"Africa's Evolving Infosystems" and the Institutional Challenge
U.S. Africa Command hosted a talk yesterday on "Africa's Evolving Infosystems", based on the speaker's research paper of the same name (which should be available here soon, and is attached below). Steven Livingston, of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs and Elliott School of International Affairs, addressed some of the tensions that exist between legacy media establishments and the potentials of new media markets in Africa, the shortcomings of traditional Western media, and the nature of emerging capabilities across the continent. Of particular interest were discussions of new organizational forms that have emerged alongside technological advances and the challenges these present to established (and often over-centralized) institutions of governance. These are topics toward which our team has directed considerable attention (here, here, here), so it is encouraging to encounter similar observations.
Regarding legacy media in Africa, Livingston referred to the Freedom House press freedom statistics, which are less than reassuring; in particular, the trend is toward more press restrictions in recent years. Further, the high transaction costs associated with traditional media outlets, combined with systemic governance failures in terms of access and transparency, continue to undermine the potential of mass media. The piecemeal attention given to African matters by Western press outlets was also presented as a matter of concern. Thus, sustained engagement does not equate with coverage only focused on natural and human crises and coups.
In contrast, the exponential growth in mobile technology (phones, GIS, GPS, etc.) was presented as an emerging challenge to traditional outlets and central institutions. Livingston noted that the assumptions surrounding centralized institution building depend, by and large, on the presupposition that a) information is scarce and b) services must be provided to a randomly distributed, "bell curve"-style, population. The nature of information and communications technology, as well as that of hyper-niched societies (to include those of urban and rural Africa), are better described by the exponential "long tail" curve, which should be familiar to the present reader. In a world of several billions, information scarcity is no longer an appropriate paradigm, and new organizational forms will emerge to address local and specific needs. As a result, technological initiatives that are taking root tend to have African origins as well, including the Ushahidi platform, local innovation centers, and large-scale investments.
For policy makers, major issues must be addressed about the governmental capacity to directly shape, control, or encourage the growth of new means of communication...and this is particularly the case when new modes of social organization do not conform with established institutions, or when civil society endeavors outpace the governmental capacity for regulation. Such challenges, of course, are not just matters of concern for developing nations, as evidenced by the proliferation of information and mirror servers during the present Wikileaks episode.
When controlling the (largely decentralized) tools of the information age ceases to be a viable option, it seems that policy responses must first find the means to acknowledge the socio-political implications of sustainable and non-hierarchical modes of organizing. While the "long tail" model is not prescriptive or deterministic about the emergence of new institutional forms, it does imply the potential for addressing local niche needs within networked information environments that is not possible in traditional organizations. Too much emphasis on centralization may in fact exacerbate the divisions between the "head" and the long tail, and so appropriate policy responses will depend upon more than just "getting ahead" of this particular curve.
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