Thesis (M.J.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-151). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, [2002]. / "A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy " Supported by videocassette Africa 2000: Voices of the future (30 mins.) and Aids: An African perspective (30 mins.). Bibliography: leaves 245-277.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Copy not signed by the author. Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

This qualitative study features in-depth interviews with selected continental African journalists and offers exploratory insights into how they perceive themselves in terms of their journalistic roles and/or sub-identities with regard to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The study also examines correlations between their perceptions and their news stories on NEPAD. Grounded in the libertarian and social responsibility theories of journalism, and reading these theories from the standpoint of Africa, this study posits the neutral, watchdog, social agenda and development journalism sub-identities to explain the respondents’ journalistic identifications. Hence, the study explores how the journalists respond to NEPAD’s (pan)-Africanist and development journalism interpellations. The study draws on postcolonial theoretical perspectives to address questions concerning African identity and the wider NEPAD/African context of research. Findings indicated that the journalists perceive a role for themselves as neutral-objectivist information disseminators as well as social agenda enactors that conscientise their readers about NEPAD. Thus, the journalists tend to implicitly portray a pluralistic understanding of their roles that enables them to balance the ideals of journalism against the development and Africanist aspirations of NEPAD. Although the journalists were found to uphold oppositional stances towards NEPAD, they do not question it from outside of its own neo-liberal discourse. In fact, they still represent themselves as aspiring to its Africanism and remaining sympathetic to its development plans. Overall, they exhibit multiple identifications, and yet they often tend to lean towards their neutral-objectivist journalistic sub-identity. Ultimately, they prioritise the dominant libertarian-professional model of journalism over and above NEPAD’s interpellations. The study also examined the journalists’ interpretations of what they do and the apparent translation of this into their stories. Although in both their stories and interviews discourse they showed a broader orientation towards libertarianism, the findings show that the link between the two is not straightforward.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, March, 2017. / This thesis examines how African journalists negotiate the tension between their understanding of journalism and the actual practice of journalism within the context of Chinese media organisations based in Africa. Adopting the Shoemaker and Reese (1996) hierarchy of influences model and using interviews with African journalists in Kenya and content analysis, I examine this tension within the framework of the relationship between role conception and role performance. China has framed its media expansion into Africa on the premise that it aims to tell the ‘true African story’ to global audiences. This is consistent with China’s Africa policy promising mutuality and equality between China and Africa. However, the findings indicate an African and a Chinese level of gatekeeping and journalistic agency exist within Chinese media organisations based in Africa. These levels often coexist, but they also collide, resulting in Chinese interests and ideas prevailing over those of African journalists, and often in a type of journalism that de-emphasises African belonging and identity. This study represents an original contribution to the debate on the relationship between role conception and role performance, from a non-western perspective. It demonstrates the ways in which the relationship between role conception and role performance within Chinese media organisations in Africa is hinged upon conditional autonomy in relation to the typology of stories. The elements of the hierarchy of influences model are more active when Chinese interests are present in a story than when they are absent. Consequently, the editorial policy of ‘positive reporting’ promoted by Chinese media organisations is more active in the coverage of activities related to China than non-China content. This thesis enriches the five levels of analysis in Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchy of influences model. This study proposes language as a level of influence straddling media routines and organisation influences, when applied to Chinese media organisations in Africa. This thesis also contributes to the ideologisation debate on Chinese media expansion into Africa. While the debate has been dominantly framed through the Manichean prism of positive or negative, this thesis proposes Chinese media expansion into Africa will result in a hybrid form of journalism professionalisation in which Western and Chinese journalistic traditions co-exist on the continent. / XL2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of alternative press in mobilizing Kenyans to regain a multi-party political system after 29 years of one-party rule that had turned into authoritarianism. The study focused on Society magazine, and touched on two other magazines, Finance and Nairobi Law Monthly. Unlike Society, these magazines were not intended to cover politics, although they changed their role later. Finance and Nairobi Law Monthly were examined through secondary sources and the author's interactions with the publishers. Whereas Society was a weekly founded and run by journalists, Finance and Nairobi Law Monthly were monthlies founded and run by non-journalists. The other goal of this study was to find out how the alternative press affected the mainstream press, particularly the Nation. The study began with examination of Kenya's history and government-press relationship from 1895 to 1992. The period covered three major eras: The colonial period (1895-1963); the first era of the African government under President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta (1963-1978); and the second era of the African government under President Daniel arap Moi, who was in office from 1978 to 2002. I analyzed the first 14 of Moi's 24-year rule, when the country reverted to a democracy. The Study found that by not giving in to government pressure and threats, the alternative publications encouraged the mainstream press to defy the government and to regain freedom. Here are two examples of how the alternative press encouraged the mainstream press. When Oginga Odinga announced his intentions to form the opposition National Development Party, and the political pressure Forum for Restoration of Democracy, the mainstream press did not cover the announcements for fear of the government. The alternative press covered the announcements weeks later, after which the Nation and the Standard began covering debate on the government's refusal to register the two organizations. Society pioneered publication of political cartoons of government leaders in Kenya, and now the dailies use such cartoons without fear.

This thesis investigates the representation of Nigeria in the British news media. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, it examines the interplay of culture, race, ideology and geo-political power relations in the production of news. It interrogates the influence of sources, the impact of sources-media relations and their direct consequences on the construction as news of Nigeria’s socio-economic and human development indices, which further signpost the direction of representation of the world’s most populous black nation. By considering the coverage of Nigeria in the UK news media between 1997 and 2007, a period which marked a watershed in the democratic evolution of Nigeria, this thesis contributes to the on-going debates regarding cultural understanding in a globalized community. First, the research is based on a content analysis of the coverage of Nigeria in five UK quality newspapers at a period marking the end of the political logjam that engulfed the country following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections; the return to democratic rule and the early years of democracy, which witnessed the successful transfer of power from one civilian administration to another for the first time in Nigeria’s history. Second, a critical discourse analysis of a sample of the coverage of the most mentioned issues in the reportage, and third, on a small set of interviews with some of the journalists involved in the coverage. As a framework for its analysis, this thesis focuses on the theories of cultural politics, representation and news discourse. It finds that the coverage of Nigeria does not just follow the pattern of a distant and differentiated ‘Other,’ but is also significantly influenced by pre-colonial cum colonial history and geo-political power relations. Though news media outlets and individual journalists do try, within their own powers, to make a difference but the fact that the myths supporting these assumptions have been institutionalised over time presents a huge challenge. The issues in the coverage are discursively constructed from western point of view with greater access to shape the news clearly domiciled in the pouch of European or western sources rather than the Nigerians who should have a better appreciation of their local circumstance. This kind of coverage informs the idea of applying western solution to Africa’s problem, which further compounds the crisis. The fact that this manifest pattern of representation obfuscates the real issue behind Africa’s situation and presents imminent dangers to our common humanity are the core concerns contextualized within the thesis. It is negotiated with references to relevant dimensions of culture, politics, news discourse and interpreted in the light of geo-political power relations.