A mammoth task for Africa’s media

• These are thoughts I shared with delegates during the 2009 Pan African Media Research Organisation (PAMRO) annual conference held in Nairobi.

If it wasn’t for the media we wouldn’t have followed Neil Armstrong to the moon, our attention wouldn’t have been drawn to the Ethiopian drought nor would we have witnessed live the swearing in of Barack Obama as the first African American president of the USA.

These endeavours have been made possible by the evolution in communications as technology transforms and remodels contemporary culture. Only a deep understanding and appreciation for research will help us keep pace and tap into this revolution.

Indeed the objectives of this PAMRO event includes the creation of a forum for industry organisations; media researchers, media owners, marketers and advertising agencies in different African countries to exchange knowledge and to learn from one another’s successes and failures, to ensure the highest quality and to harmonise our research methodologies so that we will eventually have a continental media research database. The latter will make Africa the leader in the world in providing a research database for the growing number of global media owners, marketers and agencies.

It is time to tell the African story from the continent’s own perspectives. Let’s not give the mandate of deciphering our media agenda, packaging, consumption and trends to others.
Mass media helps in connecting people and ‘brings the globe into our glance’. Therefore, let us take advantage of the print media such as newspapers and magazines, electronic media like radio, television and video and new age (digital) media like the Internet, blogs and mobile phones to stamp our authority and create good business as well.

Genesis of Media

History of mass media can be traced back to the early days of dramas that were performed in various cultures. However, the term mass media originated with the print media that was also its first example. The first newspaper was printed in China 868 A.D, but due to the high cost of paper and illiteracy amongst people, it didn’t prosper.

Regarding the origin of the mass media, Europe can boast to be the primary source. It was Johannes Gutenberg, who for the first time printed a book in a printing press in 1453. Gradually, during the period post Second World War, radio, television and video were introduced. The audio-visual facilities became very popular as they provided information and entertainment.

Of late, it is the Internet which has become the latest and most popular of the mass media. Here, information is being generated through various websites and search engines. One can play games, listen to radio while working. They can also chat with friends and relatives, irrespective of location. It also gives information on various topics such as literature, politics, science, sports, fashion, movies, education, career, jobs and many others.

Thus, due to the progress of science and technology, history of media has evolved and reached the present-day world of internet, cellular phones, blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds.

I look forward to hearing the latest breakthroughs in terms of research of impact of our goods on the internet and specifically, the whole area of reputation impact online for products and services.

Evolution of African media

In Africa, oral media was and in most cases is still the main mode of communication. Messages were sent orally through messengers, packaged in folklore, songs and poetry. Some societies devised a way of sending and relaying messages through drum beats and even cat calls. Thus oral traditions served as the main database for information and communication.

But with the coming of the white man to Africa, newer technologies began to trickle in. Africans quickly adapted to the then new media to the point that great Pan African leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta used newspapers and radio broadcasts in their quest to free their countries from the colonial yoke.

During this transitory period, we note the existing oral tradition made radio to be embraced faster than print which was considered a domain for the elite. However, print has managed to take authority as the communication database and after listening to some news of interest on radio or TV, many a Kenyan are heard to say that “they can’t wait to read it in the paper” as if the print confirmation will give the news some final authority.

Media impact in society

This brings us to a very important aspect of mass media. That it can be used for the greater good or evil. It has the power to move agendas and propagandas, change a society’s thinking patterns and influence the outcome of events.

Positive – USA

During the depression of the 1930s, radio broadcasts brought hope to a dispirited populace. It brought entertainment through comedy, drama, and music, plus news and information. It brought inspiring words from the President of the United States that "life would get better"; "we would get through this". In a nation too large for a national press — based on the available technology of the day — radio commentators provided national voices.

If you already owned a radio set, it delivered all this and more at no cost to you except a minute or two of your time every so often to listen to a commercial, and some of these were just as entertaining as the programming. Illiteracy did not matter, nor foreignness, as announcers chosen for their lack of regional accents spoke to all Americans. Radio was an ideal medium for a poor society with millions of immigrants eager to learn the new language and to fit in. More than any other medium in history, the radio gave people everywhere a sense of sharing what the day held for them.

Negative – Rwanda

On December 3, 2003, the judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted Ferdinand Nahimana and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza of genocide. Nahimana and Barayagwiza were the directors of Radio-Télévision Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), Rwanda's first private radio station. RTLM, which broadcast from July 1993 to July 1994, was found to have fanned the flames of hate and genocide in Rwanda through its broadcasts. Up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus lost their lives. The case against Nahimana and Barayagwiza, in what was referred to as 'the Media Trial', raised important principles concerning the role of the media, which had not been addressed at the level of international criminal justice since Nuremberg.

The lesson here is that Africa media must raise the bar of responsibility. We must take pride in our continent and do a lot more of bringing out the best in us. This is a role that no other media will play and it’s an integral part of what we must seek to do well. We must take more pride in our continent and cerebrate achievements a little better and a little more.

Revolutionary – MTV

The MTV Generation is a term sometimes used to refer to people born between roughly 1975-1986, a generation whose adolescence and coming of age is perceived to have been heavily influenced by 1990s era popular culture in general and mass media in particular. Their early psychosocial exposure to these factors is thought to have been unprecedented and, along with peer pressure, resulted in a peculiar, homogenous youth culture defined by a deep appreciation of the fashion trends, perspective, attitude and music popularized by Music Television better known as MTV.

