[Commlist] Call for Contributions | DigiMethods 2023 Colloquium: Future Proofing Journalism and Media Education in Africa

DigiMethods 2023: Future Proofing Journalism and Media curricula in 
Africa Colloquium

The Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies invites you 
to join us in visualising a curriculum for our shared future as 
educators teaching journalism and media in the 21st century at a 
colloquium entitled Digimethods 2023: Future Proofing Journalism and 
Media Curricula in Africa.

At this colloquium, we are interested in what it is that the digital 
enables: which new directions, new genres and forms of storytelling 
characterise this shifting terrain? And how do we as educators respond 
to them and apply them in our various different (and often challenging) 
contexts?

Happening directly after our cutting-edge Digital Research Methods 
Winter School which will empower media researchers with a range of 
 digital tools, this colloquium is aimed at teachers and educators who 
want to think and work together on the problem of future-proofing 
journalism and media curricula in Africa.

When?
The colloquium will be held from 23-24 June 2023.

Where?
Africa Media Matrix, Rhodes University in Makhanda, South Africa.

BACKGROUND
Over a decade ago, JMS worked to imagine a future post-apartheid in a 
series of Journalism Education Colloquia, which interrogated how 
journalism teaching needed to respond to the demands of the 
post-apartheid context.

Last year, another series of colloquia saw us turn our focus to the 
specific circumstances facing journalism today: including the current 
‘crisis’ of journalism in the face of digitisation and defunding, and 
multilingualism in journalism education.

In 2023, we continue this series of rigorous engagements with the 
changing face of journalism. As media educators, we face new challenges 
as media production has become almost entirely a digital practice 
requiring specialised digital skills.

 From artificial intelligence and immersive storytelling to data 
journalism and social media scraping: the rapidly changing digital 
context (both locally and globally) poses a range of challenges - and 
opportunities - for teachers, supervisors and students in African spaces.

Ours is a social context of extreme inequalities experienced along lines 
of gender, income, race, age, and geographical location; it is a context 
that is also characterised by highly unequal access to infrastructural, 
educational, health and other services.

Given this uneven social landscape, northern approaches to teaching and 
researching digital media studies and media production cannot be 
seamlessly transposed to our southern space.

So, we want to bring together some of the best and brightest minds 
currently working in this terrain in South Africa and the world to find 
ways of ‘future-proofing’ our curricula: designing programmes and 
teaching philosophies that are as flexible as they are strong, able to 
adapt to new contexts and changing technologies, and properly equip our 
students with the tools they need.

SUBMISSIONS

Whether you are already a seasoned digital guru or a media educator who 
would like to join in on some cutting edge conversations and see how you 
can use new media innovations in your teaching practice, we would love 
for you to join us.

Participants are invited to make a contribution in the format of their 
choice (papers, presentations, experiential narratives, demonstrations, 
multimedia presentations, etc).

If you would like to participate in this colloquium, please complete the 
following form, which includes a description (no longer than 750 words) 
of what you would like to present at the colloquium and in which format.

Colloquium application form: https://forms.gle/EAvEzY8npP5YKeas6 
<https://forms.gle/EAvEzY8npP5YKeas6>

Please include your name and affiliation in the email for administrative 
processing.

Suggested themes for submissions

Here are some suggested themes that might spark your thinking about 
issues we are responding to, as media educators living and working in 
this complex digital terrain:

- What the digital enables: new directions, genres, forms of 
journalism/media production
- Classroom case studies: Creative applications of new media tools and 
platforms in the curriculum
-   Decolonising journalism and media education? Adapting global 
technologies to local contexts
-   ‘Cyclists on the superhighway’ of media innovation: how do we teach 
students the skills they need to survive and thrive in an ever-changing 
world?
-   The role of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence in 
journalism and their impact on contexts in the Global South
-  Telling stories from the Global South using multimedia and new 
technologies
-  Artificial intelligence and student innovation: Dangerous threat to 
intellectual property, or powerful new learning tool?
-  Using immersive technologies in locative and world-building media 
production
-  Creative practice-based research projects aimed at developing 
journalisms for the Global South
- Developing practice-led postgraduate programmes in journalism and 
media studies

Feel free to suggest another topic based on your expertise and teaching 
practice. Additionally, if there are particular journalists or media 
educators you think should be present, please add their names and 
contact details to your submission.

Deadline for submission: Monday 24 April at 5pm

Email (k.roux /at/ ru.ac.za) <mailto:(k.roux /at/ ru.ac.za)> for more information or 
if you have any questions.


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