Media studies, globalization, and African realities

peer reviewedDespite the complexity and dynamism of African media industries, the study of African realities remains marginal in media studies curricula worldwide. Whenever they are the object of attention, people tend to refer to the same few, well known examples, such as the work of Ousmane Sembène in relation to the history of African cinema, or the role of social media in the Arab Spring in courses devoted to digital media theory. International film and media studies conferences such as those organized by the US-based Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS), the International Communication Association (ICA), and the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) mirror a similar situation, with very limited numbers of panels or papers focused on African media organized or presented at each of these gatherings. But Africa is today at the center of important, wide-ranging processes of media globalization, largely connected to interactions happening along south-south axis, whose study can offer original and important insights for the understanding of processes of media globalization the world over. On the ground of these assumptions, in this chapter we will briefly analyze some of the causes for the marginalization of non-western perspectives in media studies, in order to discuss the theoretical basis for developing an approach to the study of media and globalization “from” the South that could. bring to light the universal value of knowledge produced in relation to African realities and epistemologies. In the last part of this chapter, we will show the relevance of this approach through a few examples based on African case studies