Africa’s shifting media landscapes: Digital media use grows, but so do demographic divides

Africa’s media landscapes have shifted tremendously in the past 30 years. The end of state run monopolies in most countries brought thousands of potential sources of news,  information, and entertainment to the continent. These outlets in the print, broadcast, and digital sectors vary widely. Some are doggedly independent, while others are known mouthpieces for partisan actors. Some vet information carefully before dissemination, while others are vehicles for mis-, dis-, and mal-information. And some are parts of large, even multinational, media houses, while  others are shoestring community-run efforts.

The latest Afrobarometer data from 39 African countries document important changes in how Africans use media to access news and information. Radio remains the most-accessed medium, although digital  use continues to grow. However, despite significant gains in Internet and social media  access in recent years, inequities in access across gender, education, age, urban/rural, and  income lines persist, and on some dimensions have actually grown larger than when overall  access rates were much lower. Radio, on the other hand, continues to be accessible across  demographic groups more evenly.

Africans are generally supportive of media playing important roles in democratic  governance. They are overwhelmingly supportive of media reporting on government  mistakes and corruption, and a strong majority support media’s right to report without  government interference. And while there is great variation on this measure, a solid majority  see media in their country as mostly free.

These results suggest that, in spite of continued attacks on media freedom in many countries,  Africans generally support media helping to hold politicians accountable, even if they feel  their governments don’t always provide such environments. That said, continuously changing  media contexts are bringing both new opportunities for Africans to be informed about  important political, economic, social, and health issues and new challenges in the form of  false information and divisive language.