Towards Sustainable Journalism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policy Brief

"...just as environmental sustainability has posed systemic questions about the way economics, markets, societies and politics are structured, sustainable journalism also poses systemic questions about how journalism as an industry within specific media ecosystems and contexts is structured."

This policy brief from the Consortium to Promote Human Rights, Civic Freedoms and Media Development (CHARM) Africa and Fojo Media Institute seeks to critically explore the concept of sustainable journalism (SJ), a relatively new concept that combines reporting about sustainability with sustainability related to the media business model. The brief seeks to define what the concept could entail in a sub-Saharan context and investigates the implications for media development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings outlined in the report are based on stakeholder discussions that were held with relevant media actors in four countries in SSA as part of the work of CHARM, which is a group of six organisations working to protect and expand the civic space for civil society organisations and human rights defenders and to nurture and enhance the effectiveness of independent media and journalism in the region.

In particular, the policy brief seeks to explore the following questions: What is SJ? How should it be defined in a specific context, such as in SSA? Is it relevant? What happens when we apply SJ in SSA based on how media stakeholders in that region reason around the SJ concept? What kind of conclusions and recommendations can be drawn? By answering these questions, it is hoped that a critical base will be provided on which SJ can be developed, practised, and promoted in SSA. As stated in the brief, "The approach should be of interest to everyone who has an interest in the health of journalism. That would include individual practitioners, publishers, regulators, governments and others. We feel that it should particularly be taken into account by the media development community. We believe that the development of intervention and support strategies and plans can profit from using the notion of sustainability as a unifying principle."

The brief starts by giving a theoretical overview of SJ. It describes the three sustainability dimensions - environmental, economic and social - which help pave the way for a general understanding of the concept and for the practice of SJ. In brief, SJ can be described as "being located at the juncture of environmental journalism (reporting about climate change, loss of biodiversity, acidification of the world’s oceans etc.), social journalism (reporting about peace, security, justice, poverty, human rights, political participation, democracy, equality etc.), and economic journalism (issues related to the economy and the financial sector, business, stock market etc.)." With this in mind, SJ is meant to address two intertwined challenges affecting the modern world:

• The sustainability crisis of society, covering the above three dimensions. Here journalism has a crucial role to play, since it contributes to the understanding, and hence the handling, of such challenges; and
• The sustainability crisis of journalism itself, which stems from lower advertising, falling consumption, lack of trust in traditional media among citizens, and competition from online information brokers.

In order to put SJ into practice, it is important to establish the setting within which media organisations and journalists carry out their informational mandate in SSA. The brief, therefore, provides an overview of the ecosystem within which journalism is practised in SSA. In addition, the brief shares the thoughts of African practitioners' and researchers on the concept of sustainable development and how they think SJ could be applied in journalistic and media management practices. These insights are based on three different sets of discussions that were held over a two-week period with reporters, news editors, and representatives of media development organisations in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, and Kenya. As explained in the brief, "The golden thread that ran through discussions was that sustainable journalism connects critical developmental issues in sub-Saharan Africa to the practice of journalism. Participants were of the view that there is a general trend of slow social and economic development within sub-Saharan Africa, coupled with a looming environmental crisis, due to poor environmental governance. They also agreed that what uniquely sets sustainable journalism apart from other new journalistic approaches is the provision of a model or framework for journalists to address contemporary issues that are tied to sustainable development. While SJ provides a framework, it also obliges journalists to concentrate on local contexts. This steers SJ away from the typical critique that often comes with journalism concepts emanating from the global north and intended to be applied in African countries."

The report makes the point that questions of sustainability need to considered at three levels - systemic, organisational, and individual - and highlights a number of sustainability challenges facing SAA journalism at the three levels in relation to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. For example, in relation to social sustainability, in many parts of SSA, several systemic issues around media freedom, information inequality, and misinformation must be tackled in order to guarantee socially sustainable journalism. In relation to economic sustainability, at an organisational level, media enterprises are often weakened by the fragility of their business models, highlighting the need to find new ways of ensuring their own viability.

The brief concludes with a series of recommendations, for each of the three levels, to help SJ take hold as a guiding concept for journalism practice in SSA:

• At a systemic level, media environments in the region should be given support to ensure that operations can be financially viable, while at the same time increasing the professional level of the content, as this is a prerequisite for editorial independence. Due to differences in national context related to financial resources, technological resources, and workforce capacity, media environments should also be encouraged to tailor their own way of practising SJ.
• On an organisational level, the brief recommends the establishment of a SJ partnership in SSA where media, civil society, and government can develop and implement the concept, thus furthering the sustainability of both journalism and society. In addition, international and other media support organisations, universities, and research bodies should take steps to support the promotion of SJ on the continent.
• On an individual level, publishers and news editors and other key gatekeepers should be offered training and mentoring programmes to explore how SJ can be put into publishing practices. Editors, reporters, and other media practitioners should also be given opportunities to develop skills to produce environmental, economic, and social stories that have relevance to their audiences, connected to local and global sustainability.