Public Service Broadcasting in Transition: The Rise of Digital Non-State Public Service Media in Southern Africa

From its inception, public service broadcasting (PSB) in Southern Africa has been beset by challenges posed by a colonial heritage, partisan and state imposed editorial policies and compromised financial viability. In postcolonial Southern Africa, public service broadcasting was naturally assumed to be the responsibility of state broadcasters. Given that broadcasting in Africa was introduced and owned by colonial governments, it advanced the racialised, imperial and capitalist interests of the colonial enterprise. Consequently, PSB fell short of the public service ideals of being an inclusive, egalitarian and robust portion of the public sphere. Upon political independence, these state broadcasters underwent a cosmetic change that did not go beyond renaming them to reflect the nationalist ethos of the newly independent states. The chapter uses cases drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe andBotswana to explore how these various online initiatives in Southern Africa act as quasi-public broadcasters by capitalising on the everyday affordances of digital media.