The Media of Diaspora Research Group (MDRG) is a network of academics and professionals. It is based in the Lincoln School of English and Journalism, University of Lincoln, with members from universities around the world.
It aims to actively promote the journalism of diaspora as a useful, relevant and topical focus of socio-scientific enquiries in the 21st Century. The diasporic media refers to the media for and by the diasporic groups.
The group has contacted a publisher and discussion is at an advanced stage to establish a journal titled ‘Global Diaspora and Media’.
Rationale:
To examine the journalistic practices of diasporic groups including the organisational structure, business models, production practices, and professional values.
To examine the contribution of the diasporic media to the diversity of the public sphere.
To examine how diasporic groups engage with their own media and the mainstream media of the host country; and the implications of this for boundary construction and integration/acculturation.
To examine how the diasporic groups engage with the internet and social media to enhance self-representation and journalistic practices.
Impacts
MDRG’s research impacts on bridging the hiatus in journalism literature.
MDRG’s research impacts on the understanding of the variations in the appropriation and adaptation of professional values by the practitioners of diasporic media.
MDRG’s research impacts on the inclusion of journalism of diaspora/diasporic media in taught postgraduate programmes and research degree programmes.
MDRG’s research impacts on the identification and development of ‘skills set’ to enhance the professionalism of the practitioners of diasporic media.
Steering Committee Members
Ola Ogunyemi, University of Lincoln, UK. Chair and Convenor of MDRG
Andrea Hickerson, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. First Vice Chair and North America’s Representative
Amira Halperin, Truman Institute, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Second Vice Chair and Middle East Representative
Shepherd Mpofu, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Africa’s Representative.
Akua Gyamfi, Editor, The British Blacklist, London. Practitioners’ Representative