69 research outputs found
Researching conflict and public opinion in Darfur
No full textIn crisis areas, those who control the media hold a keen advantage in terms of disseminating ideas, strategically supplying information, and apportioning blame. Through the analysis of the case of the Darfur conflict, Iginio Gagliardone and Lauren Kogen will illustrate on the one hand how the Sudanese government has tried to use the local media to re-frame the image of the West from provider of help to corruptor of local values before the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces, and on the other how different quantitative and qualitative research methods can be used in repressive situations to understand how messages regarding the conflict are received and interpreted by the population in Darfur. Paper prepared for the Fifth Anniversary Conference of the Department of Media and Communications, ‘Media, Communication & Humanity’, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, 21-23 September 2008
Book Review: 'The Politics Of Technology In Africa' by Iginio Gagliardone
No full textInformation and Communication Technologies (ICTs), in their advancement, have added a new dimension to development approaches and became a critical element in the integration of the developing world into the global knowledge society. This review explores Iginio Gagliardone´s book, The Politics of Technology in Africa, which provides a comprehensive account of ICT adoption and adaption in Ethiopia and an experimental framework for researching ICTs on the African continent, grounded in Hecht’s concepts of technopolitics and technopolitical regime. Drawing on the history of technology, international relations, African studies, and a decade of field research, the author´s alignment of the technological and political to study the relationship between development and ICT, not only challenges the assumption that African countries are passively accepting ICTs but also avoids the pitfalls of techno-determinism. Ethiopia, as the top “Official Development Assistance (ODA)” recipient in Africa and the staunchest advocate of an alternative development state for Africa, makes for an excellent case study and foregrounds a good presentation of the recipient/donor relationship, role of the state, African agency and communication strategies
Media Development with Chinese Characteristics
No full textChinese authorities often frame their activities in the development sector as distinctive from those pursued by Western donors by stressing that they are not seeking to export a specific model but simply to help countries reach their potential. This demand-driven approach has applied to old and new development areas, from education to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and has appeared fairly consistent across countries. This pledge, however, has not meant that Chinese aid is neutral or without significant political implications. China’s concessionary loans and support to development projects have tended to shift balances of power by favouring certain actors over others and have challenged existing development paradigms, revitalizing ideas of the developmental state. Building on fieldwork conducted in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Kenya this article explains to which extent China’s entrance in the media and telecommunication sector actually challenges the dominant, Western-driven approaches to media development, promoting a state centred vision of the information society
Lock-out, lock-in, and networked sovereignty. Resistance and experimentation in Africa’s trajectory towards AI
No full textThe conception of digital sovereignty has been associated, especially in the early stages of the diffusion of the Internet, with efforts to keep specific data and information outside of a state’s jurisdiction. AI sovereignty responds to an almost opposite logic, indicating the ability of a state to access and make use of data that are produced within its jurisdiction. These two strategies –which I refer to as lock-out and lock-in sovereignty –share some common roots (e.g. the attempt to protect and enhance specific cultural attributes recognised as important by a national community), but they also point to different technical, economic, and political characteristics needed to enforce one or the other type of sovereignty. The article examines key elements that set these concepts, and their implementation, apart and how they intersect with both existing and potential articulations of national sovereignty in Africa. In particular it opposes a negative –and still pervasive –definition of sovereigntyapplied to African states, based on the Westphalian ideal and “measuring the gap between what Africa is and what we are told it ought to be” (Mbembe 2019, p.26); and the possibilities disclosed by re-appropriating practices of “networked sovereignty” (Mbembe, 2016).
