Project and publications
Projects
Current projects include a needs assessment for media literacy education conducted with www.disinfoafrica.org and AfricaCheck (see summary of our first report here).
Publications
Imasa publishes the journal African Journalism Studies . Books by Imasa Director, Herman Wasserman
African Journalism Studies ( AJS) aims to contribute to the ongoing extension of the theories, methodologies, and empirical data to under-researched areas of knowledge production, through its emphasis on African journalism studies within a broader, comparative perspective of the Global South. AJS strives for theoretical diversity and methodological inclusivity, by developing theoretical approaches and making critical interventions in global scholarly debates. The journal’s comparative and interdisciplinary approach is informed by the related fields of cultural and media studies, communication studies, African studies, politics, and sociology.
Architects of Communication Scholarship – Francis Nyamnjoh Theorizing Incompleteness, Mobility, Belonging, and Conviviality from the Global South.
Communication Professor Francis Nyamnjoh discusses studying social anthropology as it pertains to communication scholarship in Africa.
The Incompleteness Of Knowledge Production: An Interview With Francis Nyamnjoh
Francis B. Nyamnjoh is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Read the full article here
How can an “ethics of listening” guide the media to contribute to the deepening of democracy in Africa?
In Africa, the media plays a significant role in conflict management and resolution. Which conflicts the media report, which are ignored, and how conflicts are represented can have a profound impact on the outcomes. While the media can in some cases ensure the stability of African democracy, critics have pointed out that in other cases, the media actually increases tensions in areas of conflict.
The end of apartheid brought South Africa into the global media environment.
Outside companies invested in the nation’s newspapers while South African conglomerates pursued lucrative tech ventures and communication markets around the world. Many observers viewed the rapid development of South African media as a roadmap from authoritarianism to global modernity. Herman Wasserman analyzes the debates surrounding South Africa’s new media presence against the backdrop of rapidly changing geopolitics.
Less than a decade after the advent of democracy in South Africa, tabloid newspapers have taken the country by storm.
One of these papers—the Daily Sun—is now the largest in the country, but it has generated controversy for its perceived lack of respect for privacy, brazen sexual content, and unrestrained truth-stretching. He examines the success social significance of the tabloids and the role they play in integrating readers and their daily struggles with the political and social sphere of the new democracy.
A timely and incisive exploration of disinformation and its impact in the Global South
In Disinformation in the Global South, media and communications scholars Herman Wasserman and Dani Madrid-Morales deliver a unique and geographically diverse collection of perspectives on the phenomenon of disinformation as it manifests in the Global South. Many parts of the Global South, coordinated political disinformation campaigns, and rumors.