VAD e.V.

New Media - New Publics

Structural Changes of the Public Sphere in Africa

Convenors: Matthias Krings Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können. (Mainz), Uta Reuster-Jahn Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können. (Mainz)

Modern media, introduced in colonial times, became instrumental in the nation building projects in the newly independent African states, regarding their respective politics of information and culture. Hence the post independence era in many African countries was marked by increasing state control over the media. Since the end of the cold war, political democratisation and economic liberalisation have brought about a shift from state-controlled to privately-owned media. In addition, technical innovations and the “digital age” have resulted in the development of new media formats such as tabloids, video films and music clips sold on cassettes and discs, thus increasing accessibility and affordability for producers as well as consumers. While the field of mass communication has been opened up to private enterprise, cultural output in general has become decentralised as well as radically increased. Computers, mobile phones and the internet have become immensely important for private use and communication as well as for economic activity and political mobilisation. Due to these developments a “media revolution” can be observed in many African countries. This dynamic process and its impact on social and cultural change in the context of democratisation and civil society require further documentation and analysis.

The “media revolution” brings about a structural change of the public sphere and the emergence of new publics. The public viewing of video films, for example, is not only a business but also a social event where films are discussed and commented on. In the press, people are called on to sell their private stories for publication, thus affecting the division between the private and the public sphere. Mobile phones and the internet provide new communication channels and modes of active participation of audiences in the creation and modification of media texts. Readers communicate with writers and publishers of newspapers via email, short text messages, telephone calls or message boards. Listeners’ comments on cultural and social subjects aired live on the radio are another example of the active role of publics.

The panel aims at mapping and analysing the cultural and social changes related to the new media developments. We would like to discuss the new media and modes of communication with regard to cultural practice and the emergence of new publics in Africa. There is also the question of new forms of censorship as well as the inter-relationship and interaction between old and new media. The panel invites papers (in German and English) on all aspects of these problems and processes.