Research and publication director: iMasa. Professor Extraordinary (i.e. visiting professor), Department of Journalism, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Research and Publication Background
Managing editor of Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies.
Editorial board member of Journalism Studies, International Communication Research Journal, Communicatio, Africa Media Review, Global Media Journal - Africa; as well as the International; Chinese and Polish editions of Global Media Review.
Editor of Global Journalism - Topical Issues and Media Systems, 2009, Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.
Author and co-author of chapters in refereed books based on journalism research with international publishers such as Routledge; Blackwell; Rowman & Littlefield; Longman and John Libbey.
Editor of Mass Media - Towards the Millennium. The South African Handbook of Mass Communication, 1998, Juta.
Author and co-author of articles in South Afrian and overseas research peer-reviewed journals, e.g. Journalism Studies; Journal of Communication Inquiry.
The articles and chapters mentioned above include topics such as: media and good governance; censorship; media freedom; media coverage of general elections; media and war/conflict; media ethics; conflict and peace in post-apartheid South Africa; the media and the issue of national and public interest; the media and nation building/development; the media and the SA Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); media, sex, violence and drugs; journalism education and journalism research.
Research projects include participation in two national audits for the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef); the SABC (on media coverage of elections in Zimbabwe and in Namibia); and on media coverage of the Olympic Games (Unesco).
Membership and Accreditation
South African National Research Foundation (NRF) accreditation as a researcher with international standing.
Member of inter alia the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE); the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC); the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR); and the SA Communication Association (Sacomm).
Herman Wasserman DLitt
Research director: iMasa; Professor of Journalism and Media/Cultural Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa. Honorary Senior Lecturer: Department of Journalism Studies, University of Sheffield (UK)
Editor: Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies.
Current research interests are popular journalism in Africa, comparative media studies in the Global South, media ethics, new media technologies for social activism.
Published locally and internationally in academic journals and scholarly books, and regularly presents papers at conferences in South Africa and abroad.Latest books include Tabloid Journalism in South Africa (Indiana University Press) and (ed.) Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa
Serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Journal of African Media Studies, Australian Journalism Review, Communicatio and others
Professional memberships include the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the International Communication Association (ICA), the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) and the South African Communication Association (Sacomm).
Rated by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) as an international researcher (B2 level).
Awards and fellowships include a Fulbright Scholarship (2006), an appointment as Visiting Resource Person in the Media and Governance Institute hosted by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria) in Dakar, Senegal (2005) and a media ethics fellowship to the Ethics Colloquium at the University of Missouri (2004) and St Louis University (2010).
Graduate degrees are in journalism and literature: Hons BA, Hons B Journ, MA, DLitt (University of Stellenbosch)
Previously a journalist for the Cape Town-based daily Die Burger, inter alia as arts critic and books editor.
Research Associates
Prof Francois de Villiers LLD fdevilliers@uwc.ac.za Faculty of Law University of the Western Cape
Dr N Stefanus Jansen van Rensburg PhD fanievanrensburg@soetdoring.co.za Research Associate Department of Antropology University of Pretoria
