this position, proponents of stereotyping might have a case yet, it’s not a leeway to misuse. In fact, advertisers have a responsibility to the society (APCON, 2005 as cited by Ogwezzy-Ndisika & Esan, 2016). Ogwezzy (2010a) stated that “they (advertisers) have a responsibility to society because advertising influences societal standards and values.” So, it will appear that advertisers will continually be faced with the problem of how to portray people in ads; how to reflect culture appropriately while at the same time appealing to people’s desires and aspirations. They have a challenge of how to promote the stability of life including paid employment. It is in finding the right balance that they are able to contribute to the attainment of the third millennium development goal MDG 3 and now SDG 5, which are aimed at achieving gender equality and women empowerment. Consequently, these views provide an entry point for studying gender and representation in Nigerian media. So, have representations of women in Nigerian media contents provided the right balance? The empirical research on these issues over the years will illuminate this subject.

Media Representation and Social Reality Postmodernists have argued that the rising importance of representation signals a new kind of “reality”. They further argued that in the postmodern society, representation has come to replace the “real”. Hence, the public is often unable to distinguish between image and reality (Baudrillard, 1983, as city by Ogwezzy, 2011). Their argument is that description may become prescription. According to Croteau and Hoynes (2000, pp. 225–226 as cited by Ogwezzy, 2011, p. 52):

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The dynamic relationship between the media content and the social world is complicated. This raises the question: is media content cause or effect? A sociological approach would suggest that it is both. The social world affects media producers and media products. For example, we have seen how the efforts of social-movement organisations have influenced changes in media content. In this case, human agency has altered the operations of a major institutional structure. In turn, media content certainly influences our understanding of the social world [especially how we see women in society and reasons for giving them a chance to contribute their quota towards national development].

Furthermore, Folarin (1998) and Kellner (1995, p.  5), as cited by Ogwezzy (2010a, p. 1) noted that: What we consider good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil. Media [messages] provide the symbols, myths and resources through which we constitute a common culture and through the appropriation of which we insert ourselves into the culture. Media [products such as advertisements] demonstrate who has power and who is powerless, who is allowed to exercise force and violence and who is not [and who is represented as sex object]. They dramatize and legitimize the power of the forces and show the powerless that they must stay in their places [such as being a sex object].

Corroborating Ogwezzy (2010a), Ogwezzy-Ndisika and Esan (2016, p. 12) opined that the direct mission of advertising is cognitive; it is to present (or highlight) certain needs that a product or service can meet, but the impact of advertising can also be felt socially, in the attitudes that accompany the incidental knowledge that audience picks up. Similarly, MacBride et  al. (1981) (as cited by Ogwezzy-Ndisika & Esan, 2016, p. 53) stated that: seldom depict women as significantly involved in work, in the pursuance of careers, or in public life…. Women are shown primarily as confined to domestic sphere, or else secretaries, assistants, and in similar roles ancillary to those of men. … In advertising particularly, women are shown either as housewives whose interests are limited to domestic needs, or else as the sexually alluring background which makes consumer goods more attractive by association.

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So, while the media industry has responded to feminists organising for social change, the industry has muted the blatant simplicity of stereotypical gender images. Hence it might be argued that “The inequality that women still face in society as a whole is clearly reflected in the unequal treatment women receive in the media.” (Croteau & Hoynes, 2000, p. 212 as cited by Ogwezzy, 2011, p. 56). More worrisome is the fact that Nigeria is a signatory to some of the conventions and has even promised to domesticate and implement them. Findings on gender representation in Nigerian media provide the lens for assessing the achievements of the Nigerian state in this regard.

F indings on Gender Representation in Nigerian Media This section presents some of the findings of the various researches conducted by the lead author, either solely or in collaboration with other researchers; the studies she supervised; and studies by a Nigerian gender scholar (Okunna), which provide different shades of gender representation in Nigerian media and communication organisations. Specifically, the contents studied are advertisements, music videos, and news. Empirical evidence from studies on gender representation in Nigerian media contents (advertisements, music videos, and news)/organisations suggest that media contents show women in stereotypical ways; do not provide an accurate account of women’s multiple roles in society; neither do the positions women occupy in media organisations reflect the shifts in womanhood. In addition, they only show the invisible power of women in the public sphere. On stereotypes in advertising, Ogwezzy (2010a, p. 12) stated that in Nigeria, TV commercials are widely known for stereotypes and assigning roles to women. Using a telecommunication television commercial as a lens, she argued that “In 2004, a communication giant in Nigeria, Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), launched an advert tagged, mama na boy! The company was forced to withdraw the advertisement, Mama Na Boy as a result of the criticisms it erupted. The advert was perceived to have placed more value on the male child.” This was evident

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when a character in the advert was made to pass the message of the delivery of a child to a family and the relatives of the baby. In passing the message, the character blurted: Mama, na boy o! Eventually, the commercial was withdrawn. The impact of such media portrayal was quite huge considering the attention it garnered over that period, because the message was not consistent with the progress evident in the society, but remained rooted in tradition. In another study conducted by Ogwezzy and Esan (2016, p. 12), four commercials were textually analysed. These include Grandma’s Coming (English), Mum Like No Other (English), Mama You Do Good (Pidgin) and Indomie Instant Noodles (English). Two common themes dominant on the roles prescribed for mothers in the commercials were empowerment of mothers and the traditional concept of motherhood. Notwithstanding, there were a few indicators of empowerment from the mise-en-scene in the commercials that portrayed mothers as being empowered. This view was justified by the fact that mothers who could add vegetables and chicken to a meal of noodles were empowered to give the kids the best, and a mother who could coach her child to win a “spelling championship” contest are somewhat educationally empowered. Boosting the nutritional value of an Indomie meal with vegetables and chicken is an indication of knowledge and economic capability of mothers in the commercial, while being a teacher and coach indicate an educated mother. “These indicators show that mothers in the commercials are empowered.” Among the roles prescribed for mothers in the commercials include caregivers, hospitable and accommodating, a homemaker, caring mother, housewife, dedicated mother, and a cheerful giver/committed neighbour who fed children from other homes. These are consistent with the traditional paradigm in gender role assignment. So, placing mothers in the private domain was in keeping with traditional good mother roles, even though this may be devoid of prestige, status, or power. Thus, it may be argued that the roles prescribed for mothers in the commercial does not empower mothers, because mothers were cast as full-time housewives at home playing the role expected of women by the society, because there was no signifier in the setting to show her being involved in one form of economic activity— returning from work or running a business. In all, these commercials only cast domestic responsibilities on the mothers “which does not

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represent the desired shift for womanhood”. The commercials present mothers, not fathers, staying at home and cooking even though Indomie noodles is a quick meal; the woman is the homemaker as society prescribes. This is indicative of the dominant cultural values. In essence, the commercials promote the same old stereotype, and this may not enhance the achievement of SDG No.5. Perhaps, the verdict would have been different if the television commercials had shown mothers coming from the office or any economic activity, rushing to the corner shop before heading for the kitchen to cook Indomie. The finding of this study is in tandem with Oladipupo (2014). Oladipupo (2014, p. 14) in a study on “Representation of Women in Nigerian Indomie Noodles Television Commercials” examined five television commercials and found out that four out of the five had women either in the kitchen, at markets, or as homekeepers, thereby highlighting those roles that are traditionally believed to be their automatic and exclusive rights. In addition, women were predominantly and extensively portrayed as shoppers and cooks, hence a representation of women in the traditional constrained role of homemakers. Again, Adinlewa (2014, p.  15) in a study appraising gender roles using 43 Nigerian television commercials observed that some product categories are associated with women. These product categories include food and soft drink, baby products, retail outlets, household appliances, household cleaning agents and alcoholic beverages. In the distribution of settings of these commercials, it was found out that women were mostly shown in private home settings and restaurants. As regards the roles played in the 43 commercials studied, women were prominent in the following roles: spouse and girlfriend role, parent, and homemaker. These roles are stereotypical portrayals of women in the society. However, the roles men were portrayed in these commercials include celebrity status, working class, and breadwinner of the family. He concluded that women were presented in parent and housemaker’s roles. He, however, pointed out that there seems to be slight improvements as both women and men were represented in occupational and outdoor settings in some commercials, which shows a shift from past findings. This finding presents a ray of hope in the area of negative representation of women in media content.

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Also, Adesida (2009, p. 14) in his study of six television commercials of big advert spenders in Nigeria in 2006 found that women were portrayed in television commercials as playing domestic, minor roles and used as sex objects. He concluded that the portrayal of women in these roles is as a result of the traditional and cultural practices of the society. The findings of Adesida (2009) are in tandem with the findings of Johnson’s (2014, p. 13) study: “Audience Perception of the Portrayal of Women in Nigerian Advertising: A Study of Fayrouz Soft Drink Among Residents of Lekki Phase One, Lagos”. The finding of the study showed negative portrayal of women in the Nigerian television commercials. Specifically, the study found that women were portrayed as sex objects. Similarly, in Faustino and Amakoh (2018a, Unpublished work), the duo studied Blueband margarine television commercials. They found that women were depicted as caregivers who ensure their sons take to school slices of bread with Blueband margarine well spread on it. As a result, the sons will grow stronger and be able to do physical activities. The commercial also depicts the father as a breadwinner and a playmate with the son, leaving the mother to do the house chores alone. This commercial was popular on the Nigerian television space and portrayed women in certain traditional women roles. Furthermore, Faustino and Amakoh (2018b, Unpublished work), studied the two leading cocoa beverages in the Nigerian market—Bournvita television commercial, produced by Cadbury Nigeria, and Milo television commercial produced by Nestle Nigeria. They found that these two television commercials studied depict women as caregivers. The message from the commercials shows how a good mother ensures her son performs well in school by taking a nourishing food drink. In the Bournvita commercial, the setting depicts a family observing the Ramadan fast yet still looking well nourished. The mother in the commercial suggests that taking Bournvita has been the secret and as such her family is doing well. The above findings on advertisements are in consonance with Okunna (2002), as cited by Ibraheem et  al. (2014, p.  12) study of 93 product advertisements. According to Okunna (2002), “Out of 93 product advertisements that used photos of women, 33 (35%) showed women in domestic settings while 31 (33%) used women photos in the background

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for mere decoration. When not cast in these traditional roles, women are exhibited as sexual objects”. In addition, they are in tandem with the view of MacBride et al., Ehrenreich, Kellner, and APCON, cited in Ogwezzy (2010a, p. 12), who posit that women are typecast in commercials in the private domain, but at variance with Dunn et al., who argued that the trend is changing in line with the changing roles of women in societies. Therefore, the TV commercials may perpetuate and keep mothers in the private domain which is in consonance with tradition and the established norms regarding the public/private dichotomy. Therefore, the television commercials support the dominant hegemonic position. In music, it is a powerful medium used to reinforce an acceptable pattern in a society. Daily, music of various genres serenades the airwaves. As such, society is awash with several options to choose. From reggae to blues, hip-hop to R & B, music artistes serve their teeming “fans” with the needed lyrics to mediate upon, dance to, relive moments, or solve a problem. Riveting on Stuart (1989), as cited by Okunna (1996, pp. 13, 35), “music videos have the ability to encourage horizontal exchange of information and experiences among the marginalized. This it does by letting people see what others like them are doing and encouraging them to emulate these activities”. Nowadays, there is a tough competition in Nigerian music videos for the most provocatively and sexually portrayed women. As such, music artistes and directors ensure that the set for their video shoots are graced by women who “add colour” (according to them) to their shoots. To them, sex sells and as such, they must endeavour to depict women in that light in order for their song to be a “hit”. These videos are filled with skimpily dressed ladies with heavy backsides and overblown breasts. Their major assignment is to shake and wriggle their bodies seductively to the rhythm of music while the artiste watches on. These women perform this assignment with religious passion without holding back. As such, music videos also represent women in negative light as vulgar languages, and scenes of women wriggling and shaking their bodies are shown. Again, aside from this scenario, the artistes are enmeshed in reeling several slangs to collaborate with the body movements of the video vixens. Using rap music, Gooch (1995), as cited by Okunna (1996, pp. 13, 35), captures the moment when she stated that the opposition to

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gangster rap by people who are in sympathy with the empowerment of women stems from the growing awareness that these music champions disrespect and mistreat women with their demeaning lyrics because they portray women as a clan worthy of sexual exploitation and abuse and glorify sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and rape and murder of women. In addition, Ogwezzy (2010b, p. 13) studied five Nigerian music videos, namely K’mon by D’banj, You Bad by Wande Coal, Tolotolo by Freewindz, Money Spending by KC Presh, and Igboro ti daru by Clever J. The study found that actors in the videos were semi-covered in their dress mode. Also, the locations used for such videos were bedroom, swimming pool, restaurant, bar, club, and beach. The posture of women in the five videos were seductive and of negative portrayal. In all, women were portrayed as slim and beautiful with lots of make-up. They were dressed to look sexy and in search of men (sex objects). Furthermore, Ode (2014, p. 15) also conducted a study on the portrayal of women, using ten music videos. The videos are Emi ni Baller by Chidinma, Skibobo by Goldie, Johnny by Yemi Alade, No Kele by Tiwa Savage, Why You Love Me by D’banj, Headswell by Iyanya, Mama Eh by Sean Tizzle, Bum Remix by Timaya and Go Low by Wande Coal. The researcher found that the award-winning musicians in the 10 music videos studied objectified women, as women were depicted in seductive postures and portrayed as sex objects. Besides portraying women as sex objects, the videos portrayed women as gullible and victims. In addition, the videos were laced with vulgar languages unhealthy for a sane society. However, the study concluded that women are the partial cause of negative portrayal in music videos since they make themselves available in such projects. Again, Oluwasorefunmi (2014, p. 14) studied 20 music videos of two genres: hip-hop and R&B.  This study revealed that Nigerian hip-hop music videos showed more semi-covered dressed women than R&B.  However, the two genres had heavy doses of sexual messages. While the hip-hop music videos referred to women as “sexy”, and the R&B videos called women “baby”. In all, these videos depicted women as sex objects. Similarly, Nwabueze (2009, p. 14) studied the portrayal of women in three music genres (hip-hop, Fuji, and Rhythm & Blues) and examined 13 music videos. She found that there exist music videos which

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encourage sexism and objectification of women. While, Omamase (2011, p. 14) in a study on the portrayal of women in music videos found that women were projected as an object of sex appeal. According to her, 20 musical videos were analysed and only 4 showed women singing; the remaining 16 focused more on their bodies. Omamase submitted that women were given dancing and seductive roles in most of the videos she analysed. She added that the cameras used for the videos of the musicals focused more on the sensitive part of the women, further buttressing the sex appeal roles they are expected to play. As such, it may be inferred from the works of Okunna (1996, pp. 13, 35), Ogwezzy (2010b, p.  13), Ode (2014, p.  15), Nwabueze (2009, p. 14), and Omamase (2011, p. 14) that Nigerian music videos sold sex by making women shake their buttocks and wriggling their waists to the rhythm. In discussing the factors responsible for how women are portrayed in music videos, Ogwezzy (2010b, p. 13) argued that changes in tradition, capitalism, and religion, male dominance in the music industry, market needs, and audience expectation. Although there are some popular songs by men which present some positive images of women as mothers and as lovers without objectifying them, the disproportionate numbers which objectify them should be a concern because the preoccupation of popular musician with issues of sexuality objectify and degrade women, which may promote the acceptance of women as sex objects. Women and girls are constantly exposed to messages of male superiority as such would feel powerless and insignificant. It shapes viewers to see women with less respect, and it influences their minds and shapes their perceptions of the images of women. On portrayal of women in news, Ogwezzy-Ndisika et  al. (2017, p.  12), Ogwezzy-­Ndisika and Faustino (2016, p.  12), Ogwezzy-Ndisika (2013, p.  12), OgwezzyNdisika (2011, p.  13), Ogwezzy (2010, p.  12), and Ogwezzy (2004, p.  13), Oluwasorefunmi (2014, p.  14) found that the media portray women in news reports according to cultural stereotypes. The women are often discriminated against—they are under-represented and portrayed in stereotypical ways that sustain socially endorsed views of gender and the relationships between men and women. Women are depicted as “weak” and with emphasis on traditional roles.

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Furthermore, Emeadi (2014, p. 15) in her study on audience perception of media representation of Women in Nigeria politics found that women were not given adequate representation in the media. She used the placement of stories in strategic positions such as the front page as her measurement. This development, according to her, did not encourage women foray into politics in Nigeria. Also, Adediran (2014, p. 14) who conducted a study on the role of broadcast programmes in mobilising women for political participation found that programmes hardly focused on mobilising women to participate in politics as candidates to be voted for. On the coverage of women’s issues, Bakare’s (2014, p. 14) study on 48 selected editions’ editorial comments in Thisday and Punch newspapers covering September and October 2014 showed that women’s issues were under-represented by the newspapers. It concluded that there exists editorial marginalisation of women in terms of issues. In terms of gender composition in media and communication organisations, empirical evidence suggests asymmetry. According to Ibraheem et  al. (2014, p.  226), “Inherent in gendered media in Nigeria are the lopsided ownership in favour of men … paucity of women practitioners and executives in the media industry in the country”. They argue that there is unfair representation of women in decision-making roles in media organisations. The findings of the study suggest that there is inequality in the number of decision makers with regard to gender in the media houses, and in the functions assigned to females. It concludes that there is relatively silent and under-representation of women decision-making positions in media organisations. On the contrary, Adnews (2010, p. 3) submits that women are gaining prominence in the marketing communication world and have shot to the limelight through hardwork and record-breaking performances such that their relevance and indispensability have become a stark reality.

Conclusion and Recommendation Accordingly, various presentations on the view of advertisement and portrayal of women as sex objects have shown that sex sells as earlier posited, and the studies on music videos reinforce this view. Also, the studies on

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news show that women are represented according to cultural stereotypes; they are under-represented in news contents as most often than not, their voices are missing; issues affecting women were under-­represented; and there is gender asymmetry in the composition of women and men in media and communication organisations in terms of ownership and the positions they occupy in the workforce. Generally, women are still represented in traditional housekeeping mother roles, stereotyped, objectified, and under-represented in the Nigerian media. The traditional African concept of motherhood is still being promoted in media contents. These are visible in all the media messages examined. So, there is the need to eliminate gender stereotypes in media representation of women in advertising, music videos, and news contents and reduce gender imbalance in the workforce of media and communication organisations. Therefore, the media should avoid stories with stereotypes (openly sexist interpretations of the characteristics and roles of women and men in society). Also, content producers should be careful not to entrench stereotypes that promote sexuality in stories (depiction of traditional “feminine”/“masculine” characteristics and male/female roles, thereby making them appear normal and inevitable and excluding other possible traits and functions for men and women in society) and be careful not to over-portray women as victims (e.g., of crime, violence/atrocity, conflict, disaster, poverty, etc.). It is important to show women and men as survivors (i.e., with active agency despite adverse experiences/ circumstances such as crime, violence/atrocity, conflict, disaster, poverty) and provide multi-dimensional representation/portrayal of men and women (indicating journalistic effort to challenge/counter gender-based stereotypes). Journalists must be careful to avoid the use of sexist language by reporters or broadcasters, excluding in the case of direct quotes from a source (i.e., indicative of bias, discrimination, or stereotyping based on sex or gender role). Advertisements should be more liberal and balanced in terms of gender and roles given to male and female; advertisers and advertising agencies should view themselves as social leaders and pacesetters. They should, therefore, not adhere strictly and religiously to culturally motivated prejudice, most especially gender motivated ones. Commercials should begin to address the negative portrayal of women in

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advertisement through the committed enlightenment of the copywriter who should utilise the paradigm shift in the use of women in television commercials in order to avoid reversing the gains of the campaign for gender equity.

References Act, E. (2010). Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette: Amended Electoral Act 2010. Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Adediran, A. (2014). Role of Broadcast Programmes in Mobilising Women for Political Participation. An Unpublished Research Project Submitted to the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Science (M.Sc.) Degree in Mass Communication. Adesida, B. E. (2009). Portrayal of Women in Nigerian Television Commercials. An Unpublished Research Project Submitted to the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Bachelor of Science, B.Sc. (Hons) Degree in Mass Communication. Adinlewa, T. (2014). Appraisal of Gender Roles in Selected Nigerian Television Commercials. An Unpublished Research Project Submitted to the School of Post Graduate Studies, University of Lagos, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Science (M.Sc.) Degree in Mass Communication Adnews. (2010). Women in Marketing Communication in Nigeria: Part 1. Zus Bureau Requirements for the Award of Bachelor of Science, B.Sc. (Hons) Degree in Mass Communication. Bakare, O. S. (2014). Women’s Representation in Nigerian Newspapers: A Study of ThisDay and Punch Newspaper Editorial Comments. An Unpublished Research Project Submitted to the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Bachelor of Science, B.Sc. (Hons) Degree in Mass Communication. Emeadi, A. O. (2014). Audience Perception of Media Representation of Women in Nigerian Politics. An Unpublished Research Project Submitted to the School of Post Graduate Studies, University of Lagos, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Science (M.Sc.) Degree in Mass Communication.

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Johnson, A. O. (2014). Audience Perception of the Portrayal of Women in Nigerian Advertising: A Study of Fayrouz Soft Drink Among Residents of Lekki Phase One. An Unpublished Research Project Submitted to the School of Post Graduate Studies, University of Lagos, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Mass Communication. Ode, J. P. (2014). Portrayal of Women in Selected Nigerian Musical Videos. An Unpublished Research Project Submitted to the School of Post Graduate Studies, University of Lagos, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Science (M.Sc.) Degree in Mass Communication.

Further Readings “Who Makes the News” Global Media Monitoring Project 2015. (2015). http:// whomakesthenews.org/gmmp/gmmp-­reports “Who Makes the News” Global Media Monitoring Project 2020. (2021). https://whomakesthenews.org/wp-­content/uploads/2021/07/GMMP2020. ENG_.FINAL20210713.pdf Aderibigbe, Y. (2002). I am Working Hard to Clinch ANPP, Experience. The Guardian Newspaper, Lagos, August 12, p. 12 Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria. (2005). The Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice. APCON. Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES). (2008). African Media Barometer. Friedrich-­ Ebert Stiftung (FES). Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES). (2011). African Media Barometer. Friedrich-­ Ebert Stiftung (FES). African Media Barometer for Nigeria. (2015). Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES). Aina, S. (2002). Modern Media Management. Ebensun Publishers. Akingbulu, A., & Bussiek, B. (2010). Public Broadcasting in Africa: On Air. Opens Society Initiative for South Africa. Aneato, S., Onabajo, O. S., & Osifeson, J. B. (2008). Models and Theories of Communication. African Renaissance Books Inc. Ayorinde, S. (2010). Corruption in the Nigerian Media—Case of Azubuike Ishiekene. http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-­articles/punch-­ editors-­bombshell-­on-­corruption-­inthe-­nigerian-­media-­2.html Baran, S. J., & Davis, D. K. (2012). Mass Communication Theory: Foundation, Ferment and Future. Wadsworth. Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations. Semiotext.

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Part II Online Media and Usage

7 Closing the Digital Divide Among African American Consumers with Better Content in the United States of America Ingrid Sturgis

Introduction As the digital divide has narrowed, researchers are taking a closer look at access to news, information and other content developed for Black/ African audiences in the United States of America, rather than access to the platforms that provide Internet service. According to an American Press Institute survey (2015), the bigger digital divide problem may be “news coverage lacking diversity rather than lack of access to the Internet.” The survey (2015) found that minoritized communities do not believe that “the growth of web and mobile media has fulfilled the promise of more coverage, and more accurate coverage, of underserved ethnic communities.” For nearly 30 years, it had been predicted that the digital divide would leave African Americans and other marginalized communities behind, without access to the benefits derived from Internet usage (Rogers, 2001). Instead, considerable research over the past decade

I. Sturgis (*) Howard University, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_7

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indicated that the digital divide has been narrowing with the adoption of mobile devices and widespread use of social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, IM, LinkedIn and video games with social networking features (Marriott, 2006). Although the lack of Internet access is still a problem for low-income communities as well as communities without easy access to reliable electrical infrastructure, this chapter seeks to examine how mainstream sites have failed to address the diversity or a digital divide in content on the web. The purpose of this chapter is to conduct a literature review to examine how the lack of relevant news coverage about the lived experiences of Black people is as much a factor in the digital divide as lack of access to the Internet. In previous literature and user surveys, participants often said that they did not find the Internet welcoming because they did not find content that addressed their needs (AOL, 2005). This effort strives to provide an overview of key studies that reveals potential gaps in the literature on this specific topic and that offers a new research path for studies on the digital divide. It includes articles that highlight the similarities in content needs among Black people of the African diaspora as well as African Americans.

 nalyzing the Existing Digital Divide A Among African Americans To determine evolution of the literature, a systematic review was conducted using several keywords, such as the search term digital divide, Black audience, Black readers or African American audience and African American readers as well as Black news deserts, African news in the United States, African news deserts and African news audience, among others. The search also made use of Boolean operators (and, or, and not). Google and Google Scholar search engines were used as well as the EBSCOhost database, Mendeley reference manager and academic sharing platforms ResearchGate and Academia.edu. The search was expanded by including material referenced in found articles. While assembling the materials for this review, it became clear that there is a serious gap in the

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literature for studies on the digital divide in news and information for Black people. Some initial themes did surface such as Afro-pessimism and Africa-rising, indicating a growing interest in research in this area. In 1995, Emerge magazine issued one of the earliest predictions about the negative impact poor technology access would have on African Americans, calling it the “civil rights issue and the economic rights issue of the 21st century.” That prediction seemed reasonable according to Ford-Livene (1999, p.  590), which identified “5 million African-­ Americans that had used the Web in the United States as of January 1997.” The article examined the challenges facing minority-owned new media ventures, including the ability to produce content that was current and fresh. The article surmised that the increase in the number of African Americans online was driven partly by an impetus to replace broadcast news and programming that disappeared after minority stations were bought out by media conglomerates over a 10-year period. Similarly, Young (2001) wondered whether such deficit-based research was creating a self-fulling prophecy about the digital divide. The article discussed whether the widely assumed stereotype of “technophobic minority groups” succeeded in discouraging businesses or academics from creating content or services tailored for minority communities, resulting in an expanded digital divide. This as well as other articles focused primarily on access to computer hardware rather than developing online content for underrepresented communities. A study by AOL’s Black Voices and Images Market Research (2005) was one of the first to separate the focus on hardware from content— news and information—on the Internet. In this African American cyber study, an overwhelming number of Black Internet users surveyed said there wasn’t enough online content that spoke to them as a “distinct culture with its own dynamic needs and values.” The survey polled 1016 African American Internet users conducted focus groups in three cities with members selected from African Americans with IP addresses. The survey found that African Americans used the Internet to visit social networking sites, to learn about African American culture and history, and to search for jobs and educational opportunities. The study also found that the Black users surveyed spent twice as much time online as the general population.

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Research by Boyd (2009) and Shanyang (2009) addressed the content issue for Black users in their research on social media sites, such as MySpace, which was the leading social media site at the time, and Facebook, which was just starting to evolve beyond its beginnings as a network for college-age students. However, the main thrust of both articles was not on the content but on the racial component of the digital divide. At the time, it was clear that one of the attractions to MySpace was that users were able to create their own content and environment for music and other content types. Music remains a high-interest content area for African Americans on the Internet. Facebook, at the time, focused primarily on friends connecting to one another and less about shared content. Boyd (2009) claimed that those who left MySpace for Facebook did so because of “white flight” or that educated White users were more likely to leave or choose Facebook, which was then perceived as a more “peaceful, quiet, less-public space” (Boyd, 2009). However, a more likely reason could have been that Black Internet users were not going to Facebook because its content primarily spoke to college students, who were and are predominantly White. In 2008, Pew Research Center’s Generations Online survey also explored the racial and ethnic divide of social media sites and came to similar conclusions as Boyd’s about why African Americans went online. This was yet another article that focused on the socio-economic differences between Blacks and Whites rather than how content could be better tailored to attract Black users. The Pew study (2008) looked at the demographics of Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn but did not examine the type of content that each platform offered its users. It also addressed the growing use of texting on mobile handsets, a mode of information sharing that was beginning to be very popular among young users, particularly African Americans. Later, some Black scholars were beginning to examine another perspective of the digital divide. Ferrier (2014) took a closer look at the lack of sufficient coverage of Black issues using geographic information systems software to track areas with food deserts and how they correspond to media deserts. Media deserts were defined by Ferrier as “geographic regions that lack access to fresh local news and information.” According

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to Ferrier, more than 120 newspapers had closed since 2008. Her goal was to create “a national model for monitoring changes to media delivery and consumption.” Similarly, a Nielsen study that partnered with 200 newspapers of the Black press (2011, 2012) to address the “media desert” found that “African American women tend to adopt technology when it is social and relevant to improving their day-to-day lives.” It also found that younger African Americans were valued as trend setters in popular culture and considered “early adapters” (sic) of new technology. Black respondents said they were frustrated by the “low level of inclusion of Blacks in television programs, advertising messaging and point-of-purchase communication.” A subsequent 2013 Nielsen report found that Black users spent 44% more time on education and career sites than mainstream consumers. It also found that Black people spent more than twice the time per person at web hosting sites than White consumers, which indicated that Blacks were more likely to own personal websites. Could the reason for owning personal websites be to create a source of relevant news and information for African Americans? The survey also found that the number one search engine for African Americans was Google Search, with over 15 million unique monthly visitors. Guskin et al. (2013) examined the difficulties faced by African American-oriented news media as they lost circulation and struggled to find advertising revenue. Addressing news and information coverage for Black people became an even greater imperative as the number of foreign-born Blacks in the United States mushroomed from 125,000  in 1980 to more than 4.2 million in 2016. In addition to overlooking U.S.-born Blacks, digital news outlets and traditional news outlets often ignored this vibrant, growing Black diasporic community. According to Pew (2018), the growth of the U.S. African immigrant population tracked the trajectory of the Internet in the United States, with the population doubling to 1.6 million in 2016, and now making up 39% of the foreign-born Black population (Pew, 2018). Their children, born in the United States as first-generation Americans, include President Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan father. According to the Population Research Bureau, among immigrants who were 25 and

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older, 38% of those from the African continent had a bachelor’s or higher degree compared to 27% of foreign-born of all races. In addition, African immigrants spent nearly $50 billion annually and sent home $20 billion in remittances. Like the U.S.-born Blacks, this group also encountered media deserts when seeking news and information about their communities. Although mainstream news organizations claimed to be committed to diversity since the 1968 Kerner Commission report on the then civil rights unrests, newsroom parity is still elusive, and as a result coverage of communities of color remains uneven globally. This critical look at mainstream media has more recently included a focus on coverage of the continent of Africa. Black consumers often complain that coups and crises dominate news of the diaspora (Merrefield, 2020). The articles examined the numerous studies confirming that coverage of Black America is considered negative, unfair and unbalanced (Merrefield, 2020). The article also examined the race problem in newsrooms that created a digital divide in coverage for Black news and information consumers. In addition, some mainstream publications have been accused of “afro-­ pessimism” (Bleich et al. 2020), which is the act of reporting that makes generalizations about the African continent as a whole, without differentiating among its 54 countries and their varying concerns and issues. The coverage tended to focus on tragedies and strife rather than cultural hegemony (2020). Bleich et  al. (2020) analyzed more than 139,000 articles in major U.S. newspapers between 1994 and 2018 and found the afro-pessimist perspective was more pervasive than the “Africa rising” narrative. The authors examined the influence of gatekeeping by Western editors, which also focused on deficit-based coverage of African countries. Similarly, Toussaint (2018) looked at 282 articles in eight French and British newspapers and identified three claims consistent in coverage of Africa: The focus on tribalism and darkness, presenting Africa as a homogenous region and the absence of African voices in reporting. In addition to a content digital divide, mainstream news organizations have been slow to accommodate the use of platforms that Black readers prefer. For example, according to Walton (2010), mainstream news organizations did a poor job of engaging minority readers. In the survey,

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respondents reported being more likely to download and use a mobile application if their newspapers offered one. They also reported that they preferred the web to read their local newspapers instead of the print version. And mostly Black people rated interactive mapping tools, traffic updates, weather updates and classified advertising as more important in a digital delivery format than Whites did. But even among ethnic media, coverage is fragmented. The Pew Internet Project (2008) said Black people are more likely to use the Internet for economic advancement and quality-of-life topics. However, many ethnic media sites had a narrow focus on entertainment dominated by celebrity gossip, unverified opinion or rehashed news. Far too many underutilized multimedia and social media tools, narrative journalism, much-needed investigations and database reporting. Some are merely repeating the mistakes of legacy media by overlooking the next generation.

Conclusion and Recommendation In a review of the digital divide in culturally competent content, it can be concluded that scholarship has focused on relatively few “countries, events, media, and texts” (Nothias, 2018). Based on this review and analysis, a new agenda is proposed to encourage further research on the digital divide in news coverage. Some questions that researchers can examine include: As mainstream markets become saturated, will there be more attempts to attract underserved markets? Will these disparate Black communities again migrate together for common interests? How is the lack of relevant content more responsible for the digital divide among African Americans than lack of access to the Internet? Now that more African Americans are creating sites with content that focuses on their community, will it narrow even further the digital divide? Overall, cutting-edge, digital content providers are needed to fill the content digital divide by painting a fuller portrait of people of African descent. Such publications can harness the interactive power of data-driven digital media to tell stories, connect dots and connect people so that they can better understand each other and share solutions to common problems.

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Black Americans from different cultures constitute a fast-growing diasporic community that has received little attention. But media upstarts like PushBlack, for instance, and Sahan Journal are beginning to receive attention for their focus on news coverage of interest to the Black community. For example, PushBlack covers topics like voting rights and criminal justice reform and Black history. Sahan Journal, launched in 2019 by a Somali American reporter, focuses exclusively on the concerns of Minnesota’s immigrant and refugee communities. Both outlets have the financial backing of the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund (REJ Fund), an ambitious project recently launched by the Ford Foundation and other partners to grow and sustain an emerging sector in equitable media. The twenty-first century has been challenging for newspapers of all sorts including the Black press. Some publications have shuttered. Others have moved completely online, while others have reduced their frequency to cut costs. Embracing the Internet as an opportunity rather than a threat has given other publications a chance at new life and the prospect of reaching wider audiences. Indeed, social media has given a number of scrappy Black press outlets a platform to disseminate information and to advocate for societal change. For Black media scholars, this development will offer a fertile area for future research.

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8 The War of Words in the Digital Space: Twenty-First-Century Presidential Public Address as Power Maintenance in Kenya Shamilla Amulega

Introduction Worldwide, the war of words has become a lethal, dominant force and a mechanism of power maintenance in presidential discourse (Ferree et al., 2014). To clarify, these schemes hidden in presidential discourses are categorized as politics of identity, schematized around race, religion, gender, age and ethnicity, and function to advance the power and interests of particular groups or elites in society who benefit from the discourse (Branch, 2011). In Africa, the complexities of a growing democracy, which is characterized by ethnic struggles, cultural attitudes, economic, political and social challenges, have been major contributing forces in making citizens susceptible to politics of identity in presidential discourses. For instance, ethnicity is frequently manipulated by political elites in pursuit of partisan gains. Thus, African presidents have been heavily criticized for their ideology craftily hidden in hegemonic discourses which function to enable them to stay in power (Kazeem, 2018).

S. Amulega (*) Howard University, Washington, DC, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_8

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Historically, this occurrence is demonstrated by the number of years African leaders cling on to power. For instance, Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi ruled for 42 years, Sudan’s Omar Al Bashir ruled for 28 years while Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo was in power for 17 years, including the current list of long-serving presidents such as Cameroon’s Paul Biya (36  years), Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang (39  years), Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni (32 years) and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame (18 years). Notably, the presidential discourse has played a significant role in helping such leaders maintain power. Unlike bullets and guns that were used in the colonial era to forge compliance, language plays a subtler role in the twenty-first century by forcing spiritual, economic and political subjugation. Gramsci and Hoare (1971) defines this state of affairs through his theory of cultural hegemony, which contends that the state and ruling class, also known as the bourgeoisie, use cultural institutions to maintain power. Therefore, hegemony in this study is examined within its contingency to “language, agency and power in relation to economic and class analysis” (Ives, 2004, p. 70). Gramsci argued that through language and ideology, the bourgeoisie develop a hegemonic culture that is devoid of violence, economic force or coercion. This is more detrimental because it has power that “captures” the mind and forms a spiritual subjugation, unlike the colonial gun and bullet that forced a physical subjugation. Thus, language creates spiritual subjugation which is more toxic than the physical subjugation caused by the gun and bullets. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (1986) expands that people identify themselves by the choice of language and its usage in relation to its natural and social environment. Henceforth, language has always been at the center of imperialism and the struggle for liberation in Africa in the twentieth century (p. 4). Moreover, linguistic dominance favors creators of hegemonic culture, which contains its own norms and values that largely become the common sense that is used to maintain the status quo. Hence, a presidential speech to citizens is a means of sustaining hegemonic control as conceptualized in the study. For relatively new democracies, such as Kenya, speeches by leaders are critical in sustaining and consolidating such democracy. Also, Kenyan politicians depend a lot on social media in reaching out to the populace.

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Therefore, this research explored digital narratives by politicians in Kenya, notably how presidential speeches in Kenya played a role in sustaining hegemony through its advocacy roots which are framed as a form of advocating for nationalism that adversely affects the country’s democracy. This research used the critical discourse analysis framework to analyze linguistic persuasive strategies, hidden meanings and ideologies in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s discourses to maintain his power. To do this, the study uncovers the mechanism that President Kenyatta uses to create and sustain social differences in Kenya. This uncovering helps educate people and awaken their consciousness to be active participants in their democracy. Thus, the study exposes rhetorical manipulation and highlights the voices that have risen in challenge via social media activism. These voices help to create a democracy that gives all Kenyans equal access to presidential positions, which are a source of economic power, land, healthcare and jobs. Four speeches that were connected to four historical events in Kenya were analyzed, namely: Mpeketoni, Handshake, We Shall Revisit Judiciary and Madaraka Day. These speeches were guided by the following research questions: first, to continually gain support, what discourse strategies does President Uhuru Kenyatta use? Second, how consistently are certain themes, ideologies and messages conveyed? Three, do President Uhuru’s speeches perpetuate class, nationalism, ethnicity and religion? Lastly, how do Kenyans use communication (social media) to counter the power dynamics in his speeches? Remarkably, the study found out that a selection of presidential speeches is crafted to appeal to people’s emotions rather than their thought process, which plays a crucial role in sustaining hegemony within a framework of advocating for nationalism which adversely affects the country’s complex democracy. To challenge this trend, the study highlights the growing voices of Kenyans who take to Twitter to counter presidential speeches by disseminating new knowledge as a form of social media advocacy. Finally, and through Critical Discourse Analysis, the study provides information to the marginalized about their oppression and as a result empowers them to act against dominant forces within their society.

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Presidential Discourse and State Formation The postcolonial era in Africa in the 1950s was historicized as the birth of “hegemonic presidency” (Kieh, 2018) which has become an enduring fixture on Africa’s political landscape (p.  36). He emphasized that the third wave of democratization and the results of the liberation politics in 1990 raised hopes that the “hegemonic presidency” would be controlled as democratizing African states would move away from political systems that were characterized by personal rule to those formed by constitutional rules (Jackson & Rosberg, 1982; Hyden, 1994). Moreover, Kieh (2018) asserted that such leadership had roots in colonization and demonstrated the basic character of absolutism with the goal of controlling every aspect of life such as cultural, economic, religious and social (p. 39). Unfortunately, this type of presidency was rationalized as an imperative measure for nation building. However, before colonization, most states were designed as multi-ethnic societies, and the prevailing discourse was pushed toward creating a strong presidency that would mediate the competing ethnic agenda and promote social economic development to minimize conflicts (Kieh, 2018, p. 40), similar to the technique employed by colonialists, who created a discourse that portrayed Africa as uncivilized, backward and a primitive culture which provided a justification for its colonization. Moreover, Kieh (2018) contends that by performing these roles, some of the first “hegemonic presidents,” such as Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta (who) was referred to as Mzee, Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) also known as Osagyefo, and Julius Nyerere (Tanzania) known as Mwalimu, developed personality cults (p. 40). Over time, these presidents were reified to the level of deities and personified the state. For example, President Leopold Senghor of Senegal argued: “The president personifies the nation as did the monarch of former times … The masses are not mistaken who speak of the ‘reign’ of Modibo Keita (Mali), Sekou Toure (Guinea) and Houphouet Boigny (Côte d’Ivoire), in whom they [saw] above all else, the elect of God” (Meredith, 2005, p. 162). Kieh (2018) noted, “President Senghor’s assertion was from the ‘play book’ of King Louis XVI of France, who boldly declared, ‘I am the state’” (p. 40), as stated by Bent (1887).

