J Siguru Wahutu
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 379784 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | J Siguru Wahutu |
| NOMBRES | J Siguru |
| APELLIDO | Wahutu |
| FIRMA | WAHUTU J S |
| AFILIACIONES | New York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4285-6048 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 15 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 62 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 15 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2017 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Interrogating colonial narratives about genocide and war in Africa
Western media portrayals of Africa have often reduced this diverse, expansive continent to tropes about hunger, poverty, disease and war. The essays in this forum section challenge these colonial and imperial narratives about Africa. In this introduction, we present the framing of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Western media coverage as useful for understanding how Africa has historically been framed in news media reports. Th…
Speaking of Africa
Much has been written about the coverage of the global south by journalism fields in the global north. Contemporary research has taken a step further by examining how non-Western journalism fields construct their own images. While these approaches are critical, a holistic framework that explores the realities of journalism fields in Majority World Countries remains inadequate. We illustrate the benefits of employing sociology of knowledge, field,…
In the Shadow of the Global North
In the Shadow of the Global North unpacks the historical, cultural, and institutional forces that organize and circulate journalistic narratives in Africa to show that something complex is unfolding in the postcolonial context of global journalistic landscapes, especially the relationships between cosmopolitan and national journalistic fields. Departing from the typical discourse about journalistic depictions of Africa, j. Siguru Wahutu turns our…
Understanding the role of place and context in the study of journalism in Africa
Consuming a Foreign Africa
This paper analyses the extent to which African journalism fields have outsourced the labor of knowledge construction to non-African actors. Focusing on the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and the atrocities in Darfur between 2003 and 2008, it captures the extent to which both news organizations and journalists privileged narratives from Minority World Countries as they constructed knowledge about two of the continent’s well-known massive human r…
Making African Suffering Legible
Although the last two decades have seen a concerted effort to understand the role and place of African journalism in covering events on the continent, there has been little focus on who journalists chose to quote as sources in their stories. This despite scholarship on sources being vital to our understanding of how journalists gain the “raw materials” to produce stories about events. Thus, while scholarship has begun taking Africa's coverage of …
Problems with Oversimplified Categories in the Study of Collective Violence
This article critically examines oversimplified categories—especially binary categorization—in analyses of collective violence. Researchers often use categories to make sense of complex situations. While they are necessary, these categories can oversimplify people’s lived experiences and can even directly harm individuals and communities during or after collective violence. Thus, we suggest that researchers continually assess their use of categor…
Making News Outside Legacy Media
One of the recurrent questions in journalism scholarship is whether journalism as a profession and institution can grow and thrive outside the traditional newsroom (especially, with the dominant agenda-setting media in most African countries being either state- or privately run press). In introducing this special issue, we revisit this pertinent question, while also considering the implications of today’s digitally networked continent, and the qu…
Fake News and Journalistic “Rules of the Game”
The increase in social media use within African media fields has seen a concomitant increase in fears and concerns about “fake news” over the last few years. However, there is little empirical evidence that “fake news” has been as much of a menace as observers would have us believe. Much of the “fake news” excitement is anchored on panic by American news organisations following the 2016 US presidential elections. Nevertheless, recent scholarship …
Prophets without Honor
In sub-Sahara Africa, periphery contributors exist in a liminal space. They are at once valorized and treated with suspicion by the local journalism and political fields. Valorization occurs when they engage with, and challenge, journalism from the global north, and the opposite occurs when they do the same for the local fields. Focusing on the former and not the latter is a disservice to the complicated and nuanced relationship these actors have…
Old Habits, New Realities
This article addresses digital cultures within the context of the fluid association between the media and the state in the African post-colony. Based on the premise that news organisations construct and disseminate knowledge, the article applies field theory in analysing observed and inferred practices at a radio station and journalism school in Kenya. The article finds that journalism curricula rely on predefined, non-contextualised norms and ar…
The Politics of Representation
Sociologists are not at the forefront of studying African news organizations’ coverage of atrocity despite having the tools to do so. This article works to remedy that. I investigate how a media field in Africa frames and represents an atrocity unfolding in Darfur. The article relies on content analysis of news reports published in Kenya between 2003 and 2008. To provide more nuanced analysis, I also rely my own interviews with journalists who ha…
Representations of Africa in African media
This article examines representation of the conflict in Darfur by the media in Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Rwanda. It analyses 850 newspaper articles published from 2003 to 2008 and journalist interviews from Kenya and South Africa. Using Mbembe's articulation of 'meaningful acts' and Bourdieu's field theory, the article highlights how the intersection of geopolitics, symbolic affirmation of unity and 'Africanness' and a ritualistic use of off…
