Africa Media Development Initiative: Research Summary Report

The research summarised in this 147-page report is drawn from 17 in-depth Country Reports conducted by BBC World Service Trust in partnership with Rhodes University in South Africa, Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria and a network of African researchers across the 17 countries. The aim of this research was to provide a snapshot of a representative number of sub-Saharan African countries and answer the following three questions:

1. What are the key changes/developments in the media sector over the past five years?
2. How have media development activities contributed to the development of the media during this time?
3. What contributions are likely to make the greatest impact on the development of the media sector within sub-Saharan Africa in the future?

This Research Summary Report of the findings of the African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) provides insights showing how donors, investors, media and media development organisations can collaborate in supporting and strengthening Africa’s media sector.

The research review has generated a number of findings relevant to the design and priorities of a facility or programme to strengthen media development in Africa.

• Information deficit - Despite the wealth of valuable insights available from other published research, systematic and reliable data on the sector is underdeveloped or non-existent.
• Media landscape - Media is growing in diversity and number In the countries surveyed, media are serving populations that are growing, primarily among young, rural and non-literate demographic groups. Radio dominates the mass media spectrum with state-controlled radio services still commanding the biggest audiences
• Need for a holistic approach to strengthening the sector - There was consensus that each sector, community, state-owned, and private media, has a unique yet complementary role to play in a pluralistic media landscape.
• Gap assessment: the lack of strategic perspective - The research revealed areas of strategic importance to the strengthening of the media sector where views were muted, and where the strategic awareness of the sector as a whole might be characterised as low.
• Development policy and media - The research confirmed that the media sector’s priority as an agent of change within the development “debate” is surprisingly undervalued by the international community.
• Donor impact and coherence - According to the research, there are not enough efforts in Africa to develop holistic donor strategies (in relation to funding, capacity-building or training).

In terms of challenges and opportunities, the research found the following.

• Professionalisation - Low levels of professional, ethical, management and technical standards are reported consistently among media practitioners in the countries surveyed. Three lessons emerged: the importance of having a tailored needs-based approach at a national level with regional support; the need to establish professional standards developed by the media sector itself, ideally in collaboration with well-respected institutions; and, the need to generate evidence of the impact of professional development efforts.
• Equipping the sector - There are significant challenges to equipping the sector. Among the initiatives reviewed, central and long-term funding for equipment and infrastructural support have been deemed effective (alongside media reform efforts). Priorities in this area include the direct funding of new equipment; support for upgrading existing equipment; information and communication technology (ICT) skills training for staff; creating mechanisms to enable media organisations to share technical facilities; and, sourcing opportunities for joint purchasing of equipment.
• Improving financial sustainability - A core issue is how the financial sustainability of community, public and private media can be improved.
• Programming and local content - Future priorities include support for the development of a local production skills base, creating a body of content focused on social and development issues, and the need to address the lack of audience research and monitoring. The delivery of these objectives could be facilitated by provision of equipment, training programmes, support to new and existing independent news agencies, market research, and regulatory reform and monitoring.

The report suggests that there is strong support for a pan-African initiative that would complement national interventions. The potential benefits are identified as stronger advocacy to the international community and pan-African bodies, shared learning, improved access to resources, reduced costs (via joint purchasing power) and better-focused funding. The initiative’s focus should be on boosting funding (private and public), garnering the support of pan-African governance structures, developing higher consistent standards of professionalism, stimulating transformation of state into public broadcasters, improving (where needed) coordination of donor activities in media development, and eliminating duplication at the point of delivery.