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The claim is also grounded in the ancient “divine rule,” which was the contrived basis for monarchical rule in Europe. Ill-advisedly, Kieh (2018) contends, the hegemonic presidency failed to promote integration, development and democracy, and became the primary source for ethnic division characterized by preferential treatment to particular ethnic groups that were connected to the president, such as the Kikuyu (Jomo Kenyatta) and Kalenjin (Daniel Arap Moi) tribes in Kenya. Within this framework, Branch (2011) provides a deeper reflection of power and nation building through his analysis of Kenyatta’s governance from independence to the time of his death. Branch (2011) noted Mzee Jomo Kenyatta used the ideology of order during the attempt to build the nation to trample on people’s voices of dissent. He claimed that the “fetishization of order has been used to discredit those who dissent from the state’s development policies and to allow the state to violate its citizens’ human rights” (p.  18). Such efforts led to dictatorial leadership. For instance, after independence (when the Mau Mau were no longer needed), President Jomo Kenyatta sought to bury Mau Mau in the interest of national unity. However, Kenyatta used discourse to undercut the Mau Mau movement in order to “cement Kikuyu sub-nationalism” (Muigai, 2004, p.  211). Through presidential discourse, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta also sought to reassure European settlers by informing them that they were welcome to stay and farm in Kenya without fear of freedom fighters and that his government would protect them. Muigai (2004) further contends that despite Kenyatta’s presidential discourses, the irony was that “Kenyatta himself was not a member of the movement, and did not take part in combat, yet he became known as ‘the father of the nation’, an idol struck on an anvil forged by the very backs of the people (Mau Mau) he was trying to discriminate against” (p. 212). Branch’s (2011) analysis of Jomo Kenyatta’s speeches provides a foundation to understand Kenya’s histories and nation building. Likewise, Hughes (2011), argues that successive governments manipulated and marginalized Mau Mau for their own ends, without ever succeeding in silencing its proponents, until the coming to power of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government in 2002, which was headed by a Kikuyu from the Mau Mau heartland of Nyeri in the former Central Province. Mwai Kibaki, the third president of Kenya, led the Grand

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Coalition that ousted Daniel Moi (a Kalenjin) from power. To counter the ethnic strife, a new constitution was ratified in 2010. In addition, to tackle hegemonic rule, the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) campaigns were launched to ratify the constitution ahead of the 2022 elections. Therefore, it is within these presidential discursive structures that nonruling ethnic communities are further alienated. Generally, presidential speeches have always played a significant role in creating democracy in Kenya. For example, Jomo Kenyatta (the first president of Kenya) used presidential speeches to build a notion of togetherness as he united people against the colonizers (British). However, after independence, discourse and ideology were used as forms of divisiveness. Atieno-Odhiambo (1995) noted, “Kenyatta had a fervent vision of the Gikuyu future, but no mental map of Kenya beyond a territory to be governed much as the colonial authorities had done” (p. 242). Thus, his regime made clear distinctions between the homeboy, muru wa mucii, and the Luo westerners, waruguru, the ultimate “other” in the regime’s political lexicon. He, ultimately, chose to exclude the Luo as a cultural “other” beyond the bounds of Gikuyu civil society, which was coterminous with the Kenyatta state (Atieno-Odhiambo, 1995, p. 242). Thus, the postcolonial discourse took the form of village-degrading utterances which “animalize the Other in their midst” (Werbner & Ranger, 1996, p. 20), as the Luo were regularly referred to as kinyamu giiki or kihii giiki—little animals or little boys. The state became the primary site for plotting the processes of this “othering.” In terms of political sociology, Atieno-Odhiambo (1995) contends that Kenyatta’s ethno-cultural exclusion of the Luo demonstrates Max Weber’s notion of social closure. The notion “has its classical exposition in the opening pages of Economy and Society” (Brubaker, 1992, p.  17), where Weber distinguishes between open and closed social relationships. Under Kenyatta, the Luo had the legal citizenship of the Kenyan state, but were subjected to many tacit, uncodified internalized classificatory schemes and ethno-cultural markers in the political and economic arena. They were called Andu waruguru (foreigners from the West). “These people are perishing us” (Jogi tiekowa), the marginalized Luo cried in the early

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1970s, as they ran into one blocked opportunity after another. But the Kenyatta regime did not pay attention” (Atieno-Odhiambo, 1995, p. 242).

 he Roots of the Political, Economic T and Ethnic Crisis To comprehend presidential discourse in Kenya requires some understanding of its structure in relation to its colonial history. After colonization, the British divided Kenya along ethnic lines into eight provinces, creating a different majority in each; each province was subdivided into districts, often according to ethnic groups and subgroups. This included the eight provinces and their capital cities in brackets: North Eastern Province (Garissa), Eastern Province (Embu), Rift Valley Province (Nakuru), Western Province (Kakamega), Nyanza Province (Kisumu), Central Province (Nyeri), Nairobi Province (Nairobi) and Coast Province (Mombasa). Ethnically, the Luo are based mainly in Nyanza (though it is also the home to the Kisii, who have their own district); the Luhya, in Western Province; the Kikuyu, in Central Province; the Somali, in NorthEastern Province; and the Mijikenda, in the Coastal Province. The Rift Valley Province is dominated by the Kalenjin, but also contains Maasai, Turkana and Samburu districts. The Kamba share the Eastern Province with Embu and Meru, among others. Nairobi is the most cosmopolitan province, with the Kikuyu forming a plurality. Moreover, understanding Kenya’s ethnic groups sheds light on its politics and governance. Elkins (2008) noted that Kenya’s ethnic tensions and politics are a result of its colonial past, which Britain bestowed on its former colonies (Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan) including corrupted governments. As part of the British divide-and-rule colonial policy, Nyabira and Ayele (2016) argued that “the British selected individuals from specific ethnic communities and excluded others. This allowed access to the country’s political and administrative institutions as a reward for the so-called collaboration” (p. 132). In Kenya, for example, colonial officials hand-picked political successors as they left, bestowing political and economic favors on their proteges, creating elites whose power

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extended into the postcolonial era. This pattern, Nyong’o (1989) denotes, is prevalent across most African countries, arguing that “strong presidents have not imposed themselves on society simply by individual cunning and expertise; social forces in society and conflicts among such forces, provide the context in which such presidents acquire and retain power, in certain cases, even end up using this power against the very social forces that propelled them into power” (p. 230). Furthermore, Elkins (2008) argued that the British left behind legal systems that facilitated tyranny, oppression and poverty rather than open, accountable governments. The author further contended that the British’s illustrious imperial policy of “divide and rule,” stipulated, playing one side off another, which often turned fluid groups of individuals into immutable ethnic units, such as the Luo and Kikuyu in Kenya today. Likewise, in many former colonies, the British picked favorites among newly solidified ethnic groups and left others excluded. For example, Elkins (2008) argues that the British spent decades trying to keep the Luo and Kikuyu divided because they feared that if the two groups united, their combined power could bring down the colonial order. Consequently, after Kenya received its independence in 1963, Jomo Kenyatta, the first “President, largely maintained the colonial political and economic structures, and chose to politically and economically empower himself and those, mainly, from his ethnic community—the Kikuyu—to the exclusion of others” (Nyabira & Ayele, 2016, p.  132). Mzee Jomo Kenyatta later justified his centralization of power by evoking his ideology “Harambee,” which means coming together to build the nation and denying the ethnic diversity of the Kenyan people. In reality, however, his cronies from the Kikuyu community enjoyed many of Kenya’s spoils throughout his reign. Unfortunately, the Kikuyu’s fortunes took a turn for the worse when Daniel Arap Moi, a member of the Kalenjin ethnic community, assumed dictatorial power in 1978. President Moi used his position to empower the Kalenjin. Similarly, President Mwai Kibaki, the third President of Kenya, also from the Kikuyu ethnic group, appointed Kikuyu kinsmen to his political cabinet. For example, Table 8.1 demonstrates the ethnic distribution of cabinet positions of the first three Presidents of Kenya. Nyabira and

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Table 8.1  Ethnic distribution of cabinet positions of the first three presidents of Kenya Cabinet Kenyatta 1966

Moi 1978

Kibaki

1979

2001

2003

2005

Ethnic group

No

%

No

%

No

%

No

%

No

%

No

%

Kikuyu Luhya Luo Kamba Kisii Meru Somali Mijikenda Others

6 2 3 1 2 1 – 2 3

28.6 9.52 14.3 4.76 9.20 4.75 – 9.25 14.3

6 1 3 2 2 1 – 3 2

28.6 4.8 14.3 9.52 9.52 4.76 – 14.3 9.52

8 3 3 2 2 1 – 2 2

30 11 11 7.6 7.6 3.8 – 7.6 7.6

1 4 2 4 2 1 – 2 25

4 14 7 14 7 4 – 7 25

4 4 4 3 0 2 0 2 2

16 16 16 12 0 8 0 8 8

6 7 1 4 2 2 2 3 4

18.1 21.2 3.1 12.1 6.1 6.1 6.1 9.0 12.1

Source: Nyabira and Ayele (2016, p. 133). Identified the item as figure/Table 1

Ayele (2016) contend that the percentage of cabinet ministers, as shown in Table 8.1 was “28.5% from the Kikuyu community. However, in 2001 the percentage of ministers from the Kikuyu community dropped to just 4% and that of the Kalenjin rose to 17%” (Nyabira & Ayele, 2015, p. 134). Moreover, the authors further point out that “a maximum of 10 ethnic communities were represented in the cabinet of both Kenyatta and Moi out of about 43 ethnic communities” (p. 134). A similar trend followed the appointments of permanent secretaries (PS) (Nyabira & Ayele, 2016). For example, the PS from the Kikuyu community constituted 37.5% while those of the Kalenjin community was 62.5%. However, in 2001, the percentage of the PS from the Kikuyu community dropped to 8.7% while their counterparts the Kalenjin rose to 34.8%, but was reversed in 2001 when Mwai Kibaki came to power (Nyabira & Ayele, 2016). This represented the politics of “it’s our time to eat” in Kenya as other ethnic communities were excluded (Gutiérrez-Romero, 2013, p. 292). Unquestionably, presidential hegemony intensifies when political power is concentrated in the office of the president (Nyong’o, 1989). The presidency becomes the authoritative voice in creating policy and management. Thus, all other entities within the government begin to influence the seat as politicians stand in awe of the power of the president

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(Nyong’o, 1989, p.  231). Historically, the Kikuyu (President Uhuru’s ethnic group) and Kalenjin (President Moi’s ethnic group) have dominated governance even though they control only an estimated 40% of the country’s population. However, their ability to broker effective coalitions against the rest continues to make a difference in many ways. Kenya’s problems and fears of ethnic ascendancies, power-hungry political elites, undemocratic processes and institutions are direct effects of the British colonial rule (Elkins, 2008). Since colonization, Kenya has been controlled by elites from the Kenyatta regime who hailed from the Kikuyu ethnic community to Moi from the Kalenjin ethnic community, to Kibaki from the Kikuyu ethnic community and now back to Uhuru Kenyatta from the Kikuyu ethnic community. This pattern of leadership harkens to the Kikuyu–Kalenjin alliance identified earlier. The Kikuyu ethnic community represents three of the presidents and one (Moi) is represented by the Kalenjin ethnic community. This leaves Kenyans deprived (economically and socially) and as such they do not benefit from the taxes they pay because most of the resources are diverted to their cronies and provinces that serve as ethnic homelands of these presidents.

Methodology The Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework was used to analyze President Uhuru Kenyatta’s four speeches. A qualitative approach of the CDA framework was employed to demystify ideologies and hegemonic discourses through systematic investigation of the written and spoken word (Wodak & Meyer, 2009). Unveiling the dynamics of President Uhuru’s speeches (politicized discourse) entails examining the evolution of more patterns of meaning, the basic traits of what unites the population and what differentiates it. Basically, CDA was crucial to this investigation because it analyzes discourses of real-world societal problems, such as dominance, inequality and racism. CDA helps unveil these dynamics because linguistic hegemony allows certain populations to maintain power through the use of discourse while leaving the rest of the other communities to live in a constant state of subjugation. Discourse analysis seeks to capture the inexorable discourses in relation to reality. In essence,

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language shapes and molds our world. Notably, Wodak and Meyer (2015) denote that “discourses are not only expressions of social practice, but serve particular ends, namely the exercise of power” (p. 117). Hence, the power of language lies in its facilitation for the articulation of popular forms of consciousness. Discourse analysis seeks to capture the inexorable discourses in relation to reality. To expose this power, the study was framed by two theories—Gramsci’s theory of Hegemony, which stipulates “man is not ruled by force alone, but also by ideas” (Bates, 1975, p. 351), and Jose Medina’s (2013) The Epistemology of Resistance that argues, “in the course of the text, oppression functions in part by fostering in the oppressors a kind of ignorance, insensitivity, and indifference to the suffering of others (epistemic arrogance); while among the oppressed it fosters ego skepticism (self, capacities and very existence)” (Monahan, 2014, p.  52). Fairclough (1995) illustrates how speakers enact power and dominance and proposes a three-dimensional framework for analyzing discourse: description, interpretation and explanation. Description focuses on re-counting the linguistic property of the text. Interpretation deals with the discursive (social interaction) process for the text’s production and its interpretation. This requires a deeper analysis of the reasoning process between the speaker and the audience. The last stage covers an explanation of how those discursive processes impact and condition the society. This requires linking actual social events in association with the interpretation phase. Equally, van Dijk’s (1993) research on discourse and racism, which analyzed the speaker’s oral discourse, emphasized the structure of text. Through purposeful sampling, four speeches of President Uhuru Kenyatta were chosen from YouTube (based on major historical events that marked his two terms in office). These speeches were double-checked online for content accuracy from the presidential archives located on the President’s website. YouTube speeches were selected because of their accessibility, accuracy (non-edited versions) and visual representations. The four speeches were examined and analyzed in order to answer the first three of the four research questions presented below. The fourth research question examined social media comments that demonstrated resistance to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches. Basically, how ordinary

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citizens used language to advocate for themselves and the country at large in response to four selected speeches: RQ1. What discourse strategies does President Uhuru Kenyatta use in his speeches to continually gain support? RQ2. How consistently are certain messages, themes and ideologies conveyed in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches? RQ3. Do President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches perpetuate class, nationalism, ethnicity and religion? RQ4. How do some citizens use communication to counter the hegemony in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches?

Data analysis The four speeches were chosen based on the crucial events surrounding Uhuru Kenyatta’s two-term presidency (Moore, 2018; Crabtree, 2018). These include: (a) Uhuru Kenyatta’s first inauguration speech, (b) Uhuru’s reactions (speech) after the High Court repealed elections on September 1, 2017, (c) Uhuru Kenyatta’s discourse when Raila Odinga the oppositional leader is sworn-in by Dr. Miguna Miguna as the “people’s president” in an unofficial ceremony attended by many Kenyans in Nairobi, and (d) when Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga decided to unite and work together toward building bridges to a new Kenyan nation. A sample of the counter-narratives to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches was analyzed by examining Twitter feeds. Twitter had the ability to instantly record the event as it happened, thus, it recorded people’s emotions and feelings toward certain issues in real-time. As a platform, Twitter also offers the common people the ability to air their opinions and contribute to the democratization of a nation, where all people are involved in the discourse. Twitter research was guided by RQ4 and focused on reactions to President Uhuru’s four selected speeches. This research captured comments under various hashtags, such as #Handshake, #Mpeketoni, #JudiciaryRevisit, #Wakora Network, #BBI and #MadarakaDay. Each of those hashtags depicts a counter-discourse narrative to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches. An

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automated script written in a Python programming language was created. The Python Crawler collected data from Twitter by interacting with Twitter Streaming Application Programming Interface (API) that allowed real-time downloading of tweets that contained the #hashtags and the keywords representing the questions being investigated.

Discussion and Findings Presidential speeches play a significant role in the well-being of a country’s security, stability and also function in facilitating nationalism. Recently, there have been several examples denoting devices that presidents have used in speeches to help preserve power or further their attempt to elongate their presidency. For example, President Trump’s discourse after losing the 2020 election led to his supporter’s insurrection at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.  Similarly, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni’s televised speech (dressed in military fatigues) warned, “If you try to disturb peace, you will have yourself to blame. The security forces, following the law, are ready to deal with any troublemaker” (Reuters, Jan, 2021) during the 2021 elections and the late Tanzanian President John Magufuli’s continued denial of the existence of COVID-19 pushed Tanzanians to a breaking point. Given that this research helped evaluate the prevailing dynamics of power and privilege within President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches (Wodak & Meyer, 2009), the study unveiled other facets, the president did not mention, that were part of the problem he was trying to mitigate. For example, in the “Mpeketoni” speech, President Kenyatta failed to disclose the real root of the problem that was created by his father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who displaced Mpeketoni’s original inhabitants and settled his ethnic Kikuyus in a post-independence land settlement scheme in the 1970s (Butime, 2014, p.  2). Neither does it mention the president’s inability to solve Kenya’s security problem since Kenya invaded Somalia in an effort to fight terrorism. The president did not address the question of compensating natives who had been displaced by Kikuyu settlers; instead, he politicized the security lapse by shifting the attention of his audience to his political opponents who, he implied, had fueled ethnic

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violence. Some of the strategies and tactics used by President Uhuru Kenyatta to continually gain support from Kenyans are included in Table  8.2, which were used in the four speeches: “Mpeketoni,” “Handshake,” “We Shall Revisit the Judiciary” and “Madaraka Day” to continually gain support. Additionally, other tactics used in the speech that were ultimately questionable include religion, ethnicity and placing the blame on other officials, which helped him deflect from taking responsibility for the real problem. For example, in the “Mpeketoni” speech, President Uhuru Kenyatta used religion to project himself as a leader who did not scatter and divide like the other leaders, but one who unites and builds. This likened the president to Prophet Jeremiah in the Bible (Jeremiah 23:1–2). Prophet Jeremiah used a similar discourse and was given the mandate to rebuild Jerusalem. However, President Uhuru Kenyatta used ethnicity to divide Kenyans by claiming that, “the attack[s] in Lamu was well-planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence against the Kenyan community [with the] intention of profiling and evicting [people] for political reasons.” He employed a clever strategy by denying it was the Table 8.2  Tactics employed in President Uhuru’s speeches Tactics

Language or discourse

Ideology

One with the people

Collective voice “our people” Criticizing of opponents “other” Use of religion “chosen one” Partial truths of achievements Ethnicity, politics of identity Mocking/challenging statuesque Idolization of colonization

Suffering with the people Avoid accountability

Solution to the problem Savior or God’s chosen False claims, deflection Emotional appeal

Irony, rhetorical questions Normalization of hegemony Selective historical plots Freedom, a bigger share of Kenya Good citizenship/ What you can do for your nationalism country

Right to rule/power Citizen’s responsibility Acting without thinking Create doubt or objectivity Stabilize elite rule Evade problematic foundation Kenya’s responsibility

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Somali militant group Al-Shabaab that had already claimed responsibility for the attacks. The president also accused Mpeketoni security officials of failing to act on advance intelligence on the impending attack, “It is now clear that intelligence on this attack was availed to security officers in Mpeketoni, unfortunately, the officers did not act accordingly. This negligence and abdication of duty and responsibility are unacceptable” (Mpeketoni speech). By accusing the security officials, and claiming to use the law to prosecute them, President Uhuru Kenyatta employed yet another strategy that portrayed him as a savior to Kenyans by punishing the massacre culprits. This tactic also helps divert his responsibility as a leader and ensure security before an attack. Instead, he cites other people’s recklessness. Therefore, President Uhuru never addressed his role and responsibilities as commander-in-chief and failed to secure Kenyans’ security during his second year in office. Similar tactics are employed in the rest of his speeches. The study also discovered a connection between certain themes, which were driven by common ideologies throughout the four speeches. For instance, the themes in the “Mpeketoni” speech included: reckless leaders spewing ethnic hatred, hate speech as a by-product of sub-community in Kenya, stability in Kenya depends on unity among Kenyans, and good citizenship as an end product of good governance. The central theme, politicization of security and othering of his political opponents, flowed throughout the “Madaraka Day,” “Mpeketoni” and “We Shall Revisit the Judiciary” speeches. Moreover, one central idea in the “Mpeketoni” speech, the attack being politically motivated by the opposition party, served to distance President Uhuru from the incident. Ideally, his emphasis on good citizenship helps to keep the country secure, mainly transferring his responsibility back to the citizens who had essentially elected him as president to provide security to Kenyans. Therefore, both ideas helped President Uhuru evade responsibility despite one asking, what countermeasures the president had employed to counter terrorism? In the “We Shall Revisit the Judiciary” speech, the study reveals a few aspects of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s actions. First is a show of muscles: as the executive, he was in charge of the country, and he had the power to stifle the judiciary. Unfortunately, he followed up this threat by cutting the

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judiciary budget the following year. People did not give him the benefit of doubt that the move was purely made from an economic point of view but saw that he had actualized his threat. Therefore, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speech tainted his image. He missed the opportunity to address people authentically and would have been held in a higher esteem. Examples include the president’s directives to the governors to create positions for Jubilee Party candidates who had failed to capture any political seats as well as reiterating that he would do the same. This incident showcases abuse of power and disrespecting the office to which he was elected. His decision ignores the fact that there were many other deserving Kenyans who could have filled those positions. Especially, as a holder of the highest office in the country, much is expected of him. Subsequently, the study found that President Uhuru Kenyatta incorporated nationalism, ethnicity and class in correspondence with the message he sought to convey in order to claim a truth for the public to believe him, so that his audience could not question his arguments within the dimensions he provided. For example, in his “Madaraka Day” speech, ethnicity and class are manifested through his idolization of the founding fathers and the colonial era’s fight for independence. In that case, he indirectly positioned his ethnicity as having played a larger part than the rest of the communities in Kenya. In such a case, he insinuates that they were and are still entitled to a greater share of the fruits of independence and could lay a larger claim on Kenya. This evidenced in his discourse, “the tree of our liberty was, as our founding President said, watered by their blood. It is a debt we can neither repay, nor ever forget. The heroes and heroines, the founders and fathers of this nation, were wise.” This is similar to his father’s speech in 1971, where the late President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta said, “Some want to tell us that Kenya belongs to all people. Granted I know that much. But I have a question to ask: When we were shedding blood, some languished in prison and some suffered in the forests, fighting for Uhuru, where were the bloody others?” (Branch, 2011, p.  102). This reinforces the ideology of the Kenyatta family and his ethnic community’s privilege to lay a larger claim on Kenya in terms of land, higher political offices and better infrastructure in their communities when compared to the other ethnic groups. This is also

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evident in the previous three presidents’ reigns: Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki who originate from the two main ethnic groups, Kikuyu and Kalenjin, and whose higher cabinet positions are mainly filled with people from their respective ethnic groups. President Uhuru Kenyatta continues to fill cabinet positions with the majority of the people from the two ethnic communities—Kikuyu and Kalenjin. This is highlighted by the quote below: “Our constitution is very clear. It not only talks about regional balance, but also talks about ethnic balance,” Madi said. “This was because Kenya has been ethnically divided for a long time, and that is what brought the issues [post-election violence] that we had in 2007–2008 …If you look at the recent appointments, two ethnic communities—whatever their sizes, or which are producing the president and the deputy president—have contributed seven members to the 16-member cabinet, thereby leaving only nine slots for the other 40 ethnic communities,” said Madi. “The community of the deputy president is contributing four members of the cabinet secretaries, and the president’s community is producing three, with a fourth one coming from a closely related ethnic community.” (Clottey, 2013, p.1) Notably, other scholars such as Wrong and Williams (2009) contend that the Kikuyu did not sacrifice the most. Wrong and Williams (2009) further argue that there was no doubt that “the hardest-hit victims of land alienation were the Maasai and not the Kikuyu, the latter’s clamour notwithstanding” (p.  105). In the other speeches, President Uhuru incorporated nationalism, ethnicity and class to convey a sense of togetherness and oneness with the Kenyan people. For example, in his “Mpeketoni” speech, President Uhuru Kenyatta used the term “our people” at the beginning of his speech to evoke a sense of nationalism. He personified himself as a great shepherd and a leader, unlike other divisive leaders he termed as “dangerous leaders who preach the insidious message that some people are holy while others are evil.” President Uhuru further used his nationalism to depict his credibility as a leader and state a larger claim of him being more patriotic to Kenya, as a country and its people than his political opponents who he claimed were essentially enemies of nationalism and were only there to divide Kenyans—enemies of progress.

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Ethnicity, Class and Nationalism In regard to ethnicity and class, President Uhuru Kenyatta claimed in the “Mpeketoni” speech, that a particular ethnicity was targeted without providing contextual background on what constituted the ethnic violence. Thus, he misled his audience when he focused more on his own ethnic community and ignored the fact that other ethnic groups were also targeted. As noted, “the attack in Lamu was well planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence against the Kenyan community with the intention of profiling and evicting them for political reasons. This, therefore, was not an Al Shabab terrorist attack.” Therefore, President Uhuru Kenyatta evoked negative ethnicity in the Mpeketoni speech and suggested that his political opponents, represented by a rival ethnic community, were responsible for the attacks directed toward the Kikuyu people. In President Uhuru Kenyatta’s “We Shall Revisit the Judiciary” speech, nationalism was equated to the appointment and loyalty of his members of cabinet; it also emphasized on unity among leaders who were chosen by Kenyans despite their ethnic backgrounds to work together to enable Kenya to move forward. He noted, “Kenya must move forward. Irrespective of this other issue and when we met with members of the Senate and of the National Assembly, and also Governors, we said that now we have a history, history of devolution, history of a new constitution.” His sense of nationalism is deployed through his discourse to unite all Kenyans despite the presidential elections being nullified. He further uses the oneness reflected in his Jubilee Party as a form of nationalism—that would help Kenya move forward. Similarly, in the “Handshake” speech, the president framed nationalism as a means to unite Kenyans. Together with his brother Raila Odinga, they encouraged Kenyans to support the Building Bridges Initiative as a cause of nationalism and unity of all Kenyans. Also, President Uhuru Kenyatta unified the problems that affected the country and leaders as not “them versus us,” similar to his previous speeches, such as the “Mpeketoni” speech. Echoing a national front, with the people’s president and opposition leader, he created a sense of patriotism among his audience and encouraged them to unite

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and rebuild the country. He stated, “begin a process of discussing what ails us and what creates divisions amongst us.” He also centralized ethnicity as one group of people, that is Kenyans and not a divided front, symbolically marked by the famous “Handshake” gesture between the two leaders, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Honorable Raila Odinga, who represented historical ethnic divides represented between the two largest ethnicities—Luos and Kikuyus. In the “Handshake” speech, there are no differences among leaders and citizens. Also, the differences within the classes—rich and poor—political differences between Uhuru and Raila’s supporters, and the upper political elite, represented by both parties, are neutralized by the unity between the two leaders. Conclusively, this research disclosed that as much as presidential discourses are influential, not everyone is deceived by them. A number of people were able to see through the president’s deceitful tactics and used language to create counter-discourses that spoke truth to power. Thus, the study highlights the counter-discourses to the public to help liberate people who are bound by such discourses. This practice is what Nyabola (2018) calls the art of “naming the beast which is a big part of taming the beast” (p. 177). For example, in the “Madaraka Day” speech, some people associated the state of the country with mental slavery and opted for freedom despite the president’s claims that we had made substantial progress as a country. For example, statements such as “liberty with danger is better than peace with slavery” and “just like we became free from colonization, one day we will be free from bad governance. I look forward to a corrupt-free Kenya which can utilize its resources for the benefit of all the citizens” showcase counter-discourses that are contrary to the president’s depiction of colonization as the root cause of Kenya’s stagnation despite Kenya’s getting its independence in 1963.

Social Media Counter-Discourse—Tweets Other tweets that challenged different ideologies are as follows: one tweet emphasized on building an equal Kenya that benefits everyone, not just one ethnic group or class of people, “let us strive to build a united nation and create equal opportunities for everyone.” While another tweet

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mentioned the ills that Kenyans were still facing despite independence, “nothing to celebrate about our country Kenya still under the yoke of corruption, poor healthcare, illiteracy, tribalism and poverty.” In addition to “57 years of self-internal Rule and this is what we can show off? Then the colonial masters chained our ancestors’ hands, currently our politicians have chained our angles upside down to milk Kenyans dry as depicted in the photo below. It’s not a happy #MadarakaDay.” While another echoed “nothing to celebrate today, for 56 years discussing the same issues; tribalism, nepotism, corruption, hunger and unemployment.” Subsequently, the “Handshake” speech had similar counter-discourse responses. Some highlighted the president’s continuous need for power through his discourse to amend the constitution, “tangatanga I hope you’ve heard that part of the constitution changes.” Another tweet read, “the more I listen to this speech by Uhuru the more I feel like vomiting. We don’t want to hear anything about BBI and changing governance. Come 2022 he should be ready to pack his bags knowing he has left no legacy behind.” Another tweet criticized his leadership, “poverty, ignorance, disease … tribalism, land, corruption. “Politicians from independence to date dangle imaginary solutions to these, yet they are the biggest perpetrators of the same. Kenyans simply need honest leaders; there are none so far! #BBINonsense,” while another tweet emphasized the importance of dealing with economic, leadership and power issues present since the first and second president of Kenya. As noted, “we need to deal with our issues economically, there’s no way #BBINonsense will change Kenyans. It’s stupid coz the same characters are present since 1992  in Multiparty politics. Nonsense.” Other counter-discourse tweets predicted who would be the next president based on the convergence of power from previous and the current administration. As quoted, “the 5th President of the Republic of Kenya will either be #GideonMoi or Raila Odinga, the #BBIFraud #BBINonsense,” citing the BBI initiative as President Uhuru’s tactic to merge his power with another leader so that he still has control of the country. This claim is supported by the following tweet as a counter-­ discourse to power, “#BBIUnitingKenya is a lie. Kenya has always been united. BBI is only uniting two families only. Raila’s family and Kenyatta’s family. They want to rule us forever. How many of you have really

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benefited from #Handshake? #OpenYourEyes.” The tweet urged fellow Kenyans to wake up before it was too late. Additionally, another counter-­ discourse tweet accused politicians of being the cause of the problem: “poverty, ignorance, disease ….tribalism, land, corruption.” “Politicians from independence to date dangle imaginary solutions to these, yet they are the biggest perpetrators of the same. Kenyans simply need honest leaders; there are none so far! #BBINonsense.” Conclusively, after the speech “We Shall Revisit the Judiciary,” citizens on Twitter criticized President Kenyatta’s abuse of power and reminded him that his position among the three branches of leadership was situated beside the two legislative branches (Legislative and the Judiciary), and not above them! A few tweets that stood out included the following. First, “you people don’t know what Uhuru Kenyatta meant. In simpler terms, just like his father who was a prime minister and later the president of the republic of Kenya. This time, it will be the other way round. He will be the third Prime Minister of this republic! #uhurumustgo.” Another read, “the president of Kenya must obey the law. Courts have given their verdict. #UhuruMustGo.” One tweet encouraged the role of the judiciary, “absolutely, #CJMARAGA’s #JudiciaryKE is a co-equal in the tripartite 3-arms of government in #Kenya’s governance structure, and is not in any way, subordinate to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s #Executive. #OkoaJudiciary from the claws of #JubileeKleptocracy junta. #ResistTyranny!” and the last tweet emphasized the importance of Kenyans working together to fight hegemony: “If that guy is not stopped, he will rob Kenya of everything by 2022. After KQ we will be told that SGR also needs to be privatized and sooner than later we will be riding on Kenyatta railways … #uhurumustgo.”

 ole of Religion and Ethnicity in Sustaining R Hegemonic Discourses The study has shown that President Uhuru Kenyatta used religion to both unite and divide Kenyans in his discourses. For example, in the “Mpeketoni” speech, he likened himself to the good shepherd who was

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concerned about Kenyans’ well-being. However, he used ethnicity to divide the same people by claiming that hate speech and political enemies instigated the attack on people in that community. He did not provide the historical context or accept responsibility for the insecurity that had surged while he was still the head of state. Such presidential discourses tend to spread ethnic clashes in different regions due to many people who cannot see beyond the president’s hidden agenda or ideology to preserve his presidency. Also, religion was peddled in these speeches to gain support and position President Uhuru Kenyatta as the chosen one, when it served the president’s purposes. For instance, one of the criticisms of the “Handshake” was that initially President Uhuru positioned his opponent Raila as a curse to Kenya, while President Uhuru projected himself as God’s chosen, to lead Kenyans just like his father. However, as a result of the political clashes in 2017 (Kenya) and the current establishment of the Building Bridges Initiative (Handshake), President Uhuru Kenyatta had now positioned Raila as his brother, and currently endorsed him for the next election. This has left a number of Kenyans wondering if God had decided to unite the so-called devil with the Messiah to save Kenya. This has led to several counter-discourses, with Kenyans using social media to fight the union they call the Kenyan dynasty; they claim the two leaders only came together to benefit the dynasty. Therefore, religion, ethnicity and race have heavily been utilized to peddle presidential discourses to ensure continual stay in power.

Conclusions Presidential speeches play a significant role in sustaining and consolidating democracy to ensure the well-being of a country. Therefore, it is important to empower Kenyans by creating democratic learning avenues that talk about proposed changes in the constitution and encourage the creation of structures that challenge some of the ideologies that serve the interests of the political elites against struggling Kenyans. As every country grows and continues to build its democracy, a stronger focus should be placed to curb politics of identity, which are normally eminent in

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presidential discourses that have become pervasive and divisive globally. The war of words created by presidential discourses worldwide has brought an influx of Africans being shunned and mistreated in other countries, to minorities being policed and brutally killed in the United States, to citizens disregarding health-related guidelines which saw the death of so many citizens worldwide to COVID-19. Unfortunately, it is no longer the economy depicted in presidential speeches, but who aligns with what party and leaders’ ability to frame issues along identity and culture that enables one to sustain their power. As a result, presidential speeches have caused many dangers when they are primarily crafted to sustain leaders in power. For example, the previous COVID-19 upsurges in Tanzania were mainly associated with President Magufuli’s speeches that claimed there was no COVID-19 in the country. This has led to a number of citizens being affected by the disease, causing numerous deaths due to the president’s politicizing of the pandemic. This is similar to the United States, where former President Trump politicized the wearing of masks to be a democratic evil, and many Republican supporters were heavily impacted by the infestation of COVID-19, yet the president had everyone who would come to the White House tested every day. In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speeches have heavily been criticized as the bedrock of ethnic divisions. For instance, the president was recently televised nationally asking the question, why was it that other ethnic groups could not be given the same opportunity to attain leadership? Conversely, in his own cabinet, people from the president’s ethnic group essentially occupied the lead positions. Likewise, a similar trend was depicted in the United States’ presidential speeches, where former President Trump’s speech incited his supporters to cause an insurrection at the State capital in DC to fight for Trump’s victory that was supposedly stolen. These speeches are crafted in such a way that they tap into peoples’ emotions, identity, race and culture, but not their thinking. Therefore, whether a claim is false, it is difficult for people to see through it, if it is based on their emotions or they are blinded by race, ethnicity and culture. Thus, the study has shown that presidential speeches, a key case in Kenya, play a crucial role in sustaining hegemony in the form of advocating for nationalism or adversely affecting the country’s democracy. Therefore, the analysis of President Uhuru’s public discourses is an

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example for current and future political leaders to realize the significance and dangers language poses in establishing and promoting national unity, in sustaining hegemony, and the construction and deconstruction of positive feelings toward other ethnic groups. Vitally, the study’s critical approach was created to demystify ideologies of power in an effort to show how texts and speeches serve the interests of those in power in society, which has been normalized as acceptable, and through its analysis create resources for Kenyans struggling against domination in its linguistic forms (Fairclough, 1995, p. 1).

Recommendations Due to the rich data generated by research question four that examined how citizens use language to fight and counter hegemonic discourses, future research could explore the role of counter-discourses in reshaping policy. The results show that Kenyans know some of the tactics President Uhuru has used and are currently working to create avenues that advocate for ordinary citizens to voice their views to speak truth to power. This provides hope of a changing Kenya and also provides an advocacy model to other African countries undergoing similar power maintenance dynamics to help them work toward change and build progressive democracies. Additionally, the study unveiled tactics and components used by President Uhuru Kenyatta to help him stay in power as a direct effect of the centralization of power around the office of the president. This came as a result of the disintegration of the nationalist coalition that enabled a strong authoritarian presidency (Anyang’ Nyong’o, 1989). Therefore, the study proposes the decentralization of power from the office of the president to citizens to support policies and regulations that take into account the citizens’ needs and voices. Decentralization of power can also be tackled by introducing the concept of power-sharing among ethnic groups. For example, in Nigeria, ethnic groups share governance positions by making sure that the President and Vice President are from different ethnic groups. Nigeria’s past presidencies have rotated among the country’s ethnic groups. Even the ministerial positions are apportioned to different ethnic

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groups. A similar program or framework could be implemented in Kenya to help expand the governance and involve a more diverse ethnic representation. Similar models have been incorporated in Botswana and South Africa that use several strategies to counter hegemony in their countries and ensure development, equal opportunities, nationalism and less corruption (Phago & Molosi-France, 2018). This model helps decentralize power from the office of the president and ensures that communities are meaningfully involved in making decisions which enable the governance to be effective at both local and national levels. The study proposes increasing the knowledge of citizens through literacy to curb the adverse effects created by the polarization of presidential discourse to sustain the needs of the hegemonic elites, for example, by informing citizens of the implications of certain policies that would affect them. For instance, the current Building of Bridges Intuitive, also known as the Handshake, was not enforced by the High Court because of the advocacy on its implications to the citizens. Moreover, instances where the presidential discourses employ ethnicity to divide people in order to gain support should be exposed and its dangers taught to people.

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Clottey, P. (2013, May 8). Kenya Lawmakers Accuse Kenyatta of Undermining Constitution. https://www.voanews.com/africa/kenya-­lawmakers-­accuse-­ kenyatta-­undermining-­constitution Crabtree, J. (2018, January 30). Two Elections in 2017  – And Now Two Presidents as Kenya’s Opposition Leader Inaugurates Himself. https://www. cnbc.com/2018/01/30/kenya-­opposition-­leader-­raila-­odinga-­inaugurates-­ himself.html Elkins, C. (2008). What’s Tearing Kenya Apart? History, for One Thing. Washington Post. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis (1st ed.). Longman Publishing. Ferree, K.  E., Gibson, C.  C., & Long, J.  D. (2014). Voting Behavior and Electoral Irregularities in Kenya’s 2013 Election. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 8(1), 153–172. Gramsci, A., & Hoare, Q. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Vol. 294). Hornsby, C. (2013). Kenya: A History Since Independence. IB Tauris. Hughes, L. (2011). ‘Truth be told’: Some Problems with Historical Revisionism in Kenya. African Studies, 70(2), 182–201. Hyden, G. (1994). Party, state and civil society: Control versus openness. In J. Barkan (ed.). Beyond capitalism versus socialism in Kenya and Tanzania. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Ives, P. (2004). Language and Hegemony in Gramsci. Pluto Press. Jackson, R., & Rosberg, C. (1982). Personal Rule in Black Africa. University of California Press. Kazeem, Y. (2018, November 22). What Do African Strongmen Do After They Get Kicked Out of Office? https://qz.com/africa/1471547/ zimbabwe-­post-­mugabe-­what-­do-­africas-­strongmen-­do-­next/ Kieh, G. K. (2018). The “Hegemonic Presidency” in African Politics. African Social Science Review, 9(1), 5. Medina, J. (2013). The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and the Social Imagination. Oxford University Press. Meredith, M. (2005). The Fate of Africa-From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair: A History of Fifty Years of Independence. Jonathan Ball. Moore, J. (2018, March 9). ‘We Should Unite’: Kenya’s top political rivals hold surprise meeting. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/world/africa/ kenya-uhuru-kenyatta-raila-odinga.html Monahan, M.  J. (2014). Review of the Epistemology of Resistance by Jose Medina. APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy.

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9 Students’ Use of Digital Online Resources in Music Study at Zimbabwe State Universities in Response to COVID-19 Edith Weutonga Katiji, Richard Muranda, Weston Chimbudzi, and Vimbai Chamisa

Introduction The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced people to avoid physical contact and prompted an urgent global need to shift towards increased use of digital media resources in teaching and learning at all levels of education. This chapter reviews the virtual alternatives that are available for the academic theory and practical study in selected state universities in Zimbabwe. A sample of 30 randomly selected university music students

E. W. Katiji Zimbabwe Musicians Union, Harare, Zimbabwe R. Muranda (*) • W. Chimbudzi Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe V. Chamisa University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_9

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was included in the study. Through a qualitative paradigm the research explored strengths and weaknesses in using virtual resources and suggested ideas for current and post-COVID-19 contexts. Results indicate that there is a need to adjust to the new trajectory with a comprehensive look at new alternatives available for use. The government of Zimbabwe should increase assistance to state-run universities in order for them to offer quality online education. Currently, all Zimbabwean state universities still need to establish uninterrupted flow of Internet connectivity for online studying and sufficient digital media resources in place of the traditional face-to-face education. Institutions of higher education in Zimbabwe particularly state universities should work with stakeholders and Internet service providers to ensure the accessibility of the Internet facility and required devices to students in the remote parts of Zimbabwe for virtual education to be tenable to all. The advent of digital technology has ushered in several changes in the modus operandi in the delivery of tuition in education globally. In recent years there has been a paradigm shift from confinement in buildings to virtual classrooms through the Internet (Harasim, 2017; Li et al., 2013). Physical contact between lecturers and students has been substituted with online tutorials through texts, audio and videos. The possibility to engage in a variety of social interactions with peers through video and audio has increased with the advent of digital technologies. The new millennium has ushered a myriad of students at different levels to engage with their peers and educators through the virtual space (Evanshen et al., 2009; Li et al., 2013). As a paradigm shift the above has also necessitated adjustments to the traditional models on educational pedagogies. The scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic since December 2019 which required people to avoid physical contact has also prompted an urgent global need to fast track the shift towards the use of virtual media resources in teaching and learning at all levels of education (WHO, 2020). While the shift towards virtual learning seems inevitable in the current environment, some Zimbabwean institutions are on record for refusing to recognise qualifications by certain overseas universities offering online degrees (Charumbira, 2015; Rori, 2016). Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) as the standards control institution has in the past cast a shadow of doubt on the credibility

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and authenticity of certain online qualifications. Some of the online qualifications are treated with contempt as some prospective employers in Zimbabwe snub them. Numerous state and privately owned universities in Zimbabwe express their doubt on the academic pedigree of some applicants wielding online degrees. The researchers had the privilege to engage with several academics far and near; they noted that there is a glaring tendency to underrate degree qualifications obtained through online institutions. The above view motivated the researchers to study the possibilities of virtual media in classes at four universities in Zimbabwe. This is particularly necessary at a time when the world gravitated towards an espousal of digital media as mode of instruction in view of the ravaging effects of COVID-19 as reported by Guertin et  al. (2021). The study focuses on music instruction in particular because music is one of the studies that thrive largely on one-on-one tutorials with high physical and social interaction especially in practical performances of musical instruments such as dance, marimba and mbira. The study holds that state universities in Zimbabwe wield the human, hardware and software requisite resources to engage in online classes. Thus, the study endeavours to explore the possibilities underlying online music learning in the state universities in Zimbabwe.

 he COVID-19 Pandemic and the Disruption T of Education in Zimbabwe The WHO (2020) Strategy Update on 14 April reveals that the social, physical and psychological well-being of humans has come under a severe threat especially in the backdrop of the dangerous COVID-19  in the twenty-first century, and based upon the above situation concerted efforts are imperative for the nations to afford citizens health measures together with relevant education. Zimbabwe is no exception to this call, hence the spur to conduct this study for online possibilities. At the height of the COVID-19, universities in Zimbabwe were forced to close doors to avoid physical congregating of students. The use of online classroom tuition became the only option. Regardless of some constraints emanating from COVID-19 several private universities have

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continued to offer virtual tuition, while some state-run schools, colleges and universities responded with slow action to the uptake of online classes. The onset of COVID-19 was met with lecturers and students not fully prepared to engage in virtual teaching and learning. Zimbabwe as one developing nation finds it difficult to efficiently provide resources to state institutions so that they engage in virtual classrooms for instruction partly because the economy is strained. The cost of hardware and software requirements to set and run the Internet has proven to be astronomically high for the majority of the population living in poverty. In spite of the above-mentioned situation, education remains a basic and essential need and the central government of Zimbabwe has a mandate to deploy requisite resources to support the citizens to acquire decent health and education. In the current time of the COVID-19 pandemic and going into the future state universities are required to adopt safe models of instruction and learning with a guaranteed on quality service to students (WHO, 2020). There is a need to make serious considerations to circumvent the threat of COVID-19 and yet still meet the set goals for the universities in Zimbabwe. Even if the pandemic disease recedes, the post-COVID-19 period will witness a system of education that has shifted significantly from the traditional context of face to face to a blended approach with virtual classes. The world has become a global village accessible through the World Wide Web; hence, the way to run education has evolved commensurately with current trends. Possibilities to engage in models of virtual instruction tenable in both theoretical and practical tuition need to be considered with careful planning in order to succeed. In view of the above background the researchers find it imperative to engage in a review of the possibilities that can be adopted to progress with tertiary education in both theory and practical disciplines at higher and tertiary levels in Zimbabwe.

The Problem The threat on the health and well-being of humanity due to the scourge of COVID-19 is a crisis and reality that left thousands dead in many nations including Zimbabwe. The rate of infections in Zimbabwe was on

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the rise since June 2020 and continued to rise with another spike that erupted in 2021. The government of Zimbabwe enforced restrictions to movement and physical interaction among the people. Consequently, schools, colleges and universities physical attendance were all suspended. The alluded measures made it difficult for people to earn a living with inadequate support from the government. Universities in Zimbabwe opted to use the foggy and virtual resources in place of the traditional physical classroom to finish the pending semesters going forward. This study explores possibilities of virtual classes available in the academic study of music in theory and practical courses in state universities in Zimbabwe. COVID-19 has transformed the culture of teaching and learning hence concerted adjustments require comprehensive assessment of available alternatives to help state-run state universities that offer music tuition. The study examines the strengths and weaknesses encountered in using online classes and offers suggestions for current and post COVID-19 milieus.

Theoretical Explanation In this research the researchers use the term “theory and model” to mean the same thing hence these are referred to interchangeably. According to Picciano (2017), online education thrives on the basis of a combination of several theories culminating in an integrated model or theory. Picciano (2017) makes proposals for an online education model which borrows from various theories informing educational learning. Anderson (2011) argues that deriving a universal online instruction theory is easier said than done. A lot of considerations need to be considered in regard to the aforesaid matter. Regardless of the above, Picciano (2017) opines that a culmination of several theoretical frameworks can be considered for use towards creating some possibilities of an online model. Graham et  al. (2013) propose a three-tier taxonomy as a fundamental framework for instructional technology to support online education. The taxonomy holds that students need to, firstly, explore with intent to then engage in describing and classifying; they should also explain the cause and correlation of subject matter through working with variables and

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relationships. Lastly, design is a stage that describes intervention methods in order to get the desired goals and operational principles. In order to articulate the critical issues underlying subject matter for this study, the researchers used the principles of behaviourism according to Ivan Pavlov, B.F.  Skinner, Edward Thorndike and John B.  Watson which is influential to the theory of reinforcement of behaviour and its bearing on producing expected outcomes in the use of computer assisted instruction (Picciano, 2017& Speaks, 2022). Further, the study borrows cognitivism as a pillar with a prognostic stimulus response as posited by the behaviourists Naomi Chomsky and Benjamin Bloom (Harasim, 2017). The researchers also bring in Bloom’s Taxonomy as a model that promotes cognition and developmental psychology. Further the study holds that social constructivism as advocated by the educational psychologists John Dewey, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky is an essential requisite for lecturers and students. It is a fundamental requirement for virtual classrooms to afford students with opportunities to develop in the alluded domains. This study was also guided by the Community of Inquiry (COI) model as proffered by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000, [2010]). COI is based on the concept of three distinct “presences” namely cognitive, social and teaching. “Presence” is a social phenomenon and manifests itself through interactions among students and instructors. Social presence is described as the ability to project one’s self and establish personal and purposeful relationships through effective and interactive communication (Garrison, 2007, 63). The three main aspects of social presence, as defined here, are effective communication, open communication and group cohesion. The teaching presence allows module leaders to guide and facilitate learning and they can send and explain module outlines and lecture content. Cognitive presence is defined as “the exploration, construction, resolution and confirmation of understanding through collaboration and reflection in a community of inquiry” (Garrison, 2007, 65). Through sending questions and assigning tasks the model promotes fruitful discussions with both students and lecturers; hence, there is deep cognitive involvement. Taking the same concepts to the current era, the model can capitalise on resources like Facebook, Google classroom, Skype, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Zoom.

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Methodology Three state universities in Zimbabwe offer academic studies in music, thus Great Zimbabwe University, Midlands State University and University of Zimbabwe. The study focused on music students only. The study adopted according to Creswell (2014) a qualitative paradigm with an aim to interact with participants and appreciate their experiences as they endeavoured to study music under COVID-19 constraints. A total of 30 participants were randomly sampled, interviewed and subjected to focus group discussions to solicit for data (Cohen et  al., 2018). The sample was deemed adequate since music did not have large numbers of enrolments. The researchers used online resources to engage with participants largely for interviews and focus group discussions. With due consideration to the COVID-19 protocols, data were gathered through emails, voice recorders, voice calls, WhatsApp calls and chats, Google meet and Zoom. According to Mishra and Alok (2011) the researchers secured informed consent from all participants and pledged to conceal their identity and institutions they belonged to. It is important to ensure that research participants feel safe and confident (Lune & Berg, 2017). Since the identity of emails and phone numbers was not hidden, the researchers treated all the participants and their views with confidentiality. All of them were treated as anonymous. The gathered data were analysed through the thematic approach and ideas classified under the digital resources that the participants used personally and as prescribed in their institutions.

 ossibilities with Virtual Resources in Online P Music Learning In this section the researchers examined the possibilities for virtual music education through selected virtual resources. The resources under the current study were by no means exhaustive as there is a wide array of virtual resources. The study examined and analysed them for prospects of deployment and subsequent implementation in future. The discussions

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articulate the functions, merits and challenges of Blogs and Webinars, Google classroom, Websites, WhatsApp, YouTube and Zoom. The reasons for the selections of the above-listed resources are that they wielded multiple functions in social, economic, religious and educational spheres. In social circles, for example, WhatsApp was used in both leisure and education; it helped to disseminate knowledge people needed to use. In spite of the accelerated move towards using modern technology, it was not given that deployment of virtual resources as listed was flawless. There was a need for skills development to operate the resources among lecturers and students. In this chapter the authors assume that the current generation had become techno savvy; hence, exploration and manipulation of available media or digital resources was more likely to be taken with ease than otherwise. Some of the modern resources were available to students by their institutions while others were condemned. In the following space, the researchers tackle each of the selected resources and engage in discussions based on empirical data gathered in the study.

