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Tribune News Network
Doha
A new book on data journalism in the Global South by Eddy Borges-Rey, associate professor at Northwestern Qatar, focuses on transnational debates on how journalism is taught by exploring overlooked practices and approaches from Chile, Qatar, Zimbabwe and a host of other regions of the world.
In explaining the rationale behind the project, Borges-Rey emphasised that “there is no longer a single definition of journalism,” adding that “the ideal of journalism built after the golden age that followed the 1920s remained important, but only became part of a larger, evolving, knowledge-building phenomenon.”
By advancing the understanding of journalism that takes different forms in different countries, due to the unique strengths and dynamics that can be found in each place, the book, Data Journalism in the Global South, “advocates against the reductionist view that journalism only occurs in democratic societies, and that objectivity is the only lens through which reality can be measured,” Borges-Rey said.
While he and his co-authors, journalism scholars Saba Bebawi and Bruce Mutsvairo, are facing a scholarship that is still very much focused on Western concerns, he noted that it is the responsibility of the traditional and static data journalism model to dismiss emerging Global South research as “descriptive and exploratory in nature.” And it also uses “language barriers and different academic traditions” as criteria to exclude non-Western researchers from contributing to mainstream debates, he continued.
“If you really are for inclusion and diversity, these should not really be challenges or obstacles at all,” Borges-Rey said.
“In fact, diversity in approaches, themes, theories, and methodologies, when openly welcomed and adequately nurtured, has the potential to shake the pristine, monolithic structure of our current mainstream disciplines, and to further expand the limits of what we often take for granted.”
Borges-Rey also explained that he and his co-authors would like to demystify the traditional academic discussions that have been imposed on research in and around the Global South.
“We hope that these voices will eventually find their way into the centre of the academic debate and will be able to generate a much-needed cross-pollination by providing a platform to amplify the voice of scholars from the Global South,” he said.
The project is the first in a series of studies, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and Global South. BookAuthority has been chosen to be included in their Best New Journalism Books of 2020 list and “has been well received,” according to Borges-Rey, “especially by members of the Global South community who feel represented.”
Borges-Rey teaches courses in mobile journalism, data journalism and social media for journalists in northwestern Qatar, among others. Borges-Rey worked as a broadcast journalist, media producer and PR practitioner before obtaining his PhD in Media and Communication from the University of Malaga in Spain.
Doha
A new book on data journalism in the Global South by Eddy Borges-Rey, associate professor at Northwestern Qatar, focuses on transnational debates on how journalism is taught by exploring overlooked practices and approaches from Chile, Qatar, Zimbabwe and a host of other regions of the world.
In explaining the rationale behind the project, Borges-Rey emphasised that “there is no longer a single definition of journalism,” adding that “the ideal of journalism built after the golden age that followed the 1920s remained important, but only became part of a larger, evolving, knowledge-building phenomenon.”
By advancing the understanding of journalism that takes different forms in different countries, due to the unique strengths and dynamics that can be found in each place, the book, Data Journalism in the Global South, “advocates against the reductionist view that journalism only occurs in democratic societies, and that objectivity is the only lens through which reality can be measured,” Borges-Rey said.
While he and his co-authors, journalism scholars Saba Bebawi and Bruce Mutsvairo, are facing a scholarship that is still very much focused on Western concerns, he noted that it is the responsibility of the traditional and static data journalism model to dismiss emerging Global South research as “descriptive and exploratory in nature.” And it also uses “language barriers and different academic traditions” as criteria to exclude non-Western researchers from contributing to mainstream debates, he continued.
“If you really are for inclusion and diversity, these should not really be challenges or obstacles at all,” Borges-Rey said.
“In fact, diversity in approaches, themes, theories, and methodologies, when openly welcomed and adequately nurtured, has the potential to shake the pristine, monolithic structure of our current mainstream disciplines, and to further expand the limits of what we often take for granted.”
Borges-Rey also explained that he and his co-authors would like to demystify the traditional academic discussions that have been imposed on research in and around the Global South.
“We hope that these voices will eventually find their way into the centre of the academic debate and will be able to generate a much-needed cross-pollination by providing a platform to amplify the voice of scholars from the Global South,” he said.
The project is the first in a series of studies, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and Global South. BookAuthority has been chosen to be included in their Best New Journalism Books of 2020 list and “has been well received,” according to Borges-Rey, “especially by members of the Global South community who feel represented.”
Borges-Rey teaches courses in mobile journalism, data journalism and social media for journalists in northwestern Qatar, among others. Borges-Rey worked as a broadcast journalist, media producer and PR practitioner before obtaining his PhD in Media and Communication from the University of Malaga in Spain.
