"This book provides an important set of critical reflections from a selection of foundational scholars of African media and communication studies through biographical method. The book interrogates the center of mainstream academic scholarship by providing the foundational history and origins of an A
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fricanist conceptual model while highlighting its significance globally. The editors use biographical and life story interviews to critically review the respondents’ interpretations of their key works and arguments in relation to key moments in the field, the continent and globally. Though the book is focussed on recovering pioneering arguments by key thinkers in African media and communication, efforts of individual academics are to be understood in the context of their work with others and within institutions that are networked, locally and globally. By bringing together many of the leading figures of African communication and media studies in a single volume, this book provides a critical corrective to the dearth of knowledge and information about who the key thinkers are and what their key arguments, theories and models for media and communication in African contexts entail." (Publisher description)
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"This book deals with the often-neglected link between indigenous languages, media and democracy in Africa. It recognizes that the media plays an amplifying role that is vital to modern-day expression, public participation and democracy but that without the agency to harness media potential, many Af
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ricans will be excluded from public discourse." (Publisher description)
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"This book probes the vitality, potentiality and ability of new communication and technological changes to drive online-based civil action across Africa. In a continent booming with mobile innovation and a plethora of social networking sites, the Internet is considered a powerful platform used by pr
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o-democracy activists to negotiate and sometimes push for reform-based political and social changes in Africa. The book discusses and theorizes digital activism within social and geo-political realms, analysing cases such as the #FeesMustFall and #BringBackOurGirls campaigns in South Africa and Nigeria respectively to question the extent to which they have changed the dynamics of digital activism in sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative case study reflections in eight African countries identify and critique digital concepts questioning what impact they have had on the civil society. Cases also explore the African LGBT community as a social movement while discussing opportunities and challenges faced by online activists fighting for LGBT equality. Finally, gender-based activists using digital tools to gain attention and facilitate social changes are also appraised." (Publisher description)
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"Radio has been called ‘Africa’s medium’. Its wide accessibility is a result of a number of factors, including the liberalisation policies of the ‘third wave’ of democracy and its ability to transcend the barriers of cost, geographical boundaries, the colonial linguistic heritage and low l
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iteracy levels. This sets it apart from other media platforms in facilitating political debate, shaping identities and assisting listeners as they negotiate the challenges of everyday life on the continent. Radio in Africa breaks new ground by bringing together essays on the multiple roles of radio in the lives of listeners in Anglophone, Lusophone and Francophone Africa. Some essays turn to the history of radio and its part in the culture and politics of countries such as Angola and South Africa. Others – such as the essay on Mali, gender and religion – show how radio throws up new tensions yet endorses social innovation and the making of new publics. A number of essays look to radio’s current role in creating listening communities that radically shift the nature of the public sphere. Essays on the genre of the talk show in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa point to radio’s role in creating a robust public sphere. Radio’s central role in the emergence of informed publics in fragile national spaces is covered in essays on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia. The book also highlights radio’s links to the new media, its role in resistance to oppressive regimes such as Zimbabwe, and points in several cases – for example in the essay on Uganda – to the importance of African languages in building modern communities that embrace both local and global knowledge." (Publisher description)
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