Academic Papers

The over two decades of the abolishment of the apartheid regime and the development of democracy in South Africa have been the subject of countless volumes and research articles, ranging from historical overviews and technical examinations to sociological inquiries and ethnographic reports. Herman Wasserman's Media, Geopolitics and Power, the seventh volume in the Geopolitics of Information series published by the University of Illinois Press, makes a point of taking both a step back toward...

While South Africa’s television history may be young and marked by the complexities of our political changes, a stimulating body of scholarly work on South African television has started to grow, especially on reality shows. This work is significant,  because there is now need to do more work on how viewers interact on social media with other followers of South African TV programmes and shows. This will enable us to uncover and analyse perceptions, different ideologies and discourses that are...

Music is culture and what musicians do is society

A BaNtu proverb says: “What you think belongs to you, but what you say belongs to the community.” This consciousness is extended further through the dynamics of African musical expression which, from a culturally-centered perspective is properly regarded as an enhanced form of speaking. By Malaika Mutere

It has been 62 years since the Federation of South African Women bravely took a stand against the injustices of Apartheid laws. Despite this fact, the role that women play in social movements and social movement organisations in not fully recognised. By Thembelihle Maseko Even though researchers and publishers who write about women’s experiences and dynamics within the movements note that these spaces are dominated by women; the way that they write about them tends to exclude women’s...

Date: 11 September 2018 (09:00-16:00)

This year the SACOMM emerging scholars’ pre conference is being hosted at the University of Johannesburg a day before the main conference themed ‘Communication at the crossroads’. The pre-conference will include the usual AGM to vote on important issues that impact on emerging scholars in the communication discipline.

By Mthobeli Ngcongo We often take for granted both the importance of cell phones in affording us to stay connected with our partners. It is as it here an extension of ourselves that allows us to be within reach of those we love. However, the mobile phone often presents a double-edged sword in romantic relationships. While the mobile phone can enhance the quality of communication, it can simultaneously become a source of conflict. In romantic relationships, mobiles may be used inappropriately...

By Mthobeli Ngcongo The state of affairs both socially and economically following the administrative end of racialized forms of segregation in Africa remains a point of great contention. While some uncritically celebrate the changes that have resulted in the ‘post-colonial’ era, not everyone is sold on this proposition. Tsitsi Dangarembga is one of many voices who have called for a re-examination of the socio-political milieu in post liberated Africa. She adopts the concept neo colonial rather...

By Jabulani G. Mnisi The month of June is regarded in South Africa as a month of the youth. Looking back to 1976 we cant help but think about the bloody sacrifice of the youth uprising that started in Soweto. Many young people lost their lives on the 16th of June in 1976 during the struggle against Bantu Education. The most notable death which in fact became a symbol of that struggle being that of the 12 year old Hector Peterson through the momentous photograph that was captured by the late...

Many South Africans actively undermined ‘the struggle’, not least of all because it could be lucrative business. One notable ‘progressive’ sell-out in the 1920s was the propagandist Samuel Michael ‘SM’ Bennet Ncwana, who wrote for a prolific number of South African newspapers. He also promoted an unprecedented number of political causes, moving from Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and South Africa’s first major black trade union, the Industrial and Commercial...

Dr Bevelyn Dube graduated with a PhD degree in Journalism from Stellenbosch University (SU) in December 2013. She is a lecturer at the University of Venda. Her address at the Universities Curriculum Workshop was titled “Confronting the Challenges of Africanising Curriculum in Media Disciplines”, and was hosted by Wits University. Dr Dube's paper interrogated the reasons journalism curricula in South African universities remain deeply embedded in Western epistemologies and philosophies. This is...

An address delivered at the for 9th Africa Day Lecture, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, by Dr. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza. Although capacity is limited given Africa's encounter with European settlers in the 15th century, Zeleza opened his talk on a positive note by pointing out that African has a role to play in world's knowledge production in higher education across the globe. Despite the potential, Zeleza acknowledged that colonilisation and its many social consequences...