The return of development journalism in Africa?
This paper discusses the prevalence of a specific journalism style, development journalism, in the African media. Development journalism emerged as a distinct reporting philosophy in the South in the 1970s to promote social and economic development through the media, much as a reaction against the North’s critical and ‘unfriendly’ media coverage which was believed to be inconducive for local development. In the years which followed, many African governments embraced development journalism in official media policy. However, development journalism had its flaws, not the least since it came to be associated with politically driven media strategies. Many governments saw development journalism not only as a method to promote development in the media, but to endorse their own political strategy.
Throughout the 1990s, development journalism slowly faded as official policy in various African media strategies. However, recent years have seen scattered attemps both by media scholars and policy-makers to revitalize development journalism in a new form in the new African media climate. For example, development journalism has been proposed as a friendly ally of public service broadcasting in an African context. Additionally, African governments continue to criticize the media for not caring about social and economic development, as exemplified by the agenda of the latest African Media Leader’s Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in November 2013.
Towards this backdrop, this paper discusses the prospects for a revitalized style of development journalism in the African context. It does so through surveying media strategies in various African countries as well as through case studies of journalistic practices in specific societies of which Ethiopia is one. The paper concludes by proposing a model which identifies the major frictions between a development journalism philosophy and what has been perceived as a Western journalism philosophy.
Throughout the 1990s, development journalism slowly faded as official policy in various African media strategies. However, recent years have seen scattered attemps both by media scholars and policy-makers to revitalize development journalism in a new form in the new African media climate. For example, development journalism has been proposed as a friendly ally of public service broadcasting in an African context. Additionally, African governments continue to criticize the media for not caring about social and economic development, as exemplified by the agenda of the latest African Media Leader’s Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in November 2013.
Towards this backdrop, this paper discusses the prospects for a revitalized style of development journalism in the African context. It does so through surveying media strategies in various African countries as well as through case studies of journalistic practices in specific societies of which Ethiopia is one. The paper concludes by proposing a model which identifies the major frictions between a development journalism philosophy and what has been perceived as a Western journalism philosophy.
Publisert i Paper presented at the 13th conference of Africanists, Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, 2014
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