ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the understanding of how audiences in Africa engage with media in their everyday lives. By focusing on non-elite audiences, the chapter moves away from predetermined assumptions about how people should engage with media in the public sphere and instead provides an exploration of how African audiences actually consume media and what political dimensions may be discerned from their relationship with media in their specific social circumstances. In line with the main thrust of this book, therefore, this chapter approaches media in Africa from a descriptive rather than a normative perspective, in an attempt to gain better understanding of the actual relationship between African audiences, media and politics. We focus on the Zambian context; more specifically on how audiences engage with television news. The chapter discusses the meanings audiences derive from the main evening news on a privately-owned, popu lar television station, Muvi TV, and contrasts audience engagement with this station with viewers’ perceptions of the state broadcaster, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC). Through this case study, we wish to illustrate how a study of media audiences and everyday life can bring to light alternative public spheres where democratic life may flourish in ways unforeseen in elite media discourses.
