African languages versus digital media and communication.

                    A review by Bayo Ogunmupe

African Language Digital Media and Communication is the title of this book. It is  edited by Professor Abiodun Salawu of the Department of Journalism, Communication and Media Studies and the Director of Research of Indigenous Language Media in Africa at the North West University, South Africa. The book is a research project of the Routledge Group on the impact of the new digital technology on African media in the colonial languages of English, French and Portuguese. The text analyses African language media with online presence. It focuses on the speed, structure, content, interactivity, operations and performance, and audience of the online media.

    The 19 contributing academic researchers attended to how social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp have been appropriated by African language media. Using a wide range of case studies, the contributors assess the challenges of adopting digital technologies by the media and how the technologies have impacted on media operations and journalistic practice. In examining the ability of the African press to adopt the new technologies, this book should be of interest to media scholars, practising journalists, communication experts, social media and cultural enthusiasts in Africa.

    African Language Versus Digital Media and Communication is hard backed with 244 pages and has four sections, 12 chapters, an introduction from the editor and eight pages of index. Published by the Routledge Group and printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Limited, Padstow, Cornwall, the book aims to discourage the neglect of African languages and media because of the emergence of the digital sphere and the new technologies. Media practitioners regard online (digital) media as the third revolution following radio and television, which came after print media. The current fourth revolution by the mobile technology is the same as digital media technology because mobile technology is intertwined with digital media.

    Therefore, we will regard digital media as the current pervasive phenomenon which could kill many African languages and culture if nothing is done to help Africans adapt to them. And the internet, the global system of mobile communication network is intertwined with digital media. Through its applications as the world wide web, electronic mail and file sharing, the internet has reshaped, redefined  and even bypassed such traditional media as telephony, radio, television and newspapers. This has given rise to new services like email, internet telephony, digital broadcasting, blogs and video streaming websites.

    This first section contains one chapter only. It is concerned with "Access, skills, perspectives and Development in Africa." It deals with digital media, revitalisation and the sustainability of African languages. Dr Grant McNulty, a research fellow at the Public Culture Research Initiative of the University of Cape Town contributed this section to the book. Section B, containing five chapters, is about: Audience, the African language, mass media and their adaptation to the digital sphere. Spearheaded by the editor, Professor Salawu who contributed chapter 2, the first of its five chapters.

    Salawu explored the ability of the press of the African language to adopt digital technologies and the extent to which they are able to do so. He is interested in knowing how many African language newspapers are online in terms of speed, structure, content, navigation and interactivity; the extent to which such newspapers appropriate social media like Twitter and Facebook. he is also concerned about how the editors of such newspapers assess the challenges of digital technologies and their impact on their operations and journalism practice.

    Josephine Alexander writes on Okun Radio Online in chapter 3. Okun Radio Online is a 24/7 free internet radio transmission. She explores the content of the programmes and events transmitted on the radio  with the objective of determining the thematic features, the use of the Okun dialect or its usage with Yoruba, Pidgin and English.  It was also to explore the degree to which the radio station appropriates other social media in its operations. Chapter 4 of the same section examines the adaptation of new media platforms that serve a marginalized ethnic minority group in Nigeria, the Urhobo tribe. There, Dr Ufuoma Akpojivi of the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Witwaterstrand, South Africa examines the extent to which the adaptation of social media and online presence by Urhobo Today newspaper has helped to reach out to the public and encouraged participation with media content.

    The key questions that the chapter seeks to answer are: How do online readers use local languages in their deliberations with fellow readers? Are local languages considered more effective in conveying certain messages than others? Section C focuses on African languages in social media. The section has the chapters 7, 8 and 9. The contributors of the "Use of indigenous languages for social media communication: the Nigerian experience," use the new technology and the technological determinism theory among others to examine the presence and usage of indigenous languages for new media communication. They also examine the prospects and challenges that the new technology pose for the sustenance of the Nigerian local cultures and traditions.

    Phillip Mpofu elucidates this further in chapter 8 where he interrogates the voices of marginalized language speakers on social media platforms of Facebook and WhatsApp. Also, he explores how the incessant influence of social media supported by the new technologies bestow the subaltern language speakers confidence to speak against the marginalization of the speakers of the vernacular. Mpofu's argument is that social media give space to the marginalized vernacular and dialect speakers  by giving them opportunities to speak back to power. he analyses how social media have created linguistic cyber groups in Zimbabwe for people to communicate with others displaced in time and space.

    "Digital chieftaincy: social media, register and community policing in Kenya" is the title of chapter 9. There, the contributors reveal how certain registers constitute the online interaction between chiefs and villagers in the Central Rift Region of Kenya. Based on data obtained, the researchers argue that the use of Twitter in the vernacular has revived the age-old baraza: a precolonial communion held for the purpose of interaction between the ruled and the rulers in Kenya. In addition, the authors argue that social media have expanded both the spatial and the temporal aspects of the baraza; making it helpful in community policing.

    Finally in section D, titled: "Contents, challenges and prospects of online African language media,"authors Toyosi Owolabi, Ayo Yusuff, Olutola Osunnuga and Pascal Kishindo in three chapters examine the prospects for the establishment of the online media in the vernacular. In new technologies, indigenous language media practice and management for development in Nigeria, Owolabi considers the impact of the new media technologies on indigenous language media practice and how it could accelerate the development process. He advocates the urgent need for the establishment of a true community media that can cater for the development information needs of the nation state.

    In chapter 11, Yusuff and Osunnuga discuss the challenges that Yoruba newspapers face in their bid to adopt information technology. These challenges include training, funding, patronage and profitability. The challenges are compounded by the fact the majority of young people cannot read the vernacular. The authors suggest various solutions to these problems which poor government policy exacerbate. The authors call for concerted efforts to integrate and make use of all available digital platforms to widen the online presence of Yoruba newspapers. For the challenges of African language online journalism in Malawi, Professor Kishindo seeks to establish an online African language mass media in Malawi.

    For the pleasure of the reader the editor provides notes and references for each of the four sections of the book. I found the book easy to read and comprehend. I commend it onto your kind care and perusal. It is a necessary reading for anyone who does not want his mother tongue to go extinct.