Full Description
This handbook bridges a research and praxis gap, with contributions from both scholars and scholar-practitioners, to form an overview of communication scholarship in African contexts.
The anthology showcases how communication scholarship can converse with on-the-ground initiatives and activism on the African continent. Rather than attempting to provide one homogeneous picture of a diverse continent, the handbook highlights the need to embrace an African worldview, regional variations, diverse meta-theoretical perspectives, and contributions from different subfields in communication (e.g., organizational communication, mass communication, gender and communication, crisis communication, health communication, among others). It addresses emerging and evolving issues in praxis such as digitalization and the role of technology, new forms of activism, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
This is an essential resource for advanced students and scholars in communication theory, international communication, African studies, and the various subfields of communication studies as they relate to the African context.
Contents
Editors' Introduction: African Communication Studies: A Celebration and a Call for (Further) Action Section 1: Metatheoretical Perspectives 1. Africa at a Crossroads: Resisting Power and Unpacking Africa's Problems and Possibilities through a Post-Positivist Approach 2. Interpretive Perspectives on Communication in Africa 3. Critiquing Colonialism in African Communication Studies 4. Postcolonial and Subaltern Scholarship on Communication in the African Continent: Storytelling, Representation, and Resistance Section 2: Research Areas 5. On Ethiopian Media Studies: Some Initial Musings on an Emerging Scholarly Current 6. Media Veracity and Platform Authenticity: The Case of WhatsApp in Africa 7. Public Relations in the African Context: A Review of Current Scholarship 8. Organizational Communication Research in Africa: An Analytical Review 9. An Exploration of Health Communication in Africa: A Systematic Analytic Review 10. Technology and Communication 11. Communication and Gender Inequality in Africa 12. Gender, Culture and Media Dynamics in Africa: A Critical Reflection 13. Communicating Sport in Africa: A Nascent Field with Expanding Trajectory 14. Toward Epistemic Freedom in the Study of Communication in/about/and "the Environment" in Africa 15. "The Past Still Present": China-Africa Media Relations and the Transformations in Global Communication 16. AI-Driven Social Media Analysis in Africa: Trends, Misinformation, and Political Discourse Section 3: Research and Practice 17. Situating the Catalytic Role of Cellular Technology within the Paradigmatic Shifts of Social Transformation among the Disenfranchised in Sub-Saharan Africa 18. Media Coverage and Activism Research and Practice in Africa 19. Communication Law Education in East Africa 20. Reflections on Development Communication, Gender, and Health in Africa 21. Peacebuilding and Communication in Africa 22. Communication Research and Human Rights in Africa: Perspectives, Practices and Prospects 23. Naked Protests in Africa: A Critical Reading and Theorizing of African Resistance 24. Indigenous Voices in the Digital Age: SMS Technologies for Environmental Justice Among Kenya's Ogiek
