When a magazine publishes a top 10 list it’s a given that some readers will get annoyed. Some may even express their annoyance in a letter. But readers understand, for the most part, that a list is not a watertight scientific exercise. A magazine can use all the research houses and focus groups it wants, the results are about as conclusive and binding as next season’s fashion.
So we’ll justify our list as best we can, fully acknowledging your right to get annoyed.
Most important, we made the call that The Media‘s list of Africa’s top 10 media moguls would be about general influence. We took the cue from the media section of the UK’s Guardian newspaper, which once a year publishes a ranking of Britain’s top 100 media chiefs after careful consideration of the candidates’ cultural, economic and political clout. Our list includes a fourth criterion: a candidate must either wield some of this clout across two or more African countries, or all of it in one.
It was felt that had we stuck strictly to the economic – turnover, market capitalization, profits – not only would the list have been a distorted reflection of the unique nature of media, it would have been indefensibly skewed towards South Africa and Nigeria. As it is we have three South Africans and two Nigerians, but we’re well satisfied that all the above requirements were met by these gentlemen.
Then there’s the question of the emphasis on the Aga Khan. Is he our number one? The answer is a qualified ‘yes’. We haven’t placed numbers next to any of the names, but we’ve given the Aga Khan extra space and the cover shot as we feel his (positive) cultural, political and economic influence across a number of African countries is more significant than the others’.
That’s the list. Here are some other pieces that could annoy: ‘Rotten Eggheads”, looking at the media’s deplorable shaming of an innocent judge; ‘Iwisa and Cellphones”, discussing why TV is selling youth culture down the river; ‘Readership Ruse”, which is Harry Herber’s issue with AMPS; ‘Funnier than Thou,” which will probably annoy staff of US news networks, and Republicans, more than most ; ‘Everything is Beautiful”, which will annoy ‘cos its Bullard.
As always, we encourage letters that reflect a contrary view.