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Hegemony and Neo-Liberalism: Democracy and Media Freedom

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Book cover Media Reforms and Democratization in Emerging Democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa

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Abstract

Continuing from the previous chapter, this chapter provides the theoretical foundation underpinning the book. It interrogates the normative ideas of democracy and media freedom as conceptualized and universalized by the West. Borrowing from Ake, Ottite, Nyerere and Nyamnjoh amongst others, the Western ideas of democracy and freedom as postulated by John Stuart Mill and Alexander Meiklejohn are critiqued. The chapter argues that the attempts of emerging democracies to transplant policies from the West leads to dependency, hence promoting neo-liberalism, as the inherent socio-cultural, economic and political realities of these countries are not recognized in the process. Therefore, the chapter concludes by arguing that media reforms and democratized communication can only become a reality in emerging democracies if there is active citizen participation at the communal level. This communal participation is pivotal to the democratic sustenance and media reforms of democratic African states.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the Qatar-Gulf crisis of 2017, Gulf states such as UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt demanded that Qatar news channel Al Jazeera be shut down as part of the conditions to restore relationships with Qatar.

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  1. Department of Media Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Ufuoma Akpojivi

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Akpojivi, U. (2018). Hegemony and Neo-Liberalism: Democracy and Media Freedom. In: Media Reforms and Democratization in Emerging Democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75301-0_2

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