Blogs and Websites Historically blogs started as a domain for bloggers with an aim to showcase and disseminate personal information for marketing business or other related endeavours. A blog is a kind of a website whose information is frequently changed to keep a certain group of people informed. A website may contain static information that does not get to be changed more frequently (Rotem & Oster-Levinz, 2007). In reality websites are virtual locations for institutions and individuals to exhibit the services they offer to the world. Websites get to be updated after some time. Both websites and blogs are online resources that disseminate information through still graphics, video, texts and audio with some likelihood for interaction between users and the information therein as well as other users. Blogs can be run to serve and function both as online and offline facilities. Berthiaume (2009) says owners of blogs/websites can manage them by keeping updated information loaded onto the blog. Blogs can be updated with new content uploads and or removal. Bloggers can post notices on the forthcoming events and features to attract viewers. Blogs or websites

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create focus on learning once they are adapted for the purposes of teaching and learning (Lynch & Lynch, 2003). They also enable reflexive and critical thought processes in an informal setting. Students can work on their own tasks while at home in a relaxed social location (Çetin & Özdemir, 2013). Blogs or websites can also serve as bulletin boards, information reservoirs which provide specific services like making payments, content for education just to mention a few. Individuals and companies/institutions can run blogs/websites, to serve purposes as desired by the hosts. For institutions blogs are run as subsets of the main website to allow a variety of activities to take off without interrupting the main websites (Barikzai, 2009). As a response to COVID-19 it was noted that universities began to intensify the use of blogs and websites. However, the most prevalent aspect in the selected universities were websites. At the break of the new millennium websites and blogs saw a gradual shift towards a variety of services ranging from conducting business, lectures, counselling and dissemination of information on diverse subject matter (Xie et al., 2010; Yang & Chang, 2012). The Internet was observed as a prime provider for materials for learning. Lecturers could send their students Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to students so that they locate and attend to some learning tasks. The current study noted that websites were more common than blogs. Largely the content on websites was controlled and managed by the university administrators to disseminate critical information like applying for studies, payment of fees, advertising vacancies and the institutional repository for research output. The universities under study hosted blogs for student’s use. Blogs and websites were used by the students in a relaxed way. Students accessed past exam papers, electronic publications, submitted assignments and got feedback too from their peers and supervisors. Students also accessed blogs/websites of individual hosts and other universities’ outside Zimbabwe. Information from blogs motivated students to prepare for exams. Videos with instruction on playing a variety of musical instruments were accessed by students. The blogs and websites were seen to be convenient to download content and also post feedback to their instructors and other students. Intermittent disruptions due to the network posed serious challenges to the students. However, there was an outcry on the poor connectivity due

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to slow Internet and the use of old computers. The ideas behind the use of blogs were viewed to be brilliant; however, the majority of participants claimed that Internet data was just too expensive and hoped a solution was needed to avert the problems.

Facebook Although Facebook may not have a bias towards educational purposes, Manca and Ranieri (2014) say that it has largely been associated with social networking and sharing of different types of social information. Even though the researchers concur with the above view, Facebook is arguably one of the most popular social networking sites (SNS) in the world other than WhatsApp. Several students at tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe and the world over spent substantial time on Facebook. Essentially it has become a conducive platform to engage in instruction of several areas of interest including the study of music too. Studies by Irwin et  al. (2012); Gamble and Wilkins, (2014); Said, Tahir and Ali (2014); Hassan and Dickson (2014); and Espinosa (2015) reveal that Facebook is a valuable resource and a tool for online learning. Facebook like other SNSs enabled two-way communication between the lecturers and students and it provided positive reinforcement and knowledge acquisition. Facebook was accessed on devices ranging from tablets, smartphones, laptops and personal computers. Said, Tahir and Ali (2014) argue that the students of today can no longer be isolated from the activities in the education arena. There are so many social networking sites and Facebook is one resource that brings many facets of work into one place (Watson et al., 2017). It also allowed for voice and video conferencing among groups or classes. Students discussed topics in music and engaged in debates. It has a merit in keeping a living archive with the record of activities in text, audio and video interactions which can be retrieved for reference and revision (Facebook Guide for Educators, 2013). All participants agreed that Facebook was indeed useful as an alternative response to the disruption of COVID-19. The respondents in the study expressed the view that universities did not officially accept Facebook; hence, they should embrace it (Hassan and Dickson, 2014; Espinosa, 2015). In view

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of the above it is reasonable to capitalise on the strengths of Facebook. Regardless of the merits that accrue to the users, it is possible for students to stray into exploring extraneous eye catching issues that are not beneficial to educational processes. The random pops that appear on screens of Facebook visitors require self-discipline. The participants concurred that Facebook requires students to be focused in order to acquire knowledge. The efficiency of Facebook as a resource depends on Internet connectivity; however, some of the students could not connect due to poor connectivity.

Google Альона (2020) informs that virtual online services such as Google and other innovative technologies can be used to improve educational activities and experience in higher education by increasing efficiency, as well as the organisation of subject matter and its underlying content. The use of Google service permeates through social, education and economic circles with numerous applications to execute a variety of tasks to the benefit of students. Google provides search engines where different browsers are used to surf through the Internet. Google hosts electronic mailing for a variety of service providers. In Zimbabwe universities have taken advantage of that to provide training, communication networks, websites, conferencing and networking to students and lecturers. The academic institutions have capitalised on Google as an electronic service to engage in research, store and publish research reports via online platforms. Gestwicki and McNely (2010) in their study on the efficacy of practices using Google services noted that instructors can engage and exchange information through virtual interaction. Google Classroom and Google Teams services proved to be user-friendly to promote students working on classwork, discussions and projects in a collaborative way. Students completed and submitted group tasks and restricted their work to access via passwords and user identity codes to members only. Google created a community for students and lecturers to share similar goals. The instructors could also interact with students and give progress reports. Timely feedback was effective motivation to improve performance

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in set tasks. The respondents indicated poor connectivity and very expensive data as the major setbacks to Google services. In some remote areas of Zimbabwe students could not connect unless they walked long distances to get free Wi-Fi zones which lasted only an hour per day.

WhatsApp According to Singh and Blase (2020) WhatsApp lands itself more to the social networking realm than the educational sites. In the past six years of using the above social medium the researchers noted an exponential growth in the number of users. All the participants at the selected universities embraced the use of WhatsApp for formal and informal tasks and communication they engaged. Before COVID-19 WhatsApp was held solely as a mode of social communication through individual and group chats and voice/video calls. WhatsApp is generally held as an informal way to engage in educational issues like studies (Medeiros & Singh, 2020). At the outbreak of COVID-19 an intensified use was experienced with lecturers encouraging their students to convene through WhatsApp group chats. The trend was to have students choose their administrators and the lecturers became ex-officio members to keep the focus of the group on learning experiences. Rules and regulations to run the groups were always spelt to keep order in the course of events. The noted experiences of participants indicate that the above social media trended well and facilitated the posting of assignments for marking and conducting discussions and tutorials. In spite of the above some students had incessant problems with poor network connectivity. This was regardless of the fact that all the universities did not take WhatsApp as an official resource. Some of the notable complaints were poor Internet connectivity. Some participants made false claims of poor network as an excuse of failure to make reports to their assigned work. However, lecturers could not verify the genuineness of all the cases, hence the reason to never adopt its use as a formal resource for instruction. Another problem was that large groups were difficult to control and many administrators did not always agree on what to do especially when members misbehaved. However, in music groups were small and manageable. Participants informed that WhatsApp

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was the cheapest mode of communication among the students; they could attend to individual and group issues. Although practical work was not easy with WhatsApp, instead short video and voice clips were used to disseminate some practical skills even though these took time to deliver if data was weak or not enough. WhatsApp depended on availability of Internet network and compatibility of devices hence users made their own choices based on affordability. WhatsApp proved to be the most trending mode of dealing with classwork in the COVID-19; to this end it was and is still the cheapest modus operandus to university students. In all institutions WhatsApp was condemned for being too informal and difficult to manage and monitor for accountability especially student activities and lecturers’ tasks.

YouTube One of the dynamic and amazing digital resources is the capacity of combining multiple media in presenting information on cyberspace. The accessibility of YouTube videos information is available at the click of mouse button from anywhere as long as there is Internet connectivity. According to Hanson (2018), some of the YouTube videos are useful in teaching and learning music. YouTube gave publicity to videos and increased interaction between consumers and the entertainment industry. The combination of audio and motion pictures was seen as a shift from focusing exclusively on audio to audio-video musicals and multimedia displays. The motion pictures without the appeal of audio rendered the purpose of visuals futile. The participants claimed that they visited YouTube, a resource with a wide variety of music tutorials, classes and lectures. It was noted that some YouTube videos presented concepts on acoustics, audio post-production, digital audio, recording, mixing and mastering, theory of music, histories of music, ethnomusicology, musicology and other music concepts informed university music studies. The participants held that YouTube was useful especially in making downloads. However, the cost of data to access the Internet and make downloads was expensive. Participants in the study relied on their lecturers’ guidance on credibility of information from YouTube. Like

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other online resources YouTube enabled users to create channels where followers observed and engaged with the presenters in real time with an option to interact via text messages. The facility suffered a setback in that universities regarded it as informal and prone to information with no credibility. The site was popular in places with free Wi-Fi. However poor network especially in the COVID-19 lockdowns left many students unable to access YouTube.

Zoom Zoom became known to some of the universities especially after the outbreak of COVID-19, otherwise some students and lecturers were oblivious of the facility. Just like Google classroom video and audio discussions, tutorials, class work, conferences, meetings and oral examinations are possible with Zoom. The provision of an ID and a key or password to the Zoom facility meant that proceedings could be kept confidential without intruders. Of the four universities that had music as part of their degree studies one used Zoom. According to Peters and Thomas (2021), Zoom made it possible for many members of the university community to participate in meetings, classes and discussions. Although Zoom was not unique it depended on the hosting search engine’s efficiency in terms of connectivity. Initially users of Zoom used to have both audio and visual conferencing until they discovered that it would affect the streaming of data and reduce network connectivity hence audio only became the alternative option. Although the universities allowed online classes via Zoom it was noted that most of the lecturers did their proceedings with depleted classes due to inhibitive costs of data and incessant breaks due to glitches to speech as presenters took time to speak online. Some students indicated that they did not try to join because data was not sufficient to run for just one class session. Although the majority of the students claimed that they were willing to use Zoom, it was observed that it was not easy to stay connected. Pedaste and Kasemets (2021) noted that virtual resources come with some challenges like time factor. Some joined classes late, while others had connection problems. In spite of the above issues, using Zoom for online teaching and learning was commendable.

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However, the available network providers were viewed as too expensive for the students who struggled to buy reliable devices and Internet data to connect with other students in class.

 onsiderations on Online Music Classes C at State Universities The researchers examine some ideas and thoughts on online music learning at the selected universities in Zimbabwe. According to the research, while other digital platforms such as Facebook and Zoom were used, Google class and WhatsApp were the most commonly used resources for online music tuition at universities; however, Google class was the most favoured by administrations while WhatsApp was the most lucrative to students. Even though Google class was embraced by students and universities for teaching and learning music, researchers noted that some students could not sustain the high cost of Internet data for connectivity. Consequently, some of the students failed to effectively interact with their lecturers and peers through the official resources. Intermittent connection problems also compounded the challenges of the Internet. Some of the lecturers and students opted for affordable means to engage in teaching and learning, discussions, submission and marking of assignments. The alluded options were not readily accepted as they were deemed not official because lecturers were provided with data for access to the official virtual resource, while students had to look for alternatives on their own. It did not help the situation as some of the students could not access the lecturers due to poor connectivity. Connectivity challenges coupled with inadequate computers to the majority of students made it impossible for the selected state universities to accomplish teaching virtually since the disruption of face-to-face education by COVID-19 in March 2020. Institutions of higher education in Zimbabwe had not negotiated effectively with the key Internet service providers and stakeholders to ensure the accessibility of connectivity and affordable devices to promote viable online music learning within their institutions. The use of online teaching and learning was undertaken as a

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new trajectory whose modalities witnessed students taking long to adjust to. For most of the universities the idea of conducting exams virtually is a taboo and up to date no university has begun online exams in music let alone other areas of study. If it was tenable, all examinations could have been undertaken via online. All the participants preferred to follow the old modality of physical writing of examinations instead of online mode. In spite of the scourge of COVID-19 all state universities had only managed to conduct classroom based examination sessions regardless of the trend to reduce the frequency of the face-to-face teaching and learning. If COVID-19 lingers longer the lost time may never be recovered if a wholly virtual course of events is not embraced going forward. To this end COVID-19 is indeed a disruption of the traditional four walls classroom hence online resources can be used to avert the challenges of music tuition in the twenty-first century. The traditional model of large groups which poses danger to life was suspended temporarily only to resume with physical writing of exams under threatening conditions regardless of the COVID-19 protocols. The call to have students come and write exams in small groups is safe although it takes more time. There is a mismatch between undertaking virtual teaching and then asking the students to physically come and write examinations. However, it looks like the idea of virtual examinations is not a choice for all the state universities. Contrarily some private universities which cannot be named have been able to continue with tuition of students and writing examinations virtually since the outbreak of COVID-19. As at the time of this study the alluded university was well abreast with the timing of semesters since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe. However, the student population of the above referred private university was smaller than that of state universities hence the deployment of virtual examinations. In spite of the provision of a vaccine for COVID-19, it was seen logical to do the virtual exams until COVID-19 got under total control. Students felt that life was at stake if the universities did not embrace an outright virtual teaching with online exams. A challenge with online teaching and learning especially music is that it is difficult to engage ensemble performances with musical instruments such as marimba, mbira ensembles and dance. The instruments are communal and they are performed by groups of students together with

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physical interaction. Having practical ensembles via the virtual space suffers a setback with poor Internet. Such practical performances may be easy to examine through online but they remove the life they carry in the natural context. The universities did not have adequate resources to enable students to perform as groups. While music lecturers could send video tutorials of various practical modules to students during lockdown for practice individually, Zimbabwean universities have always allocated the practical modules more time for face-to-face tutorials as compared to the theory lessons consequently this was a short-changed transaction. The above observations suggest that the universities could not think outside the box and provide enabling conditions for practical tutorials. This was also affected by the enrolment of students with limited infrastructure in terms of space and equipment in the universities. Recommendation  The study recommends that institutions seek funding to support the purchase of data for Internet services to run programmes. The state should also finance free Wi-Fi zones at state universities to promote Community of Inquiry in the locations where the universities are situated. The use of virtual music instruction should be complemented by virtual examination processes. In the same way marking of examinations should also be virtual. In view of the current economic dire straits, music lecturers and students may need empowerment to acquire and or upgrade devices for use in virtual classes.

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10 The Culture of Online Shaming Targeting Women from the Middle East and North African (MENA) Region Shoaa Almalki

Introduction This chapter examines the use of Twitter hashtags to shame and silence women for being vocal about women’s rights and feminism or for violating social norms in the MENA region. The study uses muted group theory to examine the phenomenon of silencing women through Twitter to understand the characteristics of the online shaming culture in the MENA region. The researcher utilized qualitative methods and in-depth interviews with female users of Twitter in the MENA region and legal, cultural, and civic organizations experts. The findings show that online shaming campaigns in the MENA region, especially those targeting women, utilize religion, fear, and violent rhetoric to force women to withdraw from social media and to be silenced. In 2009, Ghadeer Ahmed, an 18-year-old girl from a conservative family in Egypt, sent a video to her boyfriend’s phone. The video showed

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Ghadeer, who wore a hijab at the time, wearing a short sleeveless dress and dancing in a private gathering with friends. Three years later, Ghadeer broke up with her boyfriend, who decided to post the video on YouTube in revenge for ending the relationship. Ghadeer was terrified that her family would find out about the video. Nothing about that video, the dance, the dress, and her relationship with a man outside of marriage, would be tolerated in their honor culture in which women are viewed as property rather than individuals with agency. By 2013, Ghadeer had changed her life, having taken part in the Egyptian revolution, removed her hijab, and become an activist for women’s rights. Despite her fears, Ghadeer decided to take an active role in resisting the efforts of her ex-boyfriend to shame her. She pursued legal action, and he was convicted of defamation. The video, however, remained on YouTube and was being circulated across other social media networks by people who shamed and attacked her for being an outspoken feminist activist. Deciding to be a victim no longer, Ghadeer took charge of the situation by posting the video herself on her own Facebook page along with a comment asking people to stop shaming and silencing women by treating their bodies as a source of shame. Ghadeer made the brave decision to resist abuse and overcome the consequences of online shaming. This is not the case for many women from the MENA region who express their support of feminist principles and attempt to break free from oppressive and gendered social norms. According to a report by Yasmina Allouche on the Middle East Eye (2020), women in the Middle East and North Africa [MENA] regions can face more dire consequences for their online content if perceived as offensive than those of their male counterparts. The context in which online shaming happens is bound by factors that intensify the detrimental effects of shaming. Factors like intergender relationships, religious mores, political systems, culture, and social norms might also hinder reporting online shaming cases in the media. This study examined online shaming on Twitter from the perspective of women from the MENA region by conducting in-depth confidential interviews with female users of Twitter in the MENA region and legal, cultural, and civic organizations experts. The study focuses on one social media platform, Twitter, because of its far-reaching communication features and ease of access to circulated content even by those who are not

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registered Twitter users (Transfeld & Werenfels, 2016). The study fits within the growing global research on the #MeToo (sexual harassment) movement and the online harassment of women. It seeks to expand what is known about the unique experiences of women from the MENA region.

Gender and Culture in the MENA Region The MENA region is part of the world characterized as the “patriarchal belt.” This area also includes countries in non-Arab Turkey and Iran, South and East Asia (Moghadam, 2007; Offenhauer & Buchalter, 2005; Kandiyoti, 1988). Regardless of religion, this part of the world is known to have extended paternal families who uphold male domination and maintain discriminatory practices against women and girls whose sexual purity is closely tied to family honor. Women from the MENA region are expected to dress modestly and refrain from having relationships with men outside of familial and professional circles. Women are also expected to subordinate to male relatives in a way that can deprive them of their agency, especially regarding work, marriage, divorce, and other life choices. Women who do not meet these expectations and are vocal about women’s oppression and honor culture are usually targeted with vicious shaming and naming campaigns online and offline. Some of these campaigns can affect the women’s reputation and, therefore, their family’s reputation, which can result in honor killings (Chesler, 2010). Aside from the threat of honor killing, women from the MENA can receive harsh consequences for their social media content if it is deemed inappropriate or violates social norms. At times, not only the women’s families get involved in punishing the victim, but also members of society and even the government. One of the infamous cases of online shaming turned into criminal charges by the Egyptian government is that of Haneen Hossam and Mouda Aladham. The two famous women on TikTok were detained and charged with outrageous charges, including women trafficking and insulting the Egyptian family’s values. The two women were involved in an advertisement for a new platform that would allow users to make money by sharing videos on the platform. Haneen Hossam (20 years old) was sentenced to ten years in prison, and Mouda Aladham (23 years old) was sentenced to six years. It is reported by

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human rights activists in Egypt that the government is targeting female social media influencers and violating their basic human rights of communicating freely and bodily autonomy (“Egypt Today,” 2020).

Online Feminist Activism in the MENA Region Women from the MENA region have resisted social norms restricting their freedom and agency in many ways. In recent years, women have been growing in the political consciousness of their rights and limitations using social media networks (Odine, 2013; Petronzio, 2017; Fareed, 2017; Bell & Shaikhouni, 2017). This has influenced many women to construct a public sphere to express themselves, advocate for their rights, support oppressed women, and understand oppression and liberation and their relation to their own lives (O’Sullivan, 2017; Begum, 2017; Burleigh, 2017). Women in Saudi Arabia rallied against the male guardianship law restricting their movement, work, and other life choices. In Egypt, women have spoken against sexual harassment using a hashtag called #‫املرصايت‬-‫صوت‬-‫ امسع‬which translates to listening to Egyptian women’s voices. Moreover, Muslim women across the globe shared their own experiences of sexual assault in holy places in the #mosquemetoo hashtag, which mirrors the global feminist movement of #MeToo. However, shaming campaigns against vocal women and feminists have been a problem that threatens women’s safety and aims to silence them.

Online Shaming on Twitter Online shaming using Twitter hashtags has been the focus of a few studies concerned with the accessibility of the platform and its global reach. While media companies are protected against lawsuits concerned with content published on their platforms (Laidlaw, 2017), it appears that social media companies are moving toward creating privacy policies and privacy settings to give their users control over their accounts and protect them from potential unwanted attention (Control Who Can See What, 2020). Research shows, however, that the enforcement of the anti-harassment policies has been ineffective in protecting victims of online shaming (Conbere, 2019).

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When online mobs target a person, whether a celebrity or an ordinary individual, the circulation of shaming messages is limitless. In the case of an online shaming campaign on Twitter, things can get out of control quickly due to the platform’s very nature, which allows all users to create hashtags and contribute to other trending hashtags. Starting a hashtag does not directly make it a critical weapon in online shaming campaigns. A hashtag must be circulated among other Twitter users who regularly participate, pushing it to the trending hashtags list. Understanding the power dynamics between a member of a dominant group and a victim of online shaming may explain how shaming hashtags go viral. When enough people from the dominant group participate in a given hashtag designed to publicly shame an offender, the hashtag becomes trending and, therefore, visible to other Twitter users who may not have heard of the hashtag or the shamed individual. To illustrate, a trending hashtag about a Saudi woman who is a social media influencer living in the United States has been trending on and off, with people, mainly men, calling her out for behaviors they perceive as problematic. The hashtag #‫القحطاين‬-‫هند‬, the woman’s name, Hend Al-Qahtani, is usually full of harmful and vulgar tweets and tons of marketing and advertising posts that have nothing to do with the hashtag. Advertisers use trending hashtags as billboards to bring traffic to their businesses, consequently sending the hashtag trending. The pictures below are examples of shaming tweets extracted from the hashtag (see Fig. 10.1). If a hashtag or a keyword is trending in a given country, every Twitter user in that country will be able to see the hashtag and participate in its dialogue. While this function effectively brings people together through shared interests, events, and conversations, in the case of online shaming, it can be weaponized to publicly humiliate offenders of social norms. This can be particularly dangerous in cases where women, especially in conservative societies, are shamed. The publicity of a woman victim in the area where she resides can increase the chances of the feeling of dishonor experienced by her relatives and sometimes her society, prompting some individuals to clear the dishonor by killing her. In other cases, such hashtags can also cue the government to respond to the mounting pressure from online mobs and take legal action against the perceived offender.

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Fig. 10.1  In this tweet, the authors of the post declare they will not purchase products from a furniture company that advertised with the Saudi influencer Hend Al-Qahtani

 heoretical Framework: Muted Group T Theory (MGT) Edwin Ardener and Shirley Ardener (1975) posed the muted group theory to explain how under-represented and marginalized groups are muted and excluded from the mainstream unless their views are aligned with those of the dominant group in a given society. The original theorists referred to the muting of sub-dominant groups as it relates to the use of language. They explained that members of the sub-dominant groups could not be heard because they must (but may not) use a language system recognized and accepted by the dominant group. Members of the sub-dominant groups may consequently choose to be silent or subordinate to the dominant group, using their language to appease any criticism. Muteness refers to the dismissal of sub-dominant voices by the dominant group. One of muted group theory’s basic tenets is dominance which explains the communication process influencing the dominant and the sub-dominant group. In the case of the present study, the dominant group, which defends patriarchal principles, considers itself obliged to uphold the social norms of a given society in the MENA region. One sub-dominant group is women who hold feminist thoughts or appear to support and advocate for women’s rights and equality by posting content that can be perceived as problematic or unacceptable within the MENA region culture. In the

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public sphere offered by Twitter, the voices of the dominant group have more prominence, mainly when a hashtag is utilized. As described above, understanding the process of creating and sharing hashtags explains the process of muting the sub-dominant group members when violating the dominant group’s norms. Muteness occurs as a result of members of the sub-dominant group being harassed and threatened in public hashtags for posting/communicating content perceived by members of the dominant group as problematic. This form of public shaming has a muting effect on members of the sub-dominant group. Victims may choose to withdraw from the platform to avoid further harassment. They may also decide to apologize and seek redemption.

Method This research adopted a critical paradigm that examines power relationships and aims for an emancipatory potential (Makombe, 2017). Online shaming as a problem thrives on the inequality of power relationships between men and women in a given society. It is best examined through an epistemology of those oppressed and deprived of their right to speak up and be heard. The study utilized qualitative methods and in-depth interviews to examine online shaming on Twitter from the users’ perspectives. The focus was on women’s lived experiences in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to reveal how the phenomenon influences their social media use. The goal was to identify and illustrate the culturally specific characteristics of online shaming and the factors influencing women’s response to the shaming campaigns against them. The research design was developed to answer the following question: RQ: What are the characteristics of online shaming that target women from the MENA region?

Sampling and Data Analysis The researcher used purposive sampling to recruit participants online through social media platforms. Communicating with the potential participants and talking to them about the research and the value they

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bring to the study took at least five days per participant. Eventually, 7 out of 14 potential participants agreed to participate in the interview (see Table  10.1). The researcher recruited eight additional participants through Twitter, one through Instagram, and six through snowball sampling. The participants include eight informants, those who are part of the MENA area cultures and can speak about their experiences, and six experts in law, culture, and civic organizations who have worked in or researched the area and the topic of interest. All the interviews were conducted via Zoom. The researcher used thematic analysis and MAXQDA software to code the interviews guided by the research question and the theory.

Table 10.1  Participants’ profile Participant’s number

Nationality

Gender

Age

Occupation

1

Kuwait

Female

25–34

2 3 4

Jordan Saudi Arabia Jordan

Female Female Female

18–24 25–34 25–34

5

Egypt

Female

45–50

Journalist/ activist Student Professor Accountant\ activist Professor

6 7

Egypt Egypt

Female Female

45–50 25–34

Professor Researcher

8

Libya

Male

25–34

Activist

9

Libya

Male

25–34

10 11

Kuwait Egypt

Female Female

25–34 18–24

12 13 14

Egypt Lebanon Iraq

Female Female Female

18–24 45–50 25–34

IT director/ activist Student Teacher/ student Pharmacist TV host Non-profit activist

Role in the research Informant Informant Informant Informant Expert— culture Informant Expert— culture Expert—civic org Expert—civic org Expert—law Informant Informant Informant Expert—civic org

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Findings The findings of this study suggest that the culture of online shaming targeting women from the MENA region appears to be systemic, violent, supported by the governments at times, and highly gendered and anti-­ feminist. Many participants shared their observations of the online shaming campaigns, whether they received them or the ones they followed. The participants in this study came from diverse cultural, generational, and professional backgrounds. A few of the participants retain multiple identity markers (i.e., nationality, religion, ethnicity, race, and gender) that influence their personal and unique experiences with the problem of online shaming. Across all interviews, violent and sexist rhetoric were among the participants’ significant characteristics with the researcher. Moreover, religion was a unique characteristic of online shaming targeting women from the MENA region. Participants shared how users in the online shaming campaigns would use religious arguments to justify the abuse targeted toward the victims. The following pages present direct quotes from the participants sharing their experiences with the unique culture of online shaming in the MENA region.

Violent Rhetoric This theme represents many types of violent rhetoric found in the data, including threats of physical harm, accusations, doxing, and victim blaming. One of the activists told the researcher the story of one of the protestors in a feminist protest which was targeted by online shaming campaigns for her appearance: There was a girl with colored hair and without a hijab, and she was standing at the protest when she was approached by the media for interviews. The online shaming campaigns against her involved various behaviors of doxing, bullying, accusations, and homophobic rhetoric because of her hair color.

Another activist who identifies as male explained his experience with online shaming and violent rhetoric, “Because I am a man defending

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women, I always get tons of death threats and rape. One time, people were asking for lynching me in a public square.” He adds: Most of the discourse of an online shaming campaign is extreme and includes direct violence. Usually, it is full of death threats to the victims and his/her families and rape. Most of the violent responses come through direct messaging.

A victim of an online shaming campaign recalled her experience receiving violent language. She said, “I used to get a lot of direct messages that had a lot of slander and swearing. I was shocked and devastated.” A feminist activist shared that she received death threats from random people for her social media content: I received death threats from this man once, and he said, “you and your ilk deserve killing.” I tried to ask him, do you mean this metaphorically, and he said no, wherever and whenever I see you, I am going to kill you.

Accusations and demonization are another type of violent rhetoric that seems to be a unique characteristic of online shaming. Women, especially feminists, are demonized and shamed for speaking up and supporting women’s liberation. An activist and journalist spoke about the type of messages she receives regularly and said, “There is a lot of offensive languages and accusing me of having bad intentions and of course the stereotypes about feminist women (angry, ugly, drama, and ‘spinsters’).” Another activist talked about the systemic online shaming and bullying her feminist Instagram page receives. She said, “[O]ur account is recent; yet, we have been targeted by an organized group of men with fake accounts who try to bombard our page comment section with tons of comments accusing us of disrespecting the religion.” While this happens to feminist pages and affects women in general because of gender, the activist noted that “feminist men receive worse online shaming and bullying for participating in such pages or for supporting women’s rights and feminism. They usually receive tons of rape threats and are called gays or are accused of having hidden agenda.”

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Another feminist activist explains, “[P]eople accuse me of wanting to destroy society. Society is built on women’s submission and silence. They think I destroy society by calling for law reform around women’s safety and basic human rights.” Also, “I am always told that I serve foreign hidden agenda. I do all this by volunteering my time and money to help women. I serve women.” Another participant, a college professor, shared a glimpse of the backlash she received after commenting on women’s leadership skills. She said, “[P]eople checked my profile and found out I am a professor at [college name]. They accused me of wanting to influence my students and destroy their lives because I promote dangerous feminist thought on my Twitter account.” Another participant noted the government’s involvement in some cases of online shaming. She explains: Sometimes the government itself is involved in perpetuating false treason accusations and narratives against feminists and activists [to find reasons to arrest them]. Instead of protecting its people’s reputation, governments sometimes engage in the shaming campaign themselves, especially through trusted public figures’ accounts which will give more credibility to the government narrative and raise more suspicions about any counter-narrative.

Sexist and Anti-feminist Rhetoric Women shamed online usually receive harsh and aggressive rhetoric not only because of violating social norms but also because of their gender and/or their stance on women’s rights and feminist principles. One of the characteristics of online shaming targeting women online is the sexist and anti-feminist rhetoric. An activist who organized a feminist campaign online spoke about her experience with Twitter mobs: “I expected to be targeted by tons of name calling and body shaming behaviors. … [A] lot of people were bullying me and my appearance, things like ‘what’s this face?,’ ‘you look like a maid,’ ‘very ugly.’” She believes: The attacks that women receive always have to do with their appearance. Because men think that your only role in life is your look, and I believe that’s not my role, it does not matter what they say about it.

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On another occasion, the same participant was attacked for a joke she shared on Twitter and was confused and alarmed to see the backlash it drew upon her. She said: A lot of people came to my mention and were sexually harassing me after this tweet telling me things like, “so you want to open up ‘the door’ for premarital sexual relationships? Then you can come with me to the apartment [sexual reference].”

Although she was confused, she believed that if her gender were male, things would have been different, “I believe if I was a man, I would not have been treated the same way. It is because of my gender that I received this backlash. Society accepts such statements from men but not from women.” The statement referred to here is the joke she shared that had nothing to do with feminism and women’s rights and did not violate any social norms. The researcher decided not to share the joke to avoid having any identifiers in the findings report. The activist mentioned that she believes the high number of Twitter users from a neighboring country is the reason behind the systemic attacks on the feminist movement within her country. She said, “I felt like users were trying to harass [nationality] feminists to signal fear and bad consequences for whoever dares to follow their suit in [neighboring country].” One of the interviewed experts shared a well-known shaming campaign that targeted a couple of women involved in a sex video with a famous TV director. She noticed that most of the discourse focused on shaming women but not men. She said the women were younger than the TV director and were lured into believing that engaging in this kind of behavior with the director would take them places. However, people did not get that or probably did not care. The responsibility and the shame were heavily placed on the victims. Society always targets the woman and considers her the source of vice. The participant, who is also an expert on MENA culture, explains, “The idea of online shaming targeting women is that society rejects women’s ideas, even if they were right, for the mere fact that they are coming from a woman. You can see that in real life when women work traditionally masculine jobs.”

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Another participant noted the tendency of victim blaming that seems to be evident in online shaming campaigns against women from the MENA region. She reported: A trusted public figure in [country name] is very known to be a leader in online shaming campaigns targeting women. In a hashtag about a woman killed walking home from work, he found a way to victim-blame her. He said, if she cannot find a job where she can come home [during the day], she shouldn’t work, and women shouldn’t work, to begin with, and [of course killing is prohibited and the boys are bad] but she put herself in that situation.

Religious Covers for Social Norms. One of the most significant findings is the elaborate religious justification of the shaming behavior among members of the dominant group. Participants noted the manipulation of religious principles and using them to legitimize social norms and ascribe some type of authority to those who commit the shaming acts. One of the feminist activists noted that “the fundamental problem is that people only support women and accept them and defend them when they are shamed if their shamed behavior does not violate religious or social norms.” The university professor, an expert in culture, explained the shaming behavior on Twitter and the perception of the person doing the shaming behavior. She said, “every man [from the dominant group] believes that he/her are the values that guard/the gatekeeper. They feel it is their duty towards a society that lacks the institutions that play that role.” A civil society activist discussed the reasons for online shaming against women: Speaking against the social norms of society is one of the biggest reasons women are attacked online. Social norms are usually associated with religious teachings if not held above. People will shame women who violate social norms, even those who do not necessarily have a religious base. They would still make associations with religion to justify their attacks. Even the government has a law, referred to as the public system, which criminalizes unspecified actions, making it a vague cover for any oppressive orders targeting those whose life choices do not align with those acceptable by the dominant group in the society. A person sharing an innocent or fun story

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on TikTok would have the police knocking at their door for violating the public morals/values.

One researcher from the Middle East agrees with the previous quotes and adds: I followed a famous case on Twitter about a few girls who became TikTok influencers and got arrested for “violating the [country name] values.” There is no such law in this country under this name! It is very clear that this is a gendered issue.

Another activist also noted a similar pattern whereby women shamed for violating social norms, especially those with a traditional association with religion, receive harsh criticism and little to no support. She explained: In online shaming cases in which a woman’s behavior is perceived as a violation of a common social norm, people will stand against the woman even if she was a victim of an honor killing case. Religion is the opiate of the people and is the most influencing factor in such cases. Many cases that have ended in honor killing without any real crime or reason behind them had to do with some sort of a social norm/religion perceived violation.

One of the participants believes that many online shaming campaigns are based on social norms being perceived and understood as religion and held at such a higher degree because of how religion is used and understood. She believes that “many of the reasons behind attacking women who are perceived to have violated social norms have to do with many religious fallacies.”

Discussion The findings illustrate the gravity of the problem as it hits close to home for all the participants from different countries in the MENA region, yet they all share similar cultural backgrounds that dehumanize and devalue their lives. Muted group theory explains the mechanisms of control that

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dominant group members employ using rhetoric to deter deviants from the sub-dominant group from speaking up and to force them into submission and withdrawal, as well as the ability of the subordinate group members to respond. Online shaming against women is characterized by extreme aggression, calls for violence, use of religious covers, sexism, and anti-feminism, and is, at times, organized. Feminist activists and journalists appear to receive a great deal of harassment online. The concept of feminism has a negative connotation, as it appears from the data. The dominant group realizes that feminist thought threatens the very structure of the patriarchal system, and more women are influenced by the feminist movement across the globe. Women from the MENA compare their lives to other women and realize that they have yet to get their most basic human rights, and they also recognize that they are being systematically silenced. The very concept of the muted group theory is evident here as the findings of the interviews show how the muting effect of online shaming is getting some fruit. Almost all the participants in this study reported that their use of social media is impacted greatly by what they experience and witness vicious harassment and attacks on women who express ideas and concepts that do not align with the dominant patriarchal culture in the area. The fear of being attacked and shamed is one thing. Still, the fear of family cannot be predicted or controlled, especially in the MENA region where authoritarian and patriarchal governments that still to this day recognize women as property of men.

Conclusion This study builds on the literature on women’s victimization online in that it shows how culture can play a significant role in increasing the likelihood of women being shamed, attacked, and possibly physically harmed due to their social media content. The intersections of a woman’s identity can even intensify the consequences that she might face if shamed online. In the context of the MENA region, women can also be arrested and charged for violating social norms, which is a practice that has been challenged by many feminists and activists in the region. The lack of laws

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protecting women’s rights allows the crimes against them to thrive and continue, especially those committed by family members. Improving the reporting mechanisms on Twitter as well as the privacy settings can enhance the safety of the online environment and allow users to modify their Twitter presence to avoid harassment and attacks. Moreover, algorithms can also play a role in mitigating online shaming and promoting a safer environment for women if used in conjunction with other social responsibility efforts to amplify women’s voices. This study encourages further research into creating safe environments for women, especially those most vulnerable to vicious attacks in the MENA region and other parts of the world. Future research should also consider examining the communication design and users’ behavior in the online environment to understand the ways in which users utilize the technology to effectively initiate or respond to online shaming campaigns. Another opportunity that can be explored is the feminist movements and their use of Twitter hashtags to mobilize and advocate for change.

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Control Who Can See What You Share. (2020). Facebook. https://www.facebook. com/help/1297502253597210 Egypt Today. (2020, March 8). 125 Million Tweets About Feminism and Equality Over the Past Three Years. Egypt Today. https://www.egypttoday. com/Article/4/82434/125-­million-­Tweets-­about-­feminism-­and-­equality­over-­the-­past Fareed, A. (2017, September 27). Hashtags, Memes and GIFs: Social Media Celebrates Saudi Women Driving. Arab News. http://www.arabnews.com Kandiyoti, D. (1988). Bargaining with Patriarchy. Gender & Society, 2(3), 274–290. Laidlaw, E. (2017, February 8). Online Shaming and the Right to Privacy. Laws, 6 (1), 3, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2944307 or https:// doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2944307 Makombe, G. (2017). An Expose of the Relationship between Paradigm, Method and Design in Research. The Qualitative Report, 22(12), 3363–3382. https:// nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol22/iss12/18/?utm_source=nsuworks.nova.edu/ tqr/vol22/iss12/18&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages Moghadam, V. (2007). Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women’s Participation Movements and Rights in the Middle East. In V. M. Moghadam (Author), From patriarchy to empowerment: Women’s participation, movements, and rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Syracuse University Press O’Sullivan, D. (2017, September 26). Saudis Petition King to End Male Guardianship System. CNN. http://www.cnn.com Odine, M. (2013). Role of Social Media in the Empowerment of Arab Women. Global Media Journal, 12, 1–30. Offenhauer, P., & Buchalter, A. (2005, November). Women in Islamic Societies: A Selected Review of Social Scientific Literature. Petronzio, M. (2017, September 27). Saudi Women Celebrate the End of the Driving Ban, While Reminding us There’s More Work To Be Done. Mashable. http://www.mashable.com Transfeld, M., & Werenfels, I. (2016). The Role of Twitter in the MENA Region. In M. Transfeld & I. Werenfels (Eds.), #HashtagSolidarities: Twitter Debates and Networks in the MENA Region (pp. 9–17). Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik.

Part III Music Media and Online Construction

11 Rethinking Arabness: The Communicative Nexus of Select Lyrics of Female Nigerian and North African Afro-Arab Hip Hop Artistes and Sociological Construction of Women in the Digital Space Unwana Samuel Akpan and Shoaa Almalki

Introduction A close listening to most lyrics of some top female Afro hip hop music artistes in Nigeria reveals a lot of erotic, misogynistic and demeaning sexual lines laced in their songs, and lately, this has been seen in Afro-­ Arab hip hop which challenges Arabness (Omojola, 2006). Actually, they are supposed to use their lyrics to correct the perception painted by their male counterparts in the industry that women are not to be

U. S. Akpan (*) University of Lagos, Akoka-Lagos, Nigeria e-mail: [email protected] S. Almalki University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_11

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seen as sex objects. The communicativeness of music in African culture and society is enormous and its usage is encompassing. Its ethics, norms, values and other cultural aspects needed for the co-existence of the society are mostly channeled through music. Music is one of the most common forms by which man expresses his emotions, feelings and sentiments. The last two decades have witnessed tremendous growth in the Afro hip hop music culture in Nigeria. Numerous studies have equally demonstrated the significant rise and development of the genre among the youths. Because of its enormous appeal, it has been used as a medium for expressing varieties of ideas, feelings and emotions. However, there has been a growing concern on the negative impact of music on the perception of women in the society. Recently, frequent rape cases in Nigeria are reported on the pages of newspapers on an unprecedented scale. The sudden upsurge of the number of rape cases in Nigeria has been condemned by several quarters, and it is becoming worrisome. Highly placed people in the society in Nigeria, non-governmental organizations, governments and pressure groups including Afro hip hop artistes have come up using their social media handles to condemn the ugly development. Fingers are pointed to the moral decadence among the youths in the society due to the erotic and sexually laced lyrics of Afro hip hop music they consume daily. The Afro hip hop music industry is massively dominated by the male folks, and when listening to their lyrics, it closely communicates misogynistic tendencies by reducing women to mere sex objects to be desired, used and dumped at will by men. And their female counterparts also use the lyrics of their song to showcase their body as a sex object. The question is after churning out lyrics that communicate and promote sexual abuse, do the Afro hip hop music artistes (both male and female) have the moral justification to join other highly placed Nigerians to condemn the spate of rape and sexual violence against women? The author empirically analyzes the communicativeness of the lyrics of these top female Afro hip hop music artistes and how their lyrics promote and encourage sexual abuse against fellow women. This is because not only has music been able to, most often, alter people’s way of thinking and mood; it is also evident that routine playing and focused practice of music lyrics can strengthen and affect the way people think

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and react. Social Identity theory and Uses and Gratification theory were used as the theoretical frameworks for this discussion. Thematic analysis of Nigerian female Afro hip hop and Afro-­Arab hip hop female artistes’ lyrics teeming with sexual and erotic notes was carried out to find out the symbiotic relationship between such lyrics and violent sexual behaviors against women and how the lyrics have challenged Arabness. It was recommended that instead of joining the band wagon, female Nigerian and Afro-Arab hip hop artistes can use their lyrics to counter and promote values, virtues and as well discourage, reduce and mitigate vices such as rape in the society that their male counterparts in the industry are promoting. This article examines the role Afro hip hop is playing in influencing Arab hip hop music lyrics and challenging Arabness in the North Africa region via the digital media. Music is regarded as one of the most universal vehicles of communication and interaction among humanity. Since the turn of the millennium there has been an explosion of creation of Afro-Arab hip hop music across the Arab world of the North African region. The last couple of years have witnessed a significant increase in acceptance of Afro hip hop by the hip hop artistes in Northern Africa. These artistes have creatively fussed in Arab hip hop and Afro hip hop and then came up with some sort of Afro-Arab hip hop fusion. This trend is highlighted and seen in the lyrics and rhythm of some Arab hip hop artistes, especially the Arab female artistes. The growing acceptability and influence of the Afro-Arab hip hop in Northern Africa has been spurred on by two concurrent developments. First, since mid-2000 there has been a growing acceptance of the rhythmic flow of the two genres. A second factor contributing to the increase in acceptability and access is the digital technology in which anyone in North African countries can stay in his/her bedroom and consume media contents from Lagos and other parts of the world via his smartphone, and this is what Marshall Luhan had predicted some decades ago when he conceptualized “the global village,” as a form of future media interaction and operation (McLuhan, 1964). The adoption of Afro-Arab hip hop has been facilitated and necessitated by the digital space across Africa. The cross-­analysis of the lyrics of both the female artistes from Nigeria and other North African countries in this chapter was undertaken within the context of

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understanding the similarities of sexual innuendos and graphic sexual displays inherent in these music lyrics and video. This article is the first systematic attempt to specifically review synthesized sexual trends in female Afro-Arab hip hop lyrics as it transcends from the savannah region of Africa to the Northern African Arab societies. There is no phenomenon under the sun that you would not see some elements of communication in it. Mooro (2022, para. 1) has observed that: The music industry in North Africa and its diaspora is booming with female singers raising their voices while merging heritages and influences with masterful and empowering results. From tackling reductive stereotypes and providing much needed representation to simply being themselves, in doing so, these African female singers are empowering others to be themselves too—across Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria and Tunisia.

Mooro (2022, para. 2) avers that “these important voices are fusing their heritage and changing the narrative by just being themselves.” It is the art of communication that is used in fusing the heritage, changing the narrative and conveying the meaning inherent in any art of music. Communication runs through the fabric of any human or technological endeavor. Communication is the subtle purpose, reason and factor in any genre of music. Communication like ideas rules the world and plays a vital and prominent role in making people make meaning out of any situation. Communication entails sending of signals to inform, educate or warn. There is virtually nothing one can do or achieve without communication as it is not only central to life but plays a major role in nearly every aspect of living. In fact, music itself is a form of media and that is why the word “Music Media” is often used by certain scholars (Akpan, 2018; McQuail, 2010). Often times, individuals, groups, organizations and even the government are faced with the need to communicate or create the needed awareness programs or work of art they churn out. Communication therefore plays a central and key role in determining the success or failure of any work of art such as music. Although several scholars have come up with several definitions of communication, communication is an expression of feelings in verbal, non-verbal, written and non-written forms, and these forms could be in art forms or genres. For

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Pearson et al. (2011), communication is the process of using messages to generate meaning. These messages could be in the form of musical chords and notes arrangements to elicit meaning to the audience. According to them, communication is considered a process because it is an activity, an exchange, or a set of behavior—not an unchanging object. Gamble and Gamble (2010, p. 4) define communication as “the deliberate or accidental transfer of meaning.” It is the process that occurs whenever someone observes or experiences behavior and attributes meaning to that behavior. Therefore, the communicativeness of any form of music cannot be overlooked. Hamilton (2011, p. 3) sees communication as “the process of people sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings with each other in commonly understandable ways.” This means that communication in the place of music has the capacity to bring people of shared musical culture together and closer to each other. It bridges the gap between people through the flow of information they can get from the music media and the understanding they share, especially between the music artistes and their audience. The music media brings about overall behavioral change when effectively utilized. Information collected through the music media aids in decision making; it facilitates access to vital information required to make decisions.

