Global Media News

Kenyan rapper calls for others to "Keep it Real"

An article from Nigerian Entertainment Today features Kenyan rapper Mwafeeka Mwaf taking to social media to express his discontent with the lyrics of another well known African rapper, Ice Prince. In a song titled 'N Word', Ice makes it a point to rap about his lavish lifestyle which includes driving Bugatti cars.

Mwaf's post on Facebook instructed Ice to stop copying the styles and themes of Western rappers like Jay Z and Lil Wayne, who due to their success and fame  can actually afford Buggatis. The reason for Mwaf's anger being that Hip Hop should be a means of expressing oneself through song, not who one would like to be. He believes Ice Prince's lyrics do not accurately represent Africans. 

Western consumers of Hip Hop are now more used to the mainstream commercialized brand of the genre which depicts rappers as having wealth and fame. The origins of Hip Hop seem to be quite the opposite, using beats and rhyme to illustrate financial and socioeconomic strife. According to Mwaf, these roots of Hip Hop should maintain the same cultural integrity in Africa's musical entertainment industry.

Microsoft Gives Ghana Media Outreach for a Chance at Global Service Networking

The company Microsoft was founded in 1975 and is the top worldwide leader in software, services, devices and suggesting solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential to work with media networking.


In particular, Microsoft has been developing programs to help the development of countries that do not have the abitlity to reach outside of their networking services. For example, Microsoft’s program, 4Afrika Initiative was created to build Africa’s developing networking services, international communication and media. The programs goal is to build an internal communication within Africa and this program has grown since its first appearance in 1992 working with South Africa.

Recently Microsoft has been reaching out to the citizens of Ghana to help improve their services of internet, television, and cellular devices to connect with the other countries of Africa. Recently the citizens of Ghana were able to receive their first televised commercials through the help of Microsoft’s program 4Afrika Initiative and their service networking partnership. According to the Ghanaian Times, a state-owned daily press, this networking system has been allowing students and businesses to purchase affordable high speed internet bundles and devices that would help them connect to the global media (TV, internet, social media, and broadcasting) on a global spectrum. Not to say that Ghana hasn't been exposed to any sources of media within the country, but since the 4Afrika Initiative program citizens have been able to connect and grow outside of their homes bases. In Ghana there are a few sources of press (private, state-owned, and weekly), television broadcasting, and radio stations that its citizens have access to connect to. Moreover, by 2012 17% of Ghanaians were using the internet, but the internet services did not allow people to connect to the World Wide Web (www.)

Google Nigeria advises media on modern data tools

Major Conglomerate Google headquarters in Nigeria encouraged media experts on the use of modern data tools for effective reportage. 

Google’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Anglophone, West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade,  made the appeal at the Google Data Tools for Elections Reporting Workshop held in Lagos.

    Ogunlade , noted that there were various useful tools such as Google Advance Search, Google Trends, Social Media Streams, Google Alert and Tabula which could be used in sourcing data.

 

     Mr. Ogunlade has said that the data tools would get pictures of what is happening at particular time and places and get it to the public's attention. Nigeria is a incredible country and just like many other countries it has a high censorship but that shouldn't stop the public of Nigeria from receiving news that could help the country.

    To give a little background of Mr. Ogunlade, he is a communications & public affairs manager at Google and got his degree in Public Relations and Communications from Lagos State University in Lagos, Nigeria.

    

 

Internet Censorship in Morocco

   The Kingdom of Morocco is located in the Western Sahara right below spain. BBC's Morocco Country Profile states it has a population of 32.6 million. 

 The Internet was first introduced in Morocco in 1996. Due to the high cost of computers and poor infrastructure very few people had access to the internet. According to OpenNet as few as 3.4 percent of the population had a computer, 2,000 Moroccan schools had ICT, and only 10% of companies engaged in e-commerce. The International Telecommunication Union surveys indicated that Internet usage in the region as a whole had remained low due to low incomes, high costs of equipment, and a lack of interesting content. 

According to BBC, there were 16.5 million internet users by June 2012. With the rise of Internet use in the country, it brought with it censorship. 

"The Press Law provides for prison terms. The editor of Al-Massae daily was jailed for one year in 2011 for stories he had written about corruption and the activities of the security services. Media watchdogs said the move was a step backwards for press freedom."

It is known by journalists and reporters in Morocco to not to criticize religion, the king and the country can not be questioned. If they do not behave within these lines the there is legal action that takes place and in some instances, physical attacks.

According to FreedomHouse, 

" Self-censorship is widespread, and journalists tend to stay within unofficial red lines to avoid heavy fines, prison sentences, or extralegal intimidation and physical violence in retribution for their stories."

Also, with the press, television, and radio stations mostly being privately owned it is hard to get truthful news in Morocco.

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