Accra — Africa's media is reveling in its new-found freedom. In most parts of the continent, where free speech and media pluralism were bridled by political actors who then used the few state-owned media institutions to execute their political agenda and persecute dissenting voices out of government, and in many cases, out of the country.
In those dark periods for the media on the continent, all one needed to do was to capture the national broadcaster that had a nation-wide reach and declare the overthrow of a sitting government or announce the dismissal of a dissenting voice from government.
The new breeze of press freedom being experienced in most parts of the continent, brought about by advancement in democracy and technology, has now placed the media at the heart of democracy and socio-economic development.
The very nature of the role of the media has meant that the 'Fourth Estate of the Realm' must educate the citizenry about issues that impact their life, inform them of happenings on the political, economic and social sub-sectors, and entertain readers and listeners within their reach.
An important aspect of the role of the media is the commercial aspect. The need to 'sell' is as important as the three other roles of the media.
To set-up, sustain and grow media businesses over a long-period requires an initial long-term funding at negligible interest rate, ploughing back profits into the business for the initial half-decade and leveraging technology to grow and attract advertisers.
This, however, has not been helped by rising overhead costs in many African countries. From unplanned power cuts, to the relatively expensive cost of data, transportation costs, and office rental charges, many media establishments must ride these disquieting challenges in order to be the 'voice of the voiceless', champion the democratic course and play their watchdog role successfully.
Advertising remains a major source of funding for almost all media institutions on the continent. Whether print or online, adverts are the life blood of the media. For print and electronic media, approximately 60 percent of all revenue is through advertisement; rising to as much as 80 percent in some cases.
Sale of newspapers and organizing sponsored-forums about topical matters are the other source of funding for the media. However, the revenue generated from these source are insufficient in meeting the needs of media institutions.
Funding agencies, public partners for a financially strong media sector
As I highlighted during the Bloomberg Africa Business Media Innovators, our media sector still suffers from funding challenges. The emergence of new media coupled with costs of technology and the entry of global media poses a great challenge to secure funding and attract more readers and advertisers.
Given that revenue from adverts, sales and events are not enough to champion the cause of society we should advocate for a much closer collaboration between media institutions and various multi-donor pooled funding institutions such as Star-Ghana in Ghana.
Given that these funding institutions seek to promote socio-economic development through funding education, health, and allied projects, a closer collaboration between them and the media, which incidentally seek to highlight these issue and bring about change, is imperative for the media to play its role.
Some of these funding agencies, have localized offices that the media, can liaise with them to forge partnerships for the benefit of the people.
The Case of Star-Ghana
To put this in perspective, in Ghana, there is the STAR-Ghana programme that was established as a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism in 2010. Funded by UKAID DANIDA, and the EU, the program was awarded US$48million in grants for various initiatives in 83 districts that covered 438 projects.
The Programme has so far worked with 232 partners—with a significant number of media institutions receiving funding to highlight issues in health, education, infrastructure and the likes. That is one sure way of ensuring the availability of funds for the media to play their expected role in society.
Upper and middle class persons dissatisfied with the status quo in their respective countries, can pool resources and support various initiatives by the media.
Again, online donations to various media houses can also go a long way to empower them to play their expected role in society.
When the public willingly fund the media, through voluntary contributions, it will help insulate the media from the influence of rich politicians who consciously seek to influence the agenda through advertising on various media platforms.
Given that adverts are the life-blood of the media, a threat to pull all advertisement down, threatens to objectivity of the media.
To truly own the media and allow it to play its watchdog role in this ever-growing pluralistic media landscape, funding agencies and the citizens ought to consider areas of collaboration and voluntary funding respectively.
Given the foregoing, passion drives us but funding from private sources, in the form of cheap long-term loans, voluntarily donations, and closer partnership with funding agencies, will sustain and main the media at the heart of African democracy and socio-economic development.
Dr. Edith Dankwa is the CEO of Business and Financial Times in Ghana.
