Reform or Re-colonization? The Overhaul of African Television

The African television broadcasting sector is undergoing a rapid and long awaited process of liberalisation. This article examines key aspects of that process with geographic focus on sub‐Saharan Africa. Specifically addressed are what has recently changed, and more crucially, not changed, in the politically charged arena of television newscasting. Throughout the continent broadcasters, whether privately or publicly financed, are finding a wide variety of creative solutions to technological and economic challenges as they rush to cultivate an audience among the urban middle class. But the rapid shift from public to frequently foreign private ownership of television may be symptomatic of a broader re‐colonisation of Africa by US and European multinationals that has been euphemistically heralded as Africa's Renaissance.