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Energy technology 11(5), 2200770 (2023). doi:10.1002/ente.202200770 special issue: "Special Issue:Production of Lithium‐Ion Battery Electrodes and Cells / Issue Edited by: Arno Kwade, Laura Jess, Fabienne Huttner", Published by Wiley-VCH, Weinheim [u.a.]

In the last ten years local radio stations have mushroomed in many regions in Africa, as well in Tanzania. Many refer to them as community radio stations. They receive support from international donors, due to their potential to inform the local population about local issues, to broadcast their voices thus to create a democratic space to publicly debate relevant issues of local people. The paper is based on two empirical research projects on rural radio stations in Tanzania in 2014 and 2015; an exploratory case study on the status of rural radio and a structured content analysis of radio news and programmes of 14 stations. The empirical results will be assessed against a model of economic sustainability of radio stations tested earlier in Uganda. The paper shows that the lack of economic viability is major constraint for local radio stations. They cannot generate sufficient revenues from advertisers to sustain the station. This leads to high turn-over of staff due to low pay, results in low quality of content and lack of capacity to do serious programming, which in the end hinders the achievement of the radio stations’ objectives. It needs to be acknowledged that the challenges of local radio are interrelated, and so are the solutions. The paper will argue that the donor community has largely overlooked the need to invest in media sustainability of rural radio stations, as it has invested mainly in journalism capacity but hardly in media management capacity. The paper concludes that a viable economic model in Africa requires to simultaneously support three different fields, (a) the development of content jointly with (b) the development of media management capacities and (c) local media research covering the extent and satisfaction of the local audience in order to develop local advertising markets that serve local media.

Purpose: Soil fertility is decreasing in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. To mitigate this trend, various agricultural technologies are available, but their uptake by farmers has been low. Perception of the problem, information exposure, and knowledge play a major role in adoption of technologies. This study assessed empirically the levels of perception, knowledge and information exposure among African farmers as an indicator for potential adoption of soil fertility technologies. Design/Methodology/approach: The study used survey data of more than 2,400 small-scale farmers selected through random sampling from Ghana, Kenya, Mali and Zambia. The survey investigated socio-economic factors, exposure to media, perception and knowledge of soil fertility and other information. Findings: Many farmers did not perceive soil fertility as a major challenge, except in Mali; farmers were hardly receiving information on soil fertility from professional agricultural sources, and they often lacked accurate knowledge about soil fertility technologies. Radio was by far the most used information source for farmers. Practical implications: The study has exposed the need for interventions to increase awareness, information exposure, and knowledge about soil fertility among farmers to strengthen the adoption of soil fertility technologies. It also calls for innovative ways of strengthening extension services through links with radio. Theoretical implications: The role of communication in the uptake of agricultural innovations is still under-researched, and hence this study exposes the need to investigate in-depth knowledge, perception levels, and quality and frequency of information exposure on various channels of soil fertility management. Originality: This is one of the few studies empirically measuring perception, information frequency on various channels, and knowledge of soil fertility among small-scale farmers in African countries.

Journalists who regularly cover science, health, environment and technology in Africa and the Arab world face a number of difficulties: Lack of elementary resources for journalistic research, and newsroom environments that are not always supportive of specialised reporting. Also a need for capacity to cover science is often bemoaned as well as difficulties in interactions between journalists and scientists. The evaluation of the world's largest support initiative for science journalism in developing countries, the SjCOOP mentoring programme, shows that some of these problems can be mitigated through a variety of support programmes, especially ‘distance mentoring’. The article analyses ways of building capacity and offering general support with the help of ICTs. Organisational structures for specialised reporting in 40 newsrooms are compared. Cases of structural advancement and innovation for science journalism are discussed.

A new strategy for the biological transformation of sugar-containing wastewaters from the textile desizing process to biogas was developed. Here, industrial liquors were separated from the following washing step by squeezing the impregnated fabrics after desizing. These waters exhibit a chemical oxygen demand of 40 g/L and allow a direct use in microbial biogas reactors without further treatment or accumulation. After reaching balanced conditions, the microbes continuously produce biogas. Moreover, the chemical oxygen demand can be reduced up to 75%. This new technology seems to be practicable and even attractive for small- and medium-sized enterprises with an annual cotton production down to 2000 t. At this stage, a reliable eco-balance of the overall process is still pending. Further investigations will be carried out soon.

This article analyses 12 cases of investigative journalism in Sub-Saharan Africa. The reporters all claimed to have contributed to change processes by influencing government policy, action by state administration, supporting the uptake of scientific solutions or provoking public debate. An assessment of these processes shows that in 10 cases, the journalists indeed helped to trigger change and in two cases they failed to do so. The cases are evaluated through an explorative approach inspired by the dynamic models for communication on public issues developed by Rucht and Peters. Different types of investigative stories in Sub-Saharan Africa are identified and hypotheses are developed on key factors that were important in investigating and publishing the stories as well as in achieving change. A decisive element of investigative journalism in Sub-Saharan Africa seems to be the involvement of and the interaction with other societal non-journalist actors.

The enzymatic desizing of starch-sized cotton fabrics leads to wastewaters with an extremely high chemical oxygen demand due to its high sugar content. Nowadays, these liquors are still disposed without use, resulting in a questionable ecological pollution and high emission charges for cotton finishing manufacturers. In this paper, an innovative technology for the production of energy from textile wastewaters from cotton desizing was developed. Such desizing liquors were fermented by methane-producing microbes to biogas. For this purpose, a semi-industrial plant with a total volume of more than 500 L was developed and employed over a period of several weeks. The robust and trouble-free system produces high amounts of biogas accompanied by a significant reduction of the COD of more than 85%. With regard to growing standards and costs for wastewater treatment and disposal, the new process can be an attractive alternative for textile finishing enterprises in wastewater management, combining economic and ecological benefits. Moreover, the production of biogas from textile wastewaters can help to overcome the global energy gap within the next decades, especially with respect to the huge dimension of cotton pretreatment and, therefore, huge desizing activities worldwide.

There is a general consensus that media are an essential element of democracy if they fulfil particular quality requirements in their reporting. Abundant literature deals with media quality from a theoretical perspective, but empirical knowledge on journalistic practice with regard to its role in democratization is rare, and this is even more so in the case of African countries. First, this article seeks to assess the quality of radio in Liberia, which is the country’s most popular medium. Second, the article tests a specific methodology in order to measure the contribution of radio to democracy. It argues that radio stations in Liberia strongly differ in their quality, each with specific shortcomings. These findings are confirmed by interviews with civil society representatives and by audience research.