Television in Africa in the Digital Age, 1st ed. 2021
Gender and Cultural Studies in Africa and the Diaspora Series

This book places television in Africa in the digital context. It address the onslaught of multimedia platforms, digital migration and implication of this technology for society. The discussions in the chapters contained in this book encompass a wide range of issues such as digital disruption of television news, internet television and video on demand platforms, adaptations, digital migration, business strategies and management approaches, PBS, consumption patterns, scheduling and programming, evangelical television, and many others. The book is an important reading for academics, students and television practitioners. It offers an insightful view of television in Africa.

Chapter 1. Navigating the digital milieu in the context of Television in Africa: A synchronic appraisal of the disjunctures, continuities and prospects.- Section A. Disjunctures.- Chapter 2. Entertaining Africans: Creative Innovation in the (Internet) Television Space.- Chapter 3. Understanding Netflix’s foray into original productions in South Africa: A ‘jet plane’ and ‘helicopter’ view.- Chapter 4. Digital Disruption in South African Television News.- Chapter 5. Culturally Reconfigured: Assimilating Oedipus Rex into the Yoruba Mythical Universe through Television Adaptation Processes.- Section B. Continuities.- Chapter 6. “Strike fear in the heart of the white men.” Hate language on digital television: The case of ZBC Television online news.- Chapter7. Persuasion across platforms: a rhetorical analysis of televised and digitized news reports on economic matters.- Chapter 8. Exodus, Access and Inequalities: The Impact of Digital Migration in Least Developed Countries of Africa.- Section C. Prospects.- Chapter 9. Digitization of Television in Kenya: Changing Trends in Content and Consumption.- Chapter 10. Television Journalism in the Digital Age: Analysing how Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC TV) and Eswatini TV (ESTV) are adapting to the digital era.- Section D. Regulation and Policy.- Chapter 11. Chinese State Capitalism and the Transition to Digital Television in Africa.- Chapter 12. Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) in Botswana: Prospects and Challenges.- Chapter 13. Dilemmas in Zimbabwe's Public Broadcasting in the Era of Digitisation.- Chapter 14. Concluding Remarks: Looking Backward, Looking Forward.

Gilbert Motsaathebe, PhD is an associate professor of Communication and Media at the University of Johannesburg. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa. He previously taught at the United Arab Emirates University in the UAE, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa, and Ariake in Nagasaki, Japan. Prior to joining academia, he worked as News Producer for television stations such as Bop Television, SABC and e-TV, before rendering his services as Manager of Media Relations for the North West Provincial Government in South Africa. He serves on editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals and his research interests include topics on television journalism, media and gender, journalism education and practice, African rhetoric and multiculturalism. He is rated by the NRF as an established researcher and serves as an Extraordinary Professor in the Research Entity: Indigenous Language Media in Africa at the North-West University.      

Sarah H. Chiumbu, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at the University of Johannesburg. Before joining the University of Johannesburg, she was Senior Research Specialist in the Human and Social Development Research Programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). She also spent 7 years at the University of Witwatersrand where she was a senior lecturer in media and communication studies. She holds a PhD and MA in media studies from the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research interests include media, democracy and citizenship, digital and alternative media, African political and decolonial thought. She has published widely in both academic and non-academic publications.