NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 8
Acceptance for an Honours programme.
Description
This course explores the intersection of digital media, development, and the environment within the African context. It examines how digital platforms, social media, and data-driven storytelling shape the communication, framing, and reporting of environmental issues. The course engages with concepts such as climate apartheid, environmental justice, and alternative conceptualizations of the environment rooted in Indigenous and decolonial knowledge systems. Through a media sociology lens, students will analyse the role of digital technologies in environmental advocacy, misinformation, and public engagement, while critically examining how digital citizenship influences participation in environmental discourse. The course also explores citizen science apps and participatory digital tools, assessing their potential to democratize environmental knowledge while considering the digital divides that shape access and agency across African countries. Students will be required to write a position paper on a keyword, complete a creative assignment (podcast, short film, data visualisation etc), and at MA level students will work on a co-authored journal article.
DP requirements
Attendance at all classes; punctual submission of written work.
Assessment
Two research essays (50%) each.