Re-imagining Communication in Africa and the Caribbean Global South Issues in Media, Culture and Technology

This book advances alternative approaches to understanding media, culture and technology in two vibrant regions of the Global South. Bringing together scholars from Africa and the Caribbean, it traverses the domains of communication theory, digital technology strategy, media practice reforms, and corporate and cultural renewal. The first section tackles research and technology with new conceptual thinking from the South. The book then looks at emerging approaches to community digital networks, online diaspora entertainment, and video gaming strategies. The volume then explores reforms in policy and professional practice, including in broadcast television, online newspapers, media philanthropy, and business news reporting. Its final section examines the role of village-based folk media, the power of popular music in political opposition, and new approaches to overcoming neo-colonial propaganda and external corporate hegemony. This book therefore engages critically with the central issues of how we communicate, produce, entertain, and build communities in 21st-century Africa and the Caribbean.

1. Re-Imagining Communication in Africa and the Caribbean: ‘Releasing the Psychic Inheritance'.- 2. New Optics on Digital Media Cultures in Africa.- 3. Globalisation from Within: Enhancing Digital Productivity and Technology Transformation in the South.- 4. Towards an Integrated Caribbean Paradigm in Communication Thought: Confronting Academic Dependence in Media Research.- 5. Tracking Two Waves: Transnational Influencers in Africa’s ICT Policy Formulation.- 6. Decolonising in the Gaps: Community Networks and the Identity of African Innovation.- 7. The Commodification of Mobile Communications in Cuba: Tracking Political and Economic Change.- 8. From Global to National: Mapping the Trajectory of the South African Video Game Industry.- 9. Indigenous Hip-hop: Digital Media Practices Among Youth of the South African San People.- 10. Creating a Home Community Online During Carnival: Trinidad’s Diaspora and Social Media Use.- 11. Philanthropy-funded Journalism: Implications for Media Independence and Editorial Credibility in South Africa.- 12. Business News making practices in Zimbabwe.- 13. Displacement and Substitutability Effects of Online Newspapers on Traditional Media: A Zambian Perspective.- 14. Diversity in Broadcast Television in Botswana: Prospects and Challenges.- 15. Back to the Village: Integrating Folk Media into Rural Food Security Communication in Ethiopia.- 16. Popular Culture as Alternative Media: Reggae Music, Culture and Politics in Malawi’s Democracy.- 17. Ruling Minds: The Media and State Propaganda in British-Ruled Nyasaland, 1945-1964.- 18. Communicating Politics in Small States: Preferred Sources of Political Knowledge in the Jamaican Society.- 19. Dancehall Music’s Resistance: Upstaging Diageo’s Prescriptive Marketing Rules in Jamaica.