The EAST library offers the most pertinent publications on media viability and innovation in East Africa and beyond. Displaying sources of information relating to all five dimensions of media viability and more, it includes both regional and international studies, reports, books and fact-sheets for media practitioners, academics and policy makers alike. Standing on the shoulder of giants – Let’s start a conversation.
We are constantly updating the database. If you have a suggestion message us at info.icmediafutures[at]aku.edu
Summary of the key findings of the Audience Research report.
The Media Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC) undertook this survey to aid media houses understand millennials and Gen Z’s media consumption habits as a possible pathway to developing content that would engage them and programming that will address their needs.
The Media Futures East Africa Project, jointly implemented by the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications and DW Akademie, set out to investigate the state of innovation and media viability in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The research was conducted in two phases. The first phase studied the ecosystem – the political, economic, social, technological and community environment. The second phase of the research set out to examine factors at the organisational level that impact media viability and specifically analysed eight major variables which include: newsroom structure and resources, media ownership and business models, organisational capacity, innovation culture, journalism culture, financial trends and results, content quality and COVID-19. This report presents the results of that second research phase.
Kenya has a diverse, vibrant media system with a high internet penetration rate, literate society and fairly well-trained journalists. However, significant challenges to long-term viability remain. This report presents findings on the Kenyan media landscape along the five Media Viability indicators by DW Akademie. It indicates that increasing pressure from the private sector and government, changing audience consumption habits, and the need for new monetization strategies are among the biggest strategic obstacles facing Kenya’s news organisations.
Based on responses from an online survey of English-speaking online news users in Kenya the Reuters Institute Digital News Report highlights trends in the types of devices used for news consumption, as well as access and trust data for individual outlets. Particularly unique in Kenya is the relatively high level of trust in both media and social media oulets.
The two reports in this special issue examine policy towards misinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa. The first volume analyses school-based curricula around misinformation, whilst volume two investigates the changes made to laws and regulations related to ‘false information’ in eleven countries across Sub-Saharan Africa between 2016-2020.
Based on interviews with journalists, media founders and managers from 4 countries of the Global South, this report investigates the link between media safety and media viability. In an era of increasing physical and digital attacks on journalists the study aims to look beyond individual safety trainings for journalists to identify new approaches to the complex factors influencing media safety.
Covering 11 modules from identifying competitive advantages to budgeting and project staffing, the GFMD MediaDev Fundraising Guide is designed to help anyone seeking funding for media development or journalism support projects.The guide also includes a fundraising lexicon, common funders and current funding opportunities in the media development space.
What is the future of journalism? A report by the Media Innovation Centre at the Aga Khan University, Nairobi, bases its predictions on experts in the media industry. One focus is the intersection between technology, innovation and media viability. Interestingly, one prediction is that Kenyan media will begin offering expensively produced content to consumers for free.
In their annual study analysing the state of the Tanzanian media quality, Katunzi & Spurk find that the overall quality of media reporting has declined, particularly in the print sector. In this study they take a closer look at the causes and consequences of this decline in quality – from a political, economic and newsroom perspective.