The full report can be read in PDF form here. Below is a brief introduction.

A pilot study conducted by CDT and Doublethink Lab examines “embedded propaganda” (EP) in African news media. Our study defines EP as the practice of republishing PRC state-media content under a local masthead. This practice is part of the PRC’s external propaganda localization strategy, often referred to as “borrowing a boat to get out to sea” (借船出海). We sought to track the extent of EP and whether or not it was properly attributed to its source. Focusing on text-based media outlets from Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana during the first 11 months of 2022, we made the following main findings:

• Our study found 1,203 EP articles across nine outlets in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana. The majority were published in Uganda’s The Independent (534) and Ghana’s News Ghana (602), and EP comprised a relatively low proportion of the outlets’ total articles.
• The content of EP articles varied in terms of geographical subject matter, topic, and framing. This included articles both related and unrelated to the PRC and the outlets’ home countries. Most EP news items did not contain a significant pro-PRC bias.
• The type and consistency of attribution varied among different media outlets. Only a very small number of EP articles (7) failed to properly attribute the PRC state-media source. This is not enough data to provide strong explanatory correlations, but it is more likely that editors were inconsistent or inattentive rather than intentionally deceptive in their choices of re-attribution.

The presence of EP articles is cause for concern, insofar as societies depend on citizens informed by transparent and independent media landscapes. As argued by Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies who focuses on China-Africa relations, “The embedding of CCP media in African media ecosystems risks distorting Africa’s information spaces—and therefore access to independent information shaping citizen debates on a host of issues ranging from governance, society, and the economy.” To the extent that EP permeates African media ecosystems, the narratives that emerge from local information spaces may increasingly resemble PRC narratives rather than genuinely African ones. After all, PRC state media, in contrast to Western news agencies, exists explicitly to serve official interests. It is therefore important to closely track the spread of this phenomenon in order to better understand how to foster resilient and healthy media environments.

The findings of our pilot study demonstrate how this methodology can be used for different types of evidence-based monitoring and analysis of EP that we hope can be replicated in future studies at a larger scale. The data has been published by Doublethink Lab and is publicly available on GitHub. The full report can be read here.