Decolonising Digital Media and Indigenisation of Participatory Epistemologies: Languages of the Global South

The book provides valuable insights on decolonising the digital media landscape and the indigenisation of participatory epistemologies to continue the legacies of indigenous languages in the global South.

It is one of its kind as it climaxes that the construction phase of self-determining and redefining among the global South societies is an essential step towards decolonising the digital landscape and ensuring that indigenous voices and worldviews are equally infused, represented, and privileged in the process of higher-level communication, exchanging epistemic philosophies, and knowledge expressions. The book employs an interdisciplinary approach to engage in the use of digital media as a sphere for resistance and knowledge transformation against the persistent colonialism of power through dominant non-indigenous languages and scientific epistemic systems. It further advocates that decolonising digital media spaces through appreciating participatory epistemologies and their languages can help promote the inclusion and empowerment of indigenous communities. It indicates that the decolonial process can also help to redress the historical and ongoing injustices that have disadvantaged many indigenous communities in the global South and contributed to their marginalisation.

This book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and academics in communication, media studies, languages, linguistics, cultural studies, and indigenous knowledge systems in higher education institutions. It will be a valuable resource for those interested in epistemologies of the South, decoloniality, postcoloniality, indigenisation, participatory knowledge, indigenous language legacies, indigenous artificial intelligence, and digital media in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Fulufhelo Oscar Makananise is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He holds a doctoral degree in Media Studies from the University of Limpopo. Prof. Makananise obtained a PG (dip)HE from Rhodes University. He also serves as an external examiner in other South African universities and as a reviewer in international and national scholarly journals. Prof. Makananise has authored and published academic articles in peer-reviewed and DHET-accredited journals. In addition, Prof. Makananise has presented papers at both national and international conferences. His research interests include new media technology, digital media, indigenous language media and social media, political communication, digital diplomacy, and news media consumption.

Shumani Eric Madima is a Linguistics Senior Lecturer at the University of Venda (UNIVEN) in the Department of English, Media Studies and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education. He teaches Linguistics to undergraduate and postgraduate students. He completed his BA degree at the University of South Africa (Unisa), BA (Hons) in Applied Linguistics at the University of Pretoria, MA (Cum Laude) in Linguistics, and PhD in Linguistics at the University of Venda. He has been a teacher and a lecturer at South African Teacher Education (SACTE). His fields of specialisation are Sociolinguistics, Language Planning, Psycholinguistics, Language and gender, Linguistics in Educational Context and Media Studies. He has written several articles on various themes, such as Linguistics and Media Studies, which have been published in different international journals.