Arab Societies and Their Media Space Arab societies have always been culturally and religiously conscious (Eshel & Sharabany, 2008; Shapira et al., 2010; Shapira et al., 2011; Obeidat et al., 2012; Arar, 2014; Arar, 2016). In Arab society, nudity, flaunting of sexual objects, sexually laced languages, alcohol and social vices are taboos (Tradoc DCSINT Handbook, 2006; Korany & Sholkamy, 2008; Hamed, 2012; Hallinger & Bryant, 2013a, b). Before the coming of the social media, the operations of the traditional media were strictly filtered and regulated to conform to the Arab norms, culture and religious beliefs (Aroian, 1983; Salamé, 1994; Castells, 1996; Fahmy, 1997; Eickelman & Anderson, 1999; Hegasy, 2000; Hafez, 2001; Ayish, 2002; Ayish, 2003; El-Nawawy & Iskandar, 2003; Mernissi, 2004; Nisbet et al., 2004; Al-Zubaidi, 2004; Zayani, 2005a; Zayani, 2005b; Lynch, 2006; Sakr,

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2007; Zayani & Sofiane, 2017; Hafez, 2008; Allam, 2011; Bamyeh, 2011; Beaumont, 2011; Howard, 2011; Alterman, 2022). The digital media is obviously one of the factors in the musical revolution among the Arab hip hop artistes (Armbrust, 1996; Abugidieri, 2001; Ajami, 2001; Abu-Lughod, 2004; Al Jazeera, 2007; Armbrust, 2012) that has opened up the Arab media space and challenged Arabness with its contents. The significant role globalization of the new media has played in the music industry in the Arab society of Northern Africa has impacted the cultural and religious values of the highly reserved region (Zayani, 2005; Lynch, 2006; Colla, 2007; Armbrust, 2008; Khamis & Vaughn, 2011; Khondker, 2011). This new trend presents an interesting case of a social change in cultural and religious values via the force of music; it is also signaling a new trend in the mobilization of young people who are interested in music to use the medium of music for self-expression. These are the fruits of globalization and digitization.

Theoretical Framework Uses and Gratification and Social Identity theories are used to explain the concept in this chapter. Elihu Katz first introduced the Uses and Gratification Approach when he came up with the notion that people use the media to their benefit. Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch (1974, p. 13) stated, “users take an active part in the communication process and are goal oriented in their media use.” Therefore, this theory, as presented by Katz et al, suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media. The theory presents the recipient as actively influencing the need gratification and media choice processes; some he selectively chooses, attends to, perceives and retains the media messages based on his or her needs and beliefs just as in the communicativeness of Afro hip hop music. The implication is that the user has alternate choices to satisfy his needs just like youths choose the lyrics of Afro hip hop music because listening does not interfere with routine activity. Explaining the theory further, Okunna and Omenugha (2012, p. 248) note that instead of asking, “What kinds of effects occurs under what condition?” the question becomes: “Who uses which content from which media under which

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conditions and for what reasons?” According to Baran (2004), the basic assumptions of the approach when it was rediscovered and elaborated 20 years later (in the 1960s and 1970s) were as follows: (a) Media and content choice are generally rational and directed towards certain specific goals and satisfactions (thus the audience is active and audience formation can be logically explained). (b) Audience members are conscious of the media related needs which arise in personal (individual) and social (shared) circumstances and can voice these in terms of motivations. (c) Broadly speaking, culture and aesthetic features of content play much less part in attracting an audience than the satisfaction of various persons and social needs (e.g for relaxation, shared experience, passing times etc). The Uses and Gratification theory is apt for this chapter because it explains the communicativeness of Afro hip hop music, media use patterns and how the usage affects lifestyle. Tajfel and Turner’s Social Identity theory defines what identity is and how people come about those identities. On one part, this chapter is about the social identity of women as portrayed by Afro hip hop male artistes in their musical lyrics and videos as mere sexual objects to be desired, acquired, used and dumped, and its reinforcements of these lyrics by some Afro-Arab female artistes in their lyrics. On the other hand, the chapter seeks to find out the communicativeness of Afro-Arab hip hop from the social female identity in the mind of the society. According to Hornsey (2008), social identity approach, comprising Social Identity theory and Self-categorization theory, is a highly influential theory of group processes and intergroup relations having redefined how Afro hip hop male artistes portray women in their lyrics and videos.

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The Power of Music People of all times have recognized the magic power of music. It was known in ancient Greece when Plato wrote, “music is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten imparting grace.” William Shakespeare once referred to music as “the food for the soul.” Also, Koffi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, shares the sentiments with Plato that music has a direct effect on the human soul; therefore, it should be studied, as well as controlled by parents and the state. Moreover, Dennis McQuail, the communication theorist with no background of music, sees mass mediated music as a piece of human organized sounds that convey the artiste’s belief, convictions, emotions and perception (McQuail, 2010, pp. 34–38).

Music Defined Music has been defined as an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner in order to create agreeable, pleasant and harmonious sounds (Ekwueme, 1985). Music has the power to move people and stir up emotions (Ssewakiryanga, 1999). Anyone who has ever wiped tears away from his or her eyes listening to a sad song will know how powerful simple music notes and chords can be. Research studies have shown that music really can change the human mood and help people to concentrate or relax (Nketia, 2009). Music acclaimed as a major agent of socialization is listened to by students, and its contents have the potential to influence behavior (Powell, 2010; Emielu, 2012). The beginnings of music are concealed in prehistory. Over time, a number of theories have been propounded about its origin. One holds that it is derived from the inflection of speech, another that it is the mating calls of humans. Yet another theory associates music with the cries, battles and signals of the hunt, or the rhythms of collective labor. Other theories connect it either to the play impulse in man, with magic and religious rites, or with the need for

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emotional expression. There could be more theories even within the currency of scholarship, but it is not the intention of this research study to dwell on theories of music. However, a common fact with all these theories as opined by Komolafe (2009) states that all these theories in a way try to define music as a unique primordial element in the existence of individual as well as the group. Asserting this further in its clear terms, he states that more importantly, the unhidden fact in all is that man possesses in his vocal cords a means of producing songs, in his body an instrument for rhythm, and in his mind the capacity to imagine and perceive musical sounds. In explaining the relationship of human labor to rhythmic human sounds, Thomson (1946) uses gesticulations as the modus operandi. Gesticulation, to him, helps to make people understand what they are saying. Gesticulation is thus an instructive aspect of humans which forms the basis of a more deliberate aspect of musical performance. The movement of the vocal organs, as it were, overlaps with other muscular movements of the body. Speech is primary, gesticulation secondary as in the case of hip hop music.

Music and Society Music and society are closely related. Music reflects and creates social conditions and behaviors. According to Akpan (2018), among others, music facilitates communication more powerful than the spoken words and it enables meaning to be shared. Music promotes the growth and sustenance of individuals, groups, cultural and national identities. Music has the ability to induce physiological mood and emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses in individuals (Okafor, 2005). According to Daramola (2002), music has therapeutic power. It promotes relaxation; it reduces anxiety and pains. Today, as it was in the past, people variously employ music to alter their own moods, reduce stress, and diminish boredom during and after serious and intellectual tasking activities, and this is what youths use music for. In a nutshell, the role of music in the society cannot be overemphasized, especially for the youths, because the development of music in Nigeria has been considered to have a long history (Earhart, 2007; Ogisi, 2006; Omojola, 2000

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Omoniyi, 2008). In the early part of its history, what existed was indigenous music. It was part of a sociological and psychological aspect of life that fulfills specific functions. Thus, several functions in the community, such as political rallies, age-grade events, guild anniversaries and the like, attracted social music. This was manifested in folk, ritual, ceremonial, social and recreational entertainment and musical activities. By extension, every culture group as a homogenous entity contributes to the heterogeneity of music in Nigeria (Okafor, 2009). This suggests that there is a self-contained system in Nigerian society within which musical communication takes place (Nketia, 2009). Music occupies a vital place in the life of the African in general and Nigeria in particular, and every aspect of his life ranging from birth till death is accompanied with one music or the other (Faseun, 2001). And music as an art that attracts students of all ages and levels is a cultural ingredient that can be used to create calm and a quiet state that is free from conflict and violence (Akpan, 2018).That is the reason a Finnish professor, Osmo Anterior Wiio (2009), while penning the general definition of communication, believes that one cannot not communicate. In essence, what he was trying to pass across is the fact that in whatever way, be it art forms, policy or drawing peoples’ attention, the communicativeness of what is intended or not intended cannot be overlooked. This explains why communication is a fundamental factor in music: because music communicates (Baran, 2009).

The Origin of Hip Hop Music Hip hop culture evolved from the United States of America, and it is a strong form of communication especially among black youths in America, especially during the civil rights era movement (Rose, 1994; McLeod, 1999; Chang, 2005; SpearIt, 2012; Akpan, 2018). However, the concept has found its way into developing countries as a result of acculturation which resulted in new styles, negotiating cultural differences through the musical manipulation of symbolic associations (Waterman, 1990, p. 47). Consequently, the changes led to reflect new contexts, technologies, opportunities and performing situations.

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The Origin of Afro Hip Hop Music Afro or Naija hip hop is now an established genre in Nigeria. According to Middleton (1990, p. 144), a genre can be thought of as analogous to a discursive formation, in the sense that in such a formation, there is a vocabulary, types of syntactic unit, formal organization, characteristic themes, modern of address (who speaks to whom and after what fashion) and structure of feeling. The Naija hip hop genre are discursively linked in complex ways to a particular social category, including class, gender and ethics, and their reception among the Nigerian youths can reveal a great deal about how they view themselves and others in their society. Naija or Afro hip hop is the term used to describe domestically produced, heavily Western-influenced hip hop music songs in Nigeria. The evolution and development of Hip hop in Nigeria is largely attributed to contemporary post-industrial society. This can also be called the “global flow” of peoples, information, commodities, capitals, images and ideas across national borders (Smart, 1993, p. 36). This is further substantiated by Appadurai’s (1990) concept of ethno scraps, a landscape of people who constitutes the shifting world in which we live: tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, guest workers and other moving groups or persons. This is a music genre that is very popular among the youths worldwide. Hip hop music industry in Nigeria is a multi-billion Naira industry which provides gainful employment to teeming millions of Nigerian youths who would otherwise be without jobs and would have become ready recruits into armed robbery, prostitution, religious fundamentalism, youth militancy, cultism, and so on. This grossly unappreciated sector which occasionally attracts lip-services from the federal government when the need arises for re-branding or whitewashing of our jaded collective psyche is reputedly second in rank-age to the oil or gas sector, in terms of contribution to the national economy (Oikelome, 2012). The origin of hip hop in Nigeria dates back to the late 80s and 90s (Joseph, 2006, p. 256). The emergence of an African rapper on exile in Nigeria, Ibrahim Salim Omari led to the release of the first Nigerian rap album titled “I am African.” This opened the floodgates for other artistes like “The Remedies” and the “Plantation Boyz” in the early 90s (Adebiyi,

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2008). The first generation of Afro hip hop artistes at first copied counterparts in the United States of America. However, the trends in the late 90s to date show a transformation with the evolution of “Naija Hip Hop.” Nigerian hip hop music is categorized into two main divisions: indigenous and foreign. The indigenous hip hop styles are those which derive their elements mainly from indigenous musical sources. These include the native, traditional, neo traditional and spiritual derivative. The hip hop artistes also derive some source of materials from local African folk tradition drawn from their villages or ethnic boundaries. The folkloric phenomenon seems to be taking a major trend in the lyric. The general impression received from the analysis of the composition is that it finds its echoes on popular airs (Oikelome, 2012).

Arab Hip Hop Hip hop has metamorphosed and fused into many genres and as a result can be highly malleable. Hip hop has its roots in the South Bronx, and the genre has been blended into numerous directions and forms of expression. Arab hip hop right from its inception has basically relied on the digital media to adapt to trends and of course promote and distribute its contents (Racy, 1977; Massad, 2003; Aidi, 2004; Abbas, 2005; Condry, 2006; Abd-Allah, 2006; Youmans, 2007; Kahf, 2007; Maira, 2008; Donnison, 2010; Dotson-Renta, 2011; DeGhett, 2012; Lubin, 2012; Lubin, 2013; Isherwood, 2014; Drury, 2017). A closer look at the contextualization of how these female Arab hip hop artistes package their lyrics, it reveals that it is not only packaged for global consumption, but to challenge the cultural and religious barriers of Arab culture, looking at the nudity and the fluidity of sexual lyrics they churn out.

Afro Hip Hop and the Female Gender For the past decades, volumes of academic materials on feminism and gender studies have increased, and it will continually be a focus of scholarly attention. There have been concerns about gender equality, gender

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safety and gender respect, especially for the female gender, and as a result, these concerns have sparked up interests and studies. For example, Oikoleme (2012, p. 23) says, “while some see men and women as two often hostile groups locked in an unending and unequal struggle for power, others view them as complementary. The hip hop world tilts towards the second assumption.” In most cases, hip hop has portrayed women as objects of desires (Wallach, 2008, p. 222), and Afro hip hop replicates the same on women. As of today, there are more male Afro hip hop artistes than female. The male gender is in the majority in the Afro hip hop world. Most times, the female counterparts who are invited to feature as a collabo in the male gender songs are used in showcasing them as sex objects. And also, you see a troupe of girls dancing in the music videos half-naked while the men are properly dressed. The communicativeness of such musical videos is that women are cheap, and this has resulted in the misuse and misinterpretation of the gender role of women in these musicals as sex symbols to be desired, used and dumped by men. Sex symbol as a term was first used in 1910 to describe beautiful stars in the film industry. According to Oikelome (2012) and articleworld. com, since then, the film industry has been playing a role in the further projection of sex symbolism through its dissemination of beautiful people all over the world. Oikelome (2012, p. 21) has, however, noticed that sex symbolism is taken to an alarming dimension in the music industry where women are seen as a commercial venture which is basically useful for commercial purposes. Afro hip hop has repeatedly painted a woman’s body to be sexually provocative to man in their lyrics, which is where there is a growing concern from the academics and the general public over the near-naked and sometimes naked female postures in most Afro hip hop lyrics and music videos. Ayanna, while penning the immoral effects of hip hop on young Americans, observed that “all women, but mostly black women in particular are seen in popular hip-hop culture as sex objects” (Ayanna). She stressed further that almost every hip hop video that is regularly run today shows many dancing women (usually surrounding one or two men) wearing not much more than bikinis, with the cameras focusing on their body parts (Oikelome, 2012). And according to Oikelome (2012), these images are shown to go along with a lot of the explicit lyrics that commonly contain name calling

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to suggest that women are not worth anything more than money; it is a common sight to see in these videos scantily clad young ladies prancing seductively around the singers on the videos. Naturally, the imagery and lyrics of these Afro hip hop music and videos are normalizing and communicating the degradation of women. As a male-dominated culture, hip hop has forced women to become victims of misogyny violence (Morgan, 1999). Misogyny has been defined as the hatred or disdain of women—a concept that reduces women to objects for men’s ownership, use or abuse (Adams & Fuller, 2006, p. 939). An African woman’s identification with her gender has always been a product of her race and the social constructions that surround racial identity (Ayanna). As such, gender is also socially constructed, and hip hop has constructed the role of women in hip hop in a negative way, making them play characters such as the “gold digger” (Oikelome, 2012).

 ales Ideology of Afro Hip Hop Music S Marketers and Promoters Despite the global economic meltdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria has the most vibrant economy in Africa, with a population of over 150 million people who like entertainment, especially music as a way of relaxation. Nigeria is unarguably the melting pot of the entertainment industry in Africa with the emergence and promotion of Afro hip hop artistes within the last two decades. These decades have seen Afro hip hop music culture transformed through a lot of rediscovery and recycling of sounds (Oikelome, 2012). Most scholars have credited the phenomenal and sporadic growth of the Afro hip hop music to the undaunted efforts of marketers and music promoters in the country. In Nigeria, Ghana and some other African countries, much air time is devoted to playing of Afro hip hop music on television and radio with local content in line with the regulation of the broadcasting board that stipulated that 70% of our music content in both the radio and television should be devoted to indigenous music (Naija or Afro hip hop inclusive). According to Oikelome (2012), this has led to the establishment of

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various musical shows with exclusive Nigerian hip hop content like Gbedu, Nigezie, Sound City, Music on Wheels, hip hop world and Music Africa, and other cable stations devoted to hip hop music in the African continent are Channel O, MTV Africa and Daarsat music. The aim of these establishments is purely of commercial interest. Looking at it, the overall factor and the overriding interest is to explore every means available to sell their music in the market, and they employ all means to achieve their goal including female gender nudity. That is why they say ‘sex sells.’ The Afro hip hop music lyrics mostly thrive on sexism, like their western counterparts. The truth remains that marketers use the nudity of women as depicted in the Afro hip hop lyrics and videos to wet the sensual appetite of the viewers in order to sell their products and recover their investment on the Afro hip hop artistes. Unfortunately, misogynistic Afro hip hop lyrics have been allowed to flourish not only through radio and television programs, the selling of CDs, tapes and Video CDs, but also through live performances.

Method The methodological approach employed in this article for the analysis of the Afro-Arab hip hop lyrics of select female artistes in Arab societies followed guidelines for conducting “topographical reviews of research” (Hallinger, 2013a; Hallinger & Bryant, 2013b, 2013c; Hallinger & Chen, 2015; Hallinger & Heck, 1996a; Hallinger & Heck, 1996b; Heck & Hallinger, 1999). “Topographical research is aimed at ‘mapping’ observable features that describe a body of knowledge” (Hallinger, 2013, 2017; Hallinger & Hammad, 2019: p. 22). This review that is topographical primarily aims to illuminate patterns of change in Arabic music through the injections of sexual lyrics by female artistes and the graphic display of sexual contents in music videos that are in a way reinforcing the belief that women are sex objects to be used and dumped. This systematic review (Gough, 2010; Hallinger, 2013) used an explicit set of criteria such as sexual innuendos, suggestive languages that depicts sex and sexual displays in Afro-Arab hip hop music videos to identify sexual portrayals and how digital media contents have gradually permeated the

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Arab societies. In order to gain perspective on their meaning, the author had to listen to each of the songs intently to spot the subtle sexual innuendos in the lyrics. The author’s interest in examining these lyrics from Arab societies is grounded in shared features of the social context typical of the region (Eshel & Sharabany, 2008; Shapira et al., 2010). As explained in some literature, Arab societies globally share both a common religion, Islam, and cultural heritage (Korany & Sholkamy, 2008; Hamed, 2012) that anything anti-Arab culture might find it hard to be accepted by the Arabic public. These features by the Arabic world dictates the social context, shapes normative attitudes and practices arts and sciences, especially music. However, the past years have witnessed the emergence of a growing hunger for music as a force for social change, innovation and development in selected Arab societies (e.g. United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Northern Sudan). Thus, the examination of Afro-Arab hip hop in Arab societies has the potential to yield distinctive findings that can enrich the global tapestry of knowledge in the field of Afro-Arab hip hop music and its communicativeness. The list of the following best top female Afro-Arab hip hop artistes in Northern Africa and other Nigerian hip hop artistes guided the review: Simi, Flavour, Sheyman, Kizz Daniel and Davido, Tuface, Abir, Gaidaa, Felukah. Lolo Zouaï, Dounia, Naila, Djouher, Faouzia, Sirine Miled, Ilham.

Identification of Sources The review of the Afro-Arab hip hop lyrics of some select Nigerian-Arab artistes had discovered a paucity of transplant of Nigerian Afro hip hop lyrics and content in the Arab hip hop genre, with explicit display of sex not typical of Arab societies. Thus, in the review of these lyrics, the author was interested in the introduction of sexual lyrics from what obtains in most Afro hip hop lyrics to Arab hip hop in North Africa. In order to maintain objectivity, balance and fairness, the author’s comparative lens focused on a largely similar set of sexual contents the female artistes of these both regions have displayed in their songs and videos. The objectivity, fairness, balance and strength of these sets of sources (the Afro-Arab

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hip hop lyrics) is made possible by the ease of accessibility to digital media contents from Nigerian female artistes who themselves depict themselves as sexual objects. The author was interested in establishing a common feature between the lyrics of Afro hip hop and Arab hip hop. These features would enable the author to establish whether the Afro hip hop lyrics have influenced the Arab hip hop genre in terms of lyrics, and how the Arab hip hop lyrics have evolved over time.

Review of Select Afro Hip Hop Music Lyrics It is worth mentioning that lyrics nowadays, particularly from rap and hip hop music, focus on sex and rape, doom and gloom, death and suicide, blood and violence (Oikelome, 2012). Most Afro hip hop lyrics also follow suit. Many others carry strongly implied messages that promote immorality. Some lyrics are outright satanic. Some, though not mentioning evil, promote masochism, murder, suicide, sexual deviance, hatred, bigotry, violence and occult practices. Still others promote drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution, profanity, homosexuality, promiscuity, rebellion and other immoral behavior that have been expressed through music for decades. Thousands of unfocused and unguided youths fall completely into the Afro hip hop music trap, believing that it is not only proper but trendy to smoke or womanize at an early age, especially on campus as embedded by the lyrics of Afro hip hop music (Kargbo, 2006). A lot of Afro hip hop lyrics are misogynistically conceived. For the purpose of this chapter, I will take some select notable Afro hip hop lyrics and analyze the misogynistic tendencies inherent in them. The lyrics have been carefully chosen from some celebrated and very popular Afro hip hop artistes in the country—Davido, Falz, Simi, Flavour, 2Face Idibia, Eldee and Sheyman. Some of the artistes use a combination of three languages, namely Standard English, Nigerian Pidgin and Yoruba language known as code mixing in rendering their lyrics. The first excerpt is taken from the lyrics of the most celebrated hip hop musician—2Face Idibia titled “Enter the place.” The excerpts below speak about women as objects to be used and abused:

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when you feeling down, we try to turn the tables all around I see you, I gbadun you, girl, I want make you let me (Enter the place) Make we see if you no carry belle too (I bet you I will get you pregnant) Ma phone must be ringing cuz your body is calling No need to dey knock on the door (You do not need to knock the door before entering) Just enter, get it straight, and jump on the floor… (Just come into the house and undress and lie on the floor ready for sex session).                —2Face Idibia

The above lyrics describe a woman who can be gotten, used and abused at will sexually. The invitation from 2Face Idibia for women to “enter the place” and see “if I no go give you belle too (If I will not get you pregnant)” is demeaning and degrading. The artiste is indirectly telling women to “enter the place” and see if he wouldn’t get them pregnant portrays women as usable and discardable items and not even human beings. Let’s consider Simi’s lyrics featuring Falz in her latest album titled “Soldier.” Simi is a fast-rising female Nigerian Afro Hip Hop artiste who despite being a woman admits in her lyrics that women are to be seen as sexual objects. Soldier say if I no give am my number, go fire because he want be my lover Na him I say, soldier go, soldier come, soldier do wetin you want, but don’t fall in love with me.

This literally means, “A soldier commanded me to give him my phone number and I willingly did. Soldier, you can go ahead and do what you want to do with me ‘sexually’, but don’t fall in love with me.” Another one is Kizz Daniel’s album titled, ‘One Ticket’ and features Davido. Baby, if you break my heart today, me, I go sharply replace your body with money, carry another baby give her what she wants. Every time wire me money, small thing you don dey vex, come order Uber, Veronica calm down.

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Meaning, “Lady, if you break my heart, with my money I can replace ‘your sexual body’ by finding another woman to satisfy my sexual desires.” Also looking at Flavour’s lyrics in his song titled, “Ada Ada,” he described the bride to be who in the Igbo traditional culture in Nigeria is the first daughter in a family thus: Ada Ada, she get am for up and down (this is referring to her breast, hips and the buttocks area). Na tomato baby, sugar sugar and too fresh like morning wine.

The artiste is actually describing his wife to be as, “A lady endowed with sizable breasts, hips and the buttock region, that her body is as sweet as sugar, tomato and early morning African palm wine.” This description again is sexually derogatory, offensive and insulting on womanhood. The next Afro hip hop excerpt from a song entitled, “Hotter than Fire,” by Sheyman: Am hotter than fire Give me some water Your “thing” makedey stagger (Your body is driving me sexually crazy) I no fit retire (Would never give up) I will give you some “kondoOlopa” (Would give you my penis) And you will give me some “rondo alata.” (And you would give me your virginity) —Sheyman

The artistes portray a scenario that is suggestive of a man inviting a lady for a round of hot sex session. This particular music video also shows women wearing bikinis and dancing in such a manner that is so sexually suggestive and points to women’s complete sexual and emotional submission to their male counterparts. The communicativeness of Kondo by the Afro hip hop artiste in his music refers to the male sexual organ and rondo refers to the female sexual organ. According to Oikelome (2012), from subtractive research done on meanings in hip hop lyrics, evidence has shown that listeners can read several meanings to a particular word or a sentence expressed by the artistes. This is in line with Meyer’s assertion that apart from the emotional attributes of popular music, it has cognitive elements. Meyer further submits that:

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a piece of music can provide a connotative complex of extra musical meanings that is not unlimited, yet not precisely denoted by the music. The first meaning is a construction supplied by individual listeners from their own memories of extra musical concepts.

A classic example is “hotter than fire” by Sheyman. The literal meaning of Kondo is a baton used by policemen while rondo means a round hole which is sexually suggestive. Although the terms kondo and rondo are being used to describe a certain type of harmless objects, their use and the images they create in the song are sexually derogatory to women. The next excerpt by Eldee suggests the idea that women can be gotten forcefully for sexual satisfaction which is degrading. Written in both pidgin and Yoruba dialect, the lyric suggests sex as an activity a man can force a woman into: Today na today. You not go escape (Escaping from me today is not possible.) I go put you for corner. Am ready for you (I will put you in a tight corner) Today na today. You no go escape (Today, you will not escape from me, I am ready for you) Mo ti ready lati taa tan (There is no way you will escape from me today) Bo sikorok’afo (But before then, move to a shady corner and let us have sex.) —Eldee

The posture of the singer in this song is that of a rapist, waiting to take advantage of an innocent young lady because of his uncontrolled sexual urge. And this is the sad situation in Nigeria where the spate of raping has suddenly surged. The Afro hip hop and rap genre have common characteristics which publicly expresses open vulgarity, sexual resonance, preposterous violence. The large amount of sexual content in Afro hip hop movies and songs leaves more questions than answers. Within the African context, sex is a subject not popularly or openly discussed because it is un-African. But this is what Afro hip hop discusses and portrays openly in its lyrics: to be desired. Just like their western counterparts, hip hop singers are more likely to be sexist in that females are depicted as sex objects. In African society, women are treated with respect and dignity, not as sex

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machines. Although many commercial hip hop songs appear to glorify promiscuous sex, gang violence and drug use, many other, often lesser-­ known rap songs and artists present positive messages as well as insightful critiques of Nigerian society. Afro hip hop lyrics should therefore be used as avenues for combating social ills in our society such as rape. Concepts, themes and textual contents of Afro hip hop lyrics should be employed by the artistes in combating sexual violence among women and crime and encourage good values among youths.

Review of Select Afro-Arab Hip Hop Lyrics Afro Hip hop as a genre has transcended from the streets of Lagos to the major cities in North Africa and to the minds of female North African artistes. Most of them are not only inspired by the rhythmic flow of the genre but have adopted the graphic display of eroticism in their lyrics in ways not in tandem with the Arabic culture and religious setting that is typical with the region. Some authors have classified and listed 10 of the best North African female hip hop artistes who are currently making waves with their Afro hip hop fusion. The lyrics of these female artistes that are of North African origin would be analyzed to show the level of sexual innuendos contained in their songs that further reinforces the fact that women are sex objects to be used and dumped by men. The sexual sentiments and concepts expressed in their songs run contrary to the Arabic culture and strict religious belief system. These lyrics are hereby analyzed: 1. Abir She is the industry’s finest in Morocco. Abir is a Moroccan-born, Virginia native and has been in the industry for decades, singing since forever, steadily ascending with soulful vocals and joyful dancepop beats. Her Arab-Afro hip hop fusion lyrics in the song titled “Inferno” sees her dressing semi-nude and says in the song to a man, “I have always wanted you like an inferno, I have alway wanted you, come and consume me.” This lyric is not in tandem with the strict Arab cultural cum religious society.

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2. Gaidaa She is a Dutch-Sudanese singer-songwriter. She brings in a blend of Afro-Arab hip hop in her songs. In the song titled, “Blue Morning,” the female artiste says, “In a cold blue morning in a warm place, I have been waiting for you all day…it’s getting cold here.” That is suggestive. 3. Felukah She is Cairo-born and presently living in New York City. She is making waves across the world with her Afro-Arab hip hop. The North African female rapper and poet “adept at switching from English to Arabic and with poignant delivery, tackles themes like multiculturalism, multiplicity and self-empowerment in her offerings” (Mooro, 2022); a feel of the sexual narrative reflects in the video display of her in the song titled, “Apocalypse,” she is saying, “Boy, it’s time for you and I to reunite in another light…come find me let us party and blend.” Another anti-Arab lyrics. 4. Lolo Zouaï According to Mooro (2022), Laureen Rebeha Zouaï, known by her stage name as Lolo Zouaï, is an Algerian-French R&B and pop musician who has lived in the US since she was just a few months old. She fuses Afro-Arab hip hop into her many heritages and sings in French, Arabic and English. In her song titled, “Desert Rose,” she sings, “Take me there where I have never been, hold me in a way I have never been held and love in a way I have never been loved…please take me there.” Suggestive again. 5. Dounia She is a Moroccan-American singer-songwriter whose lyrics are teemed with sexual narratives. Her song titled, “Rich Girl Mood” contains nude scenes and half-dressed ladies dancing in a seductive manner. The lyrics of the song say, “These things have been a taboo for so long now,” and this is referring to sexual exposures in the Arab society. She further avers in the song, “I’m in a rich girl mood…she is sucking honey stick right here.” Honey stick here by social interpretation refers to a man’s genital system.

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6. Naila Naila is an Egyptian-born and raised. Mooro (2022) narrates that she “is a multidisciplinary artist. From drawing and painting to her masterful vocals, she has been making a name for herself with a noholds barred approach to creativity. With a tendency to psychologically and philosophically analyze herself and her environment.” Her song titled, “Give a Little” where she collaborated with a male artiste telling her in the song, “I have gone for so many days without your love and touch, girl I need you now, girl please take me there, where only you could.” Naila responded to him by saying, “Let’s get busy all night my Love.” 7. Djouher She is an Algerian-born Djouher, and according to Mooro (2022), she “was one of a handful of upcoming artists selected for Spotify’s recently launched campaign SAWTIK, which aims to spotlight emerging female talent in the region. With ethereal vocals, Djouher’s blend of alternative/pop and indie music gathers almost 50,000 listeners a month, and aims to speak for itself.” The lyrics of her song titled, “So Blue,” showcases how women are framed in a sexually erotic way by saying, “Empty room and empty faces, the sun is shining but I’m feeling cold, I’ve got a feeling but I can’t explain it, it’s like nothing that can heal my soul…why I’m I feeling so blue? Is everyone faking a smile? I’m talking to you, can’t you hear me, don’t you understand what I need? I need you.” This song tries to push the narrative that women need men to survive, but she can not say it out, maybe fearing the society she is living in. 8. Faouzia Faouzia is a Moroccan-Canadian singer-songwriter. In her song titled, “Minefields,” featuring the legendary John Legend, she lucidly gives credence to the sexual narrative in her song when she says in the lyric, ‘This might be a mistake that I’m calling you this late, but I’m sorry, but I still belong to you, I still want to belong to you, but this mindfields is keeping me from reaching you. I want to risk it all to be close to you.” The mind field she was referring to here could be the various cultural and religious laws that see open confession of love as a taboo in the Arab societies, such in North Africa.

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9. Sirine Miled Mooro (2022) describes the Tunisian singer Sirine Miled as “a ‘diva since day one’ as reads her bio, was also spotlighted on Spotify’s recently launched campaign SAWTIK, as an emerging female talent from the region. Her pop tracks are sung in Arabic and are supremely catchy, amassing millions of views.” In one of her songs titled, “Pam,” the artiste says, “Hey, I’m ready for the iniquity, come do the rapa pam pam, I’m ready for the ram pam pam, oh boy.” This lyric too is suggestive. 10. Ilham For the Moroccan-New Yorker, Mooro (2022) reveals that “Ilham has a syrupy, alternative R&B sound, one which is catching the attention of many… The actress, writer and producer is passionate about debunking stereotypes and providing much needed representation, the video is a powerful ode to Black and brown Muslim women,” but the narrative is subtly sexually laced. For instance one of her songs, “In Too Deep,” glaringly suggests that a man’s sexual organ is too deep in her sexual organ while engaging in sexual intercourse. The lyrics say, “Sleeping in my nightie, you are too deep into me, you are suffocating me inside, you got me too deep, you make hard to breath every night, but I like it, please stay in there, don’t come out again…you have got me drowning and wanting for more.” This again is an outright display of strong sexual language permeating the Arab societies.

 elationship Between Afro Hip Hop Culture R and Social Behavioral Pattern According to a report in the National Broadcasting Commission Handbook (2016), there are 30 radio stations operating in Lagos state alone as at November 2016, and 3 out of the 30 radio stations are only for talks and news, while the other 27 radio stations are purely music based. It is beyond doubt that the present era has seen a dramatic change in music culture. The change has made many youths to be easily swayed by the new genre of popular music. As I established at the onset of this study, the original intent of music is to serve as a vehicle for spreading culture and information, but today’s music culture can be described as

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detrimental to the lifestyle of youths. Most musical lyrics are quite explicit and seem to have become more so over the last decade. There is argument over whether or not children understand the lyrics, but this is not necessary because it is the lyrics that the youths react to, most of the time (Ekwueme, 1975). The trend toward more dangerous lyrics is culminating today in hip hop and rap music. This presents a real threat to the physical health and emotional well-­ being of vulnerable children and adolescents (Singer & Singer, 2001). Experts therefore say there is a direct correlation between rap and hip hop music, drugs and violence. Today, the trend in hip hop music is toward more destructive themes. Those who listen to this kind of music certainly get a more dismal, darker, bleaker outlook on life than youths in the last generation. It is natural for youths to get easily influenced during adolescence. Music is highly influential as it creates a negative impact on youths. Constant exposure to issues such as sex, drugs and violence can lead to undesirable behaviors. Thus, youths imitate these negative acts due to repeated portrayals by the media—especially, radio, television and the newspapers. Kargbo (2006) drove the point home when he asserted that media hype tends to set the trend for youths through music. Music plays a significant role in adolescent lives. As Fenn and Perullo (2000, p. 15) put it, most teenagers “spend an average of 3 to 4 hours a day listening to music on radio or watching music videos on the screen.” What does this entail for the development of youths’ lifestyle? It will be simplistic to ignore such statistics that have had great impact on youths— either negatively or positively—over the decades. Music lyrics are an important part of music because they contain messages and feelings that the singer wants to convey to the listeners. There are many genres of music on radio that send out different kinds of messages—love, peace, freedom, violence and anger—themes that have continued to capture the attention of adolescents and youths generally. The lyrics of popular music in contemporary society have become increasingly explicit on negative themes. According to Daramola (2002), the songs that stand out these days make common graphic references to sex, drugs and violence, unlike in the past where the artists cared so much about the sensibilities of their listeners and patrons.

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 fro Hip Hop Artistes and Moral Justification A of Social Crusade Against Sexual Violence Dbanj, a very popular Nigerian Afro Hip Hop artiste, was recently accused of rape by his young female fan. Most of Dbanj’s lyrics are laced with sexual contents that portray women as sex objects. Due to the spate of rape and sexual violence against women in Nigerian, Afro Hip Hop artistes came together to launch a campaign against rape in the society. But the big question is, from the several heavy dose of sexual lyrics of Nigerian Afro Hip Hop artistes analyzed in this chapter, do these Afro Hip Hop artistes have the moral justification to condemn the act of rape and sexual violence against women? My answer is no!

Conclusion The chapter has revealed that Afro-Arab hip hop music itself has a very influential and mesmerizing influence on its listeners. The time people devote to listening to Afro-Arab hip hop music is so astonishing that one can rightly say that they have become hip hop music addicts. It is gathered that musicals that feature violence and sex are in high demand and much of the Afro hip hop music is abundantly on the graphic portrayal of violence and sex, and people are consistently exposed to such contents which undermine moral standards and communicate sexual violence against women. Since youths model what they view and listen to especially on music videos, careful and conscious selection of Afro hip hop music contents with enhanced moral values will be of great benefit to them. It was also concluded that although many Afro hip hop songs appeared to glorify promiscuous sex, gang violence and drug use, often lesser-known rap songs and artistes present positive messages as well as insightful critiques of Nigerian society. The chapter also reveals that much of mainstream Afro hip hop music in Nigeria have been reduced to a never-ending obsession with women and sex, the push for creating sensual and sexually driven music videos can result in low self-esteem, image, insecurities and

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infidelity among the female gender, and this is what their North African female counterparts are replicating in their lyrics and music videos.

Recommendation Afro-Arab hip hop lyrics should therefore be used as avenues for combating social ills in our society such as rape and other sexual violence against women. The communicativeness, themes and textual contents of Afro hip hop lyrics should be employed in combating crime and encouraging good values among youths. It is therefore imperative that we move beyond the beats that characterize Afro-Arab hip hop music and seriously consider its negative effects on the people. The regulatory bodies like the Nigeria Video Censors Board and the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation must scrutinize the songs that are played on media stations. A situation where music videos and lyrics treat women merely as sex freaks is dehumanizing, and this can create an environment where sexual assault and violence against women thrive. The media, such as the music media, should be used as a tool for social change, not destruction. There should be a re-orientation in the culture, system and ideology of the entertainment industry so sexually offensive lyrics are not written. Scholars and activists should mount a campaign against musical videos that portray women in despicable manners. Furthermore, they should continue to critically analyze discussions centering on empirical findings or in changing gender relations in the hip hop community. People first need to be made aware that women’s rights are being violated verbally in sexist lyrics, in physical interactions at hip hop events and in the general way that Afro hip hop youths interact with one another every day. By asking Afro hip hop to reform, I am essentially demanding hip hop’s primary consumer base to consume music that is anti-sexist, anti-­ misogynistic. The growing concern of the dehumanization of women in the musical video and lyrics should be taken seriously and stakeholders should be proactive in raising awareness about the sexism, violence, and other –isms that too often pervade this medium.

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12 TikTok: Globalization and the Social Identification of Afrobeats Kisha Dasent

Introduction In March 2022 the Billboard brand partnered with the global brand Afronation to launch the first US chart for Afrobeats Music. The newly introduced genre has taken over the internet and social media, with users across the globe participating in viral dance trends to Afrobeat songs. Thanks to digital streaming media platforms such as Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, African popular culture has entered the global mainstream (Krings, 2020). Once again music has become the great equalizer delivering counter-stereotypes and signifying a way to reimagine Black culture and identity. This chapter examines a new phenomenon through the lens of social identity theory and the process of counter-­ stereotyping. Furthermore, it will explore the relationship of music and identity, traditional representations of African culture, history of Black

K. Dasent (*) St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_12

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music, the characteristics of Afrobeats music, the appeal of Afrobeats music among social media users, and the role of gender in this popularized genre of music.

Music and the Relationship to Identity The construction of identity through music is a concept that has been the foundation of critical scholarship for multiple genres (hip-hop, Reggae, Jazz, Indigenous music). The ensuing discussion examines the idea of social identity and its relationship to music, and the impact of social media. Media are mechanisms of a continuing process of shaping and reshaping racial identities and public opinion (Squires, 2009). Mass media have dictated and influenced the way society understands Blackness. Blacks have used mainstream/dominant media to struggle and negotiate identity while simultaneously providing the world with cultural contributions and alternative discourse (Squires, 2009). In an article featuring Stuart Hall’s cultural studies, writer Hua Hsu (2017) explains that “culture, after all, is a matter of constructing a relationship between oneself and the world,” and what better way to build a relationship than through music. One of the most popular ways that people communicate their feelings, emotions, and sentiments is through music. The Afro-hip-hop music scene in Nigeria has grown significantly during the past 20 years. It has been utilized as a vehicle for communicating a wide range of ideas, feelings, and emotions because of its great appeal (Akpan, 2022). Afrobeats is a popular African music genre that has become a transnational phenomenon (Rens, 2021). Therefore, utilizing these cultural works from the Global South are useful resources for critically analyzing modern social constructions. Music transcends all social identities, while simultaneously being an expression of personal, social, and ethnic identity providing the soundtrack to our lives. Music and dance continue to be an essential part of the Black ethos and a rhythmic ethnography of Black culture. It has been a source of healing, emancipation, transformation, feelings of joy

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and remembrance, and a way of expressing identity, pain, and suffering (Peabody, 1903; Olaleye & Osuagwu, 2020). Music helps to define societies and has been integral to the survival and the adaptation of people. It is often associated with expressions of religion and nationalism, strengthening identity and sense of community (Rhodes, 1962; Ekwueme, 1974; Tekman, 2002). An example of this includes South Africans’ use of choral traditions to resist and preserve cultural traditions through Apartheid and the AIDS crisis (Stone, 2015). Music has offered people of color a means of asserting their agency when there were no other means to do so. Rap music is another illustration of music as identity and an instrument to create socio-cultural perspectives and to encourage critical interchange. Hip-hop has firmly remained a fundamental and unique element of Black culture that enjoys transnational exposure and respect (Karvelis, 2018). As a direct result of the embeddedness in Black culture, hip-hop has a unique place as a tool for developing a deep critical understanding of many complex social issues impacting the Black community. Similarly, to hip-hop, African song verses frequently served as historical commentaries or cultural indicators, for example, historical commentary can be found in Yoruba “oriki music” (Adewumi, 2018). Ekwueme (1974), emphasized the importance of music to Black people in Africa and in the modern world, and exclaimed that its function is more significant to Blacks than Whites. Ekwueme stated, “[I]t is the life of the living spirit working within those who dance and sing.” His belief illustrates the concept of music as greater than ourselves and more than notes and words but as a symbol of identity. Akpan (2018) underscores the connectivity of music and society and how it reflects and creates societal conditions and behaviors. Like Ekwueme (1974), Akpan (2018) believes “music facilitates communication more powerful than the spoken words and it enables meaning to be shared. Music promotes the growth and sustenance of individuals, groups, cultural and national identities.” Conversely scholars Dere Leke Idowu and Olaye Ogunnubi (2021) describe African music and culture as “soft power” resources which help to replace negative images globally.

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 raditional Eurocentric Representation T of African Culture Historically African culture has been negatively represented and misrepresented. The commercial images in the 1990s and 2000s depicted African children seemingly unkempt with tattered clothing, suffering from malnutrition, gazing hopelessly at the camera, all the while fighting off one fly attack after another. This myopically constructed media archetype of life in Africa became an embedded image etched into the global psyche and was believed to be the narrative for Africa’s position and its role in the world. The association of poverty and lack has shaped Africa and its people’s global identity for years to come. In this instance media rhetoric didn’t tell us what to think but the messaging communicated and shaped how to think about Africa. In a book chapter entitled Women, Use the Gaze to Change Reality, author Katerina Hedrén et  al. (2015) wrote about the concept of the “single story.” She explains the concept is derived from the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, who explains the myopic narrative of Africa being a place of misery is dangerous. Furthermore, Hedrén declares that stereotypic filmic representations are a threat to Africans and filmmakers who cannot decipher fantasy and reality, and therefore lose their capacity to depict Africans or the country in diverse complex ways. In the study What Is Nigeria? Unsettling the Myths of Exceptionalism, Aghogho Akpome (2015) interrogates the discourse surrounding the negative stereotypes, crime, and exceptionalism in Nigeria. Akpome asserts that information about Nigeria isn’t based on facts and is characterized by contradictions and inaccuracies. Consequently, these contradictions and facts can shape how others perceive Nigeria and how Nigerians understand themselves. In an article entitled “Cultural Genocide,” Alain Daniélou (1969) describes what he alleged to be the “problem” with music from Africa. He believed that the absence of Eurocentric musicality or instrumentation determined if a genre of music is recognized artistically. The use of percussion and cultural instrumentation was foreign and not recognized by mainstream society. Daniélou goes on to explain that although colonization no longer exists, the remnants of genocide and slavery still

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live on, the attitudes and belief of cultural and racial superiority have not changed but simply have been revised. Media can be a distortion of culture, reflecting, reproducing, and sustaining the hegemonic ideology of the dominant culture. Media have informed and instructed how we communicate identity and therefore have played an important role in shaping our narratives about self and others.

