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The term "African Journalism" perhaps does prevent us from exploring and understanding the diversity of Africa as a continent. It somehow implies that there is a type of journalism exclusive to Africa,which as we all know is not the case. It also seems to stigmatize journalists. Africa is a large continent rich in cultural diversity. There are many different countries and journalism is practiced at different levels. There are also a lot of journalists from other parts of the globe working in different parts of Africa so whatever issues affecting journalism in Africa are not confined to journalists of African heritage.
However what seems clear and indisputable is that in many African countries the practice of journalism is in a difficult place culturally and traditionally. Many journalists working in African countries do the best they can to educate,entertain and inform us of the issues confronting Africa today. It appears however for whatever reason many of the rules and regulations governing the practice of journalism are outdated or designed to serve the interest of governments and not the people. This somehow makes difficult for many journalists to be objective or critical in their work. This does dilute any hard work that they put into it, What we need to remember however is that with rapid developments in technology supported by the emergence of the World Wide Web journalists are not working in isolation anymore. Journalists are part of the global family in which information is rapidly flowing. Issues affecting African countries can no longer be swept under the carpet. Government practices are under scrutiny/7. Journalist have a wider audience to pitch to in a much easier and quicker way. Therefore it is my belief that journalism practice in many African countries will go from strength to strength.
