By Max Amuchie—
For decades, the success of African media institutions has been measured primarily by their capacity to report events, inform citizens, hold public officials accountable and shape public discourse. These remain indispensable functions of journalism. But can a media organisation do more? Can it also build infrastructure for empirical research, theoretical development and the preservation of knowledge?
At Sundiata Post, we believe it can.
The future of African media will depend not only on how effectively news organisations report the present but also on what they contribute to the world’s understanding of the forces shaping African societies. Journalism can identify important questions, generate insights and provide a foundation for systematic research. With the right institutional structures, some of the knowledge emerging from journalism can be developed, documented and preserved for future use.
This conviction informs a significant institutional development at Sundiata Post: the establishment of two dedicated scholarly repositories on international research platforms—the Sundiata Post Dataverse, hosted on Harvard Dataverse, and Sundiata Post Elements, a scholarly publishing community on Zenodo, hosted by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Maintained by the Sundiata Post Knowledge Lab (SPKL), the repositories provide complementary infrastructure for preserving research data and disseminating scholarly work. They extend Sundiata Post’s activities beyond news publishing into research documentation, conceptual development and knowledge dissemination.
This is the institutional ambition behind our guiding proposition: From News to Enduring Knowledge.
Beyond the News Cycle
News is time-sensitive, but the questions it raises often outlive the immediate event.
Why does insecurity persist despite repeated government interventions? How do armed groups establish control over territory? What happens when the formal authority of a state diverges from the realities experienced by its citizens? Why do institutions that appear functional on paper sometimes struggle to deliver protection, justice and public services?
These are not merely questions for the newsroom. They are also questions for empirical investigation, political analysis and public policy.
African media organisations encounter such questions every day. They document conflicts, investigate institutions, scrutinise official claims and observe social change. Yet the knowledge accumulated through years of reporting is not always systematically organised into datasets, analytical frameworks and scholarly outputs that remain accessible beyond the lifespan of individual stories.
This presents an opportunity. What if recurring patterns in journalism could generate research questions, lead to systematic investigation and eventually produce analytical frameworks that other scholars could examine, challenge and improve?
The objective is not to turn every newsroom into a university or every journalist into an academic researcher. Journalism and academic research have distinct purposes and standards. Rather, the opportunity lies in building bridges between them—allowing journalism’s observations to inform research and research to deepen public understanding.
Sundiata Post is developing one model for doing so.
Two Repositories, Complementary Functions
Research data and scholarly publications are related, but they serve different purposes. One preserves the evidence that supports investigation; the other communicates the ideas, methods and findings developed through intellectual work. Our two repositories reflect this distinction.
Sundiata Post Dataverse: Preserving Research Evidence
The Sundiata Post Dataverse is available on Harvard Dataverse: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/sundiata-post
Harvard Dataverse is a research data repository developed at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS). It provides infrastructure for depositing, documenting, citing and sharing research data.
The Sundiata Post Dataverse is intended to preserve datasets, empirical materials, indicators, methodologies and technical documentation relating to governance, insecurity, state capacity, territorial control and sovereignty in Africa and the wider Global South.
The importance of this function goes beyond storage. Properly documented research materials can help other investigators understand how an argument was developed, assess its limitations, undertake further analysis and formulate new questions. Preserving methodology alongside data also makes research easier to scrutinise and build upon.
In fields where evidence is fragmented and public debate moves quickly, a durable research record can make an important contribution to cumulative knowledge.
Sundiata Post Elements: Disseminating Scholarly Work
Sundiata Post Elements is available through its Zenodo community: https://zenodo.org/communities/sundiata-post-elements/
Zenodo is a multidisciplinary research repository hosted by CERN and developed in the context of the OpenAIRE research infrastructure.
Focused on Media, Security and Sovereignty in Africa and the Global South, Sundiata Post Elements provides a platform for disseminating working papers, conceptual frameworks, research reports and other scholarly and policy-oriented outputs.
Where the Dataverse repository emphasises research data and empirical documentation, Elements emphasises the communication and circulation of ideas.
Data alone do not explain what evidence means. Research also requires concepts, analytical methods and interpretation. Scholarly outputs provide a means of presenting these elements so that researchers, journalists and policy practitioners can engage with them.
Together, the repositories create complementary pathways for preserving evidence and disseminating the knowledge developed from it.
From Journalism to Systematic Analysis
The repositories are part of a broader institutional effort led by the Sundiata Post Knowledge Lab. SPKL provides a base for empirical research, security analysis, policy-oriented inquiry and the development of analytical frameworks.
This work reflects a simple proposition: journalism can identify questions that require sustained investigation, while research can help establish whether observed patterns are isolated incidents, recurring tendencies or manifestations of deeper institutional problems.
At Sundiata Post, this ambition is reflected in three developing analytical frameworks.
The Insecurity Triad examines insecurity through three interrelated dimensions: Money, Land and Mind. Money focuses on the economic incentives and extraction systems that sustain insecurity, including kidnapping and ransom economies. Land examines territorial control, banditry and the relationship between armed activity and production. Mind addresses the ideological and psychological dimensions of terrorism and other forms of organised violence.
