USA Africa Dialogue Series - International PhD Scholarship

Hi Folks,

A contact of mine has just secured funding for a PhD scholarship for an African student, and he's asked me to pass this around.

Regards,
Shola Adenekan, Mr.

Project Title: Confronting the 'dream deferred': Of new media, citizen and community journalism in Africa

University of Central Lancashire - School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Reference No INT-036Ogola

Applications are invited for a full-time scholarship available in the School of Journalism, media and Communication. The scholarship is tenable for up to 3 years for a PhD (via MPhil route) [subject to satisfactory progress] and is open to international applicants only. UK/EU applicants are not eligible to apply. The scholarship will provide £15000 towards the cost of the International tuition fee over 3 years.

Project Title: Confronting the 'dream deferred': Of new media, citizen and community journalism in Africa

Project Description:
The 1990s was epochal in the history of Africa. Pluralist politics was re-introduced with the news media playing a critical role in giving visibility to and participating in this transformation. However, poor media legal and policy regimes in a number of countries frustrated the growth of an independent media sector. As such, nearly 20 years into the 1990s political transformation, 'media freedom' remains the dominant narrative around which the continent's media sector is still discussed.

A spontaneous corrective to the mainstream media however began to emerge in various social and cultural institutions in the late 1990s.The increasing availability and adoption of ICTs gave new emergent alternative media and journalistic forms new platforms to develop new narratives through which to articulate the reform agenda and encourage public participation. While this 'alternative' media sector is still not independent of state structures and policy regimes, new media technologies have enabled the adoption of and development of new forms of journalistic practices and platforms that easily elude various economies of state control.

Social media, blogging, citizen and community journalism, mobile news,are all aspects of and drivers of this 'alternative' media sector. This project intends to examine the growth of this sector, looking at ways in which it has acted as a corrective to Africa's stalling media liberalization process. The project hopes to interrogate the space social media and other participatory forms of journalism are negotiating within the continent's media landscape as well as the new practices they are developing as critical tools capable of engaging with and facilitating the continent's democratization process.

Applicants should have, or expect to receive a qualification equivalent to a high class UK honours degree.

Informal project related enquiries may be directed to George Ogola email googola@uclan.ac.uk Tel 01772 894829

Application Forms can be found at: www.uclan.ac.uk/studentships

Completed application forms should be emailed to researchdegrees@uclan.ac.uk

The closing date for applications to the Graduate Research Office:Friday 13 May 2011 5pm British Summer Time

Proposed Interview Date: 2 June 2011

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