The definition of sovereignty that has prevailed after independence has followed what Achille Mbembe provocatively referred to as the “fetishization” of the concept of nation-state. African governments “borrowed concepts from the Western lexicon such as “national interest”, “risks”, “threats” or “national security” [which] refer to a philosophy of movement and a philosophy of space entirely predicated on the existence of an enemy in a world of hostility” disregarding Africa’s “long held traditions of flexible, networked sovereignty” (Mbembe, 2017). But, following Mbembe, it is by reconnecting with the epistemic traditions that characterized pre-colonial Africa (Mbembe, 2020) that it becomes possible to experiment with new forms of resistance and value making that seem more attuned to some of the realities brought by digital technologies, and Artificial Intelligence more specifically. As he explained, “precolonial Africa might not have been a borderless world. But where they existed borders were always porous and permeable. [...] Networks, flows and crossroads were more important than borders. What mattered the most was the extent to which flows intersected with other flows” (Mbembe, 2017)
The socialization of ICTs in ethiopia: Re-shaping technology for nation-building
No full textThis paper addresses how state actors in the developing world have influenced technology adoption and favoured the diffusion of certain uses of ICTs while discouraging others. Drawing upon extensive field research and looking at the evolution of ICTs in Ethiopia, it examines how a semi-authoritarian, yet developmentally oriented regime, has actively sought to mediate the - either real or imagined - destabilising aspects of ICTs while embracing them as a tool for nation-building. A constructivist framework as developed in international relations and history of technology is employed to understand how the introduction of the new ICT framework as promoted by international organizations has been mediated both by the results of the socialization of earlier technologies in Ethiopia and by the national project pursued by the local political elite. Copyright © 2009, IGI Global
Nile media debates: getting Sudan in the picture
No full textYesterday, May 3rd, World Press Freedom Day was celebrated all around the world. Two special – and personal – mentions: the first one for my colleague Iginio Gagliardone (University of Wits, Johannesburg), lead researchers with Nicole Streamlau (University of Oxford) and Monroe Price (University of Pennsylvania), of the UNESCO report World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development 2017/2018 launched yesterday at the UN headquarters in New York. With Iginio and a team of researcher..
China as a persuader: CCTV Africa's first steps in the African mediasphere
No full textChina, in seeking greater engagement with African audiences, has dramatically boosted its potential to shape narratives in ways that can favour its image or interests abroad. Focusing on CCTV Africa, China's flagship efforts to win hearts and minds on the continent, the article explains how this strategy has been pursued not by directly offering an alternative image of China, but by advancing new ways of looking at Africa. The article offers insights into the innovations and contradictions associated with China's increased presence in African media. It examines how the concept of 'positive reporting' is making inroads in Africa, tapping into the narrative of a 'rising Africa' and challenging the Western conception of the media as watchdogs. The article also highlights how CCTV is adapting to liberal journalistic standards, embracing a more aggressive style of reporting to compete for loyalty in a market which is becoming increasingly crowded. © 2013 iMasa
China and the african internet: perspectives from Kenya and Ethiopia
No full textThrough the lens of China in Africa, this paper explores the transformations
in the relationship between the Internet and the state. China’s economic
success, impressive growth of Internet users and relative stability have quietly
promoted an example of how the Internet can be deployed within the larger political
and economic strategies of developing states, moving beyond the democratization
paradigm promoted in the West. New evidence suggests that this model is
becoming increasingly popular, but it is not clear why and how it is spreading.
Through a case study comparison of an emerging democracy, Kenya, and a semiauthoritarian
country, Ethiopia, where China has recently increased its involvement
in the communications sector, this paper investigates whether and how the
ideas of state stability, development and community that characterize the strategies
pursued by the Chinese government are influencing and legitimizing the
development of a less open model of the Internet. It analyses how new ideas, technologies
and norms integrate with existing ones and which factors influence their
adoption or rejection. It is based on fieldwork conducted in Ethiopia and in Kenya
between 2011 and 2013, where data was collected through mapping Internet
related projects involving Chinese companies and authorities, analysing Internet
policies and regulations, and interviewing officials in Ministries of Communication,
media lawyers, Internet activists, and Chinese employed in the media and
telecommunication sector in Kenya and Ethiopia
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