African language radio broadcasting and syndication

There is little formal literature on news syndication. Much of the existing commentary' is found in online opinion articles on blogs and Wikipedia (Halbrooks 2018; Furtado 2014; Prato 1992). Existing writings mainly foreground syndication as a revenue-boosting strategy in competitive media markets (Prato 1992; Furtado 2014). There are also some snippets of literature on the efficacy of syndication as a media content marketing strategy in the context of digital technologies, such as Web 2.0 (Clarke 2007), or lamentations of its potential to debase journalistic values (Edo et al. 2019). None of the available studies clearly focus on the ramifications of news syndication in local language radio broadcasting, particularly' in contexts where indigenous languages are historically marginalized.

Therein lies the focus of this chapter. In considering the ramifications of news syndication, the assumption is that syndication can either result in the erosion of indigenous language radio stations’ identity or in cultural hybridity emanating from the mixing of languages in a single news bulletin.

The term syndication has been used differently in different contexts. The English Oxford dictionary defines a ‘syndicate’ as an agency that supplies materials simultaneously to several newspapers, while the verb ‘to syndicate’ means ‘to publish or broadcast (material) simultaneously in a number of newspapers [or] television stations’ (Louw 2016). Rouse (2005) conceives of syndication as ‘the supply of material for reuse and integration with other material, often through a paid service subscription’. Meanwhile, Randall’s (1993) definition of syndication as ‘the selling of programs produced at one station or production house to other radio stations’ (26) is more relevant to the present study as it relates to radio broadcasting. At the core of these definitions is the commercial motive of syndication, what Prato (1992) refers to as ‘the syndication bonanza’ (1).

The concept of syndication has a long history; dating as far back as the 1800s when Moses Y. Beach, publisher of the New York Sun, covered the cost of paying a messenger, who brought a copy of President John Tyler’s annual message to New York from Washington, by selling extra copies of the news sheet that contained this message to several other newspapers (McDougall 1942). However, Samuel Clure is credited for setting up the first permanent syndicate in 1884 before the concept flourished and was adopted by news sendees, such as the Associated Press (AP), United Press (UP) and International News Sendee (McDougall 1942, 76). For a very' long time, before the technological explosion in the 1990s, syndication was associated with the newspaper publishing industry and newswire sendees, which provided ‘identical material to thousands of clients’ (McDougall 1942, 76). Randall (1993, 26) notes that in Australia, syndication dates to the 1930s when stations such as 2UE and 2GB started selling their news sendees through the distribution of tapes. It is instructive to note how the central tenets of syndication revolve around the circulation of identical newspaper content.

Over the years, the concept of syndication has evolved and now encompasses radio, television and web-based content made available to multiple platforms. Rouse (2005) notes that the most common forms of syndicated content are found in newspapers in which content, such as wire service news, comics, columns, horoscopes and crossword puzzles, is published in different newspapers at the same time. A newspaper or broadcast station may sign a contract with a syndicator who supplies them with different types of content that are deemed of interest to the purchasing company' (Halbrooks 2018). The syndicated content can either be published as it is or repurposed to fit the interests, desires and tastes of a particular station. Repurposing of syndicated content is a clear indication that each medium has its own unique focus and audience with equally unique cultural values.

Syndication takes different forms, such as affiliate syndicates, whereby content is produced by a parent company and aired in subsidiary' stations. In Australia, Austereo, one of the major radio networks, ‘produces syndicated programming for its own stations’ (Randall 1993, 26). Other syndicates employ a barter system in which the syndicator guarantees exposure in identified metropolitan and regional radio stations. The accruing advertising revenue is channelled directly to the syndicator, who provides the programme to the stations free of charge or for an amount equivalent to the cost of adverts used by the syndicated programme (Randall 1993, 26). Syndicated programmes are delivered to client stations with spaces in which the client stations insert their own station identities, advertisements, local news and weather. Thus, syndicated news may undergo ‘repurposing’ to conform with the unique identity of client stations, as well as their local or regional needs (Randall 1993).