Colleagues from the University’s Centre for Film and Media Studies, Professor Herman Wasserman, Dr Tanja Bosch and Dr Wallace Chuma, are part of an international research team working on a project titled 'Media, Conflict and Democratisation'. The 3-year European Union-funded project  investigates media coverage of conflict in transitional democracies, that include South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Serbia.

The Media, Conflict and Democratisation (MeCoDEM) project is funded under the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme. With an EU contribution of 2.18 million Euros and a total budget of 2.89 million Euros, the project consortium includes eight partner institutions from six countries: University of Leeds (coordinating institution), University of Belgrade, University of Hamburg, University of Cape Town, University of Oxford, Stockholm University, Ruhr University Bochum and American University in Cairo.
Earlier this year, the UCT team visited Stockholm, Sweden to discuss the next phase of the project. This came after the completion of the initial phase, which involved content analysis of media coverage of conflict cases. The South African team investigated media coverage of the xenophobic violence, service delivery protests and the disruption of the 2015 State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February. The current phase involves in-depth interviews with journalists who covered these conflicts. These interviews are taking place across the four countries under study. The next phase of the research will include examining the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) on the dynamics and outcomes of democratization conflicts. 

“We are excited to be part of this initiative. The final project meeting will take place at UCT next year, where the dissemination of the study findings will take place” says Dr Chuma.