China and Africa Media Policy

PCMLP has been awarded a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to examine China’s media assistance to Africa.

Media assistance, either through direct financial assistance, the training of journalists or regulators, legal aid or technical support, has been a common way governments try to extend influence within a country and support a particular political process. Our network of scholars seeks to develop new methods and strategies to study and understand these new scenarios as well as to propose ways in which different approaches can coexist rather than compete in the continent.

In June 2010 PCMLP hosted researchers from China, Africa and Europe to reflect on China’s increasing influence on the media in Africa and on the implications this has for traditional approaches to media assistance and media development on the continent and beyond.  See the Workshop Programme.  The report from the workshop, China in Africa: A New Approach to Media Development, has been published.

In August 2010 PCMLP convened a panel at the Africa Media and Democracy Conference in Accra, Ghana. 

We have also established a China-Africa Media network.