[Commlist] CfA ICA26 Preconference - "African and Global Media Representations of Africa"

Call for Abstracts - ICA26 Preconference: African and Global Media 
Representations of Africa (In-person)

Date: June 3, 2026
Venue: University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
Cost: No registration fee
More details: 
https://ica-gcsc.org/activities/prepost_conferences/african-and-global-media-representations-of-africa/ 
<https://ica-gcsc.org/activities/prepost_conferences/african-and-global-media-representations-of-africa/>

Mainstream media coverage of Africa, both within the continent and 
globally, has long been shaped by recurring tropes, structural 
imbalances, and asymmetrical information flows. Africa is frequently 
positioned as an object of representation rather than a site of 
meaning-making, with narratives filtered through external lenses of 
crisis, catastrophe, and exceptionalism. Within African media systems, 
colonial legacies and external dependencies continue to shape editorial 
priorities and institutional structures.

This pre-conference invites research that critically examines how Africa 
is narrated, imagined, and negotiated in mediated discourse, within and 
beyond the continent. We are particularly interested in work that moves 
beyond familiar critiques of distortion or erasure to interrogate the 
shifting vocabularies, institutional logics, and material 
infrastructures that shape contemporary portrayals of Africa. 
Contributions should attend to representational practices as embedded 
within textual, economic, technological, and affective systems that 
structure both visibility and silence.

We especially welcome submissions grounded in African locations, 
intellectual traditions, and professional practices, including work that 
decentres Euro-American analytical frameworks, advances new theoretical 
or methodological approaches, or explores tensions between local and 
transnational knowledge systems.

Submission Guidelines
Please submit an abstract of 800–1000 words (excluding references) 
clearly outlining, research question, theoretical framework, methodology 
and relevance to the pre-conference theme

Deadline: February 15, 2026
Submission link: https://forms.gle/1gDV11xDovo63XiF6 
<https://forms.gle/1gDV11xDovo63XiF6>

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
- Comparative analyses of African media portrayals in domestic and 
global outlets
- Media representations of Africa in the digital and algorithmic age
- Case studies of African media challenging dominant global narratives
- The role of diaspora media in shaping perceptions of Africa
- Visual cultures and mediated aesthetics of “Africanness”
- Representations of gender, conflict, migration, or environment
- Coverage of African elections, crises, or cultural events in 
transnational news flows
- Emerging African media theories, methodologies, and epistemologies
- Media development aid and representational politics
- Critiques of “Africa Rising,” Afro-pessimism, and related framing devices
- Representations of Africa in entertainment media (film, television, 
games, etc.)

Publication Plans
A selection of papers presented at the pre-conference will be invited 
for submission to a peer-reviewed journal Special Issue. Further details 
will be shared with authors of accepted extended abstracts.

Key Dates
Abstract submission deadline: February 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2026
Registration deadline: April 30, 2026
Full papers for Special Issue due: July 15, 2026

Contact
For inquiries, please contact the organisers at: 
(africamediaconference /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(africamediaconference /at/ gmail.com)>


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