What African media? Rethinking research on Africa’s press
This article looks at the representation of Darfur in Kenya from 2003 to 2008. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory and Rodney Benson’s habitus affinity and habitus disaffinity, this article highlights the pitfalls of using ‘African media’ as an analytical category when studying media representations of atrocities by Africa’s press. The evidence presented here suggests the need for an approach that is nuanced when analysing representation of issu…
In the case of Africa in general, there is a tendency to exaggerate
Based on an analysis of print media and journalists’ interviews, this article examines the representation of atrocity and mass violence in Africa. It specifically focuses on the atrocities in Darfur and Rwanda and compares African and Western coverage of them. It argues that since representations (just as the knowledge that anchors them) are highly dependent on one’s social location, it is necessary to understand multiple representations of the s…
Representations of Africa in African media
This article examines representation of the conflict in Darfur by the media in Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Rwanda. It analyses 850 newspaper articles published from 2003 to 2008 and journalist interviews from Kenya and South Africa. Using Mbembe's articulation of 'meaningful acts' and Bourdieu's field theory, the article highlights how the intersection of geopolitics, symbolic affirmation of unity and 'Africanness' and a ritualistic use of off…
Making News Outside Legacy Media
One of the recurrent questions in journalism scholarship is whether journalism as a profession and institution can grow and thrive outside the traditional newsroom (especially, with the dominant agenda-setting media in most African countries being either state- or privately run press). In introducing this special issue, we revisit this pertinent question, while also considering the implications of today’s digitally networked continent, and the qu…
Old Habits, New Realities
This article addresses digital cultures within the context of the fluid association between the media and the state in the African post-colony. Based on the premise that news organisations construct and disseminate knowledge, the article applies field theory in analysing observed and inferred practices at a radio station and journalism school in Kenya. The article finds that journalism curricula rely on predefined, non-contextualised norms and ar…
The Politics of Representation
Sociologists are not at the forefront of studying African news organizations’ coverage of atrocity despite having the tools to do so. This article works to remedy that. I investigate how a media field in Africa frames and represents an atrocity unfolding in Darfur. The article relies on content analysis of news reports published in Kenya between 2003 and 2008. To provide more nuanced analysis, I also rely my own interviews with journalists who ha…
In the case of Africa in general, there is a tendency to exaggerate
Based on an analysis of print media and journalists’ interviews, this article examines the representation of atrocity and mass violence in Africa. It specifically focuses on the atrocities in Darfur and Rwanda and compares African and Western coverage of them. It argues that since representations (just as the knowledge that anchors them) are highly dependent on one’s social location, it is necessary to understand multiple representations of the s…
Speaking of Africa
Much has been written about the coverage of the global south by journalism fields in the global north. Contemporary research has taken a step further by examining how non-Western journalism fields construct their own images. While these approaches are critical, a holistic framework that explores the realities of journalism fields in Majority World Countries remains inadequate. We illustrate the benefits of employing sociology of knowledge, field,…
Prophets without Honor
In sub-Sahara Africa, periphery contributors exist in a liminal space. They are at once valorized and treated with suspicion by the local journalism and political fields. Valorization occurs when they engage with, and challenge, journalism from the global north, and the opposite occurs when they do the same for the local fields. Focusing on the former and not the latter is a disservice to the complicated and nuanced relationship these actors have…
What African media? Rethinking research on Africa’s press
This article looks at the representation of Darfur in Kenya from 2003 to 2008. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory and Rodney Benson’s habitus affinity and habitus disaffinity, this article highlights the pitfalls of using ‘African media’ as an analytical category when studying media representations of atrocities by Africa’s press. The evidence presented here suggests the need for an approach that is nuanced when analysing representation of issu…
Making African Suffering Legible
Although the last two decades have seen a concerted effort to understand the role and place of African journalism in covering events on the continent, there has been little focus on who journalists chose to quote as sources in their stories. This despite scholarship on sources being vital to our understanding of how journalists gain the “raw materials” to produce stories about events. Thus, while scholarship has begun taking Africa's coverage of …
What African media? Rethinking research on Africa’s press
This article looks at the representation of Darfur in Kenya from 2003 to 2008. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory and Rodney Benson’s habitus affinity and habitus disaffinity, this article highlights the pitfalls of using ‘African media’ as an analytical category when studying media representations of atrocities by Africa’s press. The evidence presented here suggests the need for an approach that is nuanced when analysing representation of issu…
In the case of Africa in general, there is a tendency to exaggerate
Based on an analysis of print media and journalists’ interviews, this article examines the representation of atrocity and mass violence in Africa. It specifically focuses on the atrocities in Darfur and Rwanda and compares African and Western coverage of them. It argues that since representations (just as the knowledge that anchors them) are highly dependent on one’s social location, it is necessary to understand multiple representations of the s…
