Award Nomination: 'Who's Reporting Africa Now?'
The Academic Lead of the Media and Communications research cluster, Dr Kate Wright, has received a nomination for the Best Book award in the International Communication division of the International Studies Association (8,000 members).
As news organizations cut correspondent posts and foreign bureaux, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have begun to expand into news reporting. Why and how do journalists use the photographs, video, and audio that NGOs produce? What effects does this have on the kinds of stories told about Africa? And how have these developments changed the nature of journalism and NGO-work?
Who’s Reporting Africa Now?: Non-Governmental Organizations, Journalists, and Multimedia, published by Peter Lang, is the first book to address these questions—using frank interviews and internal documents to shed light on the workings of major news organizations and NGOs, collaborating with one another in specific news production processes. These contrasting case studies are used to illuminate the complex moral and political economies underpinning such journalism, involving not only NGO press officers and journalists but also field workers, freelancers, private foundations, social media participants, businesspeople, and advertising executives.
“This is a unique book that goes beyond any other in exploring how journalists and NGOs produce knowledge about Africa in today’s multimedia environment. With a sharp eye on the changing contexts and interactions of all relevant actors, it gives an illuminating account of the ‘moral economies’ of journalism about Africa, animating the complex struggles of media producers and reflecting on what these may mean for the ways we learn about and understand Africa today. A valuable read.”
—Lilie Chouliaraki, Chair in Media and Communications, London School of Economics
“Who’s Reporting Africa Now? traces the increasingly influential role of NGOs in shaping the story about Africa in global media. Kate Wright draws on her own extensive experience as a journalist as well as empirical research into a range of media, from legacy platforms to online outlets, to provide a persuasive account of the interactions between journalists and NGOs and the moral and political economies underpinning these complex relationships. The book breaks new ground in exploring political and ethical questions at the heart of global journalism in a changing media landscape, and in so doing, it contributes to the building of theory about journalism in and about Africa.”
—Herman Wasserman, Professor of Media Studies, University of Cape Town