“Media, Empowerment and Democracy in the Global South”

The recent special issue of Arab Media and Society may be the first academic take on the role of new (and old) media in the Arab Spring, but it won’t be the last.

Case in point: the journal MedieKultur is planning a special issue on “Media, Empowerment and Democracy in the Global South,” edited by Poul Erik Nielsen of Aarhus University and  Norbert Wildermuth of Roskilde University, to be published Spring 2012.

The issue will not focus on Tunisia, Egypt and the rest per se, but will be open to submissions about the uses of media, especially new media (i.e. Web 2.0 and mobile phones) in civil engagement, social movements and processes of social change throughout the developing world. The editors write:

We thus invite papers with a thematic and theoretical focus on civil society based forms of communication for democratic deliberation and empowerment, in the broadest sense. Case studies and attempts to develop theoretical conceptualisations should explore relationships between media and communication developments, civil society, citizens’ engagement and governance processes. Papers with a focus on such issues in the context of the Global South are of specific interest.

I am willing to wager, though, that the bulk of submissions concern the countries of the Arab Spring.

MedieKultur is still accepting submissions until September 1, 2011