D+C Development and Cooperation (No. 2, March/April 1999, p. 17-19)

Traditionally, when we talked of broadcasting, we meant radio and television. Today, the advent of the Internet has blurred the lines that separated all media of mass communication, print and electronic. The new mass media could make a powerful contribution to development in Africa by promoting regional integration. But so far, the chances are not fully realised by African broadcasters.

The world of broadcasting and of communication in general today is undergoing a fundamental revolution. This revolution is affecting not only the technology used, but could also lead to a new relationship between developing and industrial states. The following points summarise the present situation:

• The lines that divide the different media of communication ­ radio, television, newspapers, magazines and news agencies ­ have become blurred with the development of new information technologies, particularly the Internet;
• The old debate of the 1970s and early 1980s on the New World Information and Communication Order is being reopened due to the newly reinforced danger of domination of developing countries by the industrial nations as a result of the new information technologies, particularly in radio and tv broadcasting;
• Paradoxically, the same new technologies have produced the "perverse" effects of bringing in a really new world information and communication order, but one favorable to developing countries, including Africa, because the new technologies are levelling the playing field. Some nations and institutions, even individuals, can now buy into the global games in communication, particularly broadcasting, that were earlier reserved only for the very rich and powerful.
• This means, that the opportunities for regional economic integration through broadcasting are better today than ever before; however,
• Africa is not really gearing up yet to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new information technologies.

Broadcasting in Africa

The mass media system in Africa has undergone tremendous changes during the last decade. As a result of the democracy movement of the early 1990s, the age-old monopoly of media by government has been broken. In virtually every African country private media houses are flourishing. In a West African country, where in 1990, there was only one national daily newspaper, which was government-owned, today, there are over 8 dailies, and every time I return there after a few weeks, I see a new title on the streets.

But the strongest government monopoly broken in the last ten years has been that of radio broadcasting. Radio and television have always been seen by governments as their preserve: media institutions where they could not permit the intervention of private operators. Now, in almost every country in Africa, private radio stations are booming, most of them broadcasting on frequency modulation (FM) even if with relatively low output and coverage area.

Similar developments, though not so pronounced, have taken place with television, with the privatization of the ownership of TV stations and the proliferation of cable and satellite television.

The tremendous growth in the media system in Africa over the last decade has missed only those countries undergoing serious social and political crises like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville, Somalia, etc.

Radio is generally accepted as the most powerful instrument for nation-building in Africa. It is a medium through which everybody in the society can be reached easily, even the illiterate. With radio, you can broadcast in any language, and discuss any issue in any dialect, written or unwritten.

But unfortunately, radio, as currently used in many African countries, is structurally weak. There are problems of staffing, lack of equipment, and inadequate funding. The appearance of private radio stations has not really changed the situation dramatically due to their commercial orientation and their external cultural domination through the excessive use of Western music.

There are exceptions and reasons for hope. Rural and community radio stations are being established in many countries and they present opportunities for the dissemination of development information and public education, especially also on economic issues including regional integration.

Using the radio stations ­ private local and community stations ­ to promote such noble activities might, of course, still take some time. The stations have to survive first. But whereas many of their owners think their survival rests with commerce, it will, in fact, depend on responding to the needs of their listeners for substantive information on the issues of their concern: health, education for their children, market information, etc.

Television

Marshal McLuhan, the Canadian social scientist, once said that "if you want to change the world, go to television". That maxim is true not only in industrial countries but also here in Africa, particularly if we observe the fascination of our people for TV ownership. Even those who do not possess a television set, will sit in large numbers in front of TV in neighbours' homes to watch their favorite soap operas, local theatre shows or football matches. The first thing a thief carries away when burgling a house is the TV set! The first target of a military coup-maker is the Radio and Television House!

But while radio and television in Africa are multiplying, we still have a long way to go. New problems are arising along with old ones. The old problems are well known. I have just mentioned those of radio. For TV, we must stress the lack of technical capacity for programme production due to the absence of equipment. The litany in TV stations is always, sorry there are no cameras to come to cover your event. If city reportage can hardly be undertaken, organising coverage of developments in rural areas becomes virtually impossible ­ unless, of course, the minister is visiting.

Adding to these problems of African broadcasters are new ones. Which brings me back to my statement which referred to the debate over the past twenty years of a New World Information and Communication Order. The key point of that debate was that the Western world was bombarding the developing countries with their information disseminated through their powerful media. This, it was argued within the corridors of UNESCO and the UN General Assembly, was leading to cultural imperialism, the domination of the poor developing nations by the rich North. That debate was stifled within UNESCO when the organization was threatened with collapse after the withdrawal of the US, Britain and Japan, the three major providers of funds.

But like a phoenix, the issue is coming back. The advent of new information technology ­ particularly satellite and computers ­ is making it easier for Western nations to really flood the poor with their information and culture. In radio broadcasting, the Western radio stations which earlier on had dominated the air waves via short-wave are now transmitting in Africa through FM channels. The BBC and RFI, the French international broadcaster, are the pioneers in this regard. In virtually every French-speaking West African country, RFI can be received on FM. The BBC is also not far behind. Other international broadcasting stations like the Voice of America, Deutsche Welle ­ the Voice of Germany, Radio Netherland, follow and are also rebroadcasting programmes in a number of African countries in collaboration with local radio stations.

This development in radio comes in the wake of the phenomenal success recorded in television broadcasting by foreign stations like CNN, BBC, and others. The TV channels in Africa have literally been taken over by foreign broadcasters. This is compounded by the fact that many of the programmes broadcast by national television come from foreign TV studios.

