1994 Volume 8 No. 1 From Revolutionary to Regime Radio: Three Decades of Nationalist Broadcasting in Southern Africa Nigerian Mass Media Handling of Conflict Situations in the West African Sub-Region Covering the Environment in the Ghanaian Media Journalist Responses to Ethnic Tensions: A Study of the Press in Kenya Copyright © 1994 by the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE), Nairobi, Kenya, ISSN 0258-4913 Africa Media Review provides a forum for the study of communication theory, practice and policy in African countries. It is published three times a year by the ACCE Institute for Communication Development and Research, P. O. Box 47495, Nairobi, Kenya. Telephone: 227043/216135/215270/334244 ext. 2068 Telex: 25148 ACCE KE. Correspondence and Advertising Authors should send contributions to the Managing Editor, ACCE Institute ibr Communication Develpment and Research, P. O. Box 47495, Nairobi, Kenya. Books for review, book review articles and all other matters regarding AMR should be sent to the same address. Subscription Rates One Year Two Years Three Years Africa US$ 39:00 US$ 69:00 US$ 99:00 Outside Africa US$ 48:00 US$ 90:00 US$ 132:00 These rates include packing and postage. Single copies are US$ 13:00 within Africa and US$ 16:00 outside Africa. Cheques or money orders should be made payable to African Council for Communication Education and sent to the above address. Special arrangements will be entered into where applicable for subscribers in Africa through their nearest ACCE national co-ordinator. ACCE institutional and individual members receive AMR as part of membership privileges. Managing Editor Editorial Assistant Circulation ACCE President Dr. Charles Okigbo, African Council for Communication Education Nairobi, Kenya. Angelina Mwashumbe, African Council for Communication Education, Nairobi, Kenya. Rahab Gatura, African Council for Communication Education, Nairobi Kenya. Dr. Francis Wete, University of Yaounde, Cameroon. i Comments on the Contents of this Issue In this issue of AMR there are six articles dealing with the general theme of media in a political environment and their responsibility to society. In the first article, Lebona Mosia, Charles Riddle and Jim Zaffiro examine the dynamics of four anti-Apartheid radio stations in Africa which reveal the social and political transformation of the respective societies in which they operate. David O. Edeani did a content analysis of three Nigerian dailies and three weekly magazines in view of their respective coverage of conflict between and within nations of the West African sub-region. He examined news stories, editorials and commentaries and found that generally they gave appropriate emphases to conflict stories and displayed balance, constructiveness and responsibility. In Ghana, Kojo Yankah examined the coverage of environmental issues in the Ghanaian press. He found that though there is general concern with environmental hazards, there is little grasp of their relative importance. Perhaps this is due to reporters who have neither special interest nor special skills in environmental reporting. With the current transition programmes of African nations, there is an emphasis on press responsibility and public opinion and their relevance within the current socio-political and economic frameworks. Noma Owens-Ibie stresses the role of a democratized press with less government presence in management and output and which will act as society's watchdog. Jubril Mohammed writes on the proposed privatisation of the Nigerian broadcast media. This article looks at the historial, political and economic background of privatisation, identifies crucial issues and recommends policy options for resolution of the issues. The final article is a philosophical review by Kevin Heydenrych (reprinted from Critical Arts: A Journal for Cultural Studies) of three articles which cast new insight on the process of political communication and conclude that the present system can do nothing more than entrench the prevailing order. It distorts, misleads and mythologizes concepts and processes resulting in self-deception. Table of Contents 1 From Revolutionary to Regime Radio: Three Decades of Nationalist Broadcasting in Southern Africa by Lebona Mosia, Charles Riddle and Jim Zaffiro 25 Nigerian Mass Media Handling of Conflict Situations in the West African Sub-Region by David O. Edeani 47 Covering the Environment in the Ghanaian Media by Kojo Yankah 57 Journalist Responses to Ethnic Tensions: A Study of the Press in Kenya by D. T. Zaring 69 Press Responsibility and Public Opinion in Political Transition by Noma Owens-Ibie 81 Democratization and the Challenge of Private Broadcasting in Nigeria by Jubril Bala Mohammed 97 A Systems Model for Political Communication: A Case Study in Academic Mythmaking by Kevin Heydenrych iii