[ecrea] PhD Scholarship: Confronting the ‘dream deferred’: Of new media, citizen and community journalism in Africa

 International PhD Scholarship


   Confronting the ‘dream deferred’: Of new media, citizen and
   community journalism in Africa


     *University of Central Lancashire* - School of Journalism, Media
     and Communication

*Reference No INT-036Ogola*

Applications are invited for a full-time scholarship available in the 
School of Journalism, media and Communication. The scholarship is 
tenable for up to 3 years for a PhD (via MPhil route) [subject to 
satisfactory progress] and is open to international applicants only.  
UK/EU applicants are not eligible to apply. The scholarship will provide 
£15000 towards the cost of the International tuition fee over 3 years.

The 1990s was epochal in the history of Africa. Pluralist politics was 
re-introduced with the news media playing a critical role in giving 
visibility to and participating in this transformation. However, poor 
media legal and policy regimes in a number of countries frustrated the 
growth of an independent media sector. As such, nearly 20 years into the 
1990s political transformation, ‘media freedom’ remains the dominant 
narrative around which the continent’s media sector is still discussed. 
A spontaneous corrective to the mainstream media however began to emerge 
in various social and cultural institutions in the late 1990s.The 
increasing availability and adoption of ICTs gave new emergent 
alternative media and journalistic forms new platforms to develop new 
narratives through which to articulate the reform agenda and encourage 
public participation. While this ‘alternative’ media sector is still not 
independent of state structures and policy regimes, new media 
technologies have enabled the adoption of and development of new forms 
of journalistic practices and platforms that easily elude various 
economies of state control.

Social media, blogging, citizen and community journalism, mobile news, 
are all aspects of and drivers of this ‘alternative’ media sector. This 
project intends to examine the growth of this sector, looking at ways in 
which it has acted as a corrective to Africa’s stalling media 
liberalization process. The project hopes to interrogate the space 
social media and other participatory forms of journalism are negotiating 
within the continent’s media landscape as well as the new practices they 
are developing as critical tools capable of engaging with and 
facilitating the continent’s democratization process.

Applicants should have, or expect to receive a qualification equivalent 
to a high class UK honours degree.

Informal project related enquiries may be directed to George Ogola email 
(googol /at/ uclan.ac.uk) <mailto:(googol /at/ uclan.ac.uk)>  Tel 01772 894829

Application Forms can be found at: www.uclan.ac.uk/studentships 
<http://www.uclan.ac.uk/studentships>

Completed application forms should be emailed to 
(researchdegrees /at/ uclan.ac.uk) <mailto:(researchdegrees /at/ uclan.ac.uk)>

*The closing date for applications to the Graduate Research Office:
Friday 13 May 2011 5pm British Summer Time*

*Proposed Interview Date: 2 June 2011*