The Anglophone Crisis and Emerging Bilingualism Trends on State-Owned Mass Media in Cameroon

One of the major causes of the Anglophone Crisis which started in 2016 was
the dominant use of the French language to the detriment of Anglophones in a
country that is dubbed bilingual and whose constitution confers an equal status
to both the English and French languages. In a bid to mitigate this situation,
the government embarked on a series of measures amongst which the creation
of a Bilingualism and Multiculturalism Commission to oversee the
implementation of official bilingualism in the country. This new wave of
bilingualism also seems to have actuated a ray of change in the practice of
bilingualism in the state media in Cameroon. Using the methodological
approaches of observation and content analysis, this paper appraises the
emerging trends of bilingualism on the state media; Cameroun Tribune, the
national radio and television, CRTV. Underpinned by the Knowledge Gap
Theory, the analysis revealed that the anglophone crisis has ushered in some
positive changes as far as the practice of bilingualism on the media is concerned.
In trying to increase the level of bilingualism practice in the state media, the
information gap between the Anglophones and Francophones has been
narrowed. This notwithstanding, there is still quite a lot to do to improve on the
status of bilingualism on the official media so as to be a good pace-setter in the
media landscape in Cameroon. On this basis, this paper recommends that
during bilingual newscasts it could be better to report one story in the French
language and then the same story follows immediately in the English language.
This will also promote the learning of French and English as the audience can
put words in context easily.

Key words: Anglophone Crisis, Bilingualism, Trends, State-owned Media,
Cameroon