News “Media Capture”, Relations of Patronage and Clientelist Practices in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Interpretive Qualitative Analysis

This essay is an interpretive qualitative analysis of secondary data that explores and/or highlights the intricacies of ‘media capture’, relations of patronage and clientelist media practices in sub-Saharan Africa. It adopts an exploratory approach that delineates the contours and patterns of debates around these intricately connected phenomena by identifying salient examples in the region, and their implications to the role of the media in struggles for democratisation. Our analysis points to a typology of interconnected driving forces of media capture which coalesce around legal and administrative regulation; financial and economic enticements, and lastly, the dynamics of media ownership. These driving forces collectively broaden our understanding of the social practice as well as the role of the media in processes of democratization in sub-Saharan Africa. The study further establishes that while there are marked differences and nuances which have significant implications on the operations of the news media in the region, there are several shared professional practices, values, and attitudes, that are qualitatively generalisable across sub-Saharan Africa.