Black Music History Early on, Blacks were hired to play music and sing to Black and White laborers to boost energy and morale (Peabody, 1903). Even then Black music was something to be admired. Not quite understood by White people but nevertheless enjoyed equally as much as Black people (Peabody, 1903; Squires, 2009). What has also been a part of Black musical history is the disproportionate way in which White people have benefited financially and the underestimation of the Black dollar and audience (Squires, 2009). Music was another way in which White people were able to segregate, exploit, and profit from Black talent. Although very influential, Black musicians had little to no ownership of their music, beats, and lyrics (Squires, 2009). “Race music” was the term for Jazz and R&B music. When the demand for race music could no longer be dismissed and the big labels experienced a decrease in sales, they caved to the pressures and started signing Black artists and acquiring race record labels. Black music has been the foundation for so many styles of music; for example, rock and roll was claimed to have been created by a White artist named Bill Haley, who recorded the song “Rock around the clock,” but there isn’t any mention or credit given to the original Black writer of the song Sonny Dae. Music was not the only segregated aspect of the industry; charting was also another exclusionary device used to keep Black people stagnate. Black music was listed on the R&B charts and White music was listed on the popular (pop) charts. Separate but not equal, the two charts signified race, class, and economical distinction. The pop chart was heavily sought after by all groups, but this was the chart that was widely recognized by the industry and led to financial gains (Squires, 2009). Today there are

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separate charts for hip-hop, R&B, reggae, and now Afrobeats music. Although there are various charts, the pop chart continues to be the industry’s opinion leader, White-dominated, and the most acknowledged. In the late 1970s and early 1980s hip-hop music became a pop culture music sensation. Like previous music genres, hip-hop used lyrics to express the trials and tribulations of Black struggles and relayed the hard truth about what was happening in neighborhoods overlooked by the government. Hip-hop was the voice of the racially and economically marginalized and a political platform for African Americans (Peoples, 2007). Parallel to Fela’s Afrobeat music was the soundtrack to postcolonial Africa and spoke to the injustices, corruption, and politics that had shaped the attitudes of Africans. Early on, rap music was produced by small Black independent labels and was broadcasted by small Black radio stations, very similar to Afrobeats. When rap music crossed over and accomplished mainstream success, big labels realized the economic potential and began signing rap artists and buying up the Black-owned independent labels. Hip-hop became the center of American pop culture and a global phenomenon that many wanted to emulate. Like previous genres of Black music, hip-hop music and artists were exploited for financial gains by White-dominated labels. Following a familiar trajectory, Afrobeats began in the inner cities and streets of communities surrounding Lagos in Nigeria (Tayo, 2022). It gained visibility in 2011 when rappers Kanye West, Akon, and Snoop Dog collaborated with and signed Nigerian artists, D’Banj, Tuface, and P-Square (Krings, 2020). The popular collaboration between Kanye and D’Banj scored the first Afrobeats UK top 10, “Oliver Twist.” Major media corporations such as Sony and Universal flocked to Nigeria to set up headquarters and sign Nigerian artists. The music from the newly signed artists was distributed on platforms not available to Nigeria at the time (Krings, 2020). Again, the concern wasn’t for the artist, and what they had created, but for the gains from international success, with no regard for the birthplace of the people and culture from which it came. Adding insult to injury, in an effort to capitalize on the growing popularity of African music, platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music have lumped all popular music from Africa into the Afrobeats category. Further appropriation has been continued by American, French, and German

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artists collaborating with and creating music with various African artists and grouping all African music under the Afrobeats categorization. This devalues other forms of music from regions other than Nigeria and allows Western culture to reproduce the power relation of Western dominance. Like so many genres before it, Afrobeats is poised to follow in the same unfortunate trajectory as jazz, blues, rhythm and blues (R&B), funk, and hip-hop. Afrobeats artistes are dependent on large media companies to distribute their music and therefore have to surrender their power to White dominant structures that have no interests but to grow the bottom line. This is a dangerous phenomenon and has occurred numerous times throughout the history of Black music. Afrobeats popularity is reminiscent of the struggles that have become synonymous with Black innovation in media and beyond. Historically Black music and culture have been appropriated and commodified for the benefit of the “bottom line” of White owners. We have witnessed the music business’ appetite for Black talent but not for their wellbeing. Countless artists have struggled while making record labels successful and wealthy. In the infant stages of hip-­ hop, artists were signed to deals that stripped them of their input, robbed them of financial stability and generational wealth, and rendered them puppets controlled by an industry of White dominance.

Background: Afrobeats and Social Media What is now known as Afrobeats was originally birthed in Nigeria and pioneered by the late Nigerian musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, whose middle name means “One who carries death in his pouch” (Adofo, 2022, p. 5). Afrobeat music, as it was originally termed, is a collection of musical sub-genres from Nigerian and Western origins. The foundation for Fela’s body of work was the idea of negritude (Adewumi, 2018). Negritude was created in the 1930s and 1940s in the intellectual climate of Paris. It was the result of Black writers uniting to promote their cultural identity through the French language (Micklin, 2008). Negritude was a reaction to how historically disconnected Black people lived. The movement established a unique identity for Black people everywhere and played a significant role in the political opposition to colonialism. Negritude also

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had an impact on how the colonized saw themselves. Additionally, it inspired and supported later literary movements that were in response to world politics. Similarly, Fela’s lyrics would inspire a movement that fought against oppression and instilled patriotism and nationalism in Africans (Olaleye & Osuagwu, 2020). Fela created music which mocked global politics and challenged egregious societal racial oppression experienced by Nigerians (Adewumi, 2018; Osiebe, 2020). His music fostered a sense of pride while articulating the experiences of injustice, and the abuse of power enacted by the government (Olaleye & Osuagwu, 2020). Prior to 1999, Nigerian media was controlled by the government, and mainstream Westernized music was the primary source for entertainment consumption (Osiebe, 2020). The re-democratization of Nigeria produced privately owned media organizations, which led to the access of affordable studio equipment and an increased support for localized talent (Osiebe, 2020). The development of music in Nigeria was also due to the influence of hip-hop, which has had a presence in Nigeria since 1979. Rap music brought with it the promise that anyone without a band or formal musical training could become a star (Krings, 2020). In the last ten years, Nigerian popular music has gone through a process of stylistic change and rebranding. Songs released in the first decade of the new millennium often sounded unauthentic as they were the result of attempts to create hybrid Nigerian versions of existing genres such as hip-hop, reggae, and R&B (Krings, 2020). Budget constraints and other technical limitations often prevented the desired production standards from being achieved. Afrobeats emerged from the culmination of access to new technology and the popularity of up-tempo music. Afrobeats has West and South African, Congolese, Ghanaian, Caribbean influences, and is a fusion of many genres of music including Nigerian Afrobeat, highlife, son, reggaeton, rap, and dancehall (Krings, 2020; Adofo, 2022). It has become mainstream and has slowly made its way onto the US airwaves. Grammy wins, viral dance competitions, and sold-out tours have shaped its worldwide popularity (Adofo, 2022).

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Going Viral In 2010, Asamoah Gyan, a soccer player-turned Afrobeats artist, Baby Jet, danced across the field after scoring a goal against Australia at the World Cup held in South Africa. Soccer is one of the most globally popularized sports in the world and yet continues to uphold Eurocentric beliefs of superiority and nationalist attitudes, promoting others and placing minorities on the margins. Gyan’s display of pride signifies the importance of the intersections of music, dance, and sport as identity. Gyan introduced the world to the new dance style Azonto, a communicative, full-body dance workout that includes hip and knee movements, as well as arms, shoulders, arms, and a bit of improvisation (Adofo, 2022). On the Apple music website, Afrobeats is described as one of the most eclectic and exportable sounds in contemporary music. In 2016, Afrobeats truly made a mark when the Canadian rapper Drake featured Wizkid on his hit One Dance. In the coming years collaborations with Major Lazer, Ed Sheeran, Future, Chris Brown, Selena Gomez, Ciara, Justin Bieber, and Beyonce have solidified the international popularity of this genre of music. Although very unique, distinct, and rooted in a West African style of music, Afrobeats’ transnational appeal is a direct result of its hybridity. The fusion and influence of hip-hop, jazz, funk, dancehall, house music, and highlife have made Afrobeats’ sound cross-continental. Along with the music, dance is also an integral component of the distinct Afrobeats culture. Like the music, the dances are unique, the movements and facial expressions are exaggerated, and the attitude of extreme confidence and swagger make it so addictive. Dances such as leg work, Gwara Gwara, Shaku Shaku, Zanku, Kupe, Akwaaba, and Azonto have become a part of the dance craze on social media platforms. With names as vivid as the movement that produces them, these dances have inspired tutorials on YouTube and the proliferation of African dance classes that instruct you on how to dance to Afrobeats music.

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TikTok and Afrobeats TikTok is a digital messaging platform that can also be viewed on popular social media sites such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube. TikTok is a platform for creative expression through music clips; these short-form videos have created new opportunities for the negotiation of identity and empowerment of individuals online (Vizcaino-Verdu & Aguaded, 2022). During the Covid-19 pandemic, people across the globe were forced to shelter in place and find alternate means of socializing (WHO, 2020). TikTok became the go-to platform for socializing and expression. The platform offered people a way to post short-form videos that showcased cooking, cleaning, building, baking, dancing, singing, and a variety of tips and hacks. Dance challenges became a way to pass time and presented a way for families to bond and have fun. Day after day and week after week, people tuned in to social media to see various individuals and their friends and family take part in the latest dance challenge. Consequently, TikTok has aided in the popularity and promotion of Afrobeats by extending the global reach, and introducing African culture through music, fashion, and dance. The popularization of Afrobeats on social media has offered counter-stereotypes of resistance, coping, persistence, pride, and unity. The expressions of Black love, Black unity, individuality, ingenuity, creativity, vulnerability, and culture offer ways to resist negative representations and dominant ideologies of African people through song, dance, and fashion. An example of musical expression as identity by way of social media was demonstrated with the Afrobeats song “Jerusalema.” “Jerusalema” was composed by Master KG and featured singer/songwriter Nomcembo Zikode. Its release in November 2019 with hymn-like implications of transcendence coincided with a time of global unease and uncertainty (Harlig et al., 2021; Idowu & Ogunnubi, 2021). At the start of 2020, Covid-19 impacted many countries around the world. Countries were forced to quarantine; a stay-at-home order was issued worldwide. Society had to find alternative ways of communicating and expressing their agency. Social media became a way to bridge the need for connection. “Jerusalema’s” popularity quickly skyrocketed after its debut, but the

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TikTok #JerusalemaDanceChallenge was the catalyst for the song’s widespread appeal. The #JerusalemaDanceChallenge on TikTok was a manifestation of African culture, in the way in which it soothes a crisis with joy and community togetherness (Harlig et al., 2021). The release of the song was timely and helped to ameliorate growing tensions and traumas experienced by society as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, global protests, and the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor murders (Harlig et al., 2021).

Women Too We can’t discuss Afrobeats without acknowledging the women who have helped propel the culture forward. Researching Afrobeats is a reminder that patriarchy is alive and well. Another case of art reproducing societal norms, and relegating women to a position of “less than.” The male-­ dominated form of music is saturated with stories which include all of the men who have paved the way and contributed to the success of the budding musical scene. Artists such as D’Banj, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, Skepta, P-Square, and Mr. Eazi are some of the artists that are frequently referred to when discussing Afrobeats musical landscape. Very few articles feature women’s experiences within the rising phenomenon. Women are mentioned as a featured artist in conjunction with a male artist; for example Wizkid’s first self-charting Billboard song, entitled “Essence,” featured a female artist by the name of Tems (Adofo, 2022). Tems is a Nigerian singer, song writer, and producer who currently has three songs simultaneously in the top ten, and one more song in the top twenty on the Afrobeats charts. Other notable female contributors are Yemi Alade, one of the most popular Nigerian singers, winning two MTV Africa Music awards in 2015 and 2016. Tiwa Savage is a Nigerian singer and songwriter who has been crowned the queen of Afrobeats according to Atiya Jordan (2022), writer for Black Enterprise magazine. Jordan goes on to highlight Savage’s honorary doctorate in music from her alma mater Kent University in England, and her career as a background vocalist for Mary J. Blige, Andrea Bocelli, and Ms. Dynamite. Upcoming artists Ayra Starr, Guchi, Liya, Teni the Entertainer, and Sista

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Afia are some of the female artists making waves and creating a name for themselves in a male-dominated world. Afrobeats has been the focus of scrutiny in the same way that rap has been criticized for its misogynistic lyrics and the objectification of women. In an article by Simphiwe Emmanuel Rens (2021), the researcher describes Afrobeats music videos as expressions of “manhood” that sustain inherently sexist and misogynistic atmospheres of men’s superiority and dominance while (in)advertently encouraging the treatment of women as mere objects of men’s sexual satisfaction valuing only their physical appearance. Akpan (2022) also asserts that videos with half-naked women have led to the misinterpretation of women as sex objects to be used and discarded. Music is an extension of how various cultures communicate and it replicates both positive and negative attributes of society. Traditionally women, specifically Black women, have had to endure the gender norms that relegate them to objects that serve only to be of a benefit to men. Objectifying images are synonymous identifiers of Blackness and gives the perception to the audience that Black People are the root of their own demise as depicted by the lyrics and images shown (Iwamoto, 2003). Afrobeats presents and represents African and Black cultures and mimics an oppressive patriarchal society which informs how women and men understand their identity.

Theoretical Framework and Concepts Social identity and counter-stereotypes are used in conjunction to explore how the popularity and globalization of Afrobeats has aided in increased positive feelings and offered an alternative narrative and sense of identity for Africans. Counter-stereotypes (CS) work to reduce levels of stereotyping. There are two processes of CS: the individual bookkeeping process slowly changes upon encountering numerous counter-­ stereotypical examples; the conversion process is said to happen more rapidly upon encountering fewer but more impactful counter-stereotypical examples. These processes have been used in research as a strategy to

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combat gender role stereotypes (Finnegan et  al., 2015). Research has shown that media facilitates the activation of stereotypical attitudes. Repeated imagery of negative or false stereotypes can tremendously affect an individual’s judgment (Covert & Dixon, 2008). The globalization and success of Afrobeats have instigated increased exposure to African cultures, conversely activating positive impressions or counter-stereotypes of these groups. Social identity theory defines identity and how it is constructed. Tajfel’s social identity theory (1978) posited that group membership endows individuals with social identity; group identification becomes stronger through ongoing positive evaluations of the ingroup. The increased popularity of a genre of music validates and reinforces positive social identity and self-esteem through ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation (Shepherd & Sigg, 2015). An example of social identity through music can be understood by examining the lyrics of the trailblazing artist and producer known as Skepta. In an interview with Fader magazine (2015), Skepta details his experience growing up as an African in the UK and some of the challenges he has faced. In a song collaboration with Wizkid, Skepta’s lyrics read, “When I was a youth, to be called ‘African’ was a diss. At school, it sounds like you need help saying my surname ‘miss.’” Skepta went on to tell the interviewer Dan Hancox (2015, p. 55): The African kids used to lie and say they were Jamaican. So, when I first came into the game, and I’m saying lyrics like, “I make Nigerians proud of their tribal scars/My bars make you push up your chest like bras,” that was a big deal for me.

Skepta describes being African as an insult. As children himself and others would lie about where they were from to avoid the negative stigma associated with being African. He then goes on to say he no longer feels shame and is proud to be Nigerian. Furthermore, Skepta understands his music helps other Nigerians to feel the same sense of pride. His lyrics display the ideology of music as a source of connection to one’s culture which reinforces positive identity and self-esteem.

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Conclusion Music as identity is not a new phenomenon; however, the popularity and use of social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have created new markets by which Afrobeats has evolved and gained global influence. Positive representations act to reinforce positive feelings and work to combat and reduce negative perceptions about marginalized groups of people. Representation is the vehicle by which various cultures arrive at a shared understanding (Hall, 1997). In this case, Afrobeats as a positive representation has aided in changing the global view of Africans, African culture, and thus African societies. Music as an agent moves marginalized groups of people from the status of object to that of subject. The Westernized and White Eurocentric gaze that dominates popular culture and dictates what and who is popular is ever present and informs how we understand who we are. Afrobeats’ transnational success is another example of Black culture as an agent of change and a testament of its importance. Hsu (2017) expressed “culture, after all, is a matter of constructing a relationship between oneself and the world.” Afrobeats has aided in changing the dynamics and narrative of the relationship between Africa and the world. Through music and dance Black people continue to define who we are by offering counter narratives, navigating a complex relationship that exists between the dialectic of race and place.

References Adewumi, A. (2018). Afrobeat Music as Cultural Heritage in Nigeria: Myth or Reality? Rivers State University Journal of Public Law, 5(1), 213–232. Adofo, C. (2022, March 23). The Rise of Afrobeats: From West Africa to The Diaspora 1950–2010 Reflecting on How African Music Crossed Over into Wider Pop Culture. Billboard. Akpan, U. S. (2018). Hip Hop Music on Radio and the Lifestyle of Students in Select Tertiary Institutions in Lagos. Lambert Publishing. Akpan, U. S. (2022). The Communicativeness of Select Nigerian Afro-hip-hop Lyrics and Sociological Perception of Women. In A. Salawu & I. A. Fadipe (Eds.), Indigenous African Popular Music (Pop Music, Culture and Identity) (Vol. 2). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­030-­98705-­3_16

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Akpome, A. (2015). What Is Nigeria? Unsettling the Myth of Exceptionalism. Africa Spectrum, 50(1), 65–78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24589180 Covert, J. J., & Dixon, T. L. (2008). A Changing View - representation and effects of the portrayal of women of color in mainstream women’s magazines. Sage Publications, 35(2). Daniélou, A. (1969). Cultural Genocide. African Music, 4(3), 19–21. http:// www.jstor.org/stable/30249658 Ekwueme, L. (1974). African-Music Retention in the New World. The Black Perspective in Music, 2(2), 128–144. https://doi.org/10.2307/1214230 Finnegan, E., Oakhill, J., & Garnham, A. (2015). Counter-Stereotypical Pictures as a Strategy for Overcoming Spontaneous Gender Stereotypes. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1–15. Hall, S. (Ed.). (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Sage Publications. Hancox, D. (2015). Skepta’s Leading Grime into the Future by Returning to its Roots. The Fader.com. Harlig, A., Abidin, C., Boffone, T., Bowker, K., Eloi, C., Krayenbuhl, P., & Oh, C. (2021). TikTok and Short-form Screendance before and after Covid. The International Journal of Screendance, 12, 191–209. Hedrén, K., Mistry, J., & Schuhmann, A. (2015). Women, Use the Gaze to Change Reality. In Gaze Regimes: Film and feminisms in Africa (pp.  182–187). Wits University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10. 18772/22015068561.20 Hsu, H. (2017, July). Stuart Hall and the rise of cultural studies. The Newyorker. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/stuart-hall-and-the-riseof-cultural-studies Idowu, D. L., & Ogunnubi, O. (2021). Music and Dance Diplomacy in the COVID-19 Era: Jerusalema and the Promotion of South Africa’s Soft Power. The Round Table, 110(4), 461–476. https://doi.org/10.1080/0035853 3.2021.1956816 Iwamoto, D. (2003). Tupac Shakur: Understanding the Identity Formation of Hyper-Masculinity of a Popular Hip-Hop Artist. The Black Scholar, 33(2), 44–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41069025 Jordan, A. (2022). ‘It’s Dr. Tiwa Savage From Now On’: The Queen Of Afrobeats Receives Honorary Doctorate In Music. Black Enterprise.com. Karvelis, N. (2018). Race, Class, Gender, and Rhymes: Hip-Hop as Critical Pedagogy. Music Educators Journal, 105(1), 46–50. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0027432118788138

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Krings, M. (2020). African Popular Culture Enters the Global Mainstream (pp. 182–187). Academia. Micklin, A. (2008, June 29). Negritude Movement. BlackPast.org. https://www. blackpast.org/global-africanhistory/negritude-movement/ Olaleye, O., & Osuagwu, D. (2020). Fela Anikulapo Afrobeats Music as a Driving Force for Social Transformation. Journal of Women in Technical Education and Employment (JOWITED), 1(1), 144–152. Osiebe, G. (2020). Methods in performing Fela in Contemporary Afrobeats. African Studies, 79(1), 88–109. Peabody, C. (1903). Notes on Negro music. The Journal of American Folklore, 16(62), 148. https://doi.org/10.2307/533498 Peoples, W.  S. (2007). Under Construction: Identifying Foundations of Hip Hop Feminism and Exploring Bridges Between Black Second-wave and Hip Hop Feminism. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 8, 19–52. Rens, S. E. (2021). Women’s Empowerment, Agency and Self-determination in Afrobeats Music Videos: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. Frontiers in Sociology, 6, 1–15. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc. 2021.646899. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.646899 Rhodes, W. (1962). Music As an Agent of Political Expression. African Studies Bulletin, 5(2), 14–22. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0002020600040415 Shepherd, D., & Sigg, N. (2015). Music Preferences, Social Identity, and Self-­ esteem. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 32(5), 507–514. Squires, C. R. (2009). African Americans and the Media. Polity Press. Stone, M. S. (2015). Black South African Choral Music and the Struggle Against HIV. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1775458306). https://search.proquest.com/docview/1775458306?accountid=146957 Tajfel, H. (1978). Social Categorization, Social Identity and Social Comparison. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Differentiation between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations (pp. 61–76). London: Academic Press. Tayo, A. (2022). The Reclusive TikTok Star Powering Nigeria’s Street Afrobeats Scene. Aljazeera.com. Tekman, H.  G. (2002). Music and Social Identity: Stylistic Identification s a Response to Musical Style. International Union of Psychological Science, 37(5), 277–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590244000043 Vizcaino-Verdu, A., & Aguaded, I. (2022). #ThisIsMeChallenge and Music for Empowerment of Marginalized Groups on TikTok. Media and Communication, 10(1), 157–172. World Health Organization (WHO), 2020.

Part IV Health Communication and the Digital Space

13 Pandemics and Conspiracist Ideation: Making Sense of Collective Sense-­Making and Health Information Needs in New Media Environments in Africa Jean Claude Kwitonda, Kellon J. Bubb, and Symone Campbell

Introduction As those who control major global digital technologies grapple with the quandaries of social media regulation (e.g., section 230), concerns over the ubiquity of transnational media and abundance of conspiracist information will continue to grow. With a recognition of the potential impact of conspiracist ideation (e.g., impeding collective health behaviors when they are needed most) as well as perspectives that consider conspiracist ideation as paranoid, irrational, or bizarre resistance to dominant and

J. C. Kwitonda (*) • S. Campbell Howard University, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] K. J. Bubb Montgomery College, Rockville, MD, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_13

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scientific consensus, we take, in this chapter, a relatively de-pathologized view of conspiracist ideation (i.e., as a particular kind of collective sense-­ making). Taking stock of traditional research, gray literature, and other lessons learned in Africa and elsewhere, we examine motives for divergent thinking and proffer specific propositions for managing information needs in new media environments. As those who control major global digital technologies grapple with the quandaries of new media regulation (e.g., section 230), concerns over the abundance of misinformation and conspiracist communication continue to grow. Conspiracist ideation or the idea that nothing happens by chance (Dieguez et al., 2015) has attracted diverse perspectives. While some researchers have argued that conspiracist ideation has been pathologized as a particular kind of erroneous, irrational resistance to official and scientific consensus (Popper, 1945), others view conspiracist ideation as a natural reaction by lay publics as they strive to make sense of novel, ambiguous or disruptive events (Franks et al., 2013). In particular, when such events are big and threatening (e.g., new pandemics, terrorist attacks, sudden death of a celebrity), propensity toward “connecting the dots” increases (van Prooijen, 2011). These different orientations toward conspiracist ideation suggest that they deserve more attention particularly given the consequences of conspiracist mis/information during public health crises in global media environments. The complexity and disruptive nature of global public health emergencies have demonstrated that most conspiracist information has negative outcomes on population health. For example, research indicates that some parents have resisted vaccinating their children due to conspiracy theories that vaccines cause non-trivial side effects (Kata, 2010; LaVail & Kennedy, 2012; Weiner et  al., 2015; Wheeler & Buttenheim, 2013; Witteman & Zikmund-Fisher, 2012). Conspiracy theories have complicated the fight against Ebola (Spinney, 2019), acceptance poliomyelitis vaccination (Khan & Sahibzada, 2016), and, recently, COVID-19 (Bowles et  al., 2020; Learning Networks for Countries in Transition, 2020). In particular, the emergence of such pandemics needs spontaneous and collective responses to be able to implement preventive objectives such as herd immunity through vaccination or mitigation of further spread. As Feuer (2014) argues, conspiracist theories can significantly undermine public trust and collective behaviors when they are needed

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most. New media, embodied by digital networks, intervene as vehicles for disinformation, mal-information, and/or misinformation but they can also be used to foster health-protecting behaviors during public health crises (Bowles et al., 2020). In this chapter, we explore the nature of conspiracies ideation within the context of global public health, their motives, and the role of new media in managing anxiety and divergent thinking during public health emergencies. The remainder of this chapter moves along in three main sections. Because public health crises disrupt many aspects of life, the first section examines conspiracist ideation as a particular kind of collective sense-making and/or social representation. In the second section, we turn to the literature that explicates motives behind conspiracist ideation as a basis for divergent thinking. Taking stock of the traditional research (on the nature and motives of conspiracist ideation) and gray literature (mostly from the African experiences with global pandemics), the last section will proffer some recommendations for managing information needs in new media environments.

 onspiracist Ideation as Collective C Sense-Making The social representation framework posits that when new infectious diseases (e.g., COVID-19, Zika, Ebola, SARS, avian influenza, the H1N1 influenza pandemic) emerge, they are widely circulated by media (Moscovici, 1961; Wagner-Egger et al., 2011). The latter line of research argues that new information is dominated by abstract, probabilistic terms from scientists. As such, lay publics are confronted with not only unfamiliar diseases, but also inaccessible discourse used to explain them. This requires attention, sense-making, individual, and collective action. Such emergency situations are the stuff of conspiracy ideation because lay publics have to contend with the various disruptions that often threaten prevailing socio-economic inequities, salient identities, and livelihoods. The social representation perspective (Moscovici, 1961) explains how lay publics grapple with abrupt and unfamiliar events that require immediate social change and how the new and threatening situations are transformed into familiar and less threatening situations.

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When confronted with a new phenomenon, lay publics must develop a working understanding by transforming abstract, probabilistic risk science into (lay) working knowledge (Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990; Moscovici, 1961). Conspiracy ideation is partly a byproduct of the clash between and/or mixing of prevailing social realities, scientific, and lay knowledge. According to Moscovici (1961), this kind of hybrid knowledge is a result of two main processes, namely anchoring and objectification. Anchoring is akin to the process of grappling with the ambiguity and unfamiliarity associated with new phenomena. The latter process may involve naming the unfamiliar event with the purpose of relating the event to existing or familiar systems of meanings. By naming the new phenomenon, it becomes relatively recognizable and less threatening. For example, when they emerge, global public health pandemics are often named after the time and/or places they were first discovered (e.g., Zika, COVID-19). This kind of representation may sometimes involve conspiracy theorizations that seek to name a culprit who must be blamed for the outbreak (Joffe, 1999; Wagner-Egger et  al., 2011). Objectification concretizes new phenomena. Metaphor, concrete, and visual imagery are the main means of representing abstract scientific contents. For example, COVID-19 has become a familiar brand thanks to its representation as a round entity with protruding spikes. According to a Michigan University blog (n.d.), the visual imagery explains abstract scientific facts about the nature of the virus: Those spikes on the outside are really there and they’re what gave the virus its name—“corona” comes from the word crown in Latin, and those spikes bind to the receptor on a cell and allow the virus to enter it. Like each image that BioArtography produces, the coronavirus’ spiky ball tells a story, and that story has become an important visual cue about public health and safety. In the image, they added some orange and yellow-­colored dots on the surface, which represent the myriad of proteins that the virus encodes.

Anchoring and objectification function as processes that increase public understanding of abstract and technical knowledge—by transforming it into common-sense knowledge. The reconstruction of scientific

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knowledge provides lay publics with a new code of conduct (Moscovici, 1961) and familiar ways of making sense of expert knowledge publicized in popular and/or elite media. In the context of conspiracist information and public health emergencies, awareness and reconstruction of expert knowledge result in divergent ways of representing the new and threatening phenomenon by “creating a symbolic environment characterized by ambiguity or uncertainty” (Franks et al., 2013, p. 7). The latter statement is crucial for understanding processes underlying conspiracist ideation, particularly their development and spread. In the following section, we turn to specific motives underlying conspiracist ideation.

Motives for Divergent Thinking Research suggests that conspiracist ideation stems from the human inclination to seek closure or accuracy. These needs are compounded during times of uncertainty or when faced with divergent ways of interpreting a new phenomenon (Marchlewska et al., 2018; Leman & Cinnirella, 2013; van Prooijen & Jostmann, 2013). The tendency to seek closure and accuracy intensifies when there is no clear official explanation or solution to a phenomenon that disrupts or threatens public wellbeing. For example, when new infectious diseases emerge, scientific experts provide explanations regarding the causes and/or treatment. Those explanations are then adopted and transformed by lay publics. However, lay public often lack the cognitive tools that resonate with probabilistic and jargon-­laden scientific explanations failing to find accuracy and closure in the process. The latter gap gives rise to conspiracist ideation or interpretative frames that diverge from scientific consensus (Franks et al., 2013). Social motives have also been cited as plausible explanations for conspiracist ideation. For example, some researchers (e.g., Brotherton & Eser, 2015) have identified significant associations between feelings of boredom and conspiracist proneness. The latter motive is relevant to the development and spread of conspiracy theories because of the psychological need to appear special to others particularly when one can express “bullshit” stances (Pennycook et  al., 2015; Pfattheicher & Schindler, 2016) or share information that seems unique or rare (Imhoff &

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Lamberty, 2017; Lantian et al., 2016). Social/self-esteem needs can thus stoke conspiracist ideation or rejection of dominant and scientific accounts. However, the social and self-esteem needs may make conspiracist ideation seem to be the stuff of marginalized communities who engage in conspiracies simply to feel unique to others, subvert accounts from groups perceived as elitist or because such communities are lacking in rational thinking as some research suggests (e.g., Mikuškova, 2017; Ståhl & van Prooijen, 2018; Swami et al., 2014). While real or perceptive marginalization, lack of analytical thinking or low levels of education may lead to systematic errors of judgment, such deficit-based accounts may run the risk of obscuring social-political contexts that provide plausible explanations for real conspiracies (see Briggs, 2004; Davis et  al., 2018; Nattrass, 2013; Learning Networks for Countries in Transition, 2020; Thomas & Quinn, 1991).The contemporary global culture characterized by informal networks of global elites invokes the creative and mutating nature of old problems of global and local governance (Basham, 2003; Kwitonda, 2017a; Singh, 2016) that may justify mistrust in official accounts. For example, in authoritarian cultures, responses to public health emergencies may be permeated by conspiracist ideation due to mistrust in government (Kim & Cao, 2016). In particular, many governments in the global south tend to have authoritarian ways of relating to citizenry. Paradoxically, authoritarian governments may be effective at imposing strict public health measures (e.g., lockdowns) but this may sometimes come at the expense of basic human rights. In such scenarios, conspiracist ideation may be understood as a safe strategy for expressing dissent or a desperate attempt to hold local and extra-local governments accountable (Basham, 2003; Dentith, 2016a, 2016b). COVID-19 has already proven that trust in public officials and networks of global elites are key to acceptance of behavioral change and uptake of vaccine in the African context. For example, a report by Learning Networks for Countries in Transition (2020, p.  76) demonstrate why conspiracist beliefs should not be dismissed wholesale: After a European doctor on foreign television proposed testing of the vaccine in Africa, a rumor started that a purported vaccine for COVID-19, which would spread the virus, was being tested on the population in Cote

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D’Ivoire. Anti-vaccine movements also took advantage of this fear and distrust to spread rumors, including that vaccines are a money-making scam by manufacturers and vaccine funding organizations. These rumors resulted in a call for vaccinations offered in health centers to be refused. A telephone poll conducted among 55,291 respondents in mid-April showed that half the population were planning to discontinue vaccinating their children either because of the rumors circulating or because they do not believe in vaccination. Consequently, Cote D’Ivoire saw decreased attendance at vaccination centers and increased vaccine refusal, leading to lower immunization coverage overall.

Another notable motive for divergent thinking is the desire to preserve or affirm one’s political worldview, ideology, and/or identity. Research conducted in different countries in Africa demonstrates the need to protect deeply held values such as religious worldviews (Bristol & Millard, 2016; Hird & Linton, 2016; Nasir et al., 2014). This may be one of the key determinants of motivated reasoning and avoidance of cognitive dissonance among religious leaders. Another relevant example has been observed in the USA and how the country has attempted to manage the COVID-19 virus. Due to its coincidence with a political year in the USA, COVID-19 has demonstrated that certain public health behaviors (e.g., attitude toward wearing facial masks or adhering to recommendations provided scientific experts) are often filtered through worldview-­ affirming beliefs (e.g., conservatives vs. liberals).

 anaging Health Information Needs in New M Media Environments New digital technologies have increasingly been linked to the spread of conspiracist information (Bessi et al., 2014; Bessi et al., 2015; Southwell et al., 2018). Moreover, some social media platforms (e.g., WhatsApp, which has been characterized as “one-stop shop” because of its affordability, anonymity, and social closeness it offers to subscribers, Bowles et al., 2020) are highly prone to misinformation because they are not easily amenable to traditional fact checking mechanisms (Del Vicario et  al.,

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2016; Zarocostas, 2020). While such new platforms may function as vehicles for conspiracist ideas and misinformation, research suggests that they can also support information management during public health crises. For example, research conducted among 27,000 WhatsApp subscribers in Zimbabwe shows that the application can be harnessed to fight misinformation about the COVID-19 virus (Bowles et  al., 2020). Building on the latter optimistic view of new media as well as an understanding of conspiracist ideation as collective sense-making, we now turn to the role of the new media in managing conspiracist information in the context of public health emergencies. First, information providers must keep in mind that the emergence of new communicable disease will naturally engender anxiety and uncertainty prompting people to seek, avoid, or reappraise information received via official and mediated channels (Afifi & Weiner, 2004, Babrow, 2001; Brashers, 2001). As uncertainty management and social representation research suggests, anxiety will follow naturally “when details of the situation are ambiguous, complex, unpredictable, or probabilistic; when information is unavailable or inconsistent; and when people feel insecure in their own state of knowledge or the state of knowledge in general” (Brashers, 2001, p. 478). As crucial information managers, new media and public health officials must therefore provide efficacy components in the provision of information. In other words, the process of sense-making does not only entail assessing the information provided but also the reappraisal of outcomes expectancies (Babrow & Kwitonda, 2020) associated with acting upon the information. With regard to efficacy assessments, the questions to keep in mind (particularly in low-income or non-democratic contexts) may include the relationship between prevailing mistrust in government, economic hardships, and human rights abuses because this backdrop often influences perceptions of government mandates(e.g., impositions of lockdowns or other public health measures). That is, efficacy assessments are necessarily anchored in ongoing socio-economic inequities as well as real conspiracies in oppressive and centralized polities. For example, the fight against global terrorism has proven to be a double-edged sword used by autocratic regimes to join the fight against international terrorism on one hand and multilateral conspiracies in the suppression of political

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dissidents summarily labeled as “terrorists” on the other (Kwitonda, 2017b). The second proposition is derived from anchoring and objectification as tenets of social representation that present both a challenge and an opportunity for scientists, media, and other information managers in their efforts of translating and conveying technical health information. The main challenge is that anchoring and objectifying technical information invokes the well-known disconnect between scientific communities and lay publics (Getman et al., 2017). The latter researchers indicate that lay publics are often alienated from scientific information because scientists are trained and thus constrained by conventions of their (secluded) scientific communities. This, in turn, alienates lay publics who view information from scientific experts as opaque and elitists, encouraging them to turn to unverified, crowd-based sources of information such as Wikipedia, which is edited by lay people and thus capable of providing relatable information. Research on the influence of digital networks on vaccine hesitancy (e.g., Getman et al., 2017) indicates that the hierarchical mode of scientific information production and dissemination is often ineffective in mitigating anti-vaccination sentiments in online communities. Getman et al. (2017) go further to conclude that “the most effective usage of this mode of authority online is by the vaccine-hesitant community itself to enforce their vaccine-hesitant narrative” (p. 604). Media managers may therefore seek to translate and present scientific information according to key premises of social representation (i.e., anchoring and objectifications). Although infrequently tapped, bio autography is a viable avenue for reaching lay publics (see Michigan University blog, n.d.). This is encouraging because new media are particularly attuned to such visualization of abstract and complex scientific information. Third, given that conspiracist motives may stem from protecting or affirming cherished worldviews, media and information managers should avoid correcting misinformation by directly challenging audiences’ worldviews as doing so may have the opposite effect. The latter is often referred to as the backfire effect characterized by a strong resistance against empirical, objective, and factual evidence presented to correct misinformation that is laden with ideological and partisan overtones (Berinsky, 2017; Nyhan & Reifler, 2010; Nyhan et al., 2013; Schaffner

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& Roche, 2017). This line of research is particularly significant for understanding the implications of partisan information processing in the “fake news era,” a phrase popularized on a global scale by the 45th American President Donald Trump (McIntyre, 2018) or the consequences of paternalistic communication in the wake of maladaptive responses to Ebola communication in West Africa (DuBois et al., 2015; Toppenberg-Pejcic et al., 2018).Most importantly and consistent with social representation principles, fact checking, and misinformation correctors must be mindful of the ubiquity of community deficit models of communication (Kwitonda & Singhal, 2018) and partner with scientific experts and community gatekeepers in order to affirm the self-worth of information recipients and work toward the earlier-described goals of anchoring and objectifying novel and/or abstract information by graphical means (Lewandowsky et al. 2017; Nyhan & Reifler, 2018; Seaton et al., 2020). A final implication derived from social representation perspective is borne out of the interdependence between mass media and interpersonal communication. As research on the role of technology in facilitating community engagement in the fight against Ebola in West Africa shows, “no form of engagement was more effective than face-to-face discussion, and there are no technological short-cuts for safe burial and body management” (Toppenberg-Pejcic et  al., 2018, p.  443). The synergy between mass media and interpersonal communication has long been recognized by the social representation perspective because it offers a unique framework for the social scientific study of how groups of people communicate about and make sense of emerging or novel phenomena (the social element in “social representations”), as covered by the mass media, and how these resulting frames (“representations”) shape the subsequent behaviors of individuals who belong to these social groups. (Morgan, 2009, p. 30)

The importance of digital networks and interpersonal communication is further supported by the increasing reach of global media as well as patterns of information sharing between members of the diaspora and their in-country social networks (Toppenberg-Pejcic et  al., 2018). For example, lessons learned from international Ebola communication

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demonstrate that digital networks are effective in mitigating misinformation and engaging various community members in different geographical locations (Rubyan-Ling, 2015). Digital networks may further buttress comprehensive community engagement via cultural gatekeepers (religious and traditional leaders, women’s groups, etc.) because previous research (see Bristol & Millard, 2016; Hird & Linton, 2016) demonstrates that the contribution of community members has been crucial in Polio and Ebola eradication efforts in African countries and will still play an integral part in preparing for future pandemics.

Conclusion This chapter has focused on the management of conspiracist information as an ever-evolving feedback process. That is, the media, scientific experts, and other information managers should treat conspiracist ideation as a particular kind of collective sense-making and opportunity for identifying information needs among lay publics. We conclude by reiterating the need for partnerships between lay communities, scientific, media experts in order to make sense of the divergent interpretive frames with which lay public process, transform, and communicate during public health crises and other complex or threatening events.

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14 Health Communication: An International Perspective in the Digital Space Jamal Uddin and Wei Sun

Introduction This chapter discusses health communication in the digital space from an international communication perspective. Health problems transcend national boundaries in a time of rapid travel, migration, and new technology development. In public health crises such as Ebola, SARS, H1N1 virus, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation, health disparities, and technological inequality are often unnoticed or purposely ignored and have led to civil unrest worldwide. This chapter will discuss how digital platforms are used as trusted sources for health information; health beliefs, health behaviors, and health knowledge; online health information seeking and barriers; major channels of digital J. Uddin (*) Cornell University, New York, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] W. Sun Howard University, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_14

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health communication sources in the US, especially among Africans; and, during recent public health crises, how digital spaces were used. In 2020, the world experienced the worst public health crisis in modern times. With the global coronavirus outbreak, every aspect of life has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of 2020, there were nearly 82 million confirmed cases and more than 1.79 million deaths worldwide across 216 countries and territories. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all aspects of human life and social interactions. Millions of families suffer the consequences of health disparities and health inequality, such as comorbidities that make lower-socioeconomic classes and racial minorities more susceptible to coronavirus. The use of technology has increased greatly during the pandemic for personal, work, and educational use, allowing for some aspects of life to continue, though modified. The use of technology also exposes wealth and health disparities, because everyone was expected to be connected through technology, but many do not have devices or Internet access at home, and digital health literacy was divided. Brown and Closser (2019) have argued that global health involves people’s life, life decisions, and moral obligation. They proposed three aspects of health promotion: First, world citizens should stay informed. Especially in the digital age, when information bombards everyday life, people need to be critical readers, and be informed about health and social justice issues. Second, be healthy and educate others. People live under increasing pressure and stress, so self-care practices, which include eating healthy and nutritious meals, exercise, and sleeping well, are vital. Third, be actively involved. Glosser and Brown encourage people to volunteer in their communities to make an impact on health-related policies. Digital health communication is important in preparing for future public health crises and improving quality of life. This chapter will discuss how digital platforms are used as trusted sources for health information; health beliefs, health behaviors, and health knowledge; online health information seeking and barriers; major channels of digital health communication sources in the US and Africa; and, in recent public health crises, how digital spaces were used. The Internet has created a widespread opportunity for all to get access to health information from anywhere in the world subject to having the required technological resources as well as

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language capability (Cline & Haynes, 2001). Caselli and Coleman (2001) observed that people in developed countries embrace technological facilities rapidly as compared to people from developing countries. The issue of information access inequality raises the question of whether poor countries are losing the information revolution while developed countries enjoy the massive benefit of information technologies, such as computers, mobile phones, and the Internet. However, a sizable number of developing countries may only have invested in certain technological infrastructure such as mobile phones (Rodriguez & Wilson, 2020). Over 95% of people in central Kenya use mobile phones, but only 42% use the Internet (Krell et al., 2020). The rapid technological development has empowered people to be active on and use online mediums for different purposes including health information seeking. But we need to be aware that the technical capabilities of each country vary. People around the world have different kinds of health issues that could be divided into two categories—communicable diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS, H1N1, Ebola, and COVID-19) and non-communicable diseases (e.g., obesity, heart attack, diabetes, and cancer). Many of the above diseases could be prevented, minimized, or addressed if detected in early stages or through lifestyle changes (Bandura, 2004). In the contemporary context, the digital space is a blessing for the people who have access to online resources. Online health information is prevalent thanks to the online presence of all major health organizations. Individual health professionals and practitioners can host their own health websites as well as reach wider audiences through social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram) as compared to traditional mass media (e.g., newspaper, television, and radio). Traditionally, people rely on physicians and health practitioners for health information, but the digital space reduced that gap with the availability of online health information (Colgrove, 2014). Though anyone can contribute content to the digital space, certain health websites, social media pages, and blogs are created and maintained by health professionals and government agencies. As a result, people who are aware of online health resources can easily receive advice to better understand their health conditions and seek more information about their diagnoses.

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Health Beliefs and Health Behaviors Health beliefs determine whether people will take certain actions to improve their health (Rosenstock, 1974). Researchers have used the health belief model (HBM) to study health behaviors. If people perceive they are susceptible to a disease, they may take into consideration the seriousness of that disease. Depending on their perception of their health, they might or might not be motivated to take preventive measures after the evaluation of the benefit and cost of the initiative. The benefit is considered getting relief from the bad health consequences while cost, pain, embarrassment, and different social issues are considered as the barriers for preventive health measures. The HBM might be more understandable from the study of Davis et al. (2013), who investigated the health beliefs of different racial groups on cancer prevention. The study defines the susceptibility as how likely the participants think they might get cancer in the future; severity as how strongly they associate cancer with death; benefit as how likely cancer might be cured if it is detected earlier; barrier as the different kinds of recommendations available for cancer prevention and which ones they might follow; cues to action whether they sought cancer information from any source; and self-­ efficacy as having the ability to address cancer. Bandura (2004) considers self-efficacy as the most important part of health promotion because individual persons’ self-efficacy will determine the success of their effort relating to their health behavior change. According to Bandura, people can be categorized into three stages of self-efficacy: Individuals at the first level have a high sense of efficacy who have positive outcome expectations for behavior change. They can succeed with minimal guidance to accomplish the changes they seek. Individuals at the second level have self-doubts about their efficacy and the likely benefits of their efforts. They make half-hearted efforts to change and are quick to give up when they run into difficulties. Individuals at the third level believe that their health habits are beyond their personal control. They need a great deal of personal guidance in a structured mastery program (p. 147). Dutta (2007) extends health promotion behavior by highlighting the culture-centered health approach that focuses on understanding health

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from a bottom-up approach to leverage the voice of marginalized communities. Whereas current health promotion practices are expert-­ driven and pre-determined, Dutta’s approach is to understand health meaning through negotiation with different cultural groups. It also comes with the belief that health solutions will come from the active engagement of the cultural groups based on their local contexts or health beliefs, not from trained health experts. According to Dutta, “Culture is articulated in the meanings co-constructed by the cultural participants, and these meanings are located within the local context of the culture” (p. 311). Beyond understanding the health from individuals’ health perceptions and cultural contexts, health prevention behavior is also associated with motivation, health knowledge, health status, health-behavioral control, education, age, and income (Moorman & Matulich, 1993). Health knowledge differs based on race, education, and gender (Abel et  al., 2015). That means those with good health knowledge are in an advanced position to maintain their health compared to people with less health knowledge for preventive health measures, who are less able and/or less likely to seek health information from different sources and to the use that health information for preventative health measures (Berkman et al., 2011; Rosenstock, 1974). In a study of leisure-time physical activity among university students from 23 countries, Haase et al. (2004) found that health beliefs, risk awareness, and national economic development are correlated. In a survey conducted with 19,298 people, only 40–60% acknowledged the correlation between physical activity and risk of heart disease. There are countries and regions in great need of health intervention and promotion of healthful practices.

 nline Health Information Seeking O and Barriers Jacobs et al. (2017) have conducted a study in the US to find out where people seek health information first in recent times. They provided four options for participants to choose from: The Internet; family and friends/ co-workers; health care professionals (doctors and complementary

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practitioners); and traditional media (Books, Brochures, magazines, telephone info, and library). More than 45% reported the Internet as the first medium they use for health information, followed by healthcare professionals (around 14%); traditional media (around 9%); and family and friends/co-workers (around 4%). People with high socioeconomic status, who were comparatively young, and highly educated are more active in finding health information from the digital space, whereas older adults and people with low Internet skills seek health information from traditional media. A similar trend of health information seeking practice is observed in Nigeria throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (Oyovwe-­ Tinuoye & Ferdinand, 2020). Researchers investigated the health information seeking practice of physicians during COVID-19 and found that all participants (146) depended on the Internet for information seeking. The most used sites include health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Nigerian Center for Disease Control. Following the Internet, 61% of participants get health information from colleagues, while 16% of participants also get health information from social media. The researchers added that none of the participants mentioned books, bulletins, or journals as sources of health information. It should be noted that the findings of Oyovwe-Tinuoye and Ferdinand (2020) are not comparable to Jacobs et al. (2017) because later findings are generalizable for its representative sample. The major reasons for Nigerian physicians using different health information were: Identifying the symptoms of COVID-19, patients’ isolation/quarantine procedures and practices, treatment procedure, drug dosage for COVID 19 patient treatment, self-protection from contracting COVID 19, and vaccine-related information (Oyovwe-Tinuoye & Ferdinand, 2020). The researchers also identified some barriers to finding reliable health information from the digital space, which include sorting out credible information from a large amount of health information, lack of access to library resources, and frequent power supply problems. An earlier study found some structural barriers for health information seeking during Ebola included unreliable and slow Internet connection; high cost of Internet and devices; and virus and malware (Osei Asibey et  al., 2017). The foregoing barriers of health information could be explained according to Dutta’s (2007) concept of understanding health

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within local and structural contexts. In many developing countries, there is a shortage of electricity supply. Quality of bandwidth directly determines the strength and speed of Internet connections. If people have smartphones/laptops along with Internet connection, but there is a problem with electricity and bandwidth quality, then people might be less able to use the internet for health information. People in developed countries without infrastructure issues rarely face the aforementioned obstacles. This indicates that people from developed and undeveloped countries face different barriers in regard to online health information seeking. But infrastructural problems are not the only determinant for whether people go online for health information. It also largely depends on individual health knowledge.

