CHAPTER 6: ANALYSING THE RECOMMENDATIONS 6.2 Emerging issues in the recommendations There is also a visible pattern in emergent issues affecting the media across subSaharan Africa. Key among these are those related to media sustainability, the safety of journalists, sluggish development of ICT policies, fake news, misinformation and disinformation, and the lack of convergent regulations. These challenges are fostered by the media’s changing operational environment, which has become decidedly digital, and the impact of crisis conditions on revenue generation. Given the rapid changes in the industry, adaptive policy-making is proving difficult and slow for most African countries, hence the persistence of these emerging challenges. Ultimately, one could argue that the continuous transformations in the socio-political and technological contexts shaping news media operations preclude any possibility of a permanent solution to both recurrent and emerging challenges. However, they do suggest the need for continuous struggle in pursuing the democratisation of both media entities and the broader social environment in which they operate. 48 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER 11 YEARS IN REVIEW