Toward an African Media Typology: Preliminary Reflections

Abstract

Africans’ voices and contributions to communication scholarship are of interest to many Africanists. Some discourses have explored reasons for this interest. This article continues this conversation. It recognizes the challenges contributing to the limited influence of the African voice in global communication scholarship and contributes to the theorizing of the African media. There are a range of factors impeding robust African engagement in global communication scholarship. These factors are explored in this paper. However, African scholars should look beyond these factors. The first part of the article explores reasons for the lack of active African input in this discussion. The second part of the paper explores the peculiarities of Africa that should form building blocks for the emergence of African media typologies. The extant normative media theories fail to consider the realities of African governance structures and philosophies. These should lead to a media framework more reflective of the realities of Africa. Indeed, the article proposes a conversation of four media typologies that closely match the continental conditions: pragmatic authoritarianism, pragmatic progressive, pragmatic libertarianism, and civil society.