Call for Papers
“State of the Media in Sierra Leone: Progress, Challenges and Prospects 2015-2016”
Media practitioners, academics and interested and qualified members of the public are invited to contribute articles for publication in the second edition of The State of the Media: Progress, Challenges and Prospects 2015-2016.
The State of the Media in Sierra Leone is a report card of sorts that seeks to capture the progress made in media development in the country – practice and performance, state-media relations, legal frameworks and management, etc. The report will highlight the challenges as well as the prospects for media development in contemporary Sierra Leone.
Media practitioners and media scholars will contribute scholarly articles under the general theme: Progress, Challenges and Prospects. The theme presupposes that the same critical issues that have historically posed threats to media freedom, responsibilities and performance have also created opportunities for progress and prospects for a more enabling environment for media practice in Sierra Leone.
The report is written for the general public. However, public policy makers, state functionaries, civil society organizations and students of mass communication will find it extremely useful as a significant contribution to the scarce literature on the media in Sierra Leone. The book will have the following parts:
Part 1: Performance, Responsibilities & Ethics: Assessments of media performance relative to selected critical and ethical issues that continue to pose challenges for media practitioners. This section of the book will also examine efforts of what essentially amounts to building a journalist’s moral compass of Sierra Leone.
Part 2: Media Laws and Regulations: Reviews and updates of both statutory and self-regulatory matters pertaining to the media.
Part 3: The Media Reform Agenda: A review of the key components of the media reform agenda – progress and pitfalls relative to each of the components.
Part 4: Media Management: Understanding sustainability and profitability. Expositions of why media agencies/institutions in Sierra Leone are arguably sustainable but not profitable.
Part 5: Gender Representation in the Media: Review of the status of women in the media, progress, challenges, and obstacles to women’s empowerment.
Part 6: Perspectives: Views from the public, state functionaries, civil society organizations, etc., about critical issues of the day and how the media have collectively or individual performed, satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily, from different perspectives.
Contributors may choose to write under any of the above themes.
Requirements & Specifications
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Phone/Email
Length of Paper: 2,500 - 3,000 words (10-12 pages) in MS Word
Times New Roman 12 points; double-spaced
Research, and evidence/fact based (state the methodological approach, theoretical and conceptual frameworks (where applicable), and provide references and sources cited)
DEADLINES:
Abstracts: 150-word abstract due 25th July 2016
Final Papers: 20th August 2016
SUBMISSIONS: Please send your submissions and inquiries to: mrcgsl.articles@gmail.com
Editor’s Note: Here is a video clip on the media in Sierra Leone today with specific reference to women in the Sierra Leonean media industry:
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