[ecrea] CFP: New Media and Journalism Practice in Africa

>Call for papers Special Issue of Journalism: 
>Theory, Practice and Criticism on New Media and Journalism Practice in Africa
>
>Guest Editors
>
>Chris Atton, Edinburgh Napier University  
><(c.atton /at/ napier.ac.htm)>(c.atton /at/ napier.ac.uk)
>
>Hayes Mabweazara, Edinburgh Napier University  
><(h.mabweazara /at/ napier.ac.htm)>(h.mabweazara /at/ napier.ac.uk)
>
>This special issue seeks to provide a forum for 
>scholarship that engages with and reinvigorates 
>debates on the permeation of the new media into 
>journalism practice in Africa. In the 
>economically developed countries of the North, 
>these debates have prompted research rooted in 
>traditional approaches to journalism, such as: 
>the sociology of journalism, reflexive sociology 
>and the ethnography of news production. In 
>Africa, however, research on the interface 
>between the new digital media and journalism 
>practice is limited and fragmented and typically 
>lacks the theoretical sophistication that has 
>characterised similar debates in the 
>economically developed North (particularly in 
>the UK and the US). This paucity has given space 
>to utopian and speculative arguments on the role 
>of the new media in African journalism practice.
>
>There remains a gap in the empirical examination 
>and theorisation of how journalism practice in 
>Africa has come to terms with developments in 
>new digital technologies, in particular, how 
>journalists are forging new ways to practice 
>their profession in light of the technological 
>changes and pressures within newsrooms; how they 
>deal with these changes; and more, importantly, 
>how they have adjusted their notions of their 
>profession in terms of which traditions have 
>survived the diffusion of the new media into 
>their practice and what has needed rethinking.
>
>We welcome submissions of theoretically driven 
>papers that use a wide range of evidence in 
>engaging with the impact of new technologies on 
>journalism practice in Africa.  We are also 
>interested in research papers that reinvigorate 
>the tradition of newsroom ethnography to examine 
>the diffusion and appropriation of digital 
>technologies in African journalism practice.  In 
>this sense, we are interested in papers that 
>inspire and demonstrate sensitivity to the 
>contingent nature of the deployment of the new 
>media in African journalism practice by 
>following the path of ethnography and countering 
>technicist approaches that generally 
>characterise debates on the new media in Africa.
>
>The issue will especially welcome papers that 
>consider - but are by no means limited to - the following themes:
>
>*      The interface of the new digital 
>technologies with journalism practice in Africa 
>and their contemporary use by journalists
>*      How the use of the new media is 
>constrained, shaped and embedded in newsroom 
>policies and routines, and in the wider 
>socio-political and economic factors of Africa
>*      What the new digital technologies mean to 
>the practice of traditional journalism and the 
>extent to which they are transforming normative practices of journalism
>*      The interface of citizen journalism and mainstream journalism
>*      Cross-cultural comparisons that 
>interrogate the impact of the new media on 
>journalism practice across African countries and beyond
>*      Comparisons between state-controlled and independent media
>*      The role of new media in contributing to 
>African journalistic traditions and cultures
>*      Ethnographic approaches to the study of 
>journalism and new media in Africa
>
>Prospective authors should submit an abstract of 
>approximately 300 words by email to both Chris 
>Atton 
>(<(c.atton /at/ napier.ac.htm)>(c.atton /at/ napier.ac.uk)) 
>and Hayes Mabweazara 
>(<(h.mabweazara /at/ napier.ac.htm)>(h.mabweazara /at/ napier.ac.uk)). 
>All submissions will be reviewed by the special 
>issue editors.  Successful authors will be 
>invited to submit a full manuscript according to 
>the journals Notes for Contributors. The 
>selected papers will be subjected to peer review.
>
>Timeline
>
>Deadline for abstracts: 31 May 2010; deadline 
>for submission of articles: 31 August 2010
>
>Final revised papers due: 30 October 
>2010.  Publication:  Issue 2.3 (June 2011)
>
>
>
>

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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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