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The Africa Media & Democracy Project at the Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College – University of London
The Africa Media & Democracy Project at the Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College – University of London
The future of democracy in Africa and indeed globally is inseparable from the capacities of media – at all scales from the local to the global. The sustainability and the expansion of democracy depend equally on what media institutions do and what spaces media make possible.
The Africa Media & Democracy Conference, at Goldsmiths is part of the Department’s global media and democracy initiative. The Africa Media & Democracy project brings together African academics, media practitioners, political, social commentators and opinion leaders to interrogate the role of media in democracy in Africa through which the larger African populace perceive and hold their Governments accountable.
The project takes the form of a conference (seminar/workshops) and is organised annually in a chosen African country based on a number of factors. The seminars are delivered by distinguished scholars, media practitioners, politicians etc. from Africa and rest of the world.
Topics to be explored include:
•The role of Media in local democracy in Africa
•National media, democracy and the construction of ‘the citizen’.
•Media, democracy and the transnational public sphere.
•New media and social movements
•Media ethics
The project consists of two (2) phases:
(a)Conference & seminar
(a) Publication
Our maiden seminar is to take place in Accra, Ghana on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th November 2009, and is entitled; Mediating Democracy In Africa.
The programme is in collaboration with the Ghana Institute of Journalism and Ahenti Media Consult (Ghana).
The Accra Conference aims to address the critical concerns that arise from the practice of ‘Announcing elections results’ by the media as part of their legitimate role in entrenching the democratic process. Such practices however, have become contentious in recent times and are increasingly becoming a pattern in emerging democracies in Africa. The seminar aims address both the constitutional and ethical issues that erupt from such media practice as well as providing a context for comparison, dialogue and analysis between media practices situated in different cultural-political environments from a global perspective. The three-day (3) seminar will be addressed by distinguished speakers drawn from the academia and the media.
BACKGROUND: Recent developments of the growing influence of the Ghanaian media, particularly radio and television in monitoring, pollstering, announcing but also ‘nuancing’ election results ahead of the Electoral Commissioner from various electoral constituencies has been contested by politicians, constitutionalist experts and media practitioners alike.
The seminar aims to address and examine among others the location of such media practices, their constitutional legitimacy and in relation to freedom of information in democratic dispensation.
When does ‘announcing’ becomes ‘endorsement’ of a particular political party contesting a democratic election?
What is the impact on the electorate of such early announcement of leading parties?
What are implications for social and national cohesion of such practice in fiercely contested elections?
What necessitated such practice? and what is the way forwards?
For more information contact: Barima Adu-Asamoa (b.adu-asamoa.gold.ac.uk )
or Dr. Gareth Stanton Director, (g.stanton@gold.ac.uk)
Head of Department The Africa Media & Democracy Project Media & Communications
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SECOND WORLD JOURNALISM EDUCATION CONGRESS AFRICA-REGIONAL PREPCOM: RHODES UNIVERSITY, GRAHAMSTOWN
Rhodes University, through the School of Journalism and Media Studies, has offered to host the 2nd World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC-2) in 2010. The bid, which has received wide-ranging endorsements, is currently being considered by the Council of the WJEC. The bid document can be visited at: http://www.ru.ac.za/jms.
As a consequence, the SAB LTD-UNESCO Chair of Media and Democracy, Professor Fackson Banda, is convening a high-level “prepcom” of African journalism educators on the 9th of September 2009 (during this year’s Highway Africa conference), so as to co-ordinate African-regional input into the WJEC. Funding for this is already available from South African company Telkom and the Open Society Network Media Programme.
The rationale behind this Africa-regional preparatory meeting is partly underpinned by the realisation that African journalism educators are underrepresented in international initiatives of this kind, as was evidenced by the low number of African attendees at the 1st WJEC held in Singapore in July 2007. In addition, the practice of journalism in Africa is in flux, constantly answering to the global influences of liberalisation, privatisation, commercialisation and internationalisation. At the same time, the local exigencies are conditioning the practice of journalism in ways that render it neither global nor local. The ‘glocalised’ nature of journalism in Africa must surely raise many questions for journalism educators. Such questions, if they are to be properly answered, must be placed within the historical conditions that have shaped and reshaped African journalism — colonialism, post-colonialism and globalisation. Such a historical contextualisation of journalistic practice in Africa should hopefully spur African journalism educators to launch a critical enquiry that will deconstruct most of the ‘received’ conventional wisdom about the theory and practice of journalism in Africa. This should become an organic process of ‘owning’ African journalism as a social practice that can be transformational in many of our countries which are wrestling with the very real problems of underdevelopment, bad governance, poverty, social exclusion, xenophobia, sexism, and the like.
The papers thus prepared for the colloquium could cover a variety of topics, including, but not limited to, the following:
1. Journalism studies and media studies — theoretical divergences and convergences
2. Theorising journalism education in Africa
3. Journalism education for democracy and development
4. Journalism education and xenophobia
5. Journalism education and experiential learning
6. Journalism education and technological innovation
7. Models of sustainability of African journalism amidst the global financial and economic crisis
8. Journalism education research in Africa
9. Peace journalism education in conflict-ridden African countries
10. The theory and practice of community journalism in Africa
11. Citizen journalism versus conventional journalism
12. Journalism education and industry
13. Journalism education and community-building
14. Assessing the quality of journalism education in Africa
15. African journalism education in the ‘global village’
The Chair is able to sponsor up to 40 African journalism educators, subject to stringent conditions. Here are the conditions:
1. Each sponsored educator will be required to prepare and present a scholastically sound paper during the Africa-regional preparatory colloquium.
2. For such a paper to be considered for inclusion in the programme,educators are invited to submit abstracts of their papers by the 17th of June 2009.
3. Full papers must be submitted by the 10th of August 2009 in order to allow sufficient time for respondents to prepare their reviews of the papers. An added incentive is that most if not all of the papers presented during the meeting stand a chance of being published in peer-reviewed journals. The organisers are negotiating with potential journals in order to finalise this aspect of the initiative.
As such, younger journalism educators, especially those associated with the UNESCO Potential Centres of Excellence, are encouraged to apply for consideration for sponsorship. Some of the papers will be presented during the WJEC itself. Needless to say, this is a rare opportunity for African journalism educators to showcase the unique variety and richness of African journalism educational experiences.
You are most welcome! Abstracts, as well as finished papers, can be submitted to:
Professor Fackson Banda SAB LTD-UNESCO Chair of Media & Democracy School of Journalism & Media Studies Rhodes University
Africa Media Matrix Upper Prince Alfred Street
PO BOX 94 Grahamstown 6140 SOUTH AFRICA
Tel: +27 (0) 46 603 7156
Fax: +27 (0) 46 603 7101
Mobile: +27 (0) 78 208 7529
e-mail: f.banda@ru.ac.za
Website: http://jms.ru.ac.za/sabchair
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