New chances for Africa

However, the same new technologies that have led to the radio and TV channels being overtaken by foreign broadcasters could, paradoxically, have the "perverse" effects of bringing in a really new world information and communication order. An order that could be favorable to developing countries, including Africa, because the new technologies are levelling the playing field. It is now theoretically possible for anyone in Africa, not to talk of nations and institutions, to play the global games in communication, particularly radio broadcasting, that were earlier reserved only for the very rich and powerful. Digital technology has dramatically reduced the cost of broadcasting. We can set up our rural radio station in Ilesa, Osun State of Nigeria or in Katiola, Côte d'Ivoire or in a village in Harare, Zimbabwe and broadcast world-wide even without costly transmitters or satellites.

How can this be done? One way is the Internet. The other avenue is a brilliant idea, transformed into a big international project by an African. That project is called WorldSpace.

WorldSpace

WorldSpace, an enterprise based in Washington, DC, USA, was founded in 1990 by Noah A. Samara, an African of Ethiopian/Sudanese ancestry. Its objective is to provide direct satellite delivery of digital audio broadcasting services to the emerging and under-served countries of the world, including Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East. By the end of the decade, WorldSpace plans to have three satellites in orbit to transmit information, education and entertainment programming to a coverage area of over 4.6 billion people.

Small community radio stations or large international broadcasters will be able to rent channels on the WorldSpace satellites to transmit their programs directly to hand-held radio sets on the FM channels. Now that is going global from the local village!

Internet

An even more immediate and powerful instrument is the Internet. As I stated in the beginning, we have to redefine the concept of broadcasting because a newcomer has joined the ranks of radio and television, and this newcomer is gradually becoming an even more powerful, if not the most powerful medium. This is the Internet.

Each of us can now buy a computer at a relatively low price, connect it to a telephone through a modem and transmit a message which can be received by anyone linked to the network anywhere in the world. Internet is the concrete manifestation of a global system of information and communication; a system which is based on the use of the technologies of telecommunication, computers, satellites and fibre optics.

What makes the Internet so powerful is that it combines the skills and methods of all the other media ­ press, audio, video and interpersonal exchange ­ in a powerful mix that has revolutionalized communication. The capacity is endless for the instantaneous collating and distribution of information. A photographer can take a picture and send it instantaneously by scanning the picture into his computer which is connected to a recipient seven thousand miles away. Internet makes it possible to send a video film to Germany or Japan, watch U.S. television programmes, allows me to read the Nigerian daily papers in Abidjan, listen to Radio Deutsche Welle, search for information in a library in Washington, and so on. In short. Internet brings the words, voices, photographs, and moving images of the globe unto my fingertips. Internet presents a challenge to African broadcasters and newspeople. It is also an opportunity for us to play in the court of the big and powerful.

The Information Revolution
and Africa

The World Development Report 1998/99, published by the World Bank, says that "in an increasingly knowledge-based economy, information is becoming at least as important as land and physical capital. In the future, the distinctions between developed and non-developed countries will be joined by distinctions between fast countries and slow countries, networked nations and isolated ones."

The availability of information everywhere has led to a rapid, accelerated pace of change in the world. Events somewhere thousands of miles away have instant repercussions elsewhere, if not everywhere. The recent and still ongoing crisis in Asia is a vivid example.

This globalisation of markets and economies, fuelled by electronic networking, presents tremendous challenges to developing countries, particularly to us in Africa. For me, globalisation and the information revolution present no threats, but hopes and opportunities. They give Africa a dramatic chance to leapfrog into the future, breaking out of decades of stagnation and decline.

Globalisation is pushed by the revolution in information technology (IT). The information revolution is being driven by the convergence of the four distinct technologies mentioned earlier ­ telecommunications, computers, satellites, and fiber optics ­ and fuelled by rapid and sustained falls in the cost of collecting, storing, processing, and transmitting information. This sharp fall in costs ­ along with an increase in the technical and human ability to access, interpret and use information ­ promises to make the knowledge base of humankind available anywhere, anytime, and in many languages.

Globalisation versus localisation

Now to my second paradox: globalisation versus localisation. Two parallel movements can be observed taking place at the same time in international affairs today. These are the simultaneous search for globalisation ­ of markets, of information flows, of systems ­ and the withdrawal into smaller units based on group, ethnic, professional, religious or institutional affiliations. Internet ­ the global information network ­ is itself made up of smaller groups, fora, chat clubs, local networks and bulletin board services (BBS). People carve niches in the global system that is Internet.

To survive in the 21st century therefore, broadcasters, be they local, regional, national, or international ­ particularly in developing countries ­ must find and develop their niche or niches. At the same time, African broadcasters must integrate radio with television and Internet in order to build the African Information Highway and promote regional integration.

So far, however, there is neither the infrastructure, nor the political will to promote regional integration in Africa. The acquired social culture of our elites still militates against continental togetherness. Our focus is still vertically Northern, instead of horizontal East and West. Most of us would rather travel to London, Paris and New York than visit Cotonou, Abidjan or Harare. And African broadcasters do not deal with local or regional stories reflecting developments taking place in different African countries.

My conclusion therefore is that broadcasting can contribute to regional integration in Africa, but until now, broadcasters have failed in that task. The opportunities are there, the subject matter is there waiting to be tackled.

Ironically, international radio stations like the BBC, RFI, Deutsche Welle, and VOA are doing more to promote regional information exchange than African media. With the exception of Africa No 1, the French-African radio station broadcasting out of Libreville, Gabon, the overseas stations are the ones linking most regions of Africa with direct news reports and specific integrative programmes. The other exception is the South African satellite TV station, M-Net.

To establish their own identity and autonomy, African broadcasters have to join forces to develop, from individual niches, and build regional networks that can be expanded and strengthened through global strategic partnerships. What is needed is vision, political will, and an enabling environment provided by an enlightened leadership.