[Commlist] Call for Papers - Regulating African Digital Media Conference

*Conference on the Regulation of Old and New Media Forms in Africa***

*Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research*

*Birmingham City University*
*May 2022**
**Location: Zoom***

*
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*Conference Theme: Regulating African Digital Media*


Increasingly more African countries are instituting laws, procedures, 
and policies, seeking to regulate the media ecosystem. Governments 
typically justify such approaches to regulation as a way to combat the 
negative consequences of online media usage, such as hate speech and 
mis/disinformation. This trend generally reflects the historical 
application of censorship laws that have targeted the critical press and 
journalistic autonomy (Obijiofor et al., 2016). The implications of this 
are considerable. What we are witnessing is the integration of two 
regulatory paradigms – for the traditional and digital media – into one, 
with the potential for state authorities to expand blanket censorship 
from media to citizen expression in ways that mirror the politics of 
regulation. A central issue at play here is the struggle over the 
appropriation and exercise of power over collective voices, with 
consequences for democracy, plurality, independence, dissent, and freedom.

No doubt, media and digital regulation have intensified in recent years 
across the globe in what has been described as the “regulatory turn” 
(Flew et al., 2021, p. 208). The aim, it seems, is to manage the 
disruptive effects of the usage of media technologies. What has been 
largely overlooked, however, is an overarching investigation of this 
trend in Africa. This is in spite of the reality that state 
interventions such as social media bans, which are becoming common on 
the continent, are disruptive in themselves. Meanwhile, the few 
scholarly collections which have examined separate angles of the subject 
have done so predominantly from the traditional media lens only 
(Chan-Meetoo, 2013; Sampaio-Dias et al., 2019). For instance, 
Chan-Meetoo’s (2013) edited collection considers how African journalists 
negotiate regulatory and ethical requirements demanded of them. Other 
works have looked at regional or linguistic peculiarities in traditional 
media regulation on the continent (de la Brosse and Frére, 2012; 
Limpitlaw, 2021). What has also been neglected is the fact that new 
media platforms are mainly domiciled in the West, bearing implications 
for digital sovereignty in Africa.

Furthermore, research centred on Africa has barely considered emergent 
regulatory practices that cover the traditional media, online harms, 
social media, blockchain technologies, privacy concerns, virtual 
reality, artificial intelligence, and the wider internet of things. This 
conference thus creates a space for researchers to build on previous 
scholarly work and to share, discuss and debate contemporary regulatory 
interventions in media technologies across Africa in attempts to 
regulate disruption, and their impact on societies. Topics may include, 
but are not limited to:

  * Press and broadcasting regulation
  * Social media regulation and online harms
  * Online broadcasting regulation
  * The politics of regulation
  * Internet and social media bans
  * Regulation as disruption
  * Regulating/regulated disruption
  * Platform governance and self-regulation in Africa
  * Regulatory frameworks, methods, and methodologies
  * Online privacy and data concerns
  * Regulation, the balance of power, and digital sovereignty
  * Punitive media registration
  * African Union, multi-stakeholderism, and media regulation
  * Regulating artificial intelligence and other new media technologies
    in Africa


We also invite conceptual papers and reflections on alternative, and 
perhaps homegrown approaches that can be exploited at the national 
and/or regional level on the continent to address the challenges of 
media and digital regulation.

*Abstract Submission*

Please send a 300-word abstract proposal for a 20-minute presentation by 
*14 January 2022*to (regulationafrica /at/ protonmail.com) 
<mailto:(regulationafrica /at/ protonmail.com)>.

Proposers will be notified of the outcomeof the selection by *7 
February 2022*.

Abstracts should be in MS Word format and should include name, position, 
institutional affiliation, email address of proposer(s), and a 150-word 
biography.

*Conference Details***

Conference registration will open in early *April 2022*and the 
conference schedule will be released afterwards. The conference will be 
held on *Zoom*and will be organised weekly in a panel format in *May 
2022*. To make this work, a single panel (90 minutes long) will be 
scheduled for each of the Tuesday afternoons (UK time) in May 2022. 
Further details on timing will be confirmed to selected participants.

*Special Issue Publication*

Shortly after the conference, we will invite full papers based on the 
presentations for publication in a journal special issue to be 
announced. In your abstract submission, please indicate whether you 
would like your contribution to be considered for the special issue 
publication. Interested contributors should please note that full papers 
will be requested by *September 2022*.

**

*About BCMCR*

The Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research (BCMCR 
<http://www.bcmcr.org/>) was established in 2009 to develop excellent 
research as a core activity within the Birmingham School of Media. Our 
team of independent researchers at Birmingham Centre for Media and 
Cultural Research (BCMCR) generates work of internationally excellent 
standard. BCMCR aims to produce distinctive, collaborative work within 
the field of media and cultural research.

*References***

Chan-Meetoo, C. (2013) /Media Ethics and Regulation: Insights from 
Africa/. Bamenda: African Books Collective.

de la Brosse, R. and Frére, M. (2012) Media regulation in sub-Saharan 
Africa: trends and stakes in French-speaking countries. /Ecquid Novi: 
African Journalism Studies/, 33(3), pp. 74-92. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/02560054.2012.732259 
<https://doi.org/10.1080/02560054.2012.732259>

Flew, T., Gillett, R. and Cole, R. (2021) Editorial. /Journal of Digital 
Media & Policy/, 12(2), pp. 207-214. 
https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00059_2 <https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00059_2>

Limpitlaw, J. (2021) /Media Law Handbook for Southern Africa/. 
Johannesburg: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

Obijiofor, L., Murray, R. and Singh, S. (2016) Changes in journalism in 
two post-authoritarian non-Western countries. /The International 
Communication Gazette/, 0(0), pp. 1-21.

Sampaio-Dias, S., Mabweazara, H.M., Townsend, J. and Osman, I. (2019) 
Practices, policies and regulation in African journalism: mapping a 
research agenda. /African Journalism Studies/, 40(3), pp. 1-9. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2019.1750197 
<https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2019.1750197>



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