Media in Kenya’s history

Jomo Kenyatta’s Mwigwithania newspaper, JM Kariuki’s many letters to the press and Tom Mboya’s eloquent broadcasts played a big role in Kenya’s gaining its independence from the British. The media amplified what was happening in the colony and opened the world’s eyes to the atrocities taking place which pressured the British crown to accede to independence calls.

During Kenya’s four decades of self rule the media has helped unearth shady dealings in the government like ‘the black gold of chepkube’ – illegal coffee business during Kenyatta’s time, the infamous Goldenburg reap off where the government was compensating a few individuals for exporting fictitious gold during Moi’s watch and Anglo Leasing where a few well connected individuals awarded themselves plum State tenders through fictitious accounts which was to be Kibaki’s premier headache.

The picture of President Kibaki shaking hands with Raila Odinga – now Prime Minister - brought back peace to a nation that had degenerated into anarchy after the disputed 2007 elections.

The media has also helped promote culture and unity through celebrating our athletes and pushing our local artistes’ works. That’s why today Benga and Genge are taking root as Kenyan sounds while athletes Paul Tergat and Tecla Lorupe have become national icons.

The media is influencing what Kenyan’s watch, listen to, buy and even how they think. Hence the Kenyan media has a great responsibility and role to play as the country charts its course in attaining the development strategies laid out in its Vision 2030 as well as the UN Millineum goals.

To position itself for these challenges, the media industry would therefore benefit greatly from thorough research and comprehensive databases.

Importance of research

Research is a quest for knowledge to obtain answers about phenomena and events through the application of scientific procedures. It is objective, impartial, empirical and logical lending to the development of generalisations, principles and theories that may to some extent predict and control events and decisions be they social or commercial.

The challenge for Africa is not just researching what is being consumed but more importantly what can be consumed and be part of the continent’s revolution and growth.

Where Africa needs to go from here

Almost all the books on media in Africa are written by European and American researchers. In the last quarter of a century we have noted African writers begin to contribute to the communication literature and provide indigenous perspectives on African media including: oral, print and electronic media. But not much has been said or anticipated on new media technologies and their impact on the continent. Hence more work is called for here as we try to outline Africa’s media agenda in the new millennium.

This conference is a step forward from intellectual colonisation, a momentous break from the past when eurocentricism dominated epistemological research on African communication.

Time has come for Africans to define their media ethos.

The continent is on the verge of major adoption of digital communication which should change our lives forever. Interesting though is that the more this happens, the more Africa is embracing the African story.

Research both in terms of focus and technology must also evolve radically.

NMG’s case study – Media Lab

To build its capacity, adhere to universal best practices and exploit emerging opportunities NMG has resolved to recruit and train fresh graduates before deploying them to the field. The Group is determined to revolutionalise journalism through an aggressive training policy.

The graduates are from diverse disciplines which suits NMG’s policy of diversifying journalism. The trainees blend their various professional backgrounds with ethical journalism in telling their stories. In this way we have a better education story when told by a teacher and a more incisive farm story when told by an agriculturalist.

Under the program, dubbed Media Lab, candidates are recruited fresh from university and exposed to a rigorous one-year on-the-job training in journalism.

No other media house in Africa is pursuing what Nation is currently doing. Our journalists are exposed to a wide range of training that equips them well to work in both print and broadcast. This is in line with the company’s move towards media convergence, which will see the coming together of both the print and electronic media as we seek to become the media of Africa for Africa.

Apart from seeking fresh talent, the lab is also always surveying for existing staff training needs, gaps and opportunities.

The lab will play a big role in helping NMG uphold its journalistic values and set standards for other media houses as it seeks to become the media of Africa for Africa.

Some key observations

1. Africa will embrace digital media at less than half the time it took the developed world - because it is responding to a need. The developed world was experimenting.
2. Though Africa is diverse in cultures, there is a lot that we have in common than not. Somebody must work on distilling that! This will be the bases of future communication and even platforms for launch of goods and services across the continent.
3. The world has evolved from, hunting and gathering, agrarian revolution, industrial revolution, information (digital) revolution and now we are in knowledge revolution. Africa has the potential to win here as it calls less of capital and more of exercising our minds. Research has a lot to do in supporting Africa in this revolution.
4. We must interest our governments in research. Part of the reasons that governments misallocate resources is pure ignorance. We need to lobby for governments right across Africa to devote more resources to research as it’s the only way we can have certainty about the way we allocate scarce resources.
5. We should seek as much as possible to harmonise our research methodologies for easier reading and adoption by users both within Africa and also other stake holders interested in doing business in Africa.
6. The internet is already affecting us and information is travelling at a faster pace than any other time in history. A bad thing gets to be known by the world in split seconds. What is the implication of this for brands? Global brands? Regional brands? Remember the case of Dasani water in UK a few years ago? What is research telling us about reputational impact on brands in the net that should galvanise brand stewards to thing of innovative ways of managing them?

Thank you and may we have fruitful and insightful deliberations in PAMRO 2009.

• EDITOR'S NOTE: This article relies on several online sources, but are not listed because of the publishing format.