ABSTRACT

The ability to be divided along ethnic and religious lines is inherent to much of Africa’s media. Such potentially divisive reporting has the ability to incite violence through prejudiced information, particularly during election processes.
Reporting African Elections
examines the impact of media messages on society, focusing on these electoral processes in Africa. Drawing upon the Peace Journalism approach to political reporting, this book offers a unifying conceptual framework for analysing the role journalists play in ensuring peaceful elections. Joseph Adebayo also looks at the impact training can have on election reportage, studying recent elections in Kenya and Nigeria in order to present a 17-point plan for reporting elections in Africa.

Reporting African Elections will be of interest to scholars and students of journalism, peace and conflict studies, and politics.

chapter 1|14 pages

Contextualising Peace Journalism

chapter 2|18 pages

Political reportage of elections in Africa

chapter 3|21 pages

Instigators or mediators

Exploring the role of the media in electoral violence

chapter 4|8 pages

The need for Peace Journalism training

chapter 5|12 pages

Bringing Peace Journalism to journalists engaged in reporting elections in Nigeria

An action research case study

chapter 9|6 pages

Conclusion

Towards a proactive approach to reporting African elections