Practices, Policies and Regulation in African Journalism: Mapping a Research Agenda

Sampaio-Dias, Susana; Mabweazara, Hayes Mawindi; Townend, Judith; Osman, Idil

doi:10.1080/23743670.2019.1750197

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Second, unlike China that have one of the most effective and robust online media regulatory frameworks in the world (Ditlhokwa et al, 2023), African countries lack such legal online content regulatory frameworks. It is estimated that a large number of African countries do not have the necessary regulatory frameworks to monitor online content production and distribution (Mutua & Yanqiu, 2021;Sampaio-Dias et al, 2019). This study recommends country-specific measures to develop national online regulatory frameworks and techniques for generating public health story ideas and emphasizing vaccinations as the remedy for preventing future global public health crises.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccines and vaccinations coverage on news portals: Framing, Tone, and Source Analysis

Demuyakor,

Avenyo,

Amankwah

2024

Communication and the Public

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A comparative quantitative content analysis was adopted to explore the frames, tones, and information sources for the coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination in four countries in Africa. The news portals and countries for this study were purposively sampled based on the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders for 2021. Namibia, South Africa, Ghana, and Botswana are among the top ten countries in Africa with the best Media Freedoms. The findings showed that Ghana’s news portals’ coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination campaigns used mainly unofficial sources in the coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination stories, whereas Botswana, Namibia, and South African media used official sources. Other findings show that Ghana’s news portals covered COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination stories in a negative tone and employed conflict and economic consequence frames. Botswana, Namibia, and South African news portals, however, adopted neutral and positive tones and framed them according to human interest, responsibility, and morality. The results suggest that the text of the news articles from the four African countries’ coverage of the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination adopted different generic framing styles, and the tones were predominantly a mixture of positive, neutral, and negative.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 vaccines and vaccinations coverage on news portals: Framing, Tone, and Source Analysis

Demuyakor,

Avenyo,

Amankwah

2024

Communication and the Public

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“…Mamadou Thior, chair of the media self-regulatory body CORED, argues that if implemented as intended 'news will be better verified before publication' than was previously the case 102 . Self-regulatory press codes are spreading on the continent (Sampaio-Dias et al, 2019) and in South Africa, the current Press Council, set up in 2007, intervenes in instances of misinformation that appear in the media, adjudicating on cases and often requiring the media to publish corrections. Ahead of the 2019 elections in South Africa, a media standards watchdog, Media Monitoring Africa, went further, setting up an online platform, Real411, to allow the public to alert them to examples of possible false election-related claims from journalists or politicians.…”

Section: Information Standards For Media Politicians Could Mitigate Much Harmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as noted above, where they are allowed to operate, non-partisan factchecking and independent media organisations provide a constructive response to far more examples of false information, via their work, than regulations introduced by governments not penalising but correcting false claims. The environment that has enabled this to happen has, in part, been facilitated by a move towards more liberal media regulation regimes in a majority of countries (Sampaio-Dias et al, 2019). The creation and sustaining of this enabling environment is essential to any real drive to reduce the circulation of and harm caused by false information.…”

Section: Enabling Media and Civil Society To Act Against Misinformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Misinformation Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Diagne

Finlay²,

Gaye

et al. 2021

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Misinformation Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa is a single volume containing two research reports by eight authors examining policy towards misinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa. The volume first examines the teaching of ‘media literacy’ in state-run schools in seven Sub-Saharan African countries as of mid-2020, as relates to misinformation. It explains the limited elements of media and information literacy (MIL) that are included in the curricula in the seven countries studied and the elements of media literacy related to misinformation taught in schools in one province of South Africa since January 2020. The authors propose six fields of knowledge and skills specific to misinformation that are required in order to reduce students’ susceptibility to false and misleading claims. Identifying obstacles to the introduction and effective teaching of misinformation literacy, the authors make five recommendations for the promotion of misinformation literacy in schools, to reduce the harm misinformation causes. The second report in the volume examines changes made to laws and regulations related to ‘false information’ in eleven countries across Sub-Saharan Africa 2016-2020 from Ethiopia to South Africa. By examining the terms of such laws against what is known of misinformation types, drivers and effects, it assesses the likely effects of punitive policies and those of more positive approaches that provide accountability in political debate by promoting access to accurate information and corrective speech. In contrast to the effects described for most recent regulations relating to misinformation, the report identifies ways in which legal and regulatory frameworks can be used to promote a healthier information environment.

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Understanding the Dynamics of Social Media Governance in South Africa

Matsilele

Mutsvairo

2022

Media Governance

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Practices, Policies and Regulation in African Journalism: Mapping a Research Agenda

Cited by 6 publications

References 20 publications

COVID-19 vaccines and vaccinations coverage on news portals: Framing, Tone, and Source Analysis

COVID-19 vaccines and vaccinations coverage on news portals: Framing, Tone, and Source Analysis

Misinformation Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Understanding the Dynamics of Social Media Governance in South Africa

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