The Politics of Representation
Sociologists are not at the forefront of studying African news organizations’ coverage of atrocity despite having the tools to do so. This article works to remedy that. I investigate how a media field in Africa frames and represents an atrocity unfolding in Darfur. The article relies on content analysis of news reports published in Kenya between 2003 and 2008. To provide more nuanced analysis, I also rely my own interviews with journalists who ha…
Representations of Africa in African media
This article examines representation of the conflict in Darfur by the media in Kenya, South Africa, Egypt and Rwanda. It analyses 850 newspaper articles published from 2003 to 2008 and journalist interviews from Kenya and South Africa. Using Mbembe's articulation of 'meaningful acts' and Bourdieu's field theory, the article highlights how the intersection of geopolitics, symbolic affirmation of unity and 'Africanness' and a ritualistic use of off…
Fake News and Journalistic “Rules of the Game”
The increase in social media use within African media fields has seen a concomitant increase in fears and concerns about “fake news” over the last few years. However, there is little empirical evidence that “fake news” has been as much of a menace as observers would have us believe. Much of the “fake news” excitement is anchored on panic by American news organisations following the 2016 US presidential elections. Nevertheless, recent scholarship …
Prophets without Honor
In sub-Sahara Africa, periphery contributors exist in a liminal space. They are at once valorized and treated with suspicion by the local journalism and political fields. Valorization occurs when they engage with, and challenge, journalism from the global north, and the opposite occurs when they do the same for the local fields. Focusing on the former and not the latter is a disservice to the complicated and nuanced relationship these actors have…
Old Habits, New Realities
This article addresses digital cultures within the context of the fluid association between the media and the state in the African post-colony. Based on the premise that news organisations construct and disseminate knowledge, the article applies field theory in analysing observed and inferred practices at a radio station and journalism school in Kenya. The article finds that journalism curricula rely on predefined, non-contextualised norms and ar…
Problems with Oversimplified Categories in the Study of Collective Violence
This article critically examines oversimplified categories—especially binary categorization—in analyses of collective violence. Researchers often use categories to make sense of complex situations. While they are necessary, these categories can oversimplify people’s lived experiences and can even directly harm individuals and communities during or after collective violence. Thus, we suggest that researchers continually assess their use of categor…
Making News Outside Legacy Media
One of the recurrent questions in journalism scholarship is whether journalism as a profession and institution can grow and thrive outside the traditional newsroom (especially, with the dominant agenda-setting media in most African countries being either state- or privately run press). In introducing this special issue, we revisit this pertinent question, while also considering the implications of today’s digitally networked continent, and the qu…
Making African Suffering Legible
Although the last two decades have seen a concerted effort to understand the role and place of African journalism in covering events on the continent, there has been little focus on who journalists chose to quote as sources in their stories. This despite scholarship on sources being vital to our understanding of how journalists gain the “raw materials” to produce stories about events. Thus, while scholarship has begun taking Africa's coverage of …
In the Shadow of the Global North
In the Shadow of the Global North unpacks the historical, cultural, and institutional forces that organize and circulate journalistic narratives in Africa to show that something complex is unfolding in the postcolonial context of global journalistic landscapes, especially the relationships between cosmopolitan and national journalistic fields. Departing from the typical discourse about journalistic depictions of Africa, j. Siguru Wahutu turns our…
Understanding the role of place and context in the study of journalism in Africa
Consuming a Foreign Africa
This paper analyses the extent to which African journalism fields have outsourced the labor of knowledge construction to non-African actors. Focusing on the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and the atrocities in Darfur between 2003 and 2008, it captures the extent to which both news organizations and journalists privileged narratives from Minority World Countries as they constructed knowledge about two of the continent’s well-known massive human r…
Interrogating colonial narratives about genocide and war in Africa
Western media portrayals of Africa have often reduced this diverse, expansive continent to tropes about hunger, poverty, disease and war. The essays in this forum section challenge these colonial and imperial narratives about Africa. In this introduction, we present the framing of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Western media coverage as useful for understanding how Africa has historically been framed in news media reports. Th…
Speaking of Africa
Much has been written about the coverage of the global south by journalism fields in the global north. Contemporary research has taken a step further by examining how non-Western journalism fields construct their own images. While these approaches are critical, a holistic framework that explores the realities of journalism fields in Majority World Countries remains inadequate. We illustrate the benefits of employing sociology of knowledge, field,…
Sociology (13 obras) · Political science (12 obras) · Media studies (11 obras) · Law (10 obras) · Media Studies and Communication (10 obras) · Law (9 obras) · Journalism (8 obras) · Narrative (8 obras) · Politics (7 obras) · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts (6 obras)