[Commlist] CFP: African Women in Media 2020 Summit (AWiM2020)

It is with pleasure that I share with you the Call for Proposals and 
Concept Note (attached) for AWiM2020. Thank you for distributing it widely:

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

*CFP: African Women in Media 2020 Summit (#AWiM2020)*

*/Reimagining Futures: Women in Media, Peace and Technologies/*

*29-31 July, 2020. Johannesburg, South Africa*

African Women in Media (AWiM) in partnership with the African Union are 
pleased to bring you our fourth annual conference, which aims to bring 
together media practitioners, researchers, policy makers and CSOs. With 
the theme 'Reimagining Futures: Women in Media, Peace and Technologies', 
AWiM2020 Summit takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa on 29-31 July 
2020.

‘Re-imagining Futures’ reflects innovation in media industries, and the 
growing drive to change the narrative of Africa globally, particularly 
as African countries work towards achieving a dominant global position, 
and urgent objectives like Silencing the Guns by 2020, Free Movement of 
People, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Issues 
around movement, immigration, peace and security, and the lived 
experiences, roles and insights of women in media practitioners, policy 
makers, CSOs and researchers make the AWiM2020 Summit a timely focal 
point to bring these stakeholders together.

AWiM2020 aims to explore three thematic areas:

 1. The prospects of free movement across the continent and the
    potential impact for female media professionals in Africa, and media
    and creative industries broadly;
 2. The lived experiences of women in media as participants of
    peacebuilding and conflict prevention; and,
 3. Emerging technologies and how Africa’s media might leveraging these
    to improve issues affecting female journalists.

Calls on the media, and particularly women in media in Africa, to 
utilise their profession to both raise awareness and mediate in 
conflict, gives rise to pertinent questions around the effectiveness of 
media-for-peace initiatives, the lived experiences of African women in 
the media in security reporting, and policy provisions in this regard. 
Understanding the lived experiences of African women in media is 
essential to guiding policy and advocacy agendas towards ensuring that 
countries and media organisations create the necessary enabling 
environment for women in media to effectively execute their work. Part 
of this initiative to create enabling environments constitutes a 
reliable tool for monitoring how well countries and organisations comply 
with women’s rights, and a means of obtaining data that will support 
journalists to perform their functions. Safety is however indispensable 
for bringing about these enabling environments.

Technologies have contributed both positively and negatively to 
empowerment of women in media. On the positive side, it has contributed 
to closing the gender gap of media ownership, with female media 
entrepreneurs setting up online media organisations. Social media 
enabled women only groups has provided spaces for women to share their 
stories and challenge existing narratives around women’s rights and 
gender equality. But it has also presented challenges, with the 
Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) reporting that “online 
harassment was cited as the biggest threat by 90%” of female journalists 
in the U.S. and 71% in Canada. What is the outlook across Africa?

As we consider how African countries will use the Fourth Industrial 
Revolution with emerging technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), 
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Realty (VR), Data Science, 
Robotics and Blockchain, how might we deploy these for women’s 
empowerment? How might we close the tech gender gap? How might we 
address cyber security?

Other questions for the Summit include:

Movement and Migration

How might easier movement between African countries improve the working 
conditions and opportunities for African women working in media? How 
might it improve economic contributions of media and creative 
industries, for example when we consider the flourishing music 
industries? What might we learn from examples like CariCom 
<https://caricom.org/skill-free-movement-in-the-caricom-single-market-and-economy-csme/>and 
the ERASMUS for journalist project 
<https://ec.europa.eu/information_society/media_taskforce/doc/mobility/erjo_part1_report.pdf>? 
How might we reimagine journalistic conversations and representation of 
migration and displacement in Africa?

Peace and Security

What are the lived experiences of women in  media reporting on peace and 
security in Africa? How might continental agendas provide for the 
participation of women in media? How might female media producers use 
their position and lived experiences to tell the stories in a way that 
empowers female survivors of conflict to speak out?

Emerging Technologies

How are global media responding to emerging technologies of Artificial 
Intelligence, Data Science, Robotics and others? How can these 
technologies help the media better know and engage audiences? What can 
we learn about gathering, storage and access to data? What is the 
outlook for online safety of female journalists in Africa? What specific 
technologies can support specific needs of women in media in African 
countries?

In exploring these questions, AWiM2020 Summit welcomes paper, panel 
proposals and workshops from researchers, practitioners, CSOs and policy 
professionals in the following topic areas:

  * Journalism
  * Globalisation
  * Fourth industrial revolution
  * Media and film studies
  * Intellectual property rights
  * Global Agendas
  * Discourse analysis and global implications
  * Peace and security
  * Global communication and technology
  * Intercultural communication and public policy
  * International conflict
  * Feminist studies
  * Migration and mobility
  * Postcolonial studies
  * Culture and media policy
  * Participatory communication
  * Audience
  * Community media
  * Access and Citizen Empowerment
  * Cultural studies
  * Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Machine Learning
  * Blockchain, Empowerment and Media
  * Communication and Development
  * Communities and Networks
  * Digital Empowerment
  * Diversity and Inclusion
  * Ethics and Trust
  * Feminism and Political Participation
  * Gender Mainstreaming and Policies
  * International Law and Human Rights
  * Religion and Conflict
  * Representation, identity, ideology
  * Terrorism
  * Transmedia
  * Sustainability and Environment
  * Human capital flow
  * Entrepreneurship

*Guidelines for Submissions: *

Abstract should be 150-300 words in English or French. Please include 
details about your positions, affiliations, and email addresses for all 
authors. All submissions and enquiries should be sent to 
(yemisi /at/ africanwomeninmedia.com) with ‘AWiM2020 CFP’ in the subject line 
by *20 January 2020.*


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