[ecrea] CfP-Global Media Journal, African Edition --Special Issue on "Xenophobia and the Media in Africa"

*Call for Papers: CfP Global Media Journal, African Edition Vol.9.1.*

*Special Issue on “Xenophobia and the media in Africa”*

*Deadline: September 1, 2015*


*Editor:Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â
                                        Publisher:*

*Ibrahim Saleh, PhDÂ  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â
                         Gabriel Botma, PhD*

*University of Cape Town, South Africa                     Â
      Stellenbosch University, South Africa*



The /Global Media Journal, African Edition/ invites full paper
submission to its next issue that focuses on xenophobia and the media in
Africa. This issue will be titled: Can Democracy Counteract Xenophobia
in Africa?


Public trust in state power is usually the most important prerequisite
for preventing the transformation of xenophobia into violence. Even if
xenophobic indicators are high, a society with deep-rooted traditions of
legal culture and a predominantly law-abiding population does not resort
to violence if it feels confident that the “courts will make
everything right” or the “police will protect us.”Â

However, recent upsurge of violence against foreign nationals in South
Africa has raised contentious questions about how to talk about the
issue in the media.In 2013, there were a number of attacks on foreign
owned shops in the Western Cape.During that year, some Somali-owned
spaza shops were looted and torched in Valhalla Park, allegedly by
gangsters.And earlier in May 2008, thousands of foreigners were forced
to flee their homes in local townships across the country when locals
attacked them in a wave of xenophobic violence.


On April 26, 2015 Al-Jazeera online ran an article that quoted the
influential King of the Zulus, Goodwill Zwelithini, saying that
foreigners "should pack their bags and go" many saw it as a precursor to
the attacks which have mainly been targeted at migrants from other
African states. The king has refuted these allegations and says that the
media have taken his words out of context.


It is important to mention that the etymological meaning of the term
‘xenophobia' is ‘fear of the strange’ and also ‘fear of the
unusual’, deriving from the Greek ξενοφοβία, /xenophobia/,
and composed of ξένος, /xenos/, ‘stranger, unusual’  and
eφόβος, /phobos/, ‘fear’_1 . Xenophobia is characterized by the
irrational and irregular fear of foreigners or strangers_3 . It
encompasses being repulsed by  unfamiliar cultures, politics and
religious practices_1 ^.


African academics and professionals frequently engage in heated
discussions about whether xenophobia is at the root of many large-scale
conflicts. Some analysts – whom we shall call sporadic supporters of
constructivism – hurl accusations at the mass media: there would be no
phobias as a source of conflict if the media refrained from emphasizing
the ethnic, racial, or religious identity of the conflicting sides or if
they ignored such problems altogether. Supporters, also mostly sporadic,
of the neo-institutional theory, which is more in fashion at present,
object to such opinions and claim that conflicts arise out of flaws in
the institutional system. If African nations were genuinely democratic
and ruled by law, the fundamental prerequisites for ethnic and/or
religious phobias would disappear.

The main argument that we want to attest in this issue, whether the
outbursts of xenophobia do (or not) have any immediate relationship to
human nature (which practically does not change). Nor are they tied to
the type of the political regime. Most frequently, they arise from the
non-systemic social and political factors that dramatically change the
habitual course of life. Such examples include sweeping terrorist
attacks, or dragged-out armed campaigns led by insurgents against
government troops, and various crises – economic, demographic (when
the majority turns, or runs the risk of turning, into a minority), and
those involving international relations.

If this is the case, then a question arises: can liberal democratic
institutions in Africa, or other fundamental political factors in a
democratic state curb the spread of xenophobia?

-----------------

 Fiore, Innocenzo . "The psychological dynamics that make people
xenophobic." rivista di psicologia clinica.
www.rivistadipsicologiaclinica.it/english/number3_08/Fiore.htm
<http://www.rivistadipsicologiaclinica.it/english/number3_08/Fiore.htm>


*Ibrahim Saleh, PhD*

Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town; Chair of Journalism
Research & Education Section, International Association for Media &
Communication Research (IAMCR) & Editor of the Journal of Transnational
'Worlds of Power’: Proliferation of Journalism & Professional
Standards & the Global Media Journal, African Edition. Saleh is also
the editor of the Book Series “Visual Politics of Wars."

Email:Â (Ibrahim.Saleh /at/ uct.ac.za) <mailto:(Ibrahim.Saleh /at/ uct.ac.za)>Â &Â
(jre09is /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(jre09is /at/ gmail.com)>Â
Phone: 4837 (UCT internal), or locally 021 650 4837
Personal website:http://cfms.uct.ac.za/staff/ibrahim-saleh-phd/
Twitter: DrIbrahimSaleh
Skype: IbrahimSaleh112


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