Working on disrupting stereotypical and biased stories about Africa and the Global South through re-appropriation of digital technologies and occupying online spaces
The focus of this project is to study transnational media flows and how media hegemony propagates a flawed narrative about Africa. It seeks to encourage deliberations on how digital technologies can be re-appropriated by the global south to challenge media hegemony and create alternative narratives and expressions.
The goal is to analyze asymmetric information flows between the north and the south and draw on discussions that challenge the commodification of certain images about Africa, for instance, by highlighting different lived in experiences of Africans through social media analysis, images, songs, street art, drama and film.
The Africa Media Collaborative uses a three-step model of rewriting and repositioning African narratives. The RDO model has three elements: reframing, disrupting and occupying.
Reframing: Retelling Africa stories that have been discriminatorily framed in global media, humanitarian agencies, social media discourses and other media spaces.
Disrupting: Disrupting biased and hegemonic narratives through hijacking dominant hashtags on social media platforms
Occupying: Sustained visibility of narratives that challenge dominant biased online spaces with narratives told by Africans from their lived in experiences through varied online forms of oral, visual and bodily expressions
What People Say
Africa has her mysteries and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them
Miriam Makeba, Singer & Activist
I dream of an Africa, which is in peace with itself.
Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa
I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.
Chimamanda Adichie, Nigerian writer and Activist
Digital Media and Civic Engagement 