Africa

The continent of Africa is home to 17 Commonwealth countries. This troubled continent has seen, over the years, some of the greatest tragedies but also some of the greatest successes in media terms.

The advent of computers has meant that many African newspapers made a quantum leap from hot-metal to online in a very short time. Almost all newspapers in Africa have online editions and they have fully embraced the information technology revolution. Broadcasting too has seen major strides forward in recent years. Although countries such as Uganda have a long-standing broadcast tradition, many countries have only had access to state-owned stations (both radio and television). Now, however, there have been many instances of successful private broadcast operators, often tied in with independent newspaper groups.

One constant problem in African countries is the lack of trained personnel to fill the ever expanding media posts and the on-going need is for skills training rather than issue based journalism training. There are relatively few journalism schools in Sub-Saharan Africa, with South Africa being a notable exception.