Social media can diminish impact of foreign media on African narrative

The impact of social media on Africa has been immense. It has been partly destructive, with huge sociopolitical consequences as well as very useful both in commerce and in social interaction. It can hardly be said of Africa that she has been in charge of her story before. There has been a time when BBC, CNN and their peers commanded the believable detail of news in African communities. In those days, it was common for African audiences to crowd around radio sets and tune in to news bulletins from these foreign news houses and believe their broadcasts without question. In those same days, there was a scramble by Africans to win the attention of foreign media houses, that the latter may speak favorably of them, as this was expected to enhance the goodwill of the Africans so involved, among their own folks. A bit of this still clings onto the African fabric, but it is waning. 

As of today, news on African soil can be quickly collaborated through on-ground accounts, captured by the mobile phone, shared through social media by Africans in their different locations. I would not believe a BBC story about what has happened in Gulu City in Uganda if a street person in the same city who may even be personally known to me is telling a different story and has video evidence of what he says, captured using his phone. In our times, everyone with an internet-enabled cellphone can easily fit the role of a dependable news reporter. Through this, social media has the biggest potential to help Africans tell their own story of what is happening in Africa. Social media diminishes the mostly pessimistic and depressing narrative that has characterised most of the foreign media reports on Africa in years gone by.

In our times, foreign media has only as much power over Africa as Africans themselves choose to give it. Social media has generated quick and more reliable alternatives to the content of foreign media houses. Foreign stories about Africa are threatened by the evolving social construct on the continent, enhanced by the ease of connection between millions of individuals. In recent times, I have seen Africans quickly debunk stories by foreign media houses as fake news and provide credible evidence to back their claims. Without listing names, there are social media pages and blogs that are dedicated to telling the positive story of Africa. It will be a fool’s choice for the current African to consume distant stories about their motherland, while true home stories crowd their everyday lives and struggle for space on the news feeds on their mobile telephone handsets.

It is a personal choice for the African to use today’s ease of social interaction to build the positivity we all need or to keep their ear tuned to distant waves. There are already regrettable examples on the continent to attest to the consequences of the latter choice. In a number of cases where the African has permitted today’s enhanced social interaction to be stained by distant influences, stories of devastation and civil unrest have abounded. The African is free to choose what do with the convenience of social media as far setting the pace for sociopolitical stability on the continent is concerned. 
It is reported that by December 2020, there were 233 million African users on Facebook. Early last year, nine of 20 countries with the fastest growing internet populations were African. Africans use internet mainly to stay in touch with family and friends, get news and information about politics, and get news about public and government services. These engagements account for an average of about sixty percent of internet activity.
 
The opportunity for social influence through social media is therefore huge in Africa. It can be tapped on home ground to build popular pride, and it can also be taken advantage of to drive the population into self-antagonism. Whichever of the two is to succeed though, the bottom line is that the African can no longer be directly influenced through media against own will. They must be accomplice in the scheme for it to work. Unlike previous generations, today there is every chance to collaborate news and stories dispensed from foreign media houses about Africa through our enhanced social interaction. 

The African does not own major social media platforms of course, and as such there can still be distant influence about what stories are allowed to stay alive on these platforms. This level of influence is however inherently smaller than it used to be in the days when only mainstream media ruled, unless the African cedes their will to the said influence by ignoring the stories being told from home. 
Raymond is a Chartered Risk Analyst and risk management consultant
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