The Trinity of Sovereignty Decay (TSD) examines the relationship between a state’s formal existence and its ability to exercise effective authority. Its analytical sequence moves through Protection, Compliance, Territorial Credibility, Institutional Function and Sovereign Reality. It seeks to explain how a state can retain formal institutions and international recognition while experiencing deterioration in the practical exercise of sovereignty.
The Decoupling Sovereignty Index (DSI) develops this inquiry in a quantitative direction. It examines the gap between formal or juridical sovereignty and the empirical realities of authority, protection and control. Its current framework comprises 19 indicators across the Money, Land and Mind dimensions, scored on a 0–10 scale.
These frameworks represent developing intellectual contributions that should be open to critical examination. Their value depends on clear concepts, transparent methods, appropriate evidence and their capacity to withstand scrutiny.
The repositories provide a means of preserving and disseminating associated research materials and methodological documentation. They can help make analytical development a more systematic institutional activity.
Why This Matters for African Media
African media organisations face a rapidly changing information environment. Digital platforms have expanded the speed and reach of publishing, while changes in audience behaviour and online distribution have put pressure on established business models. News organisations must continually reconsider how they create public value and sustain their operations.
One response is to compete for immediate attention. Another is to consider the distinctive institutional assets that can be built over time.
Journalism remains foundational. Public trust, editorial independence, professional expertise and investigative capacity are essential. But media organisations can also explore additional ways of turning their experience and intellectual labour into lasting public resources.
A well-documented investigation can inform subsequent research. A dataset can support new analysis. A conceptual framework can stimulate debate across disciplines. A research report can contribute to policy discussions.
The broader opportunity is to ensure that a media organisation’s contribution does not end when an article is published or a news cycle closes.
This is not a prescription for every newsroom. Different organisations have different missions, resources and capacities. Nor should the pursuit of research outputs distract from journalism’s core responsibilities. The point is that African media institutions can expand their contribution while preserving their journalistic identity.
Sundiata Post is pursuing this possibility by developing research and scholarly infrastructure alongside its journalism.
Connecting African Knowledge to Global Research
The choice to use established international platforms is significant. Knowledge production depends not only on generating ideas but also on the systems through which research is documented, preserved, discovered, cited and circulated.
Using Harvard Dataverse and Zenodo allows Sundiata Post to build on existing research infrastructure rather than developing every component independently. It also creates opportunities for its outputs to be discovered within broader scholarly communities.
These platforms do not automatically validate every deposited item. Repository access is not a substitute for peer review, independent verification or sound methodology. Research quality remains the responsibility of its authors and the relevant review processes.
Nevertheless, durable deposits, clear metadata and persistent identifiers can improve the conditions under which research is accessed, cited and revisited.
For African researchers, the challenge is not simply to make their work visible internationally. It is also to participate in defining the questions, developing the concepts and producing the evidence that shape global knowledge.
African societies should not exist merely as cases through which theories developed elsewhere are tested. African researchers and institutions must also be able to contribute original frameworks and methods grounded in African realities but relevant to wider debates.
Sundiata Post’s repositories are intended to support this broader participation.
An Invitation to Collaborate
No institution can build a substantial knowledge infrastructure in isolation.
Sundiata Post invites scholars, universities, research institutes, newsrooms, international organisations and development agencies whose work examines Nigeria, Africa and the Global South to explore opportunities for collaboration.
We welcome relevant research datasets, working papers, conceptual frameworks, methodologies, research reports and other scholarly or policy-oriented materials, particularly those addressing Media, Security and Sovereignty.
Contributions should be appropriately documented and comply with relevant deposit requirements, intellectual property rights, ethical obligations and access conditions. Sensitive information must be handled responsibly.
We also welcome partnerships involving collaborative research, methodological development, research documentation and knowledge dissemination.
Our objective is not simply to accumulate publications and datasets. It is to encourage a body of work that is discoverable, responsibly documented and open to informed scrutiny—and that can support further investigation, policy engagement and international collaboration.
The long-term value of this initiative will depend on the quality of the research it attracts, the reliability of its documentation and the strength of the partnerships it develops.
A Different Measure of Institutional Success
Since its official unveiling in 2015, Sundiata Post has pursued journalism as its foundation. The development of the Knowledge Lab and its international repository presence extends that foundation rather than replacing it.
The initiative invites a broader understanding of media institutional success. Alongside reporting quality, public trust, editorial independence and audience reach, a media organisation can consider whether it preserves evidence, develops original ideas and makes its intellectual outputs available for future investigation.
These are complementary ambitions when pursued with clarity and appropriate standards.
For African media, the opportunity is to think beyond the news cycle without losing sight of journalism’s democratic responsibilities. The continent needs strong newsrooms and independent investigative journalism. It can also benefit from media institutions that preserve research, develop analytical frameworks and contribute original ideas to international scholarship and policy debates.
Sundiata Post is taking a step in that direction through its two repositories and the work of the Sundiata Post Knowledge Lab.
The ultimate significance of this undertaking will depend on the quality of the research it supports, the collaborations it attracts and the usefulness of the knowledge it helps preserve and disseminate. But the underlying proposition is clear: an African media institution can do more than report events and participate in public debate. It can also help build the infrastructure through which evidence is preserved, ideas are developed and knowledge is made available for future generations.
•Dr Max Nwabueze Amuchie is the CEO of Sundiata Post
