Sixth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Like many other countries in free societies, most democratic countries in Sub-Saharan Africa countries are facing challenges of trust in news media for political information, particularly with the emergence of the non-mainstream media. Previous research revealed that alternative news media trust is correlated with lower levels of trust in news in Africa and that the presence of private media failed to equate to alternative sources to government media. This paper seeks to investigate reasons for the increase in distrust in news media among the mainstream and non-mainstream media in Sub-Saharan Africa, and which is the main source for political information in the region. The paper is structured by exploring the history of trust in news media and its connection with the emergence of media pluralism in Sub-Saharan Africa, how it led to the rise of online misinformation and disinformation, and to enquire which of the media is the choice for political information especially among the emerging news media platforms. To what extent can they be used to combat the issue of misinformation in Subsaharan Africa is also considered.