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New Publication: Community Radio Policies in South Asia. A Deliberative Policy Ecology Approach

This new  book by Preeti Raghunath draws on critical media policy studies, to study the principles and performances of policies and policymaking for community radio in four South Asian countries of Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. It focuses on the processes and practices of deliberation that go into policymaking, across space and time, and the global-local spectrum.

It stitches together a critical media policy ethnography, drawing on over a 100 formal interviews and informal conversations with policy actors from South Asia, in a bid to present a deliberative policy analysis of policymaking for community radio in the region.  Drawing on Grounded Theory, the book fleshes out the Deliberative Policy Ecology Approach as an inclusive heuristic to study media policies. 

You can access the book on this link

New Publication: Participatory Journalism in Africa

This new book by Hayes Mawindi and Admire Mare offers an African perspective on how news organisations are embracing digital participatory practices as part of their everyday news production, dissemination and audience engagement strategies.

Drawing on empirical evidence from news organisations in sub-Saharan Africa, Participatory Journalism in Africa investigates and maps out professional practices emerging with journalists’ direct interactions with readers and sources via online user comment spaces and social media platforms. Using a social constructivist approach, the book focuses on the challenges relating to the elite-centric nature of active participation on the platforms, while also highlighting emerging ethical and normative dilemmas. The authors also point to the hidden structural controls to participation and user engagement associated with artificial intelligence, chatbots and algorithms. These obstacles, coupled with low digital literacy levels and the well-established pitfalls of the digital divide, challenge the utopian view that in Africa interactive digital technologies are the sine qua non spaces for democratic participation.

This is a valuable resource for academics, journalists and students across a wide range of disciplines including journalism studies, communication for development, sociology and political science.

You can find additional details of the book here

 

2019 FoME Symposium: Rethinking Media Development – New Actors, New Technologies and New Strategies

DW Akademie and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung are pleased to invite you to the 2019 FoME Symposium held November 7-8, 2019 in Bonn at Deutsche Welle’s headquarters.

“Rethinking media development – New actors, new technologies and new strategies” is the focus of this year’s symposium and explores the future for media development in the new information ecosystem.

Social media platforms have created a complex information ecosystem that is both a blessing and a curse for free and independent media outlets. On the one hand, digital technologies have created unprecedented opportunities for reporting and distributing journalistic content and for many, digital innovations hold enormous potential to reshape the media landscape. At the same time, however, in an age of misinformation and disinformation, traditional media outlets are increasingly under threat as members of populist movements use digital spaces to attack their credibility. As their traditional business models fail, free and independent media outlets are now struggling to survive.

The digital revolution has also radically altered the way we communicate. This means the media development community also has to discuss, rethink and if necessary redefine its strategy to better serve the ideals of freedom of information and free speech in the digital era. The 2019 FoME Symposium brings together journalists, media managers, media development specialists, activists, academics and representatives from government, civil society and private companies from around the world to exchange their views on this topic.

Click here to learn more.

Media, new technologies and development in Latin America: political, social and economic perspectives (London, UK)

This is a two-day conference. The first day takes place at City, University of London. The second day takes place at Loughborough University, London Campus.

In an age of increasing media concentration and commercialisation, how can we envision a role for the media in development and for democracy? How can networked communications be better used by social movements, civil society and other marginalized groups who encounter difficulties in having a voice in the public sphere? How can ICTs (information and communication technologies) be used for development? How are feminist NGOs and women’s groups at present making use of communication tools and technologies to shape policy and pursue social change at a global and local level? What are some of the theoretical frameworks on communications and social change that we need to revisit? What are the more appropriate methodologies to study communication for social change (CSC) in the digital era?

These are some of the many questions that these workshops, which will be held at UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense) and at City, University of London, ahead of the 2019 IAMCR (International Association in Media and Communication Research) conference in Spain, seek to address. Our keynote speeches will be delivered by professors Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Mellichamp professor of Global Studies and Sociology at University of California Santa Barbara; Thomas Tufte, current Director for the Institute for Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University London; Toby Miller, professor in Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University; Ana Carolina Escosteguy, professor of gender and media at the Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil); senior lecturer in Latin America Studies, Thea Pitman, of the University of Leeds and professor of Communications Jair Vega Casanova, Universidad del Norte in Colombia.

Free to attend but please book in advance.

Click here for full details.

Media & Communication: The State of the Art Conference (Leicester, UK)

The central aim of this conference is to explore the extent to which existing theories of media and communication are adequate for the analysis of our contemporary media landscape.

The conference is underpinned by a concern with what we see in the classroom; changes in technology and society; and the role of theory. Centrally, we ask do new technologies require new theories? And if so, where are new theoretical interventions required? We are keen to reflect on the problematization of an increasingly automated environment, where algorithms collect data about us, and make choices about what we consume. What does this automation mean for notions of autonomy and agency; or for the structuring of identity? Do these technologies challenge or embed existing power structures, particularly in areas around gender, race and class? A further aim of this conference is also to reflect on where media studies is, and where it is going: how does media studies remain ‘relevant’ and ‘state of the art’ in light of a rapidly changing media landscape?

The driving questions of this conference are:

1. Do we need new theories of media to address social and technological change?

2. What are the key pedagogical issues in teaching contemporary students of media and communications?

Conference fee: £50. The conference fee is only charged to cover the cost of lunch, teas and coffees, conference dinner and to provide taxis home for any woman who would like one after the evening event.

Postgraduate Students: Free

Click here for full details

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