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Global Media Journal, African Edition Vol.9, No. 1, 2015 Editor: Dr Ibrahim Saleh, University of Cape Town, Publisher: Dr Gabriel Botma, Stellenbosch University
!! The new issue of the Global Media Journal, African Edition (Vol.9., No.1, 2015) is now available. It has become a
pattern to find academics, professionals and students of journalism bragging with the scope, techniques and dilemmas of investigative journalism. But there is one gaping hole: nowhere was information collated about the heroic contributions, and often the sacrifices, that were made for the profession by African investigative journalists across Africa. Writing a history or complete account of African investigative journalism is outside the scope of this issue and the journal. This issue comes in parallel with the aims of the UNESCO to encourage new academic research in this important area that until present has been covered only by a scarce amount of scientifically oriented studies. The Journalism Research & Education Section is organizing special sessions in IAMCR 2015 to strengthen this agenda and open new spaces for debate and awareness, As the editor, my multiple roots as an African, Arab, Middle Eastern and a true global citizen, I am trying to offer here a series of contributions – some current, some historical – on the topic of safety of journalists, that will, hopefully, lay the foundations for further research, and also lay to rest decisively the myth that journalism which exposes social problems and criticizes the powerful is ‘un-African’.Ibrahim Saleh, PhD Editor, Global Media Journal, African Edition University of Cape Town, South Africa
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Table of contents: 1. Digging for Transparency: How African Journalism Only scratch the Surface of Conflict Ibrahim Saleh 2 . Conflict As An Ideological Orientation of the Nigerian Media Simeon H.O. Alozieuwa 3 . Moral Decision & Online News MediaL The Case of Zambian Chishala Francis Chisembe Chishala 4 . Development and Review of Curriculum For Training diploma & Certificate Journalism Students in Middle Level Colleges in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya Sialo W. Felix & Millicent Makokha 5 . A Comparative Discourse analysis of Western & Local (Nigerian) Media Depictions of President Jonathan’s Declaration to Run For President Awobamise Ayodeji O. & Aderibigbe Adebola 6 . Information and communication technologies, mobile telephony, and politics in Africa: the end of the ‘communication for development’ paradigm? Christian Agbobli
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-----------Call for Papers: CfP Global Media Journal, African Edition Vol.9.2. Special Issue on “Xenophobia and the media in Africa” Deadline: September 1, 2015
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Editor: Publisher: Ibrahim Saleh, PhD Gabriel Botma, PhD University of Cape Town, South Africa Stellenbosch University, South Africa
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The Global Media Journal, African Edition invites full paper submissions 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.” 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.
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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.
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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 strangers3. It encompasses being repulsed by unfamiliar cultures, politics and religious practices1.
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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 neoinstitutional 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
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Ibrahim Saleh, PhD Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town; Chair of Journalism Research & Education Section, International Association for Media & Communication Research (IAMCR). Email:
[email protected] &
[email protected] 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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Editor, Journal of Transnational 'Worlds of Power’: Proliferation of Journalism & Professional Standards link: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/transnational-worlds-of-power-proliferation-of-journalism-professional-standards-4
Editor, Book Series: Visual Politics of Wars link: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/visual-politics-of-war
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Editor, Global Media Journal, African Edition link: http://globalmedia.journals.ac.za/pub/index
