Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

New media entrepreneurs and changing styles of public communication in Africa: introduction

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13696815.2012.751871

1469-9346

Tilo Grätz,

Media Studies and Communication

Abstract This introductory article sketches the background of contemporary changes in African mediascapes against which we develop our central concepts of new (individual or collective) media entrepreneurs as well as new media experiences, both brought about by new modes of appropriating media technologies. The individual authors, through case studies, investigate various new pathways of individual and collective media engagement, and explore particular media genres that predominantly shape contemporary media landscapes in sub-Saharan Africa. Keywords: Africamediamedia entrepreneursmedia genres Notes This introduction and overarching discussion of the collection of articles in this special issue of the Journal of African Cultural Studies largely draws from discussions held during a workshop at Centre Point Sud, Bamako (Mali) in January 2011 that brought together scholars from European, African, and North American academic contexts working on media in sub-Saharan Africa. We have to express our gratitude to those who made this workshop possible: the German Research Board (DFG) and its financial support in the framework of Program Point Sud, and the coordinators in Mali and Germany, Moussa Sissoko and Marko Scholze. The political landscapes in which these new media entrepreneurs operate, are, however, quite diverse, as more liberal media laws in many countries are countered by oppressive systems of governmental control and censorship in others. Seyram Avle Citation(2011) investigates the role of returning IT specialists in Ghana as successful founders of larger media and IT enterprises, such as the pioneering commercial radio station Joy FM. In this perspective, I would like to mention the work of Simone Pfeifer (University of Cologne) who is following the career of a Senegalese singer and feminist activist as she unfolds her diverse political and mediatized strategies between Europe and Senegal (oral information). I agree with those scholars who question a one-to-one applicability of Habermas' concept of the public sphere to Africa (e.g. Schulz Citation1999; cf. also Calhoun Citation1994; Fraser Citation1999; Gitlin Citation1998; Cunningham Citation2001) and argue for the existence of an ever growing multiplicity of interrelated spheres and spaces of communication.