Conditions, Not Labels: Media on the Margins in South Africa and the Reorientation of Media Research
BOOK COMMENTARY:
Krüger, F., Chiumbu, S. H., & Wasserman, H. (Eds.). (2026). Media on the Margins in South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-032-04027-5.
Media on the Margins in South Africa makes a timely and incisive contribution to community media research. Its central achievement is conceptual: replacing institutional labels with marginality as a cross-cutting lens. This commentary examines how its empirical chapters, spanning political economy, local content, volunteer labour and digital transformation, demonstrate that structural conditions, not designation, determine what community journalism can deliver. In refusing to romanticise community media, the volume unsettles assumptions about participation and inclusion. Its significance extends beyond South Africa, raising sharper questions for African editors and researchers about democratic value, sustainability, and whose media become data in decolonial inquiry.
Krüger, F., Chiumbu, S. H., & Wasserman, H. (Eds.). (2026). Media on the Margins in South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-032-04027-5.
Media on the Margins in South Africa makes a timely and incisive contribution to community media research. Its central achievement is conceptual: replacing institutional labels with marginality as a cross-cutting lens. This commentary examines how its empirical chapters, spanning political economy, local content, volunteer labour and digital transformation, demonstrate that structural conditions, not designation, determine what community journalism can deliver. In refusing to romanticise community media, the volume unsettles assumptions about participation and inclusion. Its significance extends beyond South Africa, raising sharper questions for African editors and researchers about democratic value, sustainability, and whose media become data in decolonial inquiry.
Publisert i 2026
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