Smash-and-grab, truth and dare …

Abstract

In this article, we daringly advance a ‘smash-and-grab’ approach as a radical epistemic grounding for communication studies. We draw inspiration from African scholarship, legitimating the ‘smashing and grabbing’ of usable and valuable insights from anywhere while viably calling for the construction and elaboration of conceptual schema that are locally relevant. In this way, we seek to reclaim the common humanity of scholars and to counter the current insularity by which communication scholarship remains steeped in archaic, patriarchal, and decidedly racialised ideas of the West and the rest.

Expanding comparative media systems analysis from transitional to postcolonial societies

“…In order to counter the Western insularity that dominate the discipline, we need to recognise that experiences of media development in the postcolony and the global South are not only equal to, but also necessary for, the advancement of communications scholarship as a whole (cf. Chasi and Rodny-Gumede, 2016: 696). Equally, normative classifications of media systems, along a sliding scale from free of political interference and highly developed professionally to politically co-opted and unprofessional, does not provide enough nuanced data to capture the nuances and unique characteristics of media systems shaped by histories of colonialism, and later aberrations and political systems based on racial suppression and exclusion (Rodny-Gumede, 2015a: 132).…”

A teaching philosophy of journalism education in the global South: A South African case study

“…If we are to be able to move away from a copy-and-paste approach to curricula development, and ground teaching in local realities rather than checklists for what should be included in curricula copied from the global North, African traditions of critical scholarship (Appiah, 2010;Mbembe, 2015;Mudimbe, 1988;Wa Thiong'o, 1993) that have not yet found favour in communication studies in the global North need to be considered (Chasi and Rodny-Gumede, 2016). In short, we need to develop course material and scholarly arguments grounded in local realities and experiences emanating from the context of the societies in which journalism is practiced and content produced.…”

“…There is a real imperative to make curricula more reflective of local realities and developments, particularly with a view to common issues facing the news media and journalism in young democracies, transitional and post-colonial countries in the global South (Rodny-Gumede, 2013). This is also made ever more important in the light of calls for the decolonization of the higher education system and in recognizing the experiences and scholarship of the global South as not only equal to the global North (Sreberny, 2000: 114-115) but also necessary for journalism scholarship as a whole, as set out in relation to the broader field of communications by Chasi and Rodny-Gumede (in press), and to advance radical epistemic change 'to counter the current insularity of communication scholarship steeped in archaic, patriarchal and decidedly racialised ideas of the West and the rest' (Chasi and Rodny-Gumede, 2016).…”