Connecting the continent: new technologies and improving economies are helping the media reach an ever-growing audience across the African diaspora.

The forces of globalization and democratization that have swept across Africa and much of the developing world over the past two decades have brought both boom and boon to sub-Sahara African media. The global winds of democratic change, kicked off by the collapse of both the Soviet Union and South Africa's apartheid, have ushered more than two dozen peaceful political successions. The past 20 years have also seen the emergence of fragile democracies in more than 40 of Africa's 53 nation states.

In short, Africa's second wave of democracy has been a remarkable success. As one analyst pointed out, between 1960 and 1980, no African leader left office having lost an election. In the 1980s, one did, and between 1990 and 2006, 20 did. Many others who have survived political exclusion during this period have had to put up with formidable opposition parties in national and local government politics.

One key feature of the newfound political freedom has been the proliferation of mass media, thanks to neoliberal economic policies of the new governments in power. Liberalization of the airwaves in nearly all African countries has resulted in an explosion of radio broadcasting and, to a lesser extent, television broadcasting. A tool of oppression only two decades ago, FM radio has come full circle to become the voice of disenfranchised communities. For example, at the height of Uganda's 1981-86 civil war, ascendance to power was measured by which rebel group was in charge of Radio Uganda. Today, Uganda boasts more than 200 FM radio stations, four daily newspapers, and dozens of weeklies and other periodicals. In South Africa, where broadcasting was heavily controlled until only 12 years ago, radio is also the fastest-growing medium, especially the community media segment, with more than 180 stations in operation.

Print media has also flourished, albeit to a lesser degree. Nigeria's indomitable press boasts more than 150 daily newspapers and thousands of weeklies. Tanzania, a former bastion of African socialism, has nearly 20 morning and afternoon dailies and a plethora of non-daily periodicals. No doubt, mass media have permanently altered Africa's political landscape.

Globalization has also left an indelible imprint on Africa's media history. Through promoting communication technologies and a global exchange of media content, African media have been thrust onto the global platform through innovations such as the Internet. Almost all African media organizations, regardless of their editorial stance or political affiliation, have an online presence and regularly update their content. Content is heavily globalized, so much so that even what is considered local content is heavily influenced by the international context.

Essentially, a typical African radio station is a microcosm of the political economy of global communications: a lively mix of entertainment and information, digital production systems and sophisticated (maybe even satellite) transmission capability. As the signal goes out to highly discerning local audiences, it is also streamed to audiences in the African diaspora via the Internet.

"The emerging reality"

The radio-web simulcasts would be world-class if it were not for connectivity hurdles in many African countries. But connectivity is expected to improve when several major submarine optic cable systems on the eastern and western seaboards of Africa are completed. The optic cable systems are cheaper than their satellite communications alternatives, and are expected to dramatically reduce the cost of both connectivity and telephony.

The initial ownership models were small, independent operations dotting the continent's mediabarren landscape, but this, too, is changing. The emerging pattern is one of concentrated ownership and even conglomeration. In Kenya, for instance, the largest media firms have operations across multiple media platforms. Cross-media ownership is also evident in South Africa, Egypt, Tanzania and Nigeria. It is not just the evidence of conglomeration that is noteworthy; the firms' ability to harness synergy and other benefits of integration depicts quite a degree of maturity in an industry with such a short history.

The above scenario underlines the tumultuous times that much of African media find themselves in. They best epitomize what South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka calls "the emerging reality of a continent on the move." They are critical proxies of the current economic growth being experienced on the continent, the highest in three decades. Africa's average annual economic growth was 5.5 percent in 2004 and 5.2 percent in 2005. It is projected to reach 5.8 percent for 2006. The sustained robust economic performance has cushioned the growth of the continent's corporate giants in cellular communications, financial services, mining and food processing.

These are interesting times for the African media. Advertising revenues have more than trebled over the past six years to nearly US$3 billion. Although South Africa accounts for nearly two-thirds of the continent's annual ad revenues, above-the-line advertising in emerging new markets, especially driven by telecommunications and financial services, is noteworthy.

In the "emerging reality," the African media appear to be going for self-sufficiency and long-term sustainability. Much of this push has roots in a new African economic profile sketched by the reintegration of post-apartheid South Africa into the continent's affairs. The northward "trek" by large South African corporations has not only provided new advertising revenues to tropical African media, but has also rejuvenated creativity and professionalism in most of those countries. But the greatest benefit for Africa has been ease in procuring such inputs as newsprint, broadcasting hardware and other media consumables. The end of South Africa's economic isolation also marked the beginning of the end for media repression in sub-Sahara Africa through the restriction of media inputs.

