The Africa media salon is a platform that brings together African(ist) journalism/media scholars and practitioners. The Salon creates a 'public commons' for critical reflections and conversations on the major developments in Africa's media ecosystem. We do this both as an intellectual exterprise and as a way of engaging with the media industry. We work around a number of intersecting thematic strands including but not limited to: media and democracy, technology and journalism, media sustainability and media and diplomacy. The platform encourages intellectual dialogue across disciplines hence a cross-polination of ideas and thinking from different spaces and actors; from the lecture halls to the newsrooms, from media scholars to journalists and from innovators to entrepreneurs. We are happy to collaborate with individuals and or groups pursuing similar interests. 

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The Team

 

Dr. George Ogola

Ogola is a Reader/Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. He is also the university research lead for the media and communication research cluster for the Research Excellence Framework (REF). He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. His current research focuses on the intersection of techno-/politics and journalism and the interface between popular media and popular culture in Africa. He has published widely on these  areas.  Some of his publications include Popular Media in Kenyan History (Palgrave, 2017) and The Future of Quality News Journalism: A Cross-Continental Study (Co-edited with Peter Anderson and Michael Williams, Routledge, 2013). He is particularly passionate about knowledge production in and by African scholars and is therefore keen to work with and mentor early career researchers from the continent.  He was previously a journalist at the Standard (Kenya), the Sunday Times (South Africa) and News Africa (UK).

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Dr. Hayes Mabweazara

Mabweazara has long-standing experience in both academic and professional media contexts. He joined the School of Social and Political Sciences from Falmouth University where he taught Journalism Studies for several years. Prior to coming to the UK, he taught journalism and cognate subject areas in his native country, Zimbabwe at the National University of Science and Technology. A journalism and media studies scholar focused on advancing the understanding of what is happening to news in a rapidly changing media environment, his research concentrates primarily on the intersections between digital media and mainstream journalism practice in Africa and the wider global South. He explores how immediate conditions of practice and broader social circumstances set conditions for distinctive forms of new technology use, as well as how technologies are impacting on traditional journalistic standards, values and practices. His publications in this area feature in a number of international peer reviewed journals and edited book volumes.

Hayes is a Research Associate in the Department of Journalism, Film & Television at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (FHEA), UK.

 

Dr. Bob Wekesa

Wekesa  is the African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS)  Partnerships, Research and Communications manager,which is based at the Univerity of  the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nairobi and masters and doctoral degrees from the Communication University of China. His background is in journalism. His area of research is the intersection of media and communications on the one hand and geopolitics, diplomacy and foreign policy on the other. He is specifically focused on public diplomacy. His current research work includes: Africa-US public diplomacy (including diaspora relations); cities as actors in international relations; Africa-US digital diplomacy and the representation of Africa in American media and America in African media. He is also working on the trilateral Africa-US-China engagements.

 

Dr. Admire Mare

Mare is Associate Professsor in the Department of Communication at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). He is also a senior research fellow in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). His research interests include the complex intersection between technology and society, mediation of conflict and peacebuilding, digital journalism, and youth studies. 

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Dr. David Cheruyiot

Cheruiyot is Assistant Professor at the Centre of Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. His main research interests in journalism studies revolve around the intervention and participation of non-journalistic actors in news production/practice. He has previously worked as a journalist in Kenya and Uganda.

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Dr. Emeka Umejei

Umejei holds a PhD in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and a Master’s in Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He is the author of   Chinese Media in Africa: Perception, Perfromance and Paradox (Lexington Books 2020). He is currently a visiting assistant professor in Communication and  Multimedia Design at the American University of Nigeria in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria.

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Ivan Okuda

Okuda is a lawyer and a writer with Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper and Managing Partner at the East African Center for Investigative Reporting. He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Makerere University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and was, in 2019, a Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) Media Africa Scholar at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg where he pursued a Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies. 

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Dickens Olewe

Olewe is a Kenyan journalist currently working for the BBC in London. He was a 2015 John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University. The fellowship focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership in journalism. He was the founding digital content manager at the Star newspaper in Kenya where he led the establishment of the newspaper's digital department including its website, social media platforms and audience engagement strategy. He's been a speaker on several media subjects including: drone journalism, digital publishing platforms, media trends, mobile journalism, social media for news, user engagement and crowd sourcing news, at several journalism confereneces around the world. He runs a podcast focussing on media innovation in Africa. 

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Dr. Basil Hamukoswe

Basil is lecturer and Head of the Department of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Zambia. He holds bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Zambia and a doctorate degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He was also a research fellow in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Johannesburg, and current research collaborator with the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab – MIT, USA.

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