Health Knowledge and Health Behavior One of the potential barriers that impact an individual’s health behavior is having limited health knowledge, which makes people hesitant to make informed health decisions (Hutchins et al., 2009). People with limited health knowledge are less aware of clinical trials. Langford et al. (2010) conclude from a study that White Americans tend to trust health sources more and their numbers in participating in clinical trials are higher than other races, such as Black Americans. Yasuoka et al. (2018) investigated mothers’ knowledge about malaria in Cambodia and found out that less than 50% of the mothers were aware of malaria symptoms and transmission channels. People with fevers during pregnancies were more knowledgeable than people without fevers during the pregnancy. Another study assessed HPV (human papillomavirus) knowledge among college students and found that Hispanic students gave more incorrect answers than non-Hispanic students (Schmotzer & Reding, 2013). According to the researchers, the key knowledge gap was regarding the benefit of HPV vaccine use, as 28% of the participants were not aware of the benefit of the HPV vaccine in that it could protect sexually active individuals from vaginal and vulvar cancer. Typically, people with more health knowledge try to act more to seek health information to protect themselves from health harm. The study of Osei Asibey et al. (2017) investigated students

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from Ghanaian universities and found that 72% of respondents use online health information for a lifestyle change and 39% of respondents discuss health issues with physicians. The lifestyle changes observed by the researchers are mainly related to good eating habits, adequate exercise, reducing alcohol intake, and quitting smoking. The above studies draw a conclusion that people who are knowledgeable in particular health perspectives or aware of using online health information try to act to change their health attitude and behavior based on their knowledge. It is true that lack of knowledge impedes individuals from seeking health information. Then there is a need to understand which communication channel and which source of information are available for health information.

 ajor Channels of Digital Health M Communication Sources in the US and Africa Paige et al. (2017) indicate that people’s socio-demographic conditions have influenced how much they trust a particular communication channel for health information. The major health communication channels identified by the researchers are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, online blogs, online support groups, general online newspapers, and government and religious organizations’ online sites. The research concluded that Americans with low eHealth literacy trust YouTube and Twitter as credible resources, whereas Americans with high eHealth literacy trust in online government and religious organizations (Paige et al., 2017). The researchers found that low eHealth literacy rate is more prevalent among Caucasian (48.3%) than Black participants (40.3%) despite controlling for social media use, socio-demographic condition, age, and gender. The above result is conventionally opposite. In this case, participants’ demography might influence the study result since the majority of the participants (75%) are educated and have an income above $34,000. Usually, the social condition of Black Americans in terms of education, job placement, and income is below that of Caucasians. In addition, many researchers find that Black Americans in the US are more

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active online than people of other races. This online presence might persuade them to seek health information online as well. Paige et al. (2017) observed that respondents with low eHealth literacy had preferences of following their age as older respondents were more likely to see how information was disseminated (channels) while younger respondents gave preference about who were the sources of online health information. Mbondii et al. (2014) have conducted studies to assess the availability and quality of health information data sources in African countries. They recommend that different levels of the healthcare system should provide needed information for “planning and management of health care services; understanding the determinants and courses of ill-health; public health decision-making; and formulation and assessment of health policy, financing and resource allocation” in African countries (p.  41). Three major domains for health information include the causes of illnesses, the health system responses to healthcare needs, and population health status and distribution. To further explain, determinants of health consist of socioeconomic, environmental, behavioral, demographic, and genetic determinants; health system includes policy, HR and financial resources, health infrastructure, equipment, and supplies; health service utilization is health service coverage, utilization, and responsiveness to patient needs; and health status considers overall mortality, morbidity, and wellbeing (pp.  41–42). Research also extended to focus on health information sources of specific diseases, such as COVID-19, Ebola, and HIV/AIDS (Reynolds & Seeger, 2005).

COVID-19 Information in Digital Space COVID-19 is one of the hardest-hitting diseases in recent history and has infected and killed millions of people across the globe since its spread from Wuhan City of China in December 2019. The disease puts pressure on the all-health system in every country because of its rapid spread. Its impact has left people frightened, as uncertainty surrounded the disease and its treatment. Until December 2020, there was no approved vaccine for this disease. The nature of the disease evolved quickly. In the second

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wave of rising cases, people fared worse in Western countries than Asian and African countries as per the report of the World Health Organization (WHO). Signs and symptoms of the disease are not the same for all. As a result, health practitioners and researchers are still trying to understand the nature of the disease and its impact from different perspectives. Thus, people need to know the updated information about the disease. Researchers find that the digital space, especially social media, is one of the core mediums for disseminating information during the health crisis, as observed by Chan et al. (2020). The researchers developed an infographic on hospital airway management in the context of COVID-19 for staff and patients’ safety. They disseminated the infographic from their hospital website to social media—Twitter and WeChat, a Chinese social media. The infographic was translated into 15 languages to reach out to wider audiences across the globe. Within one month of the infographic spreading, there were more than 63,000 impressions on Twitter with many retweets and requests to use the information for their respective institutions (Chan et  al., 2020). Since the information is for mainly hospital use, many reputed organizations (e.g., World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, Australian Society of Anaesthetists, UK ICM Anaesthesia Covid-19 Collaboration, Brazilian Anaesthesiology Society, French Society of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine) use the infographic as a resource for their respective healthcare communities. Cinelli et al. (2020) examined the diffusion of COVID-19 information on five social media sites—Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, and Gab. Their analysis focused on user engagement and topics of interest on COVID-19. A dataset that includes more than eight million comments is analyzed. The major topics that derived from the studies were almost similar from one social media platform to another platform. For example, the main topics under Twitter were the suspended flights and repatriation; economic impact; protection advice; prayers and God blessing requests; and death toll and infection rates, while the main topics under YouTube were death toll and infection rates; communist regime; Chinese wet markets; prayers and God blessing request; and protection advice. Information spreading on social media depends on the patterns of

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different social media sites and the specific pattern of respective groups to be engaged with different topics for interaction (Cinelli et al., 2020). Researchers also conducted empirical studies on social media to understand the use of health information for preventive health behavior and to explore the users’ disease knowledge and eHealth literacy (Li & Liu, 2020). This study’s respondents were 802 Internet users in China. Li and Liu (2020) found that Chinese Internet users have a strong knowledge base regarding COVID-19 with an average score of 8.15 out of 10. Their score for eHealth literacy was 3.79 out of 5 and 4.30 out of 5 for preventive behaviors. That means netizens take different preventive measures for their health management. The researchers measured the preventive behaviors using ten items, such as “Washing your hands after going home” and “Covering your mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeves when you cough or sneeze” (p. 5).

Ebola Information in Digital Space Before COVID-19 there was an Ebola outbreak in 2014. The death rate of Ebola-infected people was higher than that of COVID-19 infected people. There is a difference between two diseases in terms of their nature of spreading from one person to another person. However, the source of both diseases is considered the same as both might originate from wild animals like a bat. Ebola originated in an African country. While it impacted the world, cases were concentrated in West African countries—Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone were hit the hardest, with the case numbers of 28,616 infections and 11,310 deaths till March 2016 (CDC, 2016). Researchers examined health communication channels on Ebola disease in digital spaces like YouTube. They also explored the sources of the videos on YouTube as well as focused on the video content. For example, Basch et al. (2015) investigated the 100 most viewed YouTube videos on Ebola and explored the source of the videos in addition to the genre of the video content. Most of the videos were uploaded by different news media and individual users. The highest number of videos (39%) focused on how Ebola disease is spread, with 30% of videos mentioning bodily fluid;

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17% mentioned infected fruits by the animals like a bat; 15% mentioned transmission occurs through the deceased bodies, and 4% mentioned the transmission through objects. 30% of videos mentioned the death toll for Ebola disease in West Africa. The authors assessed the quality of the health information of the YouTube videos by using the CDC described transmission mode of the Ebola disease. They found 36% of the most viewed videos provided accurate transmission information, of which 10% of the videos were uploaded by individual users and the rest of them were Internet-based news. Beyond YouTube, researchers examined other social media sites as the sources of Ebola virus information, such as Househ (2016), who investigated Twitter and found 26 million tweets containing the word “Ebola” in one month from September 30 to October 29 in 2014. The top tweets were from news media, such as CNN, New York Times, and AP. The author picked the top five tweets at the initial stage of the disease spreading outside the African countries. Each top tweet generated than one million reply tweets on the day of that tweet posting. The top tweets mentioned by the author are: @reutersus: All three members of Dallas ambulance crew exposed to ebola patient test negative for Ebola: City of Dallas. @nytimes: Spain Reports First Case of Ebola Contracted Outside West Africa. @nytimes: The Ebola Ward: Life, Death and Grim Routine Fill the Day at a Liberian Ebola Clinic. @cnnbrk: Health care worker who has tested positive for Ebola was wearing protective gear at Dallas hospital, official says. @ap: BREAKING: Obama authorizes call-up of National Guard reserves if needed to address Ebola (p. 472). Ebola and COVID-19 share some similarities in terms of their origins, to some extent the nature of the diseases’ spreading, and complications.

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HIV/AIDS Information in Digital Space Long before Ebola, the world experienced another outbreak, HIV/AIDS, which is still existent today. So far, it has led to 700,000 deaths and at present time, 38 million people are HIV-positive (UNAIDS, 2020). HIV/AIDS is an illness which has a stigma association. Thus, people with HIV/AIDS are less likely to share information about their condition with others. However, they do want to communicate with people who are in similar circumstances to get support and to learn about the treatment process and procedures. Taggart et  al. (2015) conducted a systematic literature review focusing on the use of social media to communicate about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Social media platforms used in this study are blogs, discussion forums, SMS text messaging, social networking sites, social networking sites for private correspondence, video, chat, and conferencing. Since social media has a variety of communication features including discussion facilitators, directed or guided communication, and chat features, people with HIV/AIDS use social media features for disseminating health information, promoting health, sharing thoughts and experiences, providing social support, and promoting medical adherence (Taggart et  al., 2015). The researchers found some common benefits of social media use, which are: “(1) access to information, (2) enhanced ability to communicate, (3) having an anonymous identity, (4) a sense of social and emotional support, (5) establishing a virtual community, and (6) geographical reach” (p. 6). Samal et al. (2011) surveyed 433 people who tested HIV/AIDS positive at four HIV outpatient clinic sites in the US to understand their online health information seeking behavior. Out of 433 survey respondents, 254 participants were African Americans, and 106 respondents were White. The study revealed that Black Americans (53%) received a high amount of information from the digital space as compared to White Americans (30%). Their findings also add that there is a positive relationship between online health information seeking and antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence even after controlling for potentially confounding variables. The researchers also opined that the tendency of

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health information seeking online means one has a greater awareness of managing his or her illness. In summary, the authors have reviewed the health communication trend in digital space. To reduce health disparities, the government, health providers, and individual citizens should work together to implement policies, invest in health infrastructures, provide trusted information in person and online, and provide quality medical service. Individuals should take action to be equipped with health knowledge, actively seek for trusted health information, so that they can gain credible information and make informed health decisions.

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Cinelli, M., Quattrociocchi, W., Galeazzi, A., Valensise, C. M., Brugnoli, E., Schmidt, A. L., … & Scala, A. (2020). The Covid-19 Social Media Infodemic. arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.05004. Cline, R. J., & Haynes, K. M. (2001). Consumer Health Information Seeking on the Internet: The State of the Art. Health Education Research, 16(6), 671–692. Colgrove, J. (2014). The Ebola Outbreak: A Historical Perspective Vis-à-Vis Past Epidemics. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 7(4), 250–251. https://doi.org/10.1179/1753806814Z.00000000092 Davis, J. L., Buchanan, K. L., & Green, B. L. (2013). Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cancer Prevention Beliefs: Applying the Health Belief Model Framework. American Journal of Health Promotion, 27(6), 384–389. Dutta, M.  J. (2007). Communicating about Culture and Health: Theorizing Culture-Centered and Cultural Sensitivity Approaches. Communication Theory, 17(3), 304–328. Haase, A., Steptoe, A., Sallis, J. F., & Wardle, J. (2004). Leisure-time Physical Activity in University Students from 23 Countries: Associations with Health Beliefs, Risk Awareness, and National Economic Development. Preventative Medicine, 39, 182–190. Househ, M. (2016). Communicating Ebola Through Social Media and Electronic News Media Outlets: A Cross-sectional Study. Health Informatics Journal, 22(3), 470–478. Hutchins, S.  S., Fiscella, K., Levine, R.  S., Ompad, D.  C., & McDonald, M. (2009). Protection of Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations during an Influenza Pandemic. American Journal of Public Health, 99(S2), S261–S270. Jacobs, W., Amuta, A. O., & Jeon, K. C. (2017). Health Information Seeking in the Digital Age: An Analysis of Health Information Seeking Behavior among US Adults. Cogent Social Sciences, 3(1), 1302785. Krell, N. T., Giroux, S. A., Guido, Z., Hannah, C., Lopus, S. E., Caylor, K. K., & Evans, T. P. (2020). Smallholder Farmers’ Use of Mobile Phone Services in Central Kenya. Climate and Development, 13(3), 1–13. Langford, A., Resnicow, K., & An, L. (2010). Clinical Trial Awareness Among Racial/Ethnic Minorities in HINTS 2007: Sociodemographic, Attitudinal, and Knowledge Correlates. Journal of Health Communication, 15(Suppl. 3), 92–101. Li, X., & Liu, Q. (2020). Social Media Use, eHealth Literacy, Disease Knowledge, and Preventive Behaviors in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study on Chinese Netizens. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(10), e19684.

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Mbondii, P. E., Kebede, D., Soumbev-Alley, E. W., Zielinski, C., Kouvividila, W., & Lusamba-Dikassa, P.-S. (2014). Health Information Systems in Africa: Descriptive Analysis of Data Sources, Information Products and Health Statistics. Journal of Royal Society Medicine, 107(1), 34–45. Moorman, C., & Matulich, E. (1993). A Model of Consumers’ Preventive Health Behaviors: The Role of Health Motivation and Health Ability. Journal of Consumer Research, 20(2), 208–228. Osei Asibey, B., Agyemang, S., & Boakye Dankwah, A. (2017). The Internet Use for Health Information Seeking Among Ghanaian University Students: A Cross-sectional Study. International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications, 2017, e1756473. Oyovwe-Tinuoye, G. O., & Ferdinand, O. A. (2020). COVID 19 Information Seeking Behaviors of Nigerian Health Practitionals: A Study of Medical Doctors in Delta State. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), 4153. Paige, S. R., Krieger, J. L., & Stellefson, M. L. (2017). The Influence of eHealth Literacy on Perceived Trust in Online Health Communication Channels and Sources. Journal of Health Communication, 22(1), 53–65. Reynolds, B., & Seeger, M. (2005). Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication as an Integrative Model. Journal of Health Communication, 10(1), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730590904571 Rodriguez, F., & Wilson, E. (2020). Are Poor Countries Losing the Information Revolution? The World Bank Infodev. www.infodev/library/ wilsonrodriguez.doc Rosenstock, I. M. (1974). Historical Origins of the Health Belief Model. Health Education Monographs, 2(4), 328–335. Samal, L., Saha, S., Chander, G., Korthuis, P. T., Sharma, R. K., Sharp, V., et al. (2011). Internet Health Information Seeking Behavior and Antiretroviral Adherence in Persons Living with HIV/AIDS. AIDS Patient Care and STDs, 25(7), 445–449. Schmotzer, G. L., & Reding, K. W. (2013). Knowledge and Beliefs Regarding Human Papillomavirus Among College Nursing Students at a Minority-­ Serving Institution. Journal of Community Health, 38(6), 1106–1114. Taggart, T., Grewe, M. E., Conserve, D. F., Gliwa, C., & Isler, M. R. (2015). Social Media and HIV: A Systematic Review of Uses of Social Media in HIV Communication. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17(11), e248.

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Part V Africaness and the Digital Space

15 Decolonizing the African Mind in the Digital Space Kehbuma Langmia and Muhammad Hamisu Sani

Introduction As the communication discipline is witnessing a paradigm crisis (Lang, 2013; Ytterstad, 2015; Rao, 2018; Friesem & Friesem, 2019), the entire human race is also witnessing another crisis: that of struggling to resolve in-person communication, which is rapidly being replaced by virtual/ online communication (Erete, 2015; Martončik & Lokša, 2016; Rui et al., 2015; Neubaum & Krämer, 2018). These two crises have stormed the geo-social and cultural spaces at the wrong time in human history. COVID-19 has invaded inter-human economic, social, and political spaces and has drastically transformed its multicultural spaces and it is not letting up. Therefore, communication for humankind is no longer what it used to be and the situation is dire for communicators and K. Langmia (*) Howard University, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected] M. H. Sani Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_15

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communicologists in the subaltern, especially for those in the African digital communicative spaces. The digital space is alien to the African communication landscape because in-person communication has characterized their formal and informal forms of communication for centuries. The introduction of the digital space as the sphere for interactive human communication has transformed the African cognitive and social universe of thought and that by itself has immeasurable consequences. It has raised issues that are as complex as they are complicated. Digital spaces on social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and WhatsApp have their peculiar characteristics and conformity is strictly adhered to through rules superimposed on security and privacy settings. These settings are Eurocentrically superimposed making it difficult, if not near impossible, for users outside the Euro-American public space to operate independently. Worse still, African users interact with each other on these spaces using the same colonialized languages that were imposed on them in the late nineteenth century after the partitioning of the African continent through a unilateral proclamation by the European powers in Berlin in the Winter 1884 and Spring 1885  in Germany. African users of the digital platforms have embraced these new digital modes of communication without reflecting on the toll of assimilationist tendencies that these have had on their cultures and value systems (Onwumechili & Amulega, 2020; Atintande, 2020). Through these media of communications, the creators, still from the west, have inculcated a certain psychological assumption on themselves and the users on digital phones in Africa that all is well from the language perspective because colonial languages dominate in Africa today. They export the gadgets with inbuilt systems compatible with western-driven artificial intelligence modes and algorithmic codes and this is visible with the auto-correct popups that hinder written verbal interchange with non-­ English and French languages. Consequently, users on these platforms interacting with loved ones on the continent and in the diaspora endure the pain of typing their mother tongues on a tiny keyboard with foreign alphabets that came with the phone. Their only alternative is to download special language applications on their devices before they can conformably utilize features in local languages. That too can be very limiting because the majority of users of digital phones in Africa have cell phones and not

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smartphones that have internet accessibilities. They have no other choice but to adapt and recreate hoping to make sense to their interactants. The African user is comfortable using the audio features so as to transmit messages using an African language. The same goes for the use of emojis on smartphones. So, the African user is a pariah, an appendage, or, better still, a subset in the mind of multinational media mogul manufacturers in Europe, the USA, and China who are exporting these products for consumption on the continent. Power and economic wealth have catapulted the west to impose their culture and value systems regardless of the consequences onto the social, economic, political, and cultural spheres of the African media user on the continent of Africa and this is very tragic considering that independence of the various nations of Africa after the 1960s was to gradually empower them for self-development, self-reliance, and economic stability. Independence is synonymous to self-determination. While that may be true to some other countries like South Korea, India, Pakistan, and the majority of Middle Eastern countries that witnessed some form of colonization by the west, Africans are still under the grip of the west from almost all spheres of life. The only means to get out from this type of mental colonization is to decolonize the user of digital space in Africa. To decolonize the mind of a digital media interactant on a given platform for Africans means the user has blended cybercitizenship with cyber netizenship. Citizenship and netizenship on digital media are the only safety valves or barometers for dodging the bullets of Eurocentric invisible manipulations. These manipulations do come in the form of spyware and malware intended to act like surveillance canopy for one’s online activities. They are often embedded on smartphones as chips to act as geo-spatial locators as well as track users’ whereabouts. Gatekeepers install invisible audio/visual devices unbeknownst to the user, making it possible to compromise one’s safety and privacy. The only way to circumvent these hurdles is for users in the subaltern to either produce and manufacture gadgets for their citizen’s use or clamor to join the roundtable of decision making in the developed world and it is often a far-fetched dream. To decolonize is to think and act using the Afrocentric lens (Smith, 2020; Asante, 2020) especially now on the digital space for all Africans. That way agency is not prescribed; it is seized and essentialization can,

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more often than not, receive a death knell toll. If African users on digital spaces continue on the path of essentialization, then the open can of stereotypical worms already overflowing into the mind of those in the west who think and act for Africa and Africans will continue endlessly. Africans outside the periphery of media consumption and within the media sphere have been fed with the spoon of westernization for far too long and so have become incapable of thinking for themselves and making in roots to become game changers and not just players in the chess game of top bottom globalization (Mazrui, 2002; Langmia, 2016).

Decolonization of Language in the Digital Space Language and decolonization of the mind have been the storm in the teacup that was first introduced in the philosophical and literary discourse by the Senegalese author Cheikh Anta Diop and profoundly developed disseminated by the Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o in his popular book titled Decolonization of the Mind. In his subsequent recent book on this very issue of language decolonization, titled Something Torn and New, Ngugi (2009) makes this rather disquieting reality of the African and Diaspora Blacks on this continuous reliance on the colonizers’ language for their online and offline communication interactions: Africans, in the Diaspora and on the continent, were soon to be the recipients of the linguistic logic of conquest, with two results: linguicide (emphasis mine) in the case of the Diaspora and linguistic famine, or linguifam (emphasis mine), on the continent. Linguicide is the linguistic equivalent of genocide. Genocide involves conscious acts of physical massacre; linguicide, conscious acts of language liquidation. (Ngugi, 2009, p. 17)

The digital spaces on a given website, blogosphere, email, social, and all sorts of digital spaces for human-to-human communication especially during the age of the coronavirus have become the theatrical stage to exercise imported foreign language expertise by Black colonial “servants.” They were taught those languages while in school in their motherland by

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the African surrogates of the European empire. Those Black teachers, starting from primary schools, with white minds were not only brainwashed and brain dry-cleaned, but were proud to impart western knowledge to pure innocent African minds using the foreigner’s language. They subjected the African child to look up only to Europe, Middle East, and America for salvation out of what they termed primitive mindset and endless economic poverty. Today, the African cyberspace user cannot escape from that cobweb of language mental slavery. This is a spiritual, psychological, and philosophical stance that Africans unbeknownst to them became captives of Arabic and Eurocentric epistemological and ontological war of domination during and after colonization of Africa. As captives, they have thenceforth become surrogates and appendages of Euro-American economic, political, cultural, and social exploits making it almost impossible to achieve African autonomy in almost every sphere of life. The most painful casualty of this venture has been the African languages. There is no excuse, whatsoever, for foreign domination to obliterate the role and function of the indigenous languages by imposing foreign languages (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian) as official languages of a nation. This is a crime and tragedy that has befallen the people of Africa and that has been transplanted unto the digital space that has also become the official space for governmental press releases and educational platforms for citizens before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Africa has become the importer-in-chief of any un-African products, the digital gadgets that have become ubiquitous on the hands of the citizenry on the mother continent, this continent will continue on this slippery slope of millennium development goal for the foreseeable future. These technological gadgets contained information that are purely in foreign languages and since Africa does not produce and disseminate on a wider scale her own digital gadgets, consumption and distributions of content on these digital communicative gadgets are mainly in those foreign languages. The recommendations of the African scholars who met in Asmara, Eritrea, in 2000 for the inclusion of African languages in the technological advancement of Africa have gone unheeded 20 years since that conference was held. This was their recommendation seven in their declaration as discussed in Langmia (2020). Declaration

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number seven from the conference reads thus: “The effective and rapid development of science and technology in Africa depends on the use of African languages and modern technology must be used for the development of African languages” (Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine, 2001). So, now that the technology is so rapidly being adopted and disseminated in the continent, no one has thought about what is going on in the minds of everyone about these recommendations and how we can infuse African languages in them to make them meaningful to our collective developmental initiatives for the next generation of Africans on the continent. Africans are oblivious of the fact that by endorsing and using foreign languages on their platforms on social media, blogs, websites, and other platforms, they are leaving millions of other Africans who are not privy to master the written and the oral renditions of these languages tragically behind. When folks are left behind due to no fault of theirs, it is quite obvious to speculate that the concept of digital divide is only widening and not closing in Africa. Take, for instance, any attempt to use unorthodox means of communication like crafting messages on WhatsApp using an African language like “Mungaka,” a language spoken in the North West region of Cameroon in central Africa; the user has to go the extra mile of downloading a special character keyboard (in case the user has the Android phone, etc.) for such an operation to be successful. When this is not possible the user has to endure the pain of auto-correct that imposes the grammar and spelling of French/English or any other foreign language on the message content. The effect is that the reader gets confused due to the misreading of the information that can cause psychological stress and discomfort for the receiver. This is the reason why solutions have to be sought. Now that the digital spaces exist with little or no input from those living on the continent of Africa, the only justice for interacting in that space with fellow African brothers and sisters is to decolonize mindset and own the space. Owning a given digital space must be in tandem with language use and topics that should generate interest meant to stimulate Afrocentric discourse. Ownership in this case could be in terms of articulating in clear terms what the policy of interaction is supposed to be and involving translation and interpretation help from other users who are not familiar

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with the foreign language can also be another solution. The role of Lenali App that was created by Mamadou Giro in Mali solved this sort of dilemma because texts written in French languages are immediately translated into some main indigenous languages for users unfamiliar with the official French language of the country. Language decolonization on the digital space cannot all be limited to translation and interpretation services being one of the components of the digital space. It is also the content of discourse and topics that are selected that could involve members critically assessing the role of African communication in the age of neo-colonization in Africa. African digital space users have the obligation to leave a legacy of authenticity and that can only come through if message contents on those digital spaces do not continue to make us as assimilated Euro-American and Chinese language users. By employing Euro-American languages and culture on the digital platforms of communication, we are in essence losing our statehood that became a reality in the 1960s when most Africans became independent. As Oelofsen (2015) strongly makes the case: [D]ecolonization is not merely a matter of political independence. Structures of government and other institutions, the way in which a country is economically organized, as well as the way in which former colonial subjects were encouraged to think, are often still determined by the former colonial powers in post-colonial countries, as a result of the economic and cultural power the former colonizers wield. (Oelofsen, 2015, p. 131)

Decolonization of Culture on Digital Spaces The decolonization of the digital spaces by asserting African cultural presence is inextricably linked to a renewed determination on the part of Africans to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of their colonial mentality. According to Pyke (2010), it’s a “colonized mentality marked by a sense of inferiority and a desire to be more like the colonizers” (p. 551). Six decades after physical decolonization, the Africans are still dealing with multiple identity crises and have remained in limbo about

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what they really represent, and how they would like to be viewed by the rest of the world. The Africans themselves were and have been complicit in perpetuating this asymmetrical cultural warfare against them, including the embrace of the colonial legacies left behind by those who made them feel inferior to the point of abandoning their original identities and embracing new ones via imported religions and alien cultures. This has been the consequence of the delegitimization of African cultures and religions perpetuated through the colonization of the African mind and psyche. The Europeans and the Arabs before them became the agent provocateurs of this process through cultural imperialism and hegemony. African cultures were termed as “primitive” compared to all others coming from elsewhere, which were considered civilized and superior. In his classic book, The Africans: A Triple Heritage, Ali Mazrui asserts that “The massive cultural arrogance of Europeans was later to influence the indigenous personality of the continent, and create at times schizophrenia among the Westernized Africans” (Mazrui, 1986, p. 72). The very idea of dismissing African oral history as a tabula rasa because it was not a written history made it easier for the colonizers to exclude African indigenous knowledge, languages, and worldviews. Instead, they imposed colonial languages on the school system, while at the same prohibiting the teaching of African languages and indigenous histories, especially as exemplified by the French colonial system known as total assimilation. It was the same logic applied by the Portuguese colonialism in Africa, during which they “tried to eradicate all manifestations of African culture by forbidding the use of African languages in institutional life and by inculcating Africans through the educational system with myths and beliefs concerning the ‘savage’ nature of their cultures” (Macedo, 2011, p. xv). Western-imported cultures have clouded the memories of Africans because their educational training during and post-­ colonization has continued to be westernized. There has been no place to embed African cultural realities in cyberspace in a way that can shower the African pride. The African cultural practices like believing in the inevitable roles of the ancestors, spiritual enrichment, and marriage rituals showcasing polygamy, as well as monogamous marriages, believing in jujus or the supernatural have all been displaced and replaced by alien cultural practices. These are authentic African value systems that were in

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existence before the arrival of the west. These belief systems cannot be chased away on the various digital platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook or the African-driven social media sites because they are seen by others as heathen belief practices. Culture is the sum total of a people’s way of life and their customs and traditions are the subsets. What’s being proposed here in terms of decolonizing the digital media is to “hijack the spaces they colonize and decolonize the sites that they have infiltrated” (Mirzoeff & Halberstam, 2018, p. 121). The African dependency on external sources for technology and other essentials of modernity is a never-ending cycle that reproduces itself even in the digital spaces. This has been the original sin that needs to be corrected in line with Mazrui’s enduring argument that “African progress requires Africans first to reclaim an indigenous heritage that is in danger of being overwhelmed by Western and Arab cultural invasions.” Therefore, a critical step toward decolonizing culture on digital spaces for the African user entails the desire to emancipate one’s mind from a hegemonic colonial mindset by rejecting the ethnocentric notion that African cultures are any less useful than others. What this means is “putting your thinking body in space of all kinds—public, intellectual, academic— where it is not supposed to be and trying to decolonize it” (Mirzoeff & Halberstam, 2018, p. 120). A second step is for the Africans to create their own alternative digital spaces that could favorably compete with the existing ones. Unleashing African creative talents in the digital world will dispel the paradoxical malaise that Africa has remained a continent noted more for consumption of products from the west that the continent does not produce (finished manufactured products). On the other hand, the continent produces minerals that are instead exploited by outsiders (Mazrui & Patel, 1973). Beyond that, it would also allow the Africans to create digital platforms that could be synchronized with African languages, and, therefore, user-­ friendly in terms of access by the African speakers of those languages.

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Conclusion The human race is at a critical juncture in regard to how it adjusts to the debilitating nature of COVID-19, as well as to the changing patterns of the human communication dynamics that are rapidly moving into the digital spaces. Within this context, the African users of these digital spaces will have an even harder time countering the inherent inequalities that have historically permeated such domains. This chapter highlights some of those, including the urgent need to decolonize the mind in ways that would empower the Africans to come up with substantive and creative mechanisms necessary in order to gain full agency and citizenship within the digital space. The reality of it all is that, “as a fundamentally human endeavour, digital spaces mirror, replicate and at times exacerbate the real and pressing realities faced by indigenous peoples and other racialized communities in physical spaces” (Dirksen, 2020, p. 5). The dispossession of Africans of their own indigenous languages as a consequence of colonialism extended the life cycle of cultural imperialism up to the present times. The obvious “absence” of the African languages in the digital spaces in the twenty-first century is one of the larger symptoms of such a phenomenon. The audacity to devalue African cultures by the Europeans right from their first interaction with the Africans and the subsequent brutal ways in which they imposed their will on the continent ended any hope for the Africans to determine their own destiny, until it was eventually given to them in the name of political independence in the 1960s. This was the process that gave Africans the kind of western education that has been devoid of any cultural input from them. It also led to their inability to participate as equals in the world of inventions and science on their own terms, using their own indigenous languages and their unique pedagogies to teach their own people about science and technology, which could have opened the doors for a much more authentic participation on the digital spaces. This is a revolution that could only happen with the power of an autonomous but decolonized African mind.

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References Asante, M. (2020). Ama Mazama: The Organic Presence in Africology. Atintande, M. B. (2020). Digital Communication in Africa at Crossroads: From Physical Exploitation in the Past to Virtual Dominance Now. In K. Langmia & A.  Lando (Eds.), Digital Communications at Crossroads in Africa: A Decolonial Approach (pp. 41–69). Springer International Publishing. Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine. (2001). The Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/ publications/cultural-­s urvival-­q uarterly/asmara-­d eclaration-africanlanguages-­and-­literatures Dirksen, A. (2020). Decolonizing Digital Spaces. In E. Dubois & F. Martin-­ Bariteau (Eds.), Citizenship in a Connected Canada: A Research and Policy Agenda. University of Ottawa Press. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers. cfm?abstract_id=3620493 Erete, S.  L. (2015, February). Engaging Around Neighborhood Issues: How Online Communication Affects Offline Behavior. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 1590–1601). https://doi.org/10.1145/2675133.2675182 Friesem, E., & Friesem, Y. (2019). Media Literacy Education in the Era of Post-­ truth: Paradigm Crisis. In Handbook of Research on Media Literacy Research and Applications Across Disciplines (pp. 119–134). IGI Global. Lang, A. (2013). Discipline in Crisis? The Shifting Paradigm of Mass Communication Research. Communication Theory, 23(1), 10–24. Langmia, K. (2016). Globalization and Cyberculture: An Afrocentric Perspective. Springer. Langmia, K. (2020). Pax-Africana Versus Western Digi-Culturalism: An Ethnomethodological Study of Selected Mobile African Apps. In Digital Communications at Crossroads in Africa (pp. 93–105). Palgrave Pivot. Macedo, D. (2011). Decolonizing Indigenous Knowledge in Semali & Kincheloe, (2011), What Is Indigenous Knowledge? Voices from the Academy (editors). Routledge. https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XUuAAAAAQBAJ &oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=decolonizing+indigenous+cultures&ots=Phfk1Z-­0t-­ &sig=DsbXSFH_6vm5YGzkTe3FPc8dTRk#v=onepage&q=decolonizing%20 indigenous%20cultures&f=false Martončik, M., & Lokša, J. (2016). Do World of Warcraft (MMORPG) Players Experience Less Loneliness and Social Anxiety in Online World (Virtual Environment) Than in Real World (Offline)? Computers in Human Behavior, 56, 127–134.

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16 African Cultures and Representations in the Digital Era Mohamed Saliou Camara

He who controls how you see the world vitiates your sense of reality. He who controls how the world sees you dictates your place in it. He who controls how you see yourself desecrates your identity. —Mohamed Saliou Camara

Introduction This chapter uses critical analysis to offer a contextualized study of culture and cultural identity in the age of digital globalization, the cultural plurality and civilizational unicity of Africa, patterns of representation and misrepresentation of African cultures, and Africa’s need to reclaim its global image in the digital age. The author argues that Africa’s prodigious cultural diversity does not negate its civilizational unicity and that misrepresentations of any African culture are misrepresentations of facets

M. S. Camara (*) Howard University, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_16

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of Africanity or the organic omnitude of African civilizational identity. The author further argues that ignorance, racism, and Machiavellianism are the underlying causes of the exploitative misrepresentations of African cultures in foreign media, literature, academia, and political narratives. He concludes that the African media industry can play a far-reaching role in reclaiming Africa’s global image in the twenty-first century by applying three paradigms: corrective domestic information and communication, corrective global information and communication, and a deontological self-scrutiny. The purpose of this chapter is threefold: one, conceptualize and contextualize African cultural heritage and identity in terms of diversity/plurality and unicity; two, identify and analyze patterns that exemplify ways in which African cultural heritage and identity is mis/represented in foreign media; and three, discuss means and methods that the African world can employ to effectively reclaim its global cultural image in the digital age. The author argues that the common African heritage is characterized by cultural diversity and historical congruence, in that historical dynamics created a congruent civilization from a widely diverse cultural landscape that encompasses the multitude of societies that exist and coexist on the continent. The author further argues that it is this innate cultural diversity that powers the unmistakable resilience of African civilization, the inner force that has enabled African cultures to withstand the assaults of slave trade, colonialism, Cold War-era neocolonialism, and post-Cold War meta-colonialism. The author insists that it is this congruence and organic unicity of its civilizational patrimony that enabled Africa to defy the pervasiveness of colonial partition, withstand postcolonial ethnopolitics, contribute most enduringly to world civilizations, and make its indelible mark on the global stage. That congruence generated the Unitarian framework within which African societies have built and sustained a distinctive African identity, to which one can safely and confidently refer as Africanity. The chapter explores the resilience and vulnerability of African civilization and its constituent cultures. In doing so, the chapter suggests that the essentialist resilience of African civilization, mostly but not exclusively at home, is what enables African identity to survive, thrive, and serve the fundamental purpose of any civilization; namely, empowering

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its society to resist foreign-induced deculturation and acculturation, generation after generation, and functioning in ways that fuel the creativity of its people and make them proud of who they are. The chapter further suggests that the vulnerability of Africa’s cultures, mostly but not exclusively abroad, to misrepresentations in foreign media, literature, and collective narratives as primitive and inferior, is what continues to challenge current and future generations to stay rooted in their Africanity while carefully and confidently embracing their global time and space. Lastly, the chapter explores ways in which Africans can and must reclaim Africa’s global image in the age of digital communication.

 ulture and Cultural Identity in the Age C of Digital Globalization In this study, digital globalization refers to the impetus that digital information and communication technologies (DICTs) give to the deepening interconnection and interdependence among world nations, economies, and cultures, with noteworthy challenges to the conventional inviolability of national borders and to that of the geopolitical sovereignty of states. Some analysts have characterized this environment as meta-­colonialism or a world order in which the economic, military, and technological ascendency of former colonial powers is leveraged to ensure the continued exploitation and subordination of formerly colonized regions, through a multitude of bilateral and multilateral schemes. In this sense, meta-colonialism also entails a strategy of collective hegemony dubbed meta-imperialism, whereby the developed world or Global North (i.e., former colonial powers and their contemporary allies) instrumentalizes international institutions and organizations to sustain and legitimize a global regime of domination-subordination over the developing/underdeveloped world or Global South. This global regime is referred to in the official narrative as “the International Community” (Huntington, 1996). The utterly asymmetrical power relations that further amplified in recent decades between the post-Cold War global superpower (i.e., the United States) and its Western allies, on the one hand, and the nonWestern world (the Muslim world, Africa, and East Asia, notably), on the

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other hand, have been construed as a clash of civilizations. In a series of poignant studies, Köchler (2008) demystifies the notion of “clash of civilizations,” deconstructs the narrative built thereupon, and demonstrates that what is at stake in this so-called new world order is a form of Machiavellian manipulation of culture and cultural identity to justify and underpin the self-ascribed civilizational superiority of the West. Köchler (2008, p. 44) writes: Associated with the politically dominant system, “civilization”—as a collective worldview with a specific hierarchy of values and perceptions of life—is fast becoming a tool for commanding obedience from the part of potential competitors for global influence. The latter are denied civilizational equality (in the sense of the enjoyment of equal rights of self-realization in their interaction with all other civilizations) and are expected to accept being redefined “reinvented” against their will, on the basis of the norms of the dominant civilization.

The thus proclaimed paradigmatic civilization of the West leverages the economic, military, and technological ascendency of the Global North with a view to perpetuating the domination-subordination relationship that colonialism instituted between the West and most of the rest and that meta-colonialism has been sustaining under many guises. Furthermore, by hyping its renditions of human rights, democracy, and rule of law as universal norms, the “paradigmatic civilization” instrumentalizes morality (its interpretations of morality, to be precise) and portrays the Western way of life as superior in terms of human dignity and cultural rectitude. With relations among states and nations wrapped up in such a global regime of power unbalance where culture is presented and used as “soft power” (as compared to the “hard power” of military, economic, and political assets), cultures and cultural identities are being affected in different manners. At one level, cultures interconnect more directly, borrow from one another more intensely, and, in some regards, breed what some analysts have dubbed hybrid cultures. For example, Europeans and Americans enjoy Mediterranean, African, Caribbean, and East Asian food, music, ornamental products, and other such “exotic” cultural artifacts, yet

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emigrants from those regions face mounting resentment and outright xenophobia from growing numbers of Western anti-immigrant nationalists. Likewise, Africans covet Western music, movies, jewelry, and academic education (in addition to many other Western goods and services), yet they are increasingly resentful of Western policies and behaviors that they consider meta-colonial. As one African analyst interviewed for this study framed it, the West still treats the rest—Africa more specifically—as mere relics of its colonial empires. The Western world has convinced itself that Western culture is superior and that the cultural patrimonies of the rest of the world are at best exotic commodities for the amazement of its civilized self (Salif Kéita, 2020). At another level of this global clash of cultures, cultural identity has become particularly vulnerable. Understandably, therefore, societies are increasingly protective of their cultural identities and, in many regards, increasingly skeptical about, if not outright opposed to, major aspects of globalization.

 ultural Plurality and Civilizational Unicity C of Africa Any substantive discussion of culture and cultural identity in Africa raises serious challenges stemming from the continent’s sheer size and cultural diversity. Indeed, even if one only considered a few major historico-­ cultural communities (HCC) (known in the Western literature as ethnic groups or “tribes”) per region, one would be easily overwhelmed. Major regional HCCs such as the Mande, Wolof, Mossi, Yoruba, Hausa, Akan, and Fulani of Western Africa; the Luba, Kongo, Banda, and Gbaya of Central Africa; the Somali, Luo, Kikuyu, Oromo, and Amhara of East Africa; the Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, and Sotho of Southern Africa; the Berbers and Arabs of North Africa; and the Merina and Betsimisaraka of Madagascar are only indicative of the cultural plurality and diversity of the continent. However, although each African HCC may have its own material and immaterial cultural patrimony that makes up a unique cultural identity (language, spiritual beliefs, social values and mores, cuisine, dress code, family dynamics, etc.), and although no single HCC can claim full cultural representativity of the country or region in which

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it exists, let alone Africa as a whole, the culture and cultural identity of each HCC constitute an authentic integral component of African civilization. Thus, no matter how differently the Wolof of Western Africa, the Berbers of North Africa, the Xhosa of Southern Africa, the Kongo of Central Africa, the Oromo of East Africa, and Merina of Madagascar bury their dead, baptize their newborns, officiate marriages, venerate the spirits of their ancestors, resolve conflicts, build their dwellings, prepare their meals, and dress up for various sociocultural ceremonies, what each does is epitomize a set of values that are part and partial of African civilization. Cheikh Anta Diop referred to the civilizational commonality of Africans as “the profound cultural unity still alive beneath the deceptive appearance of cultural heterogeneity” (Diop, 1982, p.  43). I would rephrase Diop’s seminal observation by suggesting that Africa’s cultural heterogeneity is real, but it does not diminish or jeopardize the continent’s civilizational unity. In other words, the cultural diversity of Africa strengthens, rather than weakens, the unicity of African civilization. I conceptualize African civilization as Africanity, and I define the latter as the organic omnitude of African identity; that is, the dynamics of the dialectical nexus of African humanism, naturalism, and spiritualism; the foundational value systems that inform, validate, and sustain Africans’ collective conception of life, humanity, community, and individuality. This is where apostles of Western-centric philosophies of civilization get mystified and lost by the fact that African civilization does not always posit material and technological advancements as the standard by which all human progress is to be evaluated and appreciated.

