This volume brings together a range of views and arguments that healthily contribute to global conversations on media, culture and conflict in Africa. It explores how cultural practices, media practices, social movements, and the possibilities of emerging technologies could be ventilated and directed towards remediating the perilous state of affairs in political, social, and economic spaces in contemporary Africa. As the intersection of culture and conflict is relatively underexplored or under-researched in African media studies, this book makes an important contribution to the field.

African audiences and users are rapidly gaining in importance and increasingly targeted by global media companies, social media platforms and mobile phone operators. This is the first edited volume that addresses the everyday lived experiences of Africans in their interaction with different kinds of media: old and new, state and private, elite and popular, global and national, material and virtual. So far, the bulk of academic research on media and communication in Africa has studied media through the lens of media-state relations, thereby adopting liberal democracy as the normative ideal and examining the potential contribution of African media to development and democratization. Focusing instead on everyday media culture in a range of African countries, this volume contributes to the broader project of provincializing and decolonizing audience and internet studies.

How can an "ethics of listening" guide the media to contribute to the deepening of democracy in Africa? In Africa, the media plays a significant role in conflict management and resolution. Which conflicts the media report, which are ignored, and how conflicts are represented can have a profound impact on the outcomes. While the media can in some cases ensure the stability of African democracy, critics have pointed out that in other cases, the media actually increases tensions in areas of conflict. The media tends to privilege only elite voices, offering superficial coverage of marginalized groups in a way that increases polarization. In The Ethics of Engagement, Herman Wasserman explores the ethics of the media in conflicts that arise during transitions to democracy in Africa. He examines the roles, responsibilities, and obligations of media in contexts of high socioeconomic inequality. In doing so, he looks at ethnic and racial polarization in the histories of colonialism, post-colonial authoritarianism, and hybrid regimes. Taking a critical view of the normative guidelines and professional identities of journalism inherited from contexts outside of Africa, he argues that a more reciprocal and collaborative approach is needed. He develops a new ethics of engagement that would require the media to facilitate the resolution of conflicts across differences of ethnicity, citizenship, and class. A central point of this theory is the development of an "ethics of listening" which would enable the media to conceive of their role as facilitators in democratic deliberation and community-building. Wasserman applies his ethics of listening to case studies across the African continent. He finds that by following this new model of conduct, the media may actually deepen democracy and help de-escalate conflict. This original study provides a useful framework for reimaging the media's role in transitional democracies in Africa--and across the globe.

This timely book presents a multifaceted look at war, media, and propaganda from international perspectives. Focusing on the media's role in global conflicts, prominent authors, journalists, scholars, and researchers provide an insightful overview of the impact of globalization on media practices. They explore war coverage, propaganda techniques, public opinion, and the effects of media globalization on human affairs and communication, as well as the cultural-political implications for the United States and other countries around the world.

Reflections on War is a comprehensive and objective investigation into the problems of war. The book explores the crucial link between theory, strategy and objectives in war, taking all the evidence and theory into account, and should be of interest to military practitioners, specialists in defence studies, and others interested in military history. Also notable about the work is its ability to draw insights together from international legal theory, management sciences, history, sociology and the political economy of war - showing due respect for the moral complexities involved in waging war.

Critical Readings: Sport, Culture and the Media contains a broad range of essays on the relationships between sport, culture and the media. Featuring a mixture of classic works and recent texts, the Reader provides students, lecturers and researchers with an essential core of readings on the topic. The readings examine media and sport in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Asia and Africa and explore topics such as: Sport as entertainment: the role of mass communications The manufacture of sports news for the daily press The televised sports manhood formula Women, sport and globalization Sport on the information superhighway Advertising sportswear to black audiences Mega-events and media culture: sport and the Olympics Designed to complement the key textbook in the area, Sport, Culture and Media, this collection of critical readings can also be used independently, ideally in undergraduate and postgraduate studies in culture and media, sociology, sport and leisure studies, communication, race, ethnicity and gender. Essays by: John Amis, David L. Andrews, Ketra L. Armstrong, Frank B. Ashley, Joan Chandler, George B. Cunningham, Michele Dunbar, Laurel Davis, John Goldlust, Darnell Hunt, Kyle W. Kusz, James F. Larson, Geoffrey Lawrence, Mark D. Lowes, David McGimpsey, Jim McKay, Miquel de Moragas Sp?, Michael A. Messner, Toby Miller, Robert E. Rinehart, Nancy K. Rivenburgh, David Rowe, Maurice Roche, Michael Sagas, Michael Silk, Trevor Slack, Deborah Stevenson, Brian Stoddart, Lawrence A. Wenner, Brian J. Wrigley

