E Global News Challenge Assessing Changes in International Broadcast News Consumption in Africa and South Asia
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WORKING PAPER e Global News Challenge Assessing changes in international broadcast news consumption in Africa and South Asia. Anne Geniets November 2010 CONTENTS Executive summary Acknowledgments 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Purpose of the study ........................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Research questions ............................................................................................................ 11 1.3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 11 1.4 Structure of the report ...................................................................................................... 12 2 Background .............................................................................................................................. 13 2.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 13 2.2 Market contexts ................................................................................................................. 13 2.3 Importance of media ......................................................................................................... 14 2.4 Media environment dynamics ......................................................................................... 20 2.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 30 3 The consumption of news from domestic and international providers – across different platforms ............................................................................................... 31 3.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 31 3.2 Algeria ................................................................................................................................ 31 3.3 Egypt................................................................................................................................... 43 3.4 Senegal ................................................................................................................................ 50 3.5 Cameroon ........................................................................................................................... 55 3.6 Kenya .................................................................................................................................. 64 3.7 Nigeria ................................................................................................................................ 71 3.8 India .................................................................................................................................... 77 3.9 Pakistan .............................................................................................................................. 83 4 Emerging themes on the role of new media in the consumption of news from international broadcasters .............................................................................................. 90 4.1 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 90 4.2 New media access and usage .......................................................................................... 90 4.3 Complementary use of television, radio, internet and mobile phones to access news ................................................................................................................ 99 5 Conclusion: A changing demand for news from international broadcasters? .............. 102 5.1 Market developments ..................................................................................................... 102 5.2 Challenges ........................................................................................................................ 105 5.3 Final thoughts .................................................................................................................. 107 References ................................................................................................................................. 110 Appendix .................................................................................................................................. 111 I Data sets analysed for the quantitative data analysis II Qualitative fieldwork PREFACE This report is the second stage of a three-phase project on ‘International News Provision, Consumption and Trust in the 21st Century’. The project examines eight countries and aims to explore the increasingly competitive provision of news by international media, changing patterns of consumption and use of these providers, and the ways in which trust may be changing in a world of news abundance as opposed to news scarcity. Like the first stage of the project, this report examines eight countries, including six in three different language zones in Africa: Senegal and Cameroon, Kenya and Nigeria, and Algeria and Egypt; together with two countries in South Asia, India and Pakistan. The working paper of stage 1 of this project, ‘Good News from a Far Country? Changes in international broadcast news supply in Africa and South Asia’, by Dr Brian Rotheray, reported on changes in the provision of international news to the eight target countries. This was published in July 2010. This working paper collates audience-research findings from some fieldwork carried out recently in Senegal, Kenya, Egypt and India, as well as existing statistical data made available by some broadcasters, to investigate international news-consumption habits in eight different countries. For each of the eight target markets and their unique historic, cultural, political and socio-demographic backgrounds, we aimed to identify through this study: news-access patterns, the dominant international providers, the role of international providers compared to domestic providers and any changes in media consumption habits over the past few years. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report is focused on the consumption of international news. It collates findings from fieldwork and from reports on audience figures from the BBC, France 24 and Voice of America, and, to a lesser degree, the descriptive analysis of data sets. It is important to note that the survey data was not consistent across the target countries and that many of the studies analysed do not have full national coverage. The analysis and presentation of these combined findings aim to provide an analysis of the status quo and outline contemporary changes in news consumption patterns across eight countries: Algeria, Egypt, Senegal, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, India and Pakistan. The media landscape in Africa and South Asia has seen dramatic changes over the past few years, not least due to political, infrastructural and economic changes, which are reflected in changed news consumption patterns. The report investigates news consumption in the eight target markets, and sketches out the increased influence of private domestic broadcasters as opposed to state-run or international broadcasters in the wake of increased media liberalisation in many African and South Asian countries. It explores three core questions for each market, namely: Who are the main providers in each country? How does consumption of news provided by international media outlets compare with the news from domestic providers? And, How have more recent news providers begun to influence the market? While for each market individual responses to these questions emerge, the findings also point to a number of factors common to all eight markets that keep consumers from accessing and using international broadcasters. Algeria’s television and radio stations are state-controlled, but there is a lively private press, which often criticises the authorities. Satellite television is popular; stations based in France target viewers in Algeria. Algerians consume content from a mix of national and international providers. While more content from national providers is consumed on the radio, the television market seems to offer opportunities for international providers, particularly French and Arabic channels. On balance, national providers seem to be strong in the radio market, and former colonial (French) providers as well as pan-Arab regional and partly national providers traditionally seem to be strong in the television market in Algeria. Meanwhile, there are two state-run national television channels and six regional channels in Egypt, but many viewers turn to pan-Arab channels for their news. Egypt is a big force in satellite television. International providers such as the BBC, CNN or VOA are only consumed to a marginal degree by the general population, but much more frequently by opinion leaders. On balance, national providers seem to be strong in the radio market, and pan-Arab and national providers seem to be strong in the television market. Former colonial providers are viewed with some suspicion. In Senegal, radio is the most influential medium, at least in rural areas, and commercial and community stations have increased rapidly since the 1990s. Many people access RFI on the radio, which is very popular. In urban areas