Representation and Misrepresentation of African Cultures It is befitting to note at the outset of this section that all cultures are the subject of representations around the world, some accurate and some honestly and innocently inaccurate. Cultures are also the subject of deliberate and willful misrepresentations often aimed at belittling them and demeaning the societies that produced them. Willful, belittling

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misrepresentations of foreign cultures in the West, in particular, are commonplace in popular culture (novels, travel booklets, stage comedy, television sitcoms, movies, etc.). In the name of the sacrosanct freedom of expression, nearly nothing is off-limits when newspapers, magazines, tabloids, film studios, novelists, comedians, and television stations decide to plow into foreign cultural values that they debase as “exotic” customs and traditions of remote jungles or primitive mountains. The patterns of misrepresentation of African cultures in foreign outlets have been studied extensively and need not be rehashed here. Therefore, this section focuses on what the author considers the underlying causes of the pervasive phenomenon: ignorance, racism, and Machiavellianism. Historically, the outside world has been infused with degrading false “knowledge” and racist misinformation about Africa for centuries, if not millennia. To be sure, the whole theory of “White man’s burden” or “civilizing mission” was erected to justify European colonial imperialism upon the false premise that Africans were incapable of attaining civilization on their own and, therefore, needed to be saved from their innate “savagery.” Communications Professor Khebuna Langmia of Howard University explains how the cultivation of false “knowledge” and racist misinformation influences contemporary representation of Africa in Western media, stating: “The representation of African cultures in Western mass media is mostly unbalanced because journalists and media producers in the west have not properly educated themselves about Africa. The knowledge of Africa they got while in journalism schools were dished out to them by former slave owners and colonial masters who themselves had distorted their minds about African history and culture” (Langmia, 2020, p. 43). In Langmia’s view, it is befitting such Western-centric worldview to continuously portray Greco-Roman traditions and cultures as the limelight for the world. The simplistic and self-righteous approach remains appealing to its proponents, adds Langmia, because a “balanced, thoroughly researched representation of African arts, architecture, customs, deities, rituals and religion that have roots as far back as the sixth century BC with the mighty Egyptian and Ethiopian civilizations would catapult Africa over the Western world, and that is an anathema for them” (Langmia, 2020). Msia Kibona Clark, a professor of African Studies at Howard University, goes further to point

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out that the West has a similar misperception of Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and indigenous/First Nation cultures as well, whereby European culture is treated as normal while others, including African cultures, are exoticized and commodified (Clark, 2020). This social media scholar draws a distinction between the ways in which classic mass media and social media treat African cultures. She insists that misrepresentations of African cultures are more prevalent in mass media than they are in social media. This is so because there are not enough African content producers in mass media, and many of those who exist tend to favor stories that reinforce negative tropes. On the other hand, Clark further explains, Africans who are active on social media have more control over content and that has made Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like equalizing platforms. Even when some representations tend to reinforce negative tropes, the tendency is easily countered because content creators can produce multidimensional representations of African cultures, she concludes (Clark, 2020). With a worldwide resurgence of racism in the form of what one can term Blackophobia or Afrophobia, patterns of degrading misrepresentations of African cultures have intensified, not only on the World Wide Web and in social media but also in mainstream political discourses. The trend is bringing out some of the deep-rooted learned biases and imagined rationales. For instance, US President Donald Trump’s reported reference to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” during a January 2018 meeting with a bipartisan group of senators at the White House leaves little to imagination. Trump’s alleged egregious comment seems to follow an existing trail, especially when one considers a recently released recording of an October 1971 phone conversation between Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, and President Richard Nixon. In that recording, one can hear Reagan call African officials at the United Nations as “monkeys.” He said: “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television, as I did (NBC News, 2020). To see those monkeys from those African countries. Damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes.” President Nixon can be heard also laughing and saying “Well, the tail wags the dog there, doesn’t it? The tail wags the dog” (CNN, 2020). The Daily Mail contextualizes the conversation, explaining that “On October 25, 1971 the UN Assembly voted to

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recognize the Communist People’s Republic of China as the legitimate government, and expel Taiwan. Majority of African countries supported it, and delegates from Tanzania were seen dancing in the aisles after it passed” (Dailymail.com, 1971; Mailonline, 1971). Likewise, in July 2007, then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech in Dakar, Senegal, in which he said the following: The tragedy of Africa is that the African has not fully entered history. African peasants, who for thousands of years have lived according to the seasons, whose ideal life was to be in harmony with nature, only knew the eternal renewal of time, rhythmed by the endless repetition of the same gestures and the same words. In this imaginary world, where everything starts over and over, there is no place for human adventure or for the idea of progress. (Sarkozy, 2007, p. 57)

Sarkozy then uttered these words: The problem of Africa, and allow a friend of Africa to say it, is to be found here. Africa’s challenge is to enter to a greater extent into history. To take from it the energy, the force, the desire, the willingness to listen and to espouse its own history. Africa’s problem is to stop always repeating, always mulling over, to liberate itself from the myth of the eternal return. It is to realize that the golden age that Africa is forever recalling will not return because it has never existed. (Sarkozy, 2007, p. 43)

Why would Sarkozy not make such insulting statements while addressing a crowd of Africans in the former capital of French West Africa when every year no fewer than 29 African heads of state or government (including non-Francophone ones) gather around the president of France to discuss matters that are often more pertinent to French interests and less relevant to Africa’s realities and objectives? Sarkozy’s successor, President Emmanuel Macron, reaffirmed the matter in no uncertain terms in March 2018 when he stated that promoting the French language and Francophonie is an important priority for France. Macron unveiled his French Language and Multilingualism Plan, which is said to “include providing support for the education systems of French-speaking Africa, developing French and bilingual French teaching institutions, increasing

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use of French within international organizations and promoting teaching as a career as well as enhancing multilingualism within the French-­ speaking world by supporting the introduction of African languages in early learning” (Macron, 2020). Why would African countries need France to make the teaching of, and in, their national languages an integral component of their national education systems? Lastly, Machiavellianism as an approach to calculated misrepresentations of African values and affairs abroad for self-serving reasons is borrowed from the work of Christie and Geis. In their book titled Studies in Machiavellianism (1970), the concept relates to the cognitive traits of persons who harbor mistrust in human nature, lack of conventional morality, opportunism, lack of affect in interpersonal relationships, and a strong tendency to manipulate other people. These traits are detectable in the programmatic activities of many foreign charities and nongovernmental organizations that need to raise funds for whatever programs they claim to be implementing for Africa’s own good. Photos and videos of malnourished African children, refugees in overcrowded misfit camps and the like are frequently shown to Western benefactors in efforts to justify such programs and attract more funding. In the following story Padmore Enyonam Agbemabiese illustrates the trending manipulation of African difficulties in the name of God and humanitarianism. Not too long ago, a friend was invited by a mega-Christian Church with over ten thousand devotees on Sundays to speak at their Sunday Service called Africa Day. He was excited to speak eloquently like the proverbial parrot about his pride in his “Africaness.” Sooner had he sat down, adjusted his three-piece Buba dress, than the many High Definition flat TV screens hanging from all corners of the church were full of horrifying images of African refugee camps, with men and women, children and animals battling over sorghum meals in the camp. Stunned by the images portrayed by the Church, he unceremoniously stalked out of the church and drove home face down. There were Africans and people of African descent present in that Church but were not dismayed by the images. They saw the images as a reality and cried “God save Africa.” What they failed to question is who is behind the demise or the underdevelopment of Africa? Such images of Africa are the tactics employed for decades, prominently featuring graphic images of gaunt, emaciated Black people to supposedly fuel the empathy

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and support from the Western public about anything emerging from Africa even in this twenty-first century. (Agbemabiese, 2020, p. 78)

Presenting impoverishment, child malnourishment, adult starvation, and refugee status as being elemental features of the civilizational heritage or cultural identity of any society is erroneous and otherizing. The fact is, these are anomalies that societies experience due to sets of circumstances that are chiefly beyond the control of those who endure them. To decontextualize and propagandize such anomalies and circumstances, with the false pretense of creating ameliorative awareness, is tantamount to immoral and inhuman exploitation of the sufferings of the most vulnerable members of society.

 eclaiming Africa’s Global Image R in the Digital Age The notion of “reclaiming Africa’s global image” in this study refers not to a mere cosmetic beautification of everything African, just because it is African, through disingenuous blogs, pictures, videos, books, films, and the like; not to endless and, ultimately, pointless refutations of the biased misrepresentations of Africa in foreign media, popular culture, and scholarship. Instead, it refers to the necessity for Africans to adopt an essentialist approach to the domestic challenges facing Africa, the potential that the continent has to overcome those challenges while preserving the independence and dignity of its people, and how best to achieve this goal and become a respected player in world affairs. In other words, reclaiming Africa’s global image involves much more than what the African media industries can and should do in the era of digitization and globalization; for, if the African media want to be as ethical and truthful as they ought to be, they can only paint a picture of Africa that accurately presents and represents the reality on the ground. For instance, African media networks owe it to the African people to scrutinize questions such as these: why are thousands of young African men and women involved in mass migration to places (Europe, Asia, the Americas)

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where they face xenophobia and racism on a daily basis? Why are Africans sold into twenty-first-century slavery in Libya and their organs harvested and trafficked (Bond & Malm, 2020)? Why are more and more elected African heads of state so disdainful of the sovereign choice of their people and increasingly bent on counterfeiting their respective countries’ constitutions so they can run for third and fourth terms (BBC News, 2020)? Why, despite its immense natural and human resources (or perhaps because of them), Africa continues to be treated as a giant abyss of poverty, violence, and disease? Why do foreign powers and international institutions treat African nation-states like indentured servants or delinquent debtors? Why does the African citizenry fail, again and again, to hold its leaders accountable for these and related ills? In consideration of the foregoing discussion, it seems proper to conclude this chapter by recommending three paradigms through which the African media could play a far-reaching role in the continent’s need to reclaim its image in the era of digitization and globalization: a corrective domestic information and communication paradigm, a corrective global information and communication paradigm, and a deontological self-­ scrutiny paradigm. Under the corrective domestic information and communication paradigm, African mass media are challenged and expected to hold political, administrative, business, military, spiritual, and civil society leaders accountable to the people that they serve without unduly prying into the private lives of individuals and families. The media are to seek and report the truth, properly contextualize facts and events, educate the citizenry, all the while refraining from espousing partisan worldviews and from indoctrinating their readers, viewers, and listeners. Twenty-first-century African media men and women can draw cogent models of dignified objectivity, respectful responsibilization of leaders, and constructive challenging of society from the ethical sagacity of the traditional African communicators known in West Africa as guewel (Wolof ), gesere (Soninke and Bariba), jeli or gawlo (Fulani), jeli or jali (Mandenka), marako’i (Hausa), and as griots in European parlance. Indeed, as Camara explained, the jeli had the unmatched power to challenge the opinions and decisions of rulers under whom they served whenever such opinions and decisions were judged unfair and detrimental to the well-being of the people of the realm. This means that the jeli held

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the unmatched power of checks and balances primarily aimed at restraining rulers from abuse of power. Of course, Camara further explained, the jeli exercised this power in accordance with the accepted norms of ruler-ruled working relations, which privileged the common good. Under the corrective global information and communication paradigm, the African media are to inform and educate the outside world on all things African in ways that will objectively, rationally, and productively debunk foreign misrepresentations of Africa and its civilizational values (Camara, 2014). In the same vein, the media will prevent such misrepresentations from “intoxicating” the minds of Africa’s youth which, like any other youth, can be particularly vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation, even about their own cultures. In applying these two paradigms, the African media will prevent foreign interests from vitiating Africans’ sense of reality by controlling how they see the world; prevent foreign forces from dictating Africa’s place in the world by controlling how the world sees Africa; and prevent foreign entities from desecrating Africans’ identity by controlling how they see themselves. Under the third and last paradigm, African media organizations are compelled to challenge themselves to consistently anchor their works in authentic African values and in the legitimate interests of its people.

Conclusion Ideas, words, and images matter in communication; they can be powerful abstract representations or misrepresentations of reality. Globalization and digitization have given individuals and groups the means to spill out their ignorance, learned biases, or outright racist prejudices through social media, in addition to classical mass media and the World Wide Web. Experience has amply proven that Africa is particularly vulnerable to cultural misrepresentations not only abroad but also at home. To be sure, the racist artistic, mediatic, political, and academic narratives that Western (mostly though not exclusively) outlets used to propagate on traditional platforms are now dispersed instantaneously and continuously via a multitude of information and communication channels capable of

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reaching an exponentially increased number of individuals. Thus, whether one considers the utterly dehumanizing rhetoric cited earlier from Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon in 1971, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, or Donald Trump in 2018, one thing becomes self-evident: those at the receiving end of such narratives are erroneously viewed by millions of people who have few opportunities to learn the truth behind the gross misrepresentations. Likewise, every time African communicators, educators, scholars, and leaders describe African cultural entities as “tribes,” they lend credence to the neocolonial anthropological narrative. Every time a film by Nollywood or Ghallywood (!) (the film industries of Nigeria and Ghana, respectively) portrays African men as sex maniacs out to impregnate girls and women, or portrays African girls and women as “sexoholics” out to trick men for money, cars, and houses, it legitimizes the same Afrophobic stereotypes that Black men and women reject worldwide. Going forward, the African media industry has the heightened responsibility to apply the corrective domestic information and communication, corrective global information and communication, and deontological self-scrutiny paradigms recommended in this study and productively counter the biased belittling of Africa and Africans rooted in ignorance, racism, and Machiavellianism.

References Agbemabiese, P. (2020). Contemporary African Videos and their Impact on African Identity and Personality Abroad. Academia. https://www.academia. edu/1549730/Contemporary_African_Videos_and_their_Impact_on_ African_Identity_and_Personality_Abroad BBC News. (2020). Rwanda’s Paul Kagame to Run for Third Presidential Term. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-­africa-­35209186 Bond, B., & Malm, S. (2020). African Migrants Being Sold as Slaves by Libyan Human Traffickers ‘Have Their Organs Harvested, Bodies Mutilated and Roasted Like Kebabs’ Claims Nigerian Ex-minister. https://www.dailymail. co.uk/news/article-­5 127881/Africans-­s old-­s laves-­L ibya-­o rgans-­ harvested.html

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Camara, M. (2014). Is There a Distinctively African Way of Knowing: Knowing and Theory of Knowledge in the African Experience (pp. 33–34). The Edwin Mellen Press. Christie, R., & Geis, F. (1970). Studies in Machiavellianism. Academic Press. Clark, M. K. (2020). Malaysia Kibona Clark Is an Associate Professor in the Department of African Studies and Director of the Program of African Studies and Research at Howard University. Written interview with the author, July 2020. CNN. (2020). Call Released: Reagan Made Racist Comment in a Call to Then-­President Nixon. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=reagan+call+ africans+in+the+UN+monkeys&&view=detail&mid=C9EB1E7E48FB45 BC7557C9EB1E7E48FB45BC7557&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvide os%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dreagan%2Bcall%2Bafricans%2Bin%2Bthe%2BU N%2Bmonkeys%26FORM%3DHDRSC3 Dailymail.com. (1971). Ronald Reagan Described African Delegates to the UN as ‘Monkeys’ Who Were ‘Still Uncomfortable Wearing Shoes’ in a 1971 Phone Call with President Nixon, Shocking Newly Released Tapes Reveal. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-­7 305403/Ronald-­R eagan-­ described-­African-­delegates-­monkeys-­1971.html Diop, C. (1982). L’Unité Culturelle de l’Afrique Noire (seconde édition). : Présence Africaine. Huntington, S. (1996). The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Simon and Schuster. Köchler, H. (2008). Civilization as Instrument of World Order? The Role of Civilizational Paradigm in the Absence of Balance of Power, TAFHIM. Journal of Islam and the Contemporary World, 2(3), 1–22. Langmia, K (2020). Khebuma Langmia is a Professor of Communication and the Chair of the Department of Strategic, Legal and Management Communication at Howard University. Written Interview with the Author, July 2020. Macron, E. (2020). Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires Étrangères, ‘Africa and Francophonie’. https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-­files/africa/ africa-­and-­francophonie/ Mailonline. (1971). Ronald Reagan Described African Delegates to the UN as ‘Monkeys’ Who Were ‘Still Uncomfortable Wearing Shoes’ in a 1971 Phone Call with President Nixon, Shocking Newly Released Tapes Reveal. https:// www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-­7 305403/Ronald-­Reagan-­d escribed-­ African-­delegates-­monkeys-­1971.html

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NBC News. (2020). ‘Trump Referred to Haiti and African Nations as “Shithole” Countries,’ by Ali Vitali, Kasie Hunt and Frank Thorp V. https://www. nbcnews.com/politics/white-­h ouse/trump-­r eferred-­h aiti-­a frican-­ countries-­shithole-­nations-­n836946 Salif Kéita. (2020). Telephone Interview with the Author, August 2020. Salif Keita Is an African Musician from Mali of Global Renown and a Respected Philanthropist. Sarkozy, N. (2007). Discours de Dakar de 26 juillet. Available on YouTube. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= u7yeBLPfxp8

Part VI Sports Communication and Digital Space

17 How Sport, Communication, and Economics Are Changing Power Dynamics in the African Family Chuka Onwumechili and Unwana Samuel Akpan

Introduction Asides poverty, migration in Africa is mainly triggered by media portrayals via global media space. Migration within Africa can as well be influenced by footage portrayals in African media space. Migration within Africa is the focus of research conducted from various perspectives including communication (Akanle et  al., 2021), geography (Steinbrink & Niedenfuhr, 2020), sociology (Spadavecchia, 2013), and economics (Bakker et al., 2020). This interest is an indication of the prevalence of migration in Africa. While a significant aspect of these migrations is induced by war and conflicts, others have been induced by dire economic

C. Onwumechili (*) Howard University, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected] U. S. Akpan University of Lagos, Akoka-Lagos, Nigeria e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_17

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situations. No matter the antecedents, the plethora of migration requires a taxonomy to make sense of it, at least by periodizing. Thus, the situations create the need to separate African migration into three phases that Adepoju (1995) described as pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial. The phase—post-colonial—is of interest to us because, as Adepoju (1995) and the World Bank (2011) aver, this most recent surge of migration involves skilled persons. While we perceive skilled persons as those who are in the medical field, engineers, scientists, and among others, a great number of skilled migrants today are athletes. A critical index for this group of migrants is that they “usually leave their wives and children at home. The result is a division of labour among adult family members: men migrate for wage employment while women maintain the farm” (p.  92). Instead of the farm, in previous decades, it is now the home. Leaving wives at home with family while the husband footballer migrates has led to changing family structure and situations that we report in this chapter. While these changes present opportunities for various types of academic study and discourse, we focus largely on the communication aspect. Most of the research data that informs our discourse in this chapter come from a series of studies of African footballers’ wives whose husbands are involved in internal migration within the continent. We have organized this chapter, beginning with a section that presents a background of affected families and their typicality. In subsequent sections we point to dictates of football and impact on emerging families bereft of the footballing husband. The rest of the chapter addresses the future African family before we summarize.

Background/African Family Traditionally, an African family consisting of husband, wife, and children live in the same abode with some members of the husband and wife’s extended families. Extended family refers to family members, including relations who stay in this abode. Thus, as an example, the wife’s or husband’s brother, sister, cousin, niece, and/or nephew. Wamue-Ngare and Njoroge (2011) describe the Gikuyu family structure in Kenya when men owned the substantive proportion of family wealth, if not all of it.

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This harkens back to the pre-colonial period. In certain cases, women “had access and control of domestically used resources such as pots, pans, utensils, baskets, milk, farm produce and an occasional goat kept indoors” (p.  14). This view is also confirmed in Kenyatta’s (1938) publication detailing the tribal life of the Gikuyu. This type of traditional family system preceded colonialism and could be found in different parts of Africa, whether they were agrarian or not. The common structure usually had a male as head of the structure, and he often controlled the family economics. In fact, Wamue-Ngare and Njoroge point out that among the Gikuyu, if a woman bragged about owning a goat, the goat could be “instantly … slaughtered.” The decision to slaughter the wife’s property was to reaffirm the power status within the family. In addition, if the meager “women’s resources started accruing benefits, for example, ample harvest, men would traverse gender barriers and control such resources, by ordering for their disposal” (p. 14). Thus, economic power is centered on men and husbands with women and wives subordinated. Musiyiwa and Chirere (2007), also, examine literature to expose pre-­ colonial and colonial cultural practices in Zimbabwean families. Their conclusions do not significantly differ from those of Kenyatta (1938), Wamue-Ngare and Njoroge (2011), as well as other researchers of African families of that period. Largely, such family structures persist today. Males continue to significantly head most African families where both husband and wives are alive and/or keep an abode together. Even in cases where a husband is diseased, some brothers of a deceased husband may still head the family of his deceased sibling. This assumed control is embedded traditionally, and culture dictates that a woman’s brother-in-law assumes control over her livelihood and family. The description of the traditional Gikuyu family system persists not just among the Gikuyu but elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. It denotes a patriarchal system that has been widely studied in relation to Africa. Clearly, it is the bedrock of traditional families in much of the continent. Nonetheless, Kandiyoti (1988) has argued that a patriarchal system is malleable and points to opportunities for bargaining within the system that exists in Africa. This, Kandiyoti notes, differs from the type of patriarchal system that exists in South and East Asia as well as Middle East

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countries. This latter type of patriarchal which is identified as classic patriarchy is more profound and strictly controlled. In the patriarchy that exists widely in Africa, Kandiyoti argues, there is relative autonomy for women, and they can bargain for control of certain family duties. There are several examples of this. For instance, economically powerful wives may maintain businesses and clout which allow them to marry other women. This, among other social connections, grants them substantial other powers. However, these incidents are rare and exceptions. This traditional family system in most of sub-Saharan Africa was disrupted by social changes driven by coloniality and subsequent labor upheavals that are more than a century old. Significant among such movements in sub-Saharan Africa are the movements of labor from Nigeria to Fernando Po, Equatorial Guinea and from Southern African countries to the mines in South Africa. Nwokeji (2010), Frykman (2015), and Martino (2016) describe the labor migration from largely Southeastern Nigeria to Equatorial Guinea as part of a Spanish imperial rule that contracted obligatory labor that became known as Panya. According to Martino, “In West Africa during the nineteenth century, the noun ‘Panyer’ meant ‘a Spaniard,’ from the pidgin of Espana” (p. 92). Many men from Southeastern Nigeria were recruited into this labor, leaving their families at home in Nigeria. Many of them failed to return home. The families left at home were without the traditional family head for long periods. Today, the forced labor to Fernando Po has created a large Igbo community in the territory. Murray (1981) and Moodie (1994), also, write extensively about the lives of South African mine workers. These workers migrate seasonally across the border, leaving their families at home, into South Africa to work in the mines. The similarities with Igbo migration to Fernando Po lie in long periods of leaving the family at home while husbands travel away for work over long periods. Although most of this literature, including the work by Martino (2016) and Moodie (1994), focused on living conditions of men away from their families, there are few such as Porter et al. (2018) and Hunter (2015) that have focused on communication between these migrants and their left-­ behind families. It is this latter type of academic work that is associated with the research study that we report in this chapter.

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 ictates of Football and Impact D on Family Communication The migration of the breadwinner to a location away from his family abode has become of interest for communication scholars. Porter et al. (2018) and Hunter’s (2015) works are on migrants’ use of telephones to maintain frequent contact with the families they left at home, and they represent some of that focus. Porter et al. (2018) investigate how migrants use telephones to maintain contact and relationship with left-behind families in Ghana, Malawi, and South Africa. These researchers collected data from 24 sites, some rural, and described how these communication technologies are used to maintain frequent contact and create what they describe as a stretched family. The researchers concluded that this stretched family contact serves to maintain both material and emotional wellbeing. Hunter (2015) also focuses on communication by migrants in France with their families in Africa. However, Hunter was concerned about preparation for return home by North and West African men living in France. Hunter found that the men, who reside in hostels, use mobile telephones to frequently remain in contact with home. But they also use the telephone to create new friendship networks in France impeding plans to return home. Hunter found that the men receive financial pressures from their families at home in Africa. Although some of the men eventually return to Africa, many of those become bi-residents, shuttling between France and Africa. Thus, while communication is essential to maintaining contact with left-at-home families, it does not ensure a permanent return to such families by the migrant. On the contrary, new communication networks built and/or cultivated at the foreign location become strong and enticing, pulling away the migrant from his left-at-­ home family. The activities of bi-residents are explained by the cyclical curves theory advanced by Onwumechili et al. (2003). Onwumechili et al. argue that neither the U- nor the W-curve theories fully explain the encounters of sojourners such as these African labor migrants who leave their families at home to reside at a place of labor for a long period and periodically return to their families. Neither does Berry’s (1997, 2005) fourfold model of

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acculturation fully explain the encounters of these groups of migrants. In the case of Berry’s model, while it provides a varied description of options for acculturation, it ignores the process of frequent entry and reentry of migrants such as the labor migrants addressed here. The cyclical curves (see Fig. 17.1), however, captures this repeated phenomenon of entry and reentry of migrants. Importantly, it notes the difficulties associated with maintaining communication and relationship with a network of friends because of ruptures caused by presence and absence from the network. The curves explain the findings of both Porter et al. (2018) and Hunter (2015). Hunter’s (2015) work describing the moving in and out of France and Africa is noteworthy. This phenomenon of being a persistent stranger within social networks is experienced by groups such as sailors, seasonal farm workers, military personnel, and those involved in frequent labor transfers. Although Hunter’s (2015) work, as well as a few others, points to attempts by migrants to maintain relationships with family at home, they do not fully provide insight on at least two issues. One, how is the communication with the family at home affected by the absence of the primary breadwinner who has left home? Two, how is long-distance communication used? Three, if and despite the use of frequent communication between the absentee spouse and family, how are the family structure and individual power within it affected? These are important questions given the knowledge that the cyclical curves predict that the frequent presence and absence creates a stranger syndrome. This

Fig. 17.1  Cyclical curves of multiple cultural reentries involving communication discomfort during each entry into a new culture and network by the footballer and then acculturation and the cycle is repeated at each new entry and upon return home to the family

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syndrome dislocates the stranger from a stable network of social relationship safety and the vacuum created by this dislocation is invariably filled by others or healed by the remnants of the network in some other ways. Football and its increasing importance in the global economy provide an arena to examine family dislocations, especially as it pertains to African families. The Bosman Ruling in 1995 freed football labor to move services from one club to the next. Prior to that clubs could, at their wish, retain services of a player in perpetuity. In Africa, it was a monumental ruling that not only freed footballers to move or transfer service, but it also opened the gateway to football outside the continent. Such a gateway became valuable because it assured consistent wages for the labor of these footballers. Internally, in African countries such as Nigeria, the free movement of players has benefits. Prior to the ruling, migration of football labor from Africa to Europe was rare. But of specific importance, in-country or internal migration was also rare. An employer had extreme powers to maintain services of football labor at will. The ruling, with its global impact, allows players to move from one club to another even in an environment, such as Nigeria or other African countries, where monthly wages are irregular, and players depend largely on a sign-on fee. The sign-on fees are only available to those who switch from one club to the next. Thus, locally based players in Nigeria regularly sign one-year contracts to ensure that they access a sign-on fee annually. After all, there are no assurances when the next monthly wage would be paid. However, depending on and seeking sign-on fees each year has repercussions for the footballer’s family. It entails a movement of the footballer, on an annual basis, while leaving the family behind at a permanent location. In essence, the movement of football labor in Nigeria mirrors the movement of itinerant labor described by Onwumechili et al. (2003).

 merging Research that Supports E the New Family A series of studies by Onwumechili and Akpan (2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2021) delve into the lives of women and families left behind while their footballer husbands frequently migrate from one football club to the

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another. What is important about these series of studies is that they, for the first time, study the family situation from the perspective of those left behind. In this section, we borrow from the results of those series of studies to discuss the key findings exposing the emergence of new family structure and its encounters with both communication and economics. At this point it is important to note that the series of studies expose significant differences between similar studies by Roderick (2006, 2012a, 2012b) of European footballers. In the case of Roderick’s studies, the footballers traveled to new jobs accompanied by their family. The wives and families are not left at home. This is important because by taking the wife and family along, family structure and power distribution are rarely disturbed or disrupted. This is not to state that there were no disruptions to the lives of families studied by Roderick. On the contrary, Roderick found wives that were distraught by the frequent dislocation faced by their family to the extent that some loathed football. Nevertheless, those families accompanied their footballer husbands during transfers and relocations. Onwumechili and Akpan’s studies differ from those of Roderick because the families that the former studied live separately during the football season. The wives and families are not relocated. In fact, they stay in a permanent location identified as a home resident. It is a permanent place of abode for the footballer’s wives and children. For the footballer, it was his off-season abode only. Key Findings from the Nigerian Studies Studying this phenomenon in footballing families in Nigeria is revealing. A series of studies involving professional footballers, on the one hand, and their spouses on the other hand was completed between 2019 and 2020 leading to publications in multiple journals. Of particular interest is Onwumechili and Akpan (2020a) which focuses on communication from the perspective of the spouses left at home. The study found five themes that define life for wives and family in absence of the footballer spouse. The themes are: 1 ) Coping in husband’s absence 2) Concerns with husband’s absence 3) Cultural and patriarchal markers

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4 ) Articulating economic opportunities 5) Attitudes toward the sport and husband’s career The first theme is a critical marker of how the African family and society are undergoing change. The study notes that the husband’s prolonged absence from home has created a changing family structure. The wife, in the absence of the husband, undertakes the double role of husband and wife. This is challenging as many of the interviewees, in the study, recall. Many had to learn roles that they were previously unfamiliar with. One interviewee noted that she was responsible for taking the family car to the mechanic shop and ensuring that the vehicle is properly repaired. In such a situation, the wife assumes the dual role, after frequent fact-finding communication with her husband, but gradually reduces role-­ communication with her husband as she becomes adept. In many African families, the task of taking the family vehicle for maintenance and repairs is designated to a male, most likely the husband or another adult male. However, for many women in the study, they are left alone to manage a young family with no other adults at home besides themselves. Thus, this task falls to the women. Of course, by undertaking the task regularly they become adept at it, and some continue with it even after their husband’s return home. Taking the family vehicle to the mechanic shop is only one of the tasks that these women add to their roles. Other roles, as noted by Onwumechili and Akpan (2020a), include taking the children to recreational activities, to and from school, managing family finances, among others. In many of these activities, the women report several telephone calls and/or video interactions with their husbands. Managing family finances and making decisions including school transfers require multiple communications. The husband maintains power and control on some of these issues, especially finances, given that in most families, the husband remains the primary breadwinner despite not living at home. However, the women report that many of them have sources of income, which they manage carefully, especially with the husband’s income being intermittent because of numerous wage-related issues in the Nigerian football league. Ultimately, and in many ways, the women become the leaders of their families, a role usually reserved for the husband. The women cope with

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managing both their own and their husband’s roles, and some of them consider this to be overwhelming. But the wives are not only bordered by undertaking dual roles in the absence of their husbands. They report multiple concerns about the absence. High on their list are concerns about possible infidelity by their husband. These women believe that long absence from home encourages infidelity with other women whom their husbands meet away from home and at their place of work. The women, to counter this possibility, develop multiple communication strategies among other steps to prevent their husband’s infidelity as well as to investigate the likelihood of infidelity. The prominent strategy is preventive. A key method is to constantly communicate with their husband, via both telephone and video. These communication activities involve sexually suggestive practices. In one instance, an interviewee reports sexually suggestive video acts to keep her husband occupied and prevent or discourage sexual encounters with other women. However, even these video activities are inadequate preventive measures for the women left at home. Many of the interviewees express continued concerns about the constant traveling by their husbands and loathe it. They know that some football fans are young and attractive women, and they do not want these women to meet their husbands. Yet they express satisfaction being associated with adulation by fans that they encounter when in the company of their husband. This is a catch-22. They loathe women fans being around their husbands, but they love fan (including women fans) adulation when in the company of their husband. Beyond preventive measures, the women also took additional measures such as investigations or fact-finding. Some report searching through their husband’s personal belongings after the husband arrives home after his long stay at his club. These search activities, they admit, are designed to unearth signs of extramarital affairs with other women. One of the women mentioned by Onwumechili and Akpan (2020a) states the following: I am always like … I hope that there are no other women that are out there. I have not had such an experience … but I am always, don’t know what, but I keep searching … but I don’t know. I just keep searching. I don’t know whether I am expecting that (extra marital affairs). I just keep searching for phones, messages, and all that. (p. 9)

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These searches, as noted above, include going through telephone and electronic mail records, among others. They express that such searches are stressful because they pray not to find any signs of infidelity yet believe that such searches are necessary to ensure their husband’s chastity. While the concern for extramarital affairs is high, the women are less outspoken and are not willing to challenge patriarchy. The absence of their husband entrusts them with roles that are, ordinarily, reserved for the absentee husband. Yet, even while undertaking these roles and burdens associated with the roles, the women are reluctant to impose powers associated with the roles. For instance, becoming a family breadwinner and the effective household decision-maker are usually entrusted to the husband. However, with husbands being absent from home and unable to earn a steady income because of inconsistent footballing wages, the family is sustained effectively by the wife who is ever present at home and earning a steadier wage-income or income from a small-scale business. Yet, even in those circumstances, the wife is reluctant to stress her new status as the breadwinner for the family. She continues to defer to the husband, to seek the husband’s affirmation before taking major family decisions even in the absence of her husband. In essence, patriarchy is sustained even though the economic system that usually supports it is tottering. Some of the issues extend beyond those requiring financial wherewithal. Some of the interviewees in Onwumechili and Akpan’s study (2020a) knew that they are in the role of head of household in the absence of their husband but hesitate in taking decisions such as those involving relations living in her household. For instance, in the Onwumechili and Akpan study, they note that one of the women sought an ally with her husband’s aunt before taking a decision to dismiss a difficult husband’s sister who was living in the household. The choice of the husband’s aunt, as a confidant, is strategic because the wife knows that her husband respects the aunt and, therefore, aligning with the aunt is a strategic choice to avoid the husband’s wrath. One of the important findings from the study is the ability of most of the women to articulate economic opportunities in the absence of their husband. Notably, all the women had post-secondary school education and, thus, are prepared to fend for themselves and their family. This is remarkable and it represents a major difference between their preparedness compared to their counterparts during colonization. Wives of

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colonial workers were largely homemakers who depended almost solely on the incomes of their husbands. That is not the case any longer. Most of the women, married to the footballers, are highly educated and are not jobless. They are either publicly or privately employed, and, in some cases, they develop additional sources of income. As we noted earlier, these income streams are key in sustaining families given the fact that husbands are employed in Nigerian professional football where wages are uncertain. Importantly, the acumen of these women is not restricted to developing their own income streams; many successfully encourage their husbands to develop multiple income streams beyond football. For instance, some report persuading their husbands to build homes that are subsequently rented for supplemental income. There are examples of other businesses that encourage their spouses to venture. The experiences as a left-behind wife and assuming additional responsibilities of the absentee husband shape the women’s attitudes toward the sport and husband’s career. The women largely loathe the sport and do not want their sons to play football. Yet, they want their husbands to earn a transfer to play football in Europe. This paradox requires explanation. It may be that loathing football is specific to football in Nigeria. After all, the women have difficult experiences with their husbands playing football in Nigeria. They face long periods of their husband’s nonreceipt of wages for football labor. Additionally, they are aware of long-distance traveling in Nigeria by their husbands with numerous dangers during such journeys that include accidents on poor roads and attacks from bandits. These situations justify loathing football in Nigeria. Football outside Nigeria, particularly in Europe, is decidedly different. Playing professionally in Europe is the dream of every Nigerian footballer and his family. The wages are multiple times better and are assured. Importantly, travel distances are shorter, and they are comfortable even, on a few occasions, when it is by road.

How Is the Family Structure Affected? Obviously, the African family is undergoing an upheaval. Although there are studies reporting these changes in family structure in Africa for more than half a century, reports of such upheavals involving footballing

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families have been more recent. With footballing families, we note a situation that is unique. These families, unlike those reported in previous studies of families left at home by migrant spouses, face cyclical curves of migration by a spouse who is away to varying locations for a long period. Moreover, this absentee spouse is frequently moving from one location to another during these migrations. Although the studies by Onwumechili and Akpan (2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2021) focus on cyclical curves, they cite the impact of these migrations on the family. Their communication impact on the family is informative given that the frequent stranger syndrome experienced by the frequency of travel of the spouse has a transferring effect on communication with the family back home. For instance, it leads to long and/or frequent experience of being a stranger as reported in the cyclical curves (see Onwumechili et al., 2003). It is also likely to impact the family structure. While Onwumechili and Akpan’s studies (2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2021) do not directly address the above likelihood for the frequent traveler, we envisage the possibility. Importantly, however, Onwumechili and Akpan’s studies (2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2021) point to the emerging struggle for power within the families of these footballers (see Fig. 17.2). The footballer, hitherto an unquestioned breadwinner with defined roles within his family, is greatly affected and stripped of some of his role and power during his sustained absence from home and family. Previously, the footballer husband was the titular head of family with authority in the spheres of budget and life-changing family matters whereas the wife headed the home care but deferred to husband in family leadership. The wife now gradually assumes the vacated role and power in life-changing family matters and budget, although the power aspect is currently ambivalent in certain critical areas. As Fig. 17.2 shows, rather than the traditional structure and distribution of differentiated roles in the African family, the emerging family structure as exhibited by these footballing families involves a shared region. In the studies by Onwumechili and Akpan (2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2021), this shared region are roles vacated by the absentee footballer but assumed by the stay-at-home spouse. While the spouse assumes this role, it is best described as ambivalent because the footballer continues to exercise power from his distant stay from home and the wife’s willingness to acquiesce to this attempt to exercise power

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Fig. 17.2  Emerging family structure in Africa as defined by footballer itinerancy. The wife primarily served as the home manager but was subordinated to the husband who was the titular head of family with sole control of budget matters and the key decision-maker on life-changing decisions. The figure here shows that the husband and wife now share the decision on budget and life-changing decisions

from a distance. Thus, it demonstrates to a large extent an ambivalence where the wife wavers on control given to her in her husband’s absence but with the husband’s struggle from distance to maintain powers that are waned or waning. Much of this ambivalence is apparent via content of telephone, video, and other types of communication that the wife has with the absentee husband.

The Future Given the development described here and the increasing quest for African youth to seek footballing careers outside their home and even outside their countries, the future is more likely to exacerbate the phenomenon. The content of communication described by Onwumechili and Akpan (2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2021) in their multiple studies of this

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phenomenon provides us a view into a developing culture, a changing family structure, and the future. While the family structure provides indices of changing roles and power, the new roles and powers assumed by the stay-at-home wife are best described as ambivalent. However, will it continue to remain ambivalent in the future? That is the issue. We believe that the future will see a steady advancement from ambivalence shown in Fig. 17.1 to a more definitive role structure for itinerant families. These families, like those described here, are on the increase not just among those where a spouse is involved in football labor. They are increasingly found in other types of labor especially with improved transportation and telecommunications associated with exacerbated economic situations within African states. The diminishment of ambivalence will be supported by the ubiquity of these types of families and the increased familiarity with family management roles entrusted on stay-at-home spouses. Stay-at-home wives will no longer need to constantly consult their itinerant husbands when making decisions such as where the children will attend schools, purchase decisions for the home, which relatives will be allowed to stay at the family’s permanent place of abode, among other decisions which now require approval from the itinerant husband. The long-term confidence, in making such decisions, by stay-at-home wives will make it acceptable for future women in similar positions and conditions. The ambivalence shall cease to exist.

Summary Economic hardship, loosening of football transfer rules, and vocationally prepared spouses have converged to define a new trajectory for African families. While current family communication demonstrates a struggle and the persistence to maintain age-old African patriarchal structure of a male heading the family, there are signs that the proverbial walls are coming down. A series of studies conducted by Onwumechili and Akpan (2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2021) indicate persistence of the structure but also note ambivalence. In the future, this ambivalence is likely to extinguish with stay-at-home wives becoming comfortable in leadership and

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decision-­making roles with less need to defer to and/or consult with their absentee husband. Instead, the roles will become expected, and patriarchy will be increasingly distanced. These changes are currently evident and will be consolidated in the coming years.

References Adepoju, A. (1995). Migration in Africa: An overview. In J. Baker & T. Aina (Eds.), The migration experience in Africa (pp. 87–108). Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. Akanle, O., Fayehun, O., & Oyelakin, S. (2021). The Information Communication Technology, Social Media, International Migration and Migrants’ Relations with Kin in Nigeria. Journal of Asian & African Studies, 56(6), 1212–1225. Bakker, J., Parsons, C., & Rauch, F. (2020). Migration and Urbanization in Post-Apartheid South Africa. The World Bank Economic Review, 34(2), 509–552. Berry, J. (2005). Acculturation: Living Successfully in Two Cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(6), 697–712. Berry, J. (1997). Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46(2), 5–68. Frykman, N. (2015). Impressment, Kidnapping, and Panyarring. In J. Miller (Ed.), The Princeton Companion to Atlantic History (pp. 240–242). Princeton University Press. Hunter, A. (2015). Empowering or Impeding Return Migration? ICT, Mobile Telephones, and Under Migrants’ Communications with Home. Global Networks, 15(4), 485–502. Kandiyoti, D. (1988). Bargaining with Patriarchy. Gender & Society, 2(3), 274–290. Kenyatta, J. (1938). Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu. Secker & Warburg. Murray, C. (1981). Families Divided: The Impact of Migrant Labour in Lesotho. Raven. Martino, E. (2016). Panya: Economies of Deception and the Discontinuities of Indentured Labour Recruitment and the Slave Trade, Nigeria, and Fernando Po, 1890s–1940s. African Economic History, 44(1), 91–129.

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Moodie, D. (1994). Going for Gold: Men, Mines, and Migration. University of California Press. Musiyiwa, M., & Chirere, M. (2007). The Nature of Fatherhood and Manhood in Zimbabwean Texts of Pre-colonial and Colonial Settings. In K. Muchemwa & R. Muponde (Eds.), Manning the Nation: Father Figures in Zimbabwean Literature and Society (pp. 156–169). Jacana Media. Nwokeji, G.  U. (2010). The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra. Cambridge University Press. Onwumechili, C., & Akpan, U. (2020a). African Footballers’ Wives: ‘Those Paid Dollars and Pounds, Their Head Is Not Five!’. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 56(5), 641–657. Onwumechili, C., & Akpan, U. (2021). Interrogating Internal Migration of Elite Nigerian Footballers. Soccer & Society, 22(3), 167–180. Onwumechili, C., & Akpan, U. (2019). Intranational Football Migrations and Impact. In C. Onwumechili (Ed.), Africa’s Elite Football: Structure, Politics, and Everyday Challenges (pp. 74–85). Routledge. Onwumechili, C., & Akpan, U. (2020b). Nigeria: As Football Labour Scrambles, What About Family? Sport in Society, 23(7), 1119–1135. Onwumechili, C., Nwosu, P., Jackson, R., II, & James-Hughes, J. (2003). In the Deep Valley with Mountains to Climb: Exploring Identity and Multiple Reacculturation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27(1), 41–62. Porter, G., et al. (2018). Connecting with Home, Keeping in Touch: Physical and Virtual Mobility Across Stretched Families in Sub-Saharan Africa. Africa, 88(2), 404–424. Roderick, M. (2006). A Very Precarious ‘Profession’: Uncertainty in the Working Lives of Professional Footballers. Work, Employment, and Society, 20(2), 245–265. Roderick, M. (2012a). An Unpaid Labour of Love: Professional Footballers, Family Life, and the Problem of Job Relocation. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 36(3), 317–338. Roderick, M. (2012b). Domestic Moves: An Exploration of Intra-national Labour Mobility in the Working Lives of Professional Footballers. International Review of the Sociology of Sport, 48(4), 387–404. Spadavecchia, C. (2013). Migration of Women from Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe: The Role of Highly Skilled Women. Sociology & Technoscience, 3(3), 90–116. Steinbrink, M., & Niedenfuhr, H. (2020). Africa on the Move. Springer International Publishing.

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The World Bank. (2011). Leveraging Migration for Africa: Remittances, Skills, and Investments. The World Bank. Wamue-Ngare, G., & Njoroge, W. (2011). Gender Paradigm Shift Within the Family Structure in Kiambu, Kenya. African Journal of Social Sciences, 1(3), 10–20.

18 Globalization and Digitisation in Sport Promotion and Development in Ghana: Sport Journalists’ Perspectives Ernest Yeboah Acheampong and Ralph Frimpong

Introduction This chapter investigates sport journalists’ perspectives of stakeholders’ usage of digitisation in sport promotion and development via the media space. In addressing this, knowledge of sport journalists on digitisation is analysed through their movements across nations, borders and continents that can shape or reshape the sport industry in Ghana. The literature on globalisation and digitisation complements interviews with nine prominent Ghanaian Sport media industry representatives in order to shed light on their experiences and practices regarding digital transformation in sport. Findings show that stakeholders including the sport ministry, national sport authority, federations or associations and sporting clubs must adapt and embrace digitalisation to promote their sport brands and use them as marketing communication strategies. Sport

E. Y. Acheampong (*) • R. Frimpong Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Sport, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3_18

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journalists reiterate certain challenges they encounter with stakeholders after criticising them for avoiding digitisation to reach their sport fans and society. The study recommends better policies to enforce sport organisations and administrators to incorporate digitisation into their communication structure. The transformation taking place in the media space has been researched extensively in scholarship (e.g., Küng, 2013; Picha Edwardsson & Pargman, 2014). Media economics and media management scholars have explained how digitisation and globalisation have put pressure on notable newspaper publishers (Küng, 2015; Picard, 2016) and free-to-air broadcasters (Barwise & Picard, 2012) to embrace the changes in the media landscape. Their inability to switch caused them a great deal in terms of losing revenues and reduction in consumption of their newspapers. Thus, they have to accept and rebrand themselves using digital technologies to be effective and stay in business, showing how digitisation has influenced corporate world activities and brought new management opportunities (Breidbach et al., 2018; Legner et al., 2017). The sport industry is not excluded from this transformation based on globalisation and digitalisation and what the new media has brought to stakeholders in sport. This explains how consumers of sports have exceptional relationships with their desired teams (Abosag et al., 2012) and can connect using their digital platform for interactions. For instance, in the Global North, digital platforms provide sport fans and supporters the opportunity to share the latest match day news or contribute to clubs’ debates on issues (Wakefield & Bennett, 2018; Yoshida, 2017) or send their concerns to management for consideration. This has facilitated how sport clubs engage with their fans due to the popularity of social media; therefore, Ghanaian clubs and industrial players in sport need to reposition themselves and leverage highly the involvement of their fans on digital platforms by progressively investing significant time and resources to drive online engagement (Filo et al., 2015; Hur et al., 2007) and enjoy the associated benefits in terms of revenue increase, proactiveness and fostering club-fans bonding. However, in Ghana, there seems to be a disconnection between most sport clubs and their fans based on digital platforms as a result of the absence of functional websites and other digital technologies to drive their online engagement with them (Delia,

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2017; Gillooly et al., 2017; McCarthy et al., 2014; Tsordia et al., 2018). From the above, we identify two issues: (i) how much information is accessed by Ghanaian fans and audiences via digital media? (ii) how often do multi-stakeholders in sport rely on a large digital support to promote sport and its development in the country? This study implores stakeholders in sport to embrace digitisation with evidence gathered from prominent Ghanaian Sport media industry representatives with vast experiences and practices in the sport industry. Digital Transformation (DT) has brought about changes in society and industries as it facilitates the use of digital technologies (Agarwal et al., 2010; Majchrzak et al., 2016). At every level of modern society, it has supported firms or organisations to employ innovative ways of applying technologies by developing “strategies that embrace the implications of digital transformation and drive better operational performance” (Hess et al., 2016, p.123), showing how the sport industry players should embrace and leverage their products to maximise revenues through engagement with their fans online for sustainability of sporting clubs. Thus, it can help sport organisations to rely on digital backing, for example, ticketing systems, athlete tracking infrastructure, e-commerce solutions and employee databases for their improvement globally. This study is relevant because it provides a holistic understanding of digital transformation in sport and with useful insights for stakeholders to see sport in a wider spectrum than before (Vial, 2019). Again, it helps reduce the recurrent debates on the decline of sport in Ghana and provides an effective mechanism for multi-stakeholders in sport to embrace and apply creative and innovative ways of incorporating digitisation across all sporting disciplines. Further, it offers sport clubs the opportunity to have digitised data on their fan base in support of their sponsorship applications and reduce their inability to source for funds. As digital transformation has permeated almost all aspects of our lives, those working in sports also have had to adapt and repackage themselves (Boyle, 2017) so that they can remain competitive and attractive in the sport industry. This chapter is organised as follows. First, a literature review on digital transformation and its significance to the sport industry by providing examples as well as how other industries have embraced it is explained.

