Seminar | Media decolonial theory: Moving indigenous knowledges from the periphery to the centre in the study of the post-apartheid media

Details

DATE: Monday, 13 November 2023

TIME: 18:00-19:30

VENUE: HS436 & VooV (Tencent Meetings)*

SPEAKER: Prinola Govenden, University of Johannesburg

MODERATOR: Dr Marco Pellitteri

Abstract

The hegemony of European/American approaches in the study of media and communication has been criticised from both Global North and Global South thinkers. In the last two decades there has been a movement for a de-Westernisation of media studies, fostered by a self-critique of scholars based in the West and and now towards exogenous calls for decolonising theory. This decolonial turn has begun in many Global South countries such as South Africa, where it was ushered in by the “fallist” student protests in 2015, which highlighted the need for decolonising education and knowledge. The vantage point of this talk is that, for this project to be effectual, decolonisation is a process to be continuously developed after the fact of symbolic movements and events; and, in order for the Global North and Global South’s imbalances in knowledge production to be addressed in media studies, central to the process is re-theorisation with indigenous knowledge. In this regard, I propose a new theory for South Africa media decolonial theory and highlight colonial legacies still present in the post-apartheid media, within the broader aim of re-centering indigenous knowledges in the study of media systems.

Speaker

Dr Prinola Govenden is a senior lecturer, Department of Communication and Media, University of Johannesburg (South Africa). Her research interests are the intersection of power, race, and class in the modern media. She has an upcoming book: Power, Race & Class in the Post-Apartheid Print Media: Transformation in the first twenty years of democracy (1994-2014). Her further current projects focus on “Decolonising the internet in Africa: Fostering cultural inclusivity in the era of 4IR” and “Reimagining and decolonising public service broadcasting for Global South realities”.

* VooV-mediated attendance is reserved for off-campus students and staff, who may book online attendance at COM@xjtlu.edu.cn

A link to VooV / Tencent Meetings will be sent via email. Booking requests will be accepted until 15:00 of the seminar’s day