The essays in this collection reveal that the social and political development of post-apartheid South Africa depends to an important degree on the evolving cultural, social and political identities of its diverse population and on the role of the media of mass communications in the country's new multicultural democracy. The popular struggle against the country's former apartheid regime and the on-going democratisation of South African politics have generated enormous creativity and inspiration as well as many contradictions and unfulfilled expectations. In the present period of social transformation, the legacy of the country's past is both a source of continuing conflict and tension as well as a cause for celebration and hope. Post-apartheid South Africa provides an important case study of social transformation and how the cultural, social and political identities of a diverse population and the structure and practices of the media of mass communications affect the prospects for developing a multicultural democracy. The promise and the challenge of building a multicultural democratic society in a country with a racist and violent authoritarian legacy involves people with different identities and interests learning how to respect their differences and to live together in peace. It involves developing an inclusive or overarching common identity and a commitment to working together for a common destiny based on social equity and justice. South Africa's media of mass communications have an important role to play in the process of unprecedented social transformation - both in developing the respect for differences and the overarching identity as well as providing the public forum and the channels of communication needed for the successful development of the country's multicultural democracy. In South Africa, the democratization of the media must go hand in hand with the democratization of the political system in order to ensure that the majority of the citizenry participate effectively in the country's multicultural democracy. Topics covered include The "Struggle for African Identity: Thabo Mbeki's African Renaissance", "Between the Local and the Global: South African Languages and the Internet", "Shooting the East/Veils and Masks: Uncovering Orientalism in South African Media" and "Black and White in Ink: Discourses of Resistance in South African Cartooning". Contributors are Pal Ahluwalia, Gabeba Baderoon, Richard L. Harris, Sean Jacobs, Elizabeth Le Roux, Andy Mason, Thembisa Mjwacu, Herman Wasserman, and Abebe Zegeye.

This Handbook links the growing body of media and conflict research with the field of security studies. The academic sub-field of media and conflict has developed and expanded greatly over the past two decades. Operating across a diverse range of academic disciplines, academics are studying the impact the media has on governments pursuing war, responses to humanitarian crises and violent political struggles, and the role of the media as a facilitator of, and a threat to, both peace building and conflict prevention. This handbook seeks to consolidate existing knowledge by linking the body of conflict and media studies with work in security studies. The handbook is arranged into five parts: Theory and Principles. Media, the State and War Media and Human Security Media and Policymaking within the Security State New Issues in Security and Conflict and Future Directions For scholars of security studies, this handbook will provide a key point of reference for state of the art scholarship concerning the media-security nexus; for scholars of communication and media studies, the handbook will provide a comprehensive mapping of the media-conflict field.

Communication, Culture, and Human Rights in Africa provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary analysis of the interface between human rights and civil society, the media, gender, education, religion, health communication, and political processes, weaving theory, history, policy, and case analyses into a holistic intellectual and cultural critique while offering practical solutions.

The book contributes to the sparse academic literature on African and minority language media research. It serves as a compendium of experiences, activities and case studies on the use of native language media. Chapters in this book make theoretical, methodical and empirical contributions about indigenous African language media that are affected by structural factors of politics, technology, culture and economy and how they are creatively produced and appropriated by their audiences across African cultures and contexts. This book explores indigenous African language media about media representations, media texts and contents, practice-based activities, audience reception and participation, television, popular culture and cinema, peace and conflict resolution, health and environmental crisis communication, citizen journalism, ethnic and identity formation, beat analysis and investigative journalism, and corporate communication. There are hardly any similar works that focus on the various issues relating to this body of knowledge. The book provides a valuable companion for scholars in various fields like communication, media studies, African studies, African languages, popular culture, journalism, health and environmental communication.