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This information will help to enlighten multi-stakeholders on the need to embrace and integrate it into their sport activities. In the next section, we present the methods of interviews with sport journalists and their experiences and practices on digitisation as a vital tool for stakeholders towards sport promotion and development in Ghana. We then explain our findings and the need for the promotion of digitisation for stakeholders including sport clubs and owners to be prepared and accept digital technologies to remain relevant in the modern sport space. Finally, we present empirical data on the role of digitisation in sport and the need for its adoption by stakeholders. This contributes to strengthening the relationship between sport journalists and multi-stakeholders to promote and develop sport in Ghana. We then list the limitations of our work and provide concluding remarks and recommendations.

Literature Digitisation in Sport The professional sport industry evolved from mass media when newspapers and other print media started to report game-related information to sport audiences (Walker, 2015). This reinforces how media and sport have collaborated to improve sporting activities over time. It further supports the assertion of Zheng and Mason (2022) reporting on it as creating enhanced relationships between the media and the sport industry resulting in a valuable business model for both industries, boosting their potential to affect and find new audiences, especially sport fans. Digital Transformation has been explained by scholars in different contexts as reviewed in literature. To certain scholars, digital transformation can be defined as the application of types of technologies to transmit or share information and the nature of the transformation taking place (e.g., Andriole, 2017; Horlacher et al., 2016; Piccinini et al., 2015; Westerman et al., 2011). Previous studies defined digital transformation as the use of technology to drastically improve performance or propagate enterprises (Karagiannaki et al., 2017; Westerman et al., 2011, 2014) while other

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scholars explain it as the use of new digital technologies (social media, mobile, analytics or embedded devices) to empower major business improvements (such as enhancing customer experience, streamlining operations or creating new business models) (Fitzgerald et  al., 2014; Liere-Netheler et al., 2018). In Ghana, sport clubs are yet to realise this ‘new wave’ and holistic potential of digital transformation to reach out to their fans and supporters in promoting their activities, increase their audience base, visibility on digital platforms and maximise its corresponding returns via the media landscape. Based on review of extant literature on digital transformation, it is “a process that aims to improve an entity by triggering significant changes to its properties through combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies” (Vial, 2019, p. 127). Previous findings on IT-enabled transformation have highlighted the complexity that also surrounds its technology and must be solved for organisations (sport clubs) to remain relevant in a digital world (Vial, 2019). Sport clubs are supposed to strategise (Bharadwaj et  al., 2013; Matt et al., 2015) and adapt to changes, including its framework (Selander & Jarvenpaa, 2016), processes (Carlo et al., 2012) and culture (Karimi & Walter, 2015) in order to generate new paths for value creation (Svahn et  al., 2017) in the sport industry, showing how sport clubs can take advantage of the digital transformation to promote and develop their products to remain significant in the Ghanaian sport industry. Studies have identified ways digital technologies continued to improve social media happenings and added value creation to the activities of sporting clubs in the media space (Koenig-Lewis et  al., 2018; Kolyperas et  al., 2018). Other scholars have shown the use of digital technologies to facilitate value creation paths and contribute to promoting sporting clubs’ brand and marketing communication tool (Anagnostopoulos et al., 2018; Geurin & Burch, 2017; Koenig-Lewis et al., 2018; Kolyperas et al., 2018; Thompson et al., 2018; Yoshida et al., 2018; Vial, 2019) as well as getting them closer to its established sport fans and audiences. Scholars have recommended the use of digital technologies for data storage via digitisation (Legner et al., 2017; Sebastian et al., 2017), which enables easy physical access to primary sources while avoiding difficulties in sport clubs’ operations. Subscription to sports newspapers has been

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diminishing, classified advertising has basically moved online (Donders et  al., 2018) and sporting clubs adopting digital transformation contributes to positioning them in sport media market space. While most certainly admitting the increasing impact of digital transformation on the trends in sport sector, they point at strengths regarding new digital sport business models, value creation, digital consumer behaviour, big data analysis, change of organisational culture through digitalisation, technology acceptance in sport organisations, labour and workforce issues, human-machine interaction in sport and digital strategies for sport enterprises. There is a need to implement policies by the government to largely help the protection of intellectual property rights and the regulation of digital platforms (Donders et al., 2018) across the sport industry in Ghana. This assists to mitigate certain negatives associated with digitisation for industrial players in the sport sector and society to enjoy the benefits resulting in the promotion and development of sport in Ghana. In sum, digital transformation has brought massive changes into the sport media space and stakeholders in sport’s ability to embrace it with creativity and innovation may determine their success in the sector.

Globalisation of Media and Sport Journalists While most domestic clubs rarely undertake preseason training outside Ghana, sport journalists are able to travel across borders, nations and continents to report on sport events globally. This exposure and experiences of sport journalists progressively add value to their journalism practices and digitisation of sport. Since the world of sports has become radically globalised in the media space, this has supported reaching sport fans across the globe using digital technologies to impact the sport industry worldwide while enabling new ways of managing opportunities within sport (Breidbach et al., 2018; Legner et al., 2017). How are sport clubs in Ghana taking advantage of this opportunity, analysed through the lens of sport journalists’ perspectives as partners? Globalisation and digitalisation are affecting small and big media markets as well as the production of sport contents for fans and audiences in the sport sector.

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For this study, we conceptualised globalisation of media in the context of the “wider trend of internationalization across all parts of the value chain from creation, overproduction, aggregation, and distribution to even consumption” (Donders et  al., 2018, p.  92). In this globalised world, sport journalists are challenged to be innovative and responsive in the creation of sport news to reflect the exact stories being propagated to their audience. For instance, digital transformation including mobile models of sport content distribution and consumption forces sport journalists to be creative and innovative as providers of news by reference to practice and experiences gained globally. Again, sending sport news or stories via various digital means such as media mobile with smartphones and tablet computers are central in this digitalisation era; however, unpredictable elements may affect shaping how news is now produced, presented and consumed globally (Hutchins & Boyle, 2017). For example, the circulation of fake news and rumours limits how journalists present and spread stories in the media space, as reported by Hutchins and Boyle (2017). Owing to the speed of news, sport journalists need to produce stories for multiple platforms (Allan, 2012) in order to reach a wider audience across borders, nations and continents with their digital technologies while on the move. Hutchins and Boyle (2017) reveal that 78% of digital news sites in the United States have more traffic from mobile devices than desktop computers. This demonstrates how consumers of media content are increasingly attracted to digital news and that sport stakeholders in Ghana need to adopt it. Regarding the growing competition from content aggregators and “social” news specialists (Allan, 2012, p.  499), sport journalists are challenged to produce news content from different digital platforms combined to make it whole and concise for its consumers in the sport industry. With the distribution of news through digitalisation support, sport journalists propagate their content with ease while having a global reach. With digitised technologies, sport journalists can reach a wider audience using various platforms via the production of credible news for consumption. These are displayed on various digital platforms in order to provide fascinating news and stories for their sports consumers. In 2015, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that two-thirds of smartphone users access news weekly on their devices in

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Australia and the United Kingdom. In both countries, it was observed that over 50% uses a tablet or smartphone to receive live text commentary during sport events (McEnnis, 2016). Contemporary, this represents how the increasing use of mobile media and communications should not be “taken-for-granted” because it plays a vital role in sport news and journalism (Ling, 2012). All facets of our globalised media excelled with the advancements of technology and the acceptance of sports news and its associated products on digital platforms across the globe without much difficulty. With digitalisation, international media have become active in media markets, acting as gatekeepers between domestic and international media for corporations and sport consumers. Further, it generates international content players and platforms for reaching targeted domestic audiences through digitalisation as unique in its approach (Hoelck & Ballon, 2016). Significantly, the economy of global sport media has been enhanced by digitisation (Donders et al., 2018). This makes digital transformation a force in the entire media space which cannot be underrated in the sport industry as well (Jenkins, 2006). In short, the globalised media have not only facilitated easy access to information via different digital platforms but also improved the speed of reaching wider audiences with breaking news with the click of a button using digital technologies. It has also supported digitised data for verification and storage purposes for future use as well. Different digital technologies employed in the production of sport news and stories have improved the communication of media content across various platforms for sport consumers globally. However, there are challenges sport journalists have to deal with. This is not limited to but includes evidence of reducing revenue and staffing levels in newsrooms (English, 2014) and anxieties among some staff that have to hasten the process in order to “churn” in digital and online publishing, which is unpleasantly affecting accuracy and fact-checking in reporting (English, 2012, p.  145). Also, journalists and news organisations are struggling with the deviations of social networking and actual communication in the delivery of sport news on digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and live blogging (Boyle & Haynes, 2013; English, 2016; McEnnis, 2016; Sherwood & Nicholson, 2013). Hastening the

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flow of both reliable news and slanderous rumours, these digital platforms thwart how “sport journalists present and circulate stories, understand audience expectations, interact with sources and audience members, and present themselves to the public” (Hutchins & Boyle, 2017, p.  500). There is an indication of digital technologies changing news consumption habits of sport consumers and their audiences, and this may have effects on digital media (Hutchins & Boyle, 2017). The above are some of the challenges that digital technologies pose for sport journalists and their ability to handle them can promote activities of sporting clubs in Ghana.

Method and Materials A qualitative method was adopted to analyse the experiences and practices of sport journalists on globalisation and digitisation in the Ghanaian sport sector. The broader aim of this study is to examine the knowledge of sport journalists on digitalisation and digitisation towards sport promotion and development in Ghana based on their prolonged reporting and practice in the media. Relying on the expertise of sport journalists in the digital media space via interviews informs our analysis and provides supportive contextual knowledge of how their shared experiences can transform the sport sector in Ghana. Interviews were transcribed and qualitative data analysis was conducted based on an inductive approach to develop a new theory that can be generalised for this study (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). All the interviews were conducted in Accra, the capital of Ghana, which is the headquarters for most media organisations. The selection of Greater Accra for the study is based on the fact that it houses most of the media organisations than the rest of the 15 regional capitals. The use of digital media for this study is because of its revolution that makes news and stories trend faster by reaching the target audience with a click of a button. Sport organisations including sporting clubs embracing digitalisation media stand to benefit numerous as well as strengthen their social bond with their fans. This is supported by studies indicating that information transmission via digital media for sport has become a business, which

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attracts mass media attention (Dugalić & Lazarević, 2016). Ghanaian sporting clubs’ acceptance of it can offer them an opportunity to remain competitive in the digital space of the sport industry. The data included interviews and observations of sport clubs and federations/associations’ activities on media platforms. We covered the most important (how sport journalists are advocating for sport clubs to embrace digitised media to promote their activities and develop the game) actors in the sport industry particularly for creation and value addition, production and distribution of sport news on digital platforms to media markets. Below are data collection, sample, interview schedule and data analysis covered in this study. Data Collection The study’s analyses and evidence presented is informed by nine in-depth semi-structured interviews with sport journalists, some are heads, managers, online and mobile media reporters and news presenters. The interviewees are specialists in sport reporting, production and their careers range from 6 to over 20 years. We ensured that other ethical guidelines including informed consent, participant debrief, secure and confidential storage of data for the study were duly followed. To ensure uniformity in the data collection, several visits to websites and platforms of various sport clubs and federations/associations were made to authenticate their activeness in the media space via digitisation. This provided insight to understand and verify the views of sport journalists on digital transformation within the sport industry in Ghana. No specific names of respondents are given as they felt comfortable with that arrangement. The authors relied on a qualitative approach with semi-­ structured interviews, informal deliberations and observations. Data on participants were collected and analysed from July to August 2022. A considerable number of participants were captured that fit into the qualitative method suggested by scholars (Gratton & Jones, 2010). All the participants were made aware of the study’s rationale and gave their verbal consent to be interviewed. We employed a snowballing sampling technique as participants acted as recruit referrals to get their colleagues who voluntarily accepted to be interviewed. Interviewers explained to participants what digital transformation means as captured in the literature in the context of this study.

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Participants Nine participants were interviewed made up of five males and four females, who are into various aspects of sport media. The participants favour males over females, reflecting the usual male dominance of sport journalism (Boyle, 2006). A visible feature of these participants is that while they are identified as sport news presenters, radio, television or online reporter, all but three work across multiple platforms and/or formats (e.g., a print journalist who contributes to television and radio programmes, a broadcast journalist who writes a weekly for sport online news site and sport presenter on television, an online journalist who produces both written reports and video content and sport panellist on radio, and a broadcast journalist who produces and presents both radio and television content). All the participants are trained journalists except one who learned from experience with guidance from his mentor while practicing at a media organisation. Most participants have a bachelor’s degree in communication, with a few holding additional degrees in other programmes like economics, business administration, etc. All the participants have substantial experience in sport media and have travelled and covered sporting events across Africa and abroad. Participants’ movement globally in the media space has equipped them with the knowledge of digitisation and digitalisation as it has improved their sport media work in Ghana and beyond. Interview Schedule The interview method was used as it facilitated the acquisition of highly personalised information from respondents and the chance to inquire further for clarifications on the subject matter. The interviewers also clarified any issues raised by the respondents during the interviews. The interviews lasted between 25 and 42  mins for each participant. Participants have diverse academic backgrounds, ranging from communication and administration to majoring in sport, with different purposes for sport journalism. Participants shared their views on the subject matter and how it can promote sport and its development in Ghana and beyond. Interviewees were asked questions derived from the analysis grid (Table  18.1) based on the literature review.

—What inspired you to work in sports media? —What is your level of education and which subject did you study? —You are into sports media and how does it work in Ghana?

Prompt

—How has your decision impacted your job? —How did you get into the media? —What have been your best and most difficult moments in the media? Globalisation and digitisation in Could you share how globalisation and —What is the relevance of globalisation and media: understanding of the digitisation have shaped your thinking in digitisation of media on sport? terms, relevance to your work sport media? —How beneficial have globalisation and and sport in general and so on. digitisation been for Ghana sport in terms of promotion? Benefits of globalisation and Could you explain the benefits globalisation —How have globalisation and digitisation digitisation to sport in Ghana’s and digitisation have brought to sport improved sport promotion and development promotion and development. promotion and development in Ghana? in Ghana? Challenges of globalisation and Could you share some challenges globalisation —What are the challenges of globalisation and digitisation to sport in Ghana. and digitisation have on sport promotion digitisation to sport promotion and and development in Ghana? development in Ghana? —How have stakeholders in sport embraced this globalisation and digitisation concept in sport? Stakeholders: views, From your perspective, how have globalisation —What have been the contributions of contributions, support and so and digitisation impacted sport in Ghana? stakeholders, for example, sport ministry, on. institutions, and sport clubs? Experiences and lessons. Could you share your experience with —What lesson can you share on globalisation globalisation and the digitisation of media to and digitisation in sport and its relevance to sport in Ghana? sport promotion and development in Ghana? —What is the way forward for sport in this era of globalisation and digitisation?

Age, years of working in the Could you tell me about your background and media, educational and social how you got into the media? backgrounds, media houses and their core vision, digitisation of media and so on. Rationale: social, economic, Could you explain your motivation for going religious, tourism, cultural, role into sport journalism and how it has shaped model and so on. your media career?

Sport journalist

Interview question

Characteristics/variables

Subthemes

Table 18.1  Analysis grid

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These were based on variables or characteristics identified from the literature. Some interview questions were: could you explain why and how you got into media; your rationale for sport journalism; years spent as a sport journalist and in the media industry; describe how globalisation and digitisation have shaped your thinking in the sport media and its relevance to sport clubs; share whether digitalisation has an impact on sport promotion and development in Ghana; and how stakeholders in sport have accepted the digital transformation and some challenges with digitisation among others. Ghana’s media market is big with an audience of over 30 million and a strong public broadcaster, which covers the entire country with both radio and television, and local private media companies. Interviewees are from both public and private media organisations with vibrant reach in the media space in Ghana and beyond. The public media organisation is the oldest and has nurtured and developed a lot of sport journalists for the media industry in Ghana, with some of its products found in private media companies across the country. A few private media companies could boost both radio and television production equipment. In Ghana, there is a sort of relationship between public and private media, occasionally termed pax media (Donders, 2012). Regarding the insights of our literature review on digital transformation and globalisation of changing media markets, we developed interview questions based on their experiences and practice around topics such as digitisation, stakeholders’ contributions and acceptance of digitalisation, its relevance and challenges to sport promotion and development in Ghana, journalist’s stimulus for sport, the impact of digitisation and digitalised transformation on sport and so on. The list of questions was purposefully broad in scope based on our analysis grid so as to avoid participants being triggered or manipulated to provide likely answers regarding, for example, digitalisation and globalisation in the media space.

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Data Analysis To gain insights into the understanding of globalisation and digitisation in the media space of sport journalists, their interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed to mirror their views on the subject matter. Data triangulation was employed to confirm the narrations of the participants as they shared their views on digitisation in sport. Our engagement with different participants from different media organisations was relevant in gathering credible and valid data that enhanced the study’s findings. Sport journalists gave valued information on digitisation and globalisation regarding their media experiences and practices in the Ghanaian sport sector. Participants provided interesting revelations on the subject, which led to identifying key thoughts and enthralling themes. Informants gave their prior consent before interviews were recorded and transcribed to reflect their precise views. Braun and Clarke’s (2021) six steps of thematic analysis (TA) were employed to analyse the qualitative data in line with the literature. The different steps from TA facilitated the combination of data and theory processes to find patterns and interpret data that could align with established patterns (Braun et al., 2019; Nikander et al., 2020). In the six phases of TA, the second author created verbatim transcriptions of each recorded audio interview, which were further scrutinised by the first author for consistency. It assisted to familiarise ourselves with the data to transcribe aspects of the interviews related to the topic. The following step helped to generate initial codes from the raw data, then to specific themes after sorting, to which authors agreed. After exhausting the rest of the steps thoroughly, the data was analysed both inductively and deductively (Sparkes & Smith, 2014) by the authors seeking to make sense of the sport journalists’ experiences and practices on digitisation and digitalisation with the research literature. Each author worked to produce meaningful data items from the raw quotations, which were later coded to mirror the participant’s viewpoints on the role of digitisation and globalisation for sport promotion and development and assembled into subthemes. This process assisted to achieve an inductive approach after the patterns and observation of code groupings developed. The subthemes were derived inductively from the data on sport journalists’ narration to bring into line with the literature (e.g., understanding of digitalisation and digitisation to sport clubs, its relevance to modern sport promotion and development, better policy on

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digitisation for stakeholders to embrace it). Informants’ views did not necessarily represent the official viewpoint of their media organisations but are based on their experiences and practices in sport media for a longterm period.

Results and Discussion In this section, we outline three key concepts and themes derived from the narrations of respondents based on their experience and practice in digital media in the Ghanaian sport sector: (1) role of globalisation and digitisation in sport, (2) absence of stakeholders in sport on digital platforms, and (3) embracing digitisation in sport. Here, we applied digital transformation and globalisation in media studies to explain sport journalists’ experience and practice towards sport promotion and development. The empirical themes derived assisted in describing respondents’ concerns about the inactiveness of stakeholders in sport on digital platforms that aligned with their feelings and concerns as evident in the data. This is because sport is a source of reliable and bountiful content with the frequent arrangement of events and the consistency of competitions for a range of national and international leagues (including association football, athletics, tennis, netball, basketball, cricket, golf, etc.), high-profile world championship and cup tournaments and multisport global mega-events (Hutchins & Boyle, 2017). Therefore, recurrent sport updates via digital media are essential for fans and audiences as they cannot always be present at the events.

Role of Globalisation and Digitisation in Sport Indeed, the “credibility and seriousness of sports news have come under constant scrutiny, yet sports reports and information remain relevant for media organizations because of their popularity with advertisers and audiences” (Boyle et al., 2010, p. 499), showing how media organisations cannot do away with the transformation in the media space driven by digital technologies. This male sport journalist, an ardent listener of radio

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at age 11 and now presents online sport content, and radio presenter recalled the significant role of digitisation in sport: The digitized space has offered an unlimited library to everybody elsewhere, for instance, if you hear a story on radio at 6 pm and the story is gone, if you don’t hear it on the radio is gone but if I sit down and publish it on Ghana Sport online it is there for eternity. When somebody put a keyword in the search engine into Google and hit the search button, he/she is going to pull up that story out and people can read it.1

For him, digitisation has provided people with the opportunity to have access to unlimited information or data online without difficulty. Here, sport clubs can reach their fans with information via their digital platforms, which also serves as a record for future reference. Such digitised information enhances their fans’ experience, streamlining operations or creating new business models (Fitzgerald et  al., 2014; Liere-Netheler et al., 2018) with their digital library. A lady reporter and a former athlete narrated how digital transformation allows people to follow her on media platforms: You know everything is digital now but some 10 or 20 years ago it was not like that. Wherever you went there was no social media thing. Again, there are times when someone may not know you as a reporter for GBC or Graphic sports or Times Corporation, or some other ones but it is your work out there which is following you in the media, which some people might have seen or what you are doing in the industry. I quite remember I had a text message from someone that said “hey I have seen what you are doing” and I would want to put you on our team of young communicators to help us. So, for me, I think it is through digitization and globalization that he got to know and trace my works. So far when you talk of globalization and digitization has been impactful in a much positive way.2

The lady reporter with over eight years’ experience in sport media explained the way her sport news on digital platforms provided her with an opportunity to join a club communication team. Reaching sport fans and audiences via the digital medium with fascinating stories enabled her to secure new opportunities within the sport sector (Breidbach et  al.,

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2018; Legner et  al., 2017). This was made possible with digital technologies by reporting and publishing online across the globe. With almost two decades of media experience, this male sport journalism started as a hobby and later realised he could make a living from it. He explained how globalisation and digitisation have improved and immensely impacted sport globally: Globalization has had a very massive impact on sports. Now, there are no barriers, I can sit here in Ghana and search for information, get educated and with just a click of the mouse. The information flow has actually evolved and it helps. It has impacted positively on the sports journalism that we did. In the beginning, we just had to take a piece of paper and scribble everything and it was done manually, but now with the computer, you can just sit down and access first-hand information from the internet and convert them into programmable forms to use or read it on radio, television and other things. It has completely transformed how journalism is practiced both as a person and in the industry at large.3

He further emphasised the way they could now have access to primary information from the internet and repackage them into programmable materials for use on radio, television and other media. For him, it has facilitated value creation trajectories, converting data into programmable forms (Zheng & Mason, 2022; Vial, 2019; Koenig-Lewis et al., 2018; Kolyperas et al., 2018; Yoshida et al., 2018; Andriole, 2017; Horlacher et al., 2016; Piccinini et al., 2015; Westerman et al., 2011) and shaped their relationship with the sport industry. In sum, all the informants admitted the significant role globalisation and digitisation have brought to the sport industry but are yet to be accepted by multi-stakeholders in sport. Thus, it has transformed and enhanced their sport journalism activities through combinations of data, computing, transmission of information or communication, data storage, provision of additional job opportunities and connectivity skills (Vial, 2019; Liere-Netheler et al., 2018; Legner et al., 2017; Sebastian et al., 2017; Fitzgerald et al., 2014).

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 bsence of Stakeholders in Sport A on Digital Platforms In the Global North, its sporting clubs and associations/federations are actively visible in the media space via their various digital platforms in reaching their fans and audiences while less is observed of those in the Global South, especially in the Ghana sport industry. When a male journalist was asked about stakeholders’ contribution to sport promotion and development via digitisation, he recapped: The promotional aspect and the development of sport is a problem we are facing. You know, when you go to the National Sport Authority (NSA) and per their structure and responsibilities—they are to nurture, develop and promote sport in the country, which obviously is not happening, and the reasons are best known to themselves and they will in the better position to answer but I don’t see that going on.4

According to this male journalist, NSA has not fully adopted the digitisation concept because he hardly sees them on digital platforms. A female sport journalist narrated how digitisation has contributed immensely to the propagation of information globally in the sport industry, which others can learn to improve their situations, yet it is not visible among stakeholders in Ghanaian sport: Where we can get information from all over the world on anything sports. Because sport is not just about what is happening in your country, it is about knowing what is going on in someone else’s country and the world over. Even with your neighbours in Nigeria what are they up to, what are they doing, so happy you are able to better your luck if you are able to learn from their experiences.5

Stakeholders absent in the media space through digitisation is a source of worry as it will be difficult for them to learn from others’ experiences to promote their sport activities online. The above stakeholders, particularly sport clubs and sporting associations/federations must strategise and adapt to changes and processes of acquiring and sharing

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information on sport globally via digitisation (Bharadwaj et  al., 2013; Carlo et al., 2012; Matt et al., 2015; Selander & Jarvenpaa, 2016). This can support them to promote and develop their products across various digital platforms globally to enjoy its associated benefits. Another sport journalist with over two decades of both radio and television journalism reiterated the need for stakeholders to reposition themselves and welcome digitisation to move away from the archaic Ghana standard: For sports in general in Ghana, digitisation has served as an eye opener because we used to do certain things that we thought were the standard but only to realize that what we were doing was archaic and that we are ages behind. We have realized that there is a need for us to speed up. That is why, for instance, we are every day putting pressure on the current administrators to really go the global way. That way we can just move away from the Ghana standards to the world or globalized standard where we can open our eyes or broaden our horizons and for us to see.6

This journalist admits that stakeholders have not done much to take advantage of the digitisation in sport but they can still do more by adapting to the ‘new wave’ of it. In that sense, they can have global reach and become an ‘eye opener’ that will improve standards as well as broaden their digital platforms space in Ghana and beyond. All informants admitted that there is the need for sport stakeholders to redirect their energies and efforts to facilitate value creation via digitisation, which can promote their sport brands and reinforce sport marketing communication strategies in their respective sport (Anagnostopoulos et al., 2018; Geurin & Burch, 2017; Koenig-Lewis et  al., 2018; Kolyperas et  al., 2018; Thompson et al., 2018; Yoshida et al., 2018; Vial, 2019). Thus, digitisation has enriched the global sport media (Donders et  al., 2018) and stakeholders including sporting clubs’ ability to accept and actively use it to enormously benefit from it.

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Embracing Digitisation in Sport Firms that developed strategies to receive digitisation have seen how it is driving their operational performance (Hess et al., 2016). It is the same in the sport sector, especially in the Western world hugely benefiting from its introduction into their sporting activities. Indeed, it has been the advocacy of sport journalists calling on stakeholders in sport to embrace digitisation due to its relevance in the promotion and development of sport. For instance, this sport journalist recalled how he can sit in the comfort of office reception and produce sport news via the internet and social media for consumers: That (digitisation) is something Ghana is trying to embrace. Digitisation has actually done a lot. In all, I can sit here in the comfort of this office and probably have a story from the States, it could be through WhatsApp, Instagram or Twitter (social media) and it is interesting to see all things. With the internet and social media, you can have easy access to information and do production or make production very easy.7

With the vast impact of digitisation in different ways such as delivery changes in society and industries, improving performance and social media happenings and value creation in sport, how prepared are stakeholders in sport to embrace it, since some are reluctant to move along with digital transformation? Another female sport journalist explained how globalisation and digitisation have created awareness and attention to bring problems and needs of people for redress: It helps journalism work in a huge way. You can just go online, follow some of the players on social media, and get to know where they are going to play. I mean the transfer window is opened at the moment and you can just go to a player’s Instagram or Twitter and from a single post, you can get where he’s going and put a story together, and it flies!8

For her, digitisation has provided them with access to information via athletes’ social media pages where sport journalists can visit, create and produce stories and let them fly across digital platforms. Having worked with the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Ghana, and now

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with a television station, this female sport journalist proposes punitive measures for those sporting bodies that flout the blueprint established for sport digitisation. She narrated: Helping them to embrace the concept of digitisation is very difficult because if you try to help them, they see you with ‘one eye’. They don’t really appreciate the effort you bring in, that is, the problem with so many football clubs I have worked with (e.g., Cheetah FC, Inter Allies FC) and sometimes when you initiate certain things, it’s more like no! I don’t think this will work. All that I’m saying is about the major stakeholders, they are supposed to create a way for others to follow. If the major stakeholders are not putting up a clear blueprint, I mean the followers will also be doing their own stuff. So, it is about the sports ministry including the major stakeholders should put in a proper blueprint that will enable others to follow and if you don’t follow then punitive measures should be meted out to them. So, I think that the work lies on the major stakeholders.9

She strongly advocates for policies to back any blueprint on digitisation for stakeholders in sport to follow so that it streamlines their digital activities and indirectly obliges them to accept it and improve sport promotion and development.

Conclusion and Recommendations The study relied on the experiences and practices of prominent Ghanaian Sport media industry representatives in the digital space by providing empirical evidence on how multi-stakeholders’ acceptance of digitisation can promote the growth of sport in the country. Sport journalists’ knowledge of digitisation and globalisation in the media space offers relevant information for sporting clubs, federations or associations and sport ministry and its subsidiaries to embrace its use for promotion and development of sport in Ghana. This is because digitisation has transformed society and industries through the application of digital technologies (Agarwal et  al., 2010; Majchrzak et  al., 2016), which is limited in Ghanaian sport space.

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The literature contributed to exploring the significant use of digitisation as it has enabled organisations (e.g., sport clubs) to employ innovative and creative ways of applying digital technologies to remain effective in the sport sector while transforming and improving their performance. Findings highlight how sport stakeholders have been provided with the opportunity to develop strategies that embrace the implications of digital transformation as an effective approach to communication marketing and rebrand their sport products to entice fans online for sustainability as well as address their concerns. Again, it provides sport organisations including sporting clubs to have a digital database of their fans to rely on digital backing, for example, ticketing systems, athlete tracking infrastructure, e-commerce solutions and employee databases for their enhancement globally in the sport industry. Through the effective gathering of digital databases of fans, sport clubs can use it as evidence to support their sponsorship applications and concurrently develop strong bonding with them on digital platforms for future benefits. The study recommends for multi-stakeholders in sports to adapt and reconstruct themselves so that they can remain competitive and attractive in the global sport industry. Sport journalists’ criticism of sport stakeholders’ reluctance to embrace digitalisation should be seen as a “conscious call” for them to reposition themselves for massive digital transformation in the sporting arena. They further caution sport industrial players to be vigilant about certain challenges of digitisation that can create problems and limit the spread of their stories in the media space. Based on the sport journalists’ experiences and practices with digitisation across the globe, the study endorses the government via the sport ministry to establish policies to largely help the protection and regulation of digital platforms across the sport sector in Ghana. More importantly, digitisation supports the use of big data analysis, change of organisational culture through digitalisation, technology acceptance in sport organisations, labour and workforce issues, humanmachine interaction in sport and digital strategies for sport enterprises. Some of these benefits facilitate sport organisations (e.g., sporting clubs) to reach sport fans across the globe using digital technologies to impact the sport industry worldwide while allowing novel ways of handling opportunities within sport (Breidbach et al., 2018; Legner et al., 2017).

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The study is limited as it could not capture the views of other sport journalists with less than five years of journalism experience and practice. This will be interesting for scholars to investigate journalism experience with digitalisation in sport. Lastly, education on the importance of digitisation in sport for stakeholders can facilitate its easy adoption and acceptance to drive Ghana sport in the global media space.

Notes 1. Interview with sport journalist 1 (male), 13 July 2022. 2. Interview with sport journalist 2 (female), 22 July 2022. 3. Interview with sport journalist 3 (male), 9 July 2022. 4. Interview with sport journalist 4 (male), 11 July 2022. 5. Interview with sport journalist 5 (female), 13 August 2022. 6. Interview with sport journalist 6 (male), 10 July 2022. 7. Interview with sport journalist 7 (male), 9 July 2022. 8. Interview with sport journalist 8 (female), 12 July 2022. 9. Interview with sport journalist 9 (female), 14 August 2022.

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Vial, G. (2019). Understanding Digital Transformation: A Review and a Research Agenda. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(2), 118–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2019.01.003 Wakefield, L.  T., & Bennett, G. (2018). Sports Fan Experience: Electronic Word-of-Mouth in Ephemeral Social Media. Sport Management Review, 21(2), 147–159. Walker, J.  R. (2015). Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio. University of Nebraska Press. Westerman, G., Calméjane, C., Bonnet, D., Ferraris, P., & McAfee, A. (2011). Digital Transformation: A Roadmap for Billion-Dollar Organizations (pp. 1–68). MIT Center for Digital Business and Capgemini Consulting. Westerman, G., Bonnet, D., & McAfee, A. (2014). The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-­nine-­elements­ofdigital-­transformation. Yoshida, M. (2017). Consumer Experience Quality: A Review and Extension of the Sport Management Literature. Sport Management Review, 20(5), 427–442. Yoshida, M., Gordon, B. S., Nakazawa, M., Shibuya, S., & Fujiwara, N. (2018). Bridging the Gap Between Social Media and Behavioural Brand Loyalty. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 28, 208–218. Zheng, J., & Mason, S. D. (2022). New Media, Digitalization, and the Evolution of the Professional Sport Industry. Frontiers in Sport and Active Living, 4, 921329. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.921329

Index1

A

Accurate coverage, 173 Advertising revenue, 177 Africa Independent Television (AIT), 79 African American audience, 174 African American readers, 174 African Americans, 173–180 African cinema, 117–139 African communication landscape, 344 African cultures, 355–368 African digital communicative spaces, 344 African family, 373–386 African indigenous media, 6–8, 10, 30–37, 39 Africanity, 356, 357, 360

African media, 356, 365–368 African media industries, 10, 12, 13, 21, 25, 26, 29, 31, 39 African media space, 373 African mind, 343–352 African news audience, 174 African news deserts, 174 African news in the United States, 174 African popular culture, 287 African traditional media, 3–40 Africa’s global image, 356, 357, 365–367 Afro-Arab hip hop, 251–277 Afrobeats, 287–300 music, 287, 288, 292, 295, 297, 298

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 U. S. Akpan (ed.), African Media Space and Globalization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35060-3

419

420 Index

Afro-centric, 4 Afro-ethnocomunicological models, 7 Afro hip hop music, 251, 252, 256, 257, 261–262, 264–265, 267–271, 276 Age, 183 Akata night masquerade, 6, 14, 27, 31, 34–38 Akwaaba, 295 Analogue mode of broadcasting, 12 Analogue signal, 55, 57 Annang, 15, 31, 33–35 Anti-Feminist rhetoric, 241–244 Arab culture, 262, 266 Arabness, 251–277 Artificial intelligence (AI), 12 Ashanti, 18 Audience, 118, 119, 122, 124, 130–138 Audience perception, 159 Azikiwe, Nnamdi, 18 Azonto, 295 B

Bandwidth, 55 Black audience, 174 Black consumers, 178 Black music, 287, 291–293 Black news deserts, 174 Black people of the African diaspora, 174 Black readers, 174, 178 Black users, 175–177 Blogging, 64 Blogs, 83, 84, 87, 89, 90, 92 Blues, 293

Blues rhythm (R&B), 291–294 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 57 Broadcast Signal Distributor (BSD) license, 56 Burna Boy, 297 C

Chat room, 83 storytelling, 89 Cinema, 117–139 Citizen journalism, 64 Civilizational unicity, 355, 359–360 Colonial masters, 17, 18 Communication channel, 330, 333 Communication paradigm, 366, 367 Communication structure, 392 Communicativeness, 252, 255–257, 260, 263, 266, 269, 277 Communicators, 343 Communicologists, 344 Connectivity technologies, 395 Conspiracist communication, 306 Conspiracist ideation, 305–315 Conspiracists information, 305, 306, 309, 311, 312, 315 Conspiracy theories, 306, 309 Content developed for Black/African audiences in the United States of America, 173 Content needs, 174 Convergence, 80–82 Copywriter, 146, 161 Costume, 119, 125 Counter-stereotyping, 287 COVID-19, 211–227 Creative expression, 117

 Index 

Creative production alongside, 119 Crisper images, 55 Critical discourse, 185 Critical spectrum, 54 Cultural plurality, 359–360 Cultural spaces, 343 D

Davido, 297 D’Banj, 292, 297 Decolonizing, 343–352 Digital age, 324 Digital/broadband services, 60 Digital communication, 54 Digital culture, 23 Digital delivery format, 179 Digital distribution services, 135 Digital divide, 173–180 Digital environment, 80, 82 Digital era, 355–368 Digital globalization, 355, 357–359 Digital health communication, 323–324, 330–331 Digital health communication sources, 330–331 Digital health literacy, 324 Digital media, 253, 256, 262, 265, 267 Digital migration, 53–60 Digital mode of broadcasting, 12 Digital narrative, 185 Digital platforms, 53, 54, 68, 323, 324, 392, 395–400, 405, 406, 408–410, 412 Digital revolution in film production, 129–134

421

Digital space, 183–207, 251–277, 323–336, 343–352 Digital Switch Over (DSO), 22 Digital technology, 212 Digital television, 93 Digital television signal, 55 Digital terrestrial broadcasting, 22 Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), 59, 60 Digital transformation (DT), 391, 393–398, 400, 401, 403, 405, 406, 410, 412 Digital transmissions, 55, 57 Digitisation, 391–402 Digitisation in sport, 391–413 Digitization, 5 Digitize, digitizing, 53–74 Discussion boards, 83 E

Efik, 15, 31–35 Egyptian government, 233 eHealth literacy, 330, 331, 333 Email, 82 Entertainment, 117–119, 126, 129, 131, 134, 137–139 Ethnicity, 183, 185, 196, 198–201, 203–205, 207 F

Facebook, 12, 28, 29 Fact-finding communication, 381 Female Nigerian Afro-hip hop artistes, 251–277 Female social media influencers, 234

422 Index

Feminist movement, 234, 242, 245, 246 Fibre optics, 64 The film industry, 119–127, 129–131, 134, 137–139 Filmmaking, 119, 121, 127, 131, 133, 138 Film, movie as a medium of communication, 117 Bollywood, 127, 131 5G, 60 FM, 60, 66 Footage portrayals, 373 Football, 374, 377–382, 384, 387 Funk, 293, 295 G

Gatekeepers, 345 Gender, 183 Gender representation in Nigerian, 145 Ghana, 391–413 Ghanaian Sport media industry, 391, 393, 411 Global digital technologies, 305, 306 Global image, 355–357, 365–367 Global information, 356, 366–368 Globalization, 21, 391–402 of broadcasting, 80–81 and vertical integration, 62 Globalized markets, 61 Global media environments, 306 Global media space, 373 Global movie industry, 117–139 Global North, 357, 358 Global reach, 234 Global village, 129

The government of Kenya, 53, 54 Gwara Gwara, 295 H

Hashtags, 231, 234, 235, 237, 243, 246 Health behaviors, 323, 324, 326–327, 329–330, 333 Health beliefs, 323, 324, 326–327 Health communication, 323–336 Health communication channels, 330, 333 Health information, 323–325, 327–331, 333–336 Health information needs, 305–315 Health knowledge, 323, 324, 327, 329–330, 336 Health perceptions, 327 Health promotion, 324, 326, 327 Hip-hop, 288, 289, 292–295 Hulu, Amazon, 131 I

Ibibio, 15, 31–35 Iconographic communication, 30, 31, 35 IM, 174 Indigenous communication, 6, 7, 13–15, 39 Indigenous filmmakers in Nigeria, 121 Indigenous media, 4, 6–8, 10, 14, 15, 18, 24, 30–37, 39 Informal forms of communication, 344 Information, 173, 175–178, 180

 Index 

Informational, 118 In-person communication, 343, 344 Instagram, 12, 29 Interactants, 345 International communication, 323 Internet, 81–83, 87, 89, 90, 93, 324, 325, 327–329, 333, 334 usage, 173 IT-enabled transformation, 395 J

Jazz, 288, 291, 293, 295 Journalists, 56, 65, 66 K

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation subsidiary SIGNET, 56 Kenyan media industries, 53–74 Kenyan politicians, 184 Kenya’s analogue telecommunications system, 54 Kenyatta, Jomo’s speeches, 187, 188, 198 Kenyatta, Uhuru (President), 57 discourses, 185, 192, 194, 203, 206 speeches, 185, 192–196, 198–200, 202–205 Kupe, 295 L

Lagos Daily Newspaper, 18 Language capability, 325 Leg work, 295

423

Lighting, 119, 125 Linguistic persuasive strategies, 185 LinkedIn, 174, 176 Lyrics, 251–277 M

Macaulay, Herbert, 18 Magazine, 3, 4, 11–13, 26, 29 Mainstream news organizations, 178 Mass mediated- music, 258 McLuhan, Marshall, 11, 25, 28, 29 Media a global appeal, 53 Media and content choice, 257 Media-constructed, 4 Media contents, 145–161 Media delivery and consumption, 177 Mediamorphosis, 25–28 Media of mass communication, 119 Media portrayals, 373 Media semblances, 4–6, 14 Media war, 18 Migration within Africa, 373 Misinformation, 307, 311–315 Misogynistic, 251, 252, 265, 267, 277 Mobile media, 173 Movie culture, 118 Movie production, 136 Mr. Eazi, 297 Multicultural spaces, 343 Music, 211–227, 251–256, 258–260, 263, 273 Musical landscape, 297 MySpace, 174, 176

424 Index N

Native traditional newsman, 15 Netflix, 130, 131, 134–137 New digital technologies, 311 Newly created indigenous modes of African communication, 36–39 New media, 3, 10, 12, 13, 18, 21, 25–27, 29 New media environments, 305–315 in Africa, 305–315 News and information coverage, 177 News coverage, 173, 174, 179, 180 Newspaper, 3, 4, 11–13, 15–18, 22, 26, 29 Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), 99, 104, 110 Nigerian film industry, 119–125, 127, 134, 139 Nigeria’s film makers, 121 Nkrumah, Kwame, 18 Nollywood, 117–139 North African female Afro-Arab hip hop artistes, 251–277 Nsibidi, 6, 27, 31–33 O

Online health information, 323–325, 327–331, 335 Online mobs, 235 Online newspapers, 330 Online shaming, 231–246

Pluralistic broadcast orientation in Nigeria, 105–111 Portrayal, 146, 147, 153–155, 157–160 Portrayal of Women in Nigerian Advertising, 155 Postcolonial discourse, 188 Postmodernists, 150 Power maintenance in Kenya, 183–207 Presidential speech, 184, 185, 188, 195, 204, 205 Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, 105, 107, 112 P-Square, 292, 297 Public health emergencies/public health crisis, 306, 307, 309, 310, 312, 315, 323, 324 R

Race, 183, 204, 205 Radio, 3, 4, 10–13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 26, 27, 29, 34, 36 Radio Distribution Service (RDS), 98 Radio Relay exchanges, 98 Religion, 183, 185, 196, 203–204 Representations, 355–368 Rhetorical manipulation, 185 Rhythms, 253, 258, 259 S

P

Pandemics, 305–315 Pluralism of broadcasting, 104–105

Sexist, 239, 241–244 Sex objects, 151, 155, 157–159 Sex symbol, 263 Shakespeare, William, 258

 Index 

Shaku Shaku, 295 ShowMax, 131 Skepta, 297, 299 Social identification, 287–300 Social identity, 253, 256, 257 Social interactions, 324 Social media, 3, 4, 12, 18, 29, 82–94 activism, 185 integration, 87 networks, 232, 234 platforms, 311 regulation, 305 Social networking, 174, 175 Social norms, 231–236, 242–245 Social reality, 145–161 Social spaces, 343 Sociological construction of women, 251–277 Source of information, 330 Sources for health information, 323, 324 Sport communication, 373–386 Sport journalists’ perspectives, 391–413 Sport news, 397, 398, 400, 401, 406, 410 Sport promotion, 391–402 Stage productions, 122 Story-telling, 119, 135 Students’ use of digital online resources, 211–227 Sub-Saharan Africa, 375, 376

Technological innovations, 12, 26 Technological resources, 324 Television (TV), 3, 4, 10–13, 16, 19–24, 26, 27, 29, 34, 36 Tems, 297 TikTok, 12, 287–300 Town crier, 10, 13, 15–16, 26, 27, 36–38 Traditional African communicators, 366 Traditional family system, 375, 376 Traditional media, 328 Traditional media professionals, 64 Traditional models, 212, 226 Transnational media, 305 TV commercials, 152, 156 advertisements, 146, 150–152, 155, 159–161 feminine, 146, 147, 160 masculine, 146, 147, 160 MDG, 145, 146, 150 SDG, 145, 146, 154 stereotypes, 146, 148, 149, 152, 154, 158, 160 Tweeting, 64 21st century presidential public address, 183–207 Twitter, 12, 29, 30 users, 233, 235, 242 U

T

Technological determinism, 25, 26, 28

425

Under-representation, 147, 159 Uses and Gratification, 253, 256, 257 US newspapers, 177–179

426 Index

Video film era, 123–129 Video games, 174 Video reality (VR), 12 Violent rhetoric, 231, 239–241 Virtual classrooms, 212, 214, 216 Virtual learning, 212 Virtual room, 83 Vulgar tweets, 235

Western Nigeria Television (WNTV), 18, 79 Western scholars, 4–6, 8, 32 WhatsApp, 12, 29 Wi-Fi, 222, 224, 227 Wikis, 83, 87 Wizkid, 295, 297, 299 Women from the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, 231–246

W

Y

V

War of words, 183–207 Web forums, 83 Weblogs, 83, 84, 87 broadcast contents, 90 Web pages, 83 WeChat, 332 West African Pilot, 18 Western Media, 4–7, 15, 30

Yoruba theatre practitioners, 122 YouTube, 12, 27, 32, 216, 218, 223–224 Z

Zanku, 295 Zimbabwe, 211–227 Zoom, 216–218, 224–225