Long-term sustainability is also in sight. South Africa's media conglomerate Johncomm has set up in Nigeria one of the largest plants in the southern hemisphere to manufacture CDs, video CDs and DVDs for the African market. CD Technologies Nigeria could not have been better located: Nigeria's film industry, Nollywood, produces 1,000 full-feature video movies a year. Domestic demand is high among the country's 150 million people, who have an estimated 80 million videocassette and DVD players, but has rocketed with the introduction of a dedicated Africa Movie Magic channel on the pan-African subscription-TV service DStv.

Other notable initiatives include joint ventures in publishing and broadcasting. For example, the Nation Media Group has created successful newspaper and radio broadcasting joint ventures in Uganda and Tanzania. Zimbabwe's Trevor Ncube has expanded his media holdings beyond the Independent Newspapers Group in Harare to include South Africa's respected Mail and Guardian weekly newspaper. And in 2004, Nigeria's Financial Standard launched African Standard, the first pan-African weekly business newspaper.

New opportunities are also in the wings, especially in continental newspaper and book publishing and broadcasting. Indeed in broadcasting alone, at least three major pan-African TV broadcasting initiatives are reportedly in the cards. The two most noteworthy are Al-Jazeera's planned free-to-air satellite Africa TV channel and CNBC's dedicated free-to-air 24-hour African service.

The promise of Cellular communication

But these opportunities pale in comparison to the prospects offered by cellular communications. Cell phone uptake is revolutionary: Subscriptions grew from 1.2 million in 1996 to 51 million in 2005, and are expected to reach 100 million before 2010. Mergers and acquisitions underlie this sector's current institutional character, while interactivity and convergence mark the sector's product offering. Indeed, in terms of both hardware backbone and user product range, African cellular operators are on par with their peers in the rest of the world. For example, trials in 3G (third-generation) television and DVB-H (digital video broadcasting-handheld) are under way in four urban sites in South Africa, and on a smaller scale in Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya. Concomitantly, several magazines are experimenting with e-zines, a new format that delivers entire magazines via cell phone. The more traditional cell phone functionality, such as SMS (short message service), has been extensively used in disseminating HIV/AIDS information and in social activism and political campaigns.

Paradoxically, the Achilles' heel to this optimistic picture may be Africa's media practitioners, the very people who hankered for change from the dark days of wanton repression and censorship. Years of state domination and control resulted in subservient state media in countries like Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Malawi, journalists working for the state-owned broadcasting service have had to be cautioned by the government itself to end their overtly pro-government reporting style because it gave the "wrong impression that the State was still controlling broadcasting." In a number of these countries, open hostilities and tensions mark relations between private-sector and public-sector practitioners, frustrating efforts to develop much-needed self-regulation mechanisms.

Acrimonious debates range in virtually all African countries about the way forward for intramedia and media-state relations. The debates are complicated by cultural and religious contexts, especially in countries where socio-cultural fabric are still strong and definitive. The basic question remains the extent to which African media can ascribe to an "Afro-centric" perspective of reporting on the continent. This is a critical question, given the current universal curricula in African journalism schools, and the heavy tendency among African journalists to use Western-generated news values in deciding what constitutes news.

Many calling for a resolution to the impasse between the "Africanists" and the "universalists" have supported a people-based journalism approach. This approach encourages a journalism of purpose that is based on people's own context and experiences, dialogues and life struggles. This translates into a new consciousness, one that would assist in the rebuilding of mutual trust between the media and African societies, and a promotion of participative democracy. This journalism is proactive rather than reactive; it is systematic and strategic rather than erratic and episodic. It highlights processes that lead to outcomes rather than uncritically focusing exclusively on outcomes. The journalism of purpose promotes connectedness, understanding, community and dialogue.

A journalism of purpose is hardly a quick fix to African media's legitimacy crisis. In some ways, it is an institution starving amidst plenty. The industry's immense prospects need to be matched with realistic expectations about the role of media in Africa's new democracy. A useful starting point is provided by media organizations that see themselves as serving some specific objectives and not others. Probably, such positions might assist the continent's media in identifying "moments of consensus" that promote democratic spaces while preserving communities' cultural sovereignty. As the current debates continue, the African media is growing in leaps and bounds, providing even more opportunities and challenges--like never before.

Nixon Kariithi, Ph.D., is an associate professor of journalism and media studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published widely on African media systems, focusing on economics and business journalism, and has been an active mid-career journalism trainer in Africa for the past 10 years. He is the founder of the African Economics Editors Network, which has more than 400 members in 38 countries.