People, Not Algorithms, Are Restructuring The Media Economy

For years, African media houses trailed Western media platforms in terms of sustainability, technological innovation and access to new audiences for their traditional news websites.

Like those around the world, Africa chased Google like it was the last bus out of town. Headlines were tweaked for search, stories were stretched for keywords, and newsrooms became quietly dependent on a system they did not control and barely understood.

That era is ending as search is no longer king. Discovery has taken over and today, it belongs to creators.

African media platforms are uniquely well positioned to take advantage of this evolution as the continent has the highest population growth rate in the world, boasting a yearly change of approximately 2.29% as against Europe which is experiencing a negative growth rate of around -0.09% and relatively declining global wealth share.

With the continent’s improved digital media technology penetration, there is direct access to digital natives, the ability to work at low costs with digital technology, and the opportunity to earn appreciably while telling authentic stories.

Across Accra, Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg, a new class of storytellers is rising, but not from newsrooms. They are not waiting for editorial meetings or morning budgets. They are rising from bedrooms, street corners, and community centres. They are posting, streaming, reacting, explaining, and, most importantly, connecting.

Demand for news is evolving

This shift is not just technological. It is cultural and the data makes it very clear. According to the March 2026 report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism on Understanding Young News Audiences at a Time of Rapid Change, young people between age 18 and 24 are no longer online-first, they are social-first. A decade ago, their primary gateway to news was websites and publisher apps. Today, it is social media. At Global South World, we’ve seen this firsthand where our social audiences are hundreds of times bigger than our website audiences.

Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have overtaken Facebook as the dominant spaces for news consumption among young audiences. In the report, 51% of young people say they pay more attention to individual news creators, compared to 39% who prioritise traditional news brands, as authority has shifted from institutions to individuals.

And it goes deeper as only 64% of young people consume news daily, compared to 87% of those over 55. Just 35% say they are highly interested in news, far below older audiences. Many are not rejecting information, they are rejecting how it is presented. They find it depressing, irrelevant, or difficult to understand. So they scroll past it or they wait for someone they trust to explain it better. The experience of Global South World reflects this evolution. Following our launch in 2023, our initial model was based around traditional web publishing. Without a rising tide of Google traffic, this strategy simply wasn’t resonating with our audiences, so we pivoted to a short video approach focused on human faces.

The creator economy’s real power is not just producing content, but translating complexity into clarity – often requiring a tight focus on a single angle. A 60-second video breaking down one aspect from a national budget will outperform a 1,200-word article tackling the entire announcement. Not because it is necessarily better journalism, but because it is better communication. The content business is about creation + distribution. Once upon a time, journalists had a monopoly on the matter, but no more.

Format preferences are undoubtedly shifting. Young audiences increasingly prefer to watch or listen rather than read. They are consuming more podcasts, more short-form video, more explainers. News is becoming audiovisual, conversational, and personalised.

At the same time, they are more comfortable with emerging technologies. Around 15% of young people now use AI tools weekly to access or understand news, compared to just 3% of older audiences. They are not intimidated by complexity but are simply choosing tools that simplify it.

AI tools are powerful in production and delivery of news but pose risks for publishers in terms of trust and connection. At Global South World, different AI models support journalists with research and sometimes drafting. But technology cannot replace humans. On Qonversations, one of Impactum Group’s digital news platforms, we have extensively experimented with a wider use of AI presenters, graphics and imagery and found that our audiences are cautious about engaging without a visible human presence.

Rising to the challenge

All this is not to say, that technologies and accompanying behavioural changes are not creating challenges for society. When young people encounter news through algorithms and influencers, depth is often lost and context is diluted. Important stories compete with entertainment, and too often, entertainment wins. This is where the responsibility and opportunity for African media becomes urgent.

At Global South World, this reality has informed the development of the Global South Voices to bridge this emerging information gap created by evolving media consumption habits. In our network, we have news content creators like Ebenezer Wormadey from Ghana who runs Devlin’s Report on TikTok and Instagram. His brand is distinctive with his instantly recognisable shirt and fast-paced delivery. He takes the audience through stories, sometimes circling around a point to ensure they follow, and using language they can relate to.

We also have creators like Hikma Temam and Bassant Hesham, from Ethiopia and Egypt, respectively, who appeal to female audiences who don’t see many people like themselves on traditional television. They explain topics without a studio or extravagant graphics but through conversational and relatable messaging.

The goal is simple, but critical. Ensure that as formats change and platforms evolve, the voices, realities, and complexities of the Global South are not lost in translation, because the danger is not just that young people are consuming less news. It is that they may be consuming incomplete news or worse, disconnected narratives that do not reflect their lived realities.

The initiative recognises that the future of information in Africa will not be secured by choosing between traditional media and creators. It will be built by connecting them. Traditional media in Africa was built on authority and the power to decide what matters. Creators operate on relatability and the ability to make it matter to people.

The future demands both.

African newsrooms must accept the hard truth that distribution is no longer guaranteed. Owning a website is not the same as owning attention. If audiences are not coming to you, you must go to them and in formats they understand and spaces they already occupy.

A mindset for a modern era

Beyond distribution, there must be a deeper shift in mindset. African media managers must rethink talent. Not just hiring reporters, but storytellers. Not just editors, but explainers. Not just anchors, but personalities who can build trust over time because trust itself is evolving.

While young people’s trust in news is only about nine percentage points lower than older audiences, their expectations are different. Many still value impartiality, but 32% believe neutrality does not always make sense on issues like climate change or racism. They want clarity, not just balance. They want relevance and want to see themselves in the story.

They want to hear it from someone who feels like them. This is why the rise of creators is not a threat to journalism. It is a correction. A reminder that storytelling has always been about connection, and connection cannot be automated, optimised, or outsourced to algorithms. It must be earned.

The smartest media organisations will not seek to compete with creators. They will collaborate with them. They will build hybrid ecosystems where credibility meets creativity, where depth meets accessibility, and where stories travel across formats without losing their meaning.

This is an opportunity for Africa to leapfrog and build media systems that are more inclusive, more participatory, and more reflective of the people they serve.

Ismail Akwei is a journalist, digital media specialist and media literacy advocate with vast experience working with international media brands. He is the founding editor of Global South World, a news portal amplifying perspectives from the Global South to shed light on the region’s dynamic changes and emerging trends.