Homepage
The African Star 2006
Introduction:
Cameroon, a former French colony with a population of more than 15 million inhabitants, uses English and French as the two official languages. She is one of the most populated Central African Countries, surrounded by some other notable African countries such as Nigeria, Gabon, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and partly by the Atlantic Ocean. When we talk of the Mass media, Cameroon is a great Nation to be looked at. To talk about the Mass Media assessment in Cameroon, I will attempt to elaborate about the Media coverage commencing with a brief history of the media before and after independence, followed by the manner of approach from observations, some problems encountered by the media in Cameroon. The role of the public, cannot be role out, public opinion and comments will be looked at, some suggestions by the masses gearing towards criticisms or ameliorations will not be left or go untouched. In this light, this could show the efforts of the media as a whole so far in the growth Cameroon. Our historical heritage played a great role in our style of life as Cameroonians, below We will find out how this has affected our media enormously, from our aspects of the profession not forgetting the life of individuals too.
Historically, Cameroon being a French colony as earlier mentioned, just like other African francophone countries such as Senegal, Mali, Togo just to mention a few, copied the style of media coverage from their colonial master -France. Before independence we could find newspapers such as l’Echo du Cameroon, written by some scholar’s who had studied abroad by then and gained some knowledge about Journalism, but what they reported about was always in favour of their colonial masters, showing a good image of their colonial masters and trying to make the public felt that they where given the best from their masters, no newspaper or press could criticise them at that time. After Cameroon had its Independence fully in 1961, we saw the same pattern of media coverage, hence state monopoly just like during the colonial rule, even after 1985 when Cameroon had its first TV station, the state monopoly of the media was clearly visible. The media inherited the colonial tradition; talk of the Dressing of Journalist during TV Programs, Language used , Music, films, documentaries just to name a few. It was only after the wind of change during the political era in the 1990s, marked by a drastic change being ushered by the change towards democratization, leading to a freer society and expression of the media, which gave light to the emergence of the private media. Actually Cameroon counts up to 8 or more private newspapers, across the nation and about 4 Private TV stations. Private newspapers such as The Herald, Le Messager, Le front, Mutation, The Post, Popouli, The Cameroon Post and others, not forgetting the popular Cameroon Tribune own by the State; Well all these medium of information although, a long-time history in African has not really changed from its manner of coverage, the Western style still dominates be it Private or state, and has played a great role as informants to the Cameroonian masses.
To continue with, the Cameroon media has played a big role to serve as an informant to the public. The media tries to cover information from almost all sectors of our daily activities; sustainable development, educative programs, socioeconomic issues, entertainment, health programs, political, sports, cultural, religious, agricultural, urban and rural stories , advertisements to enlighten and create awareness to the public in one way or the other. To back it up with, the emergence of the private media increased enormously, public awareness and greater concern in societal issues, by covering events on referendum extensively, engaging public participation in events, live coverage of some events out of direct state interest, result analyses, invitation of experts and ordinary people for commentaries, they also influence the accountability of government elections, hence some sort of investigative Journalism nowadays. They challenge of government officials,”for example the recent reports on government officials and embezzlement of state funds”, creating the awareness to the public about corruption in the State, and make the public be a part of its eradication given the room for politicians to be accountable to the public. Although the media has gone a long way during this years it can not be said that there is complete freedom of the media in Cameroon.
To an extend, we do find that the State is resistant towards the media in Cameroon, it could be said that the media is partially free, reasons being that, there are still patches of government resistance towards the media, for example, the state media has the preference of being served first before any other private media sometimes during conferences or for private interviews which create obstacles so to say, for the private media to get enough information to air out to the public , hence you find poor story coverage, lack of concrete information were these hindrances prompts the private media to focus more on other preferences to satisfy the public. They try to be creative, by searching for public interested programs and go out there to know if the public is satisfied with what the give out through interviews and programs permitting public opinions and suggestions
However, after some short interviews to know what the public feels about the Cameroon media and possible comments, some observations where taken note of; in various level or classes in the Cameroon society, all medium of the media used worldwide is being exploited by Cameroonians today for the quest of various information the find important. Media such as newspapers, journals, magazines, TV, radio, and Internet; Each and everyone has sources of interest in their comments, some seek for events about sports, national news, foreign news, adverts , debates, films, music, religion, topics on continuous education, etc!!! Interviewing about 16 people at random, I found out the unsatisfactory remarks and comments from almost all of them. According to them, the Cameroon media lacks competence, they should expanciate in what they report, and the media gives items, background information, but lack analytical procedures and do not elaborate in what they wish to publish or make known to the public.
According to a Doctorate Student in International Law ,Ms NGA Essomba S;” Internet and the Television are the most widely used medium of the media today by diversified cultures, exposing educative reports, but as far as Cameroon and its media is concern, their fundamental messages are not given out concretely, they exploit time (being limited by time), they need to reorganise their programs, i.e. cover more on events than occupying time through adverts although its one of their sources of profit (private media)…” However the Cameroon media should not really be blamed for its short comings, because they face some problems trying to satisfy the public.
To a greater extend, the media in Cameroon should not really carry all the blames, because as a developing country there are some problems due to lack of development in other sectors of the Cameroon economy which also hinder or serve as an obstacles for Journalists to carry out wider researches in what they have to report. Apart from the State media, private media face financial constraints, resulting to poor transmissions network, lack of equipment, they can not satisfy a wider population and even the little area they cover, at times they can not meet up with the huge demand of the public, poor or shortage of trained staff in Stations, poor or lack of good roads to access some areas to get interesting information for the public, fear due to partial liberty etc... State scrutiny also deprive them for some events to be reported, which turn to limit their scope of interest hence making some reports to be one sided stories which they can not give account to, while some other parts of the country appear rarely on screens or are being mentioned in newspapers.
Secondly, some obstacles, the media face here is that, the Cameroon society do not have the reading culture, they are not inquisitive, Cameroonians do not find reading as a good source to gain knowledge or to be informed about what is happening around the nation and in different parts of the world, so events reported or not some times have little or no impact to a common Cameroonian, they don not really find the media as a focus of interest to the development of the Nation, according to public opinion, the media brings out what they have been hearing or reading about for so many years and had seen no changes, hence ,these turn to encourage Journalists to report on the few information they could lay hands on making them to be less creative. Some people carryout their daily activities without trying to find out what is new in the press or other media both the literate and the illiterate population. An interview with a motor Bike transporter had some similarities with that of a Secretary “I don’t care about events, I go about my daily routines, news or no news that means just nothing to me”. The question now is how can that be explained?
Finally, according to public opinion, the Cameroon media should be more creative, they should seek for much more exciting things to attract or grab a fresh the lost of interest or confidence in the media today. Journalists should focus more on what can be of interest to the masses, and should really be convinced with what ever they report about, to avoid contradictions at the long run by either the same media house or the other creating conflicts and lack of continuous trust by the public. Journalists should go on constant training programs, attend seminars to avoid some media houses employing non citizens in order to get a competent staff. With the partial liberty given to the media in Cameroon, they should not violate private individuals’ secrets or public secrets to make profits, any of such information should be useful to the common man in one way or the other and also to the development of our Country Cameroon. To end up with a common question is left open to anyone who will read this report, be it a Cameroonian or not.
Report written by;
MS. OBEN ELSIE
AVU journalism student, Douala,
April 10, 2006
