From Postcolonial Histories to Digital Futures: Rethinking Global Communication in the Global South

Authors

  • Ololade Afolabi Department of Communication and Media, School of Communication, Media & the Arts, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT 06825, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6000/2818-3401.2026.04.01

Keywords:

Global Communication, Interdisciplinarity, Global South, Postcolonial, Culture

Abstract

This essay invites scholars of global communication to rethink the field from a broader perspective. It challenges the dominant theoretical traditions that have long shaped research in global communication and argues for greater openness to interdisciplinary approaches capable of fostering a more expansive epistemological framework. By examining global communication through both historical and postcolonial lens, the paper calls for a multidimensional framework in which history and postcolonial experiences are theorized in more rigorous ways for scholars seeking to study communication from a Global South perspective, thereby expanding the analytical relevance and reach of the discipline.

References

Afolabi, O. (2023). Media flow in the global south: A multi-modal critical discourse analysis of Al Jazeera’s My Nigeria. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 67(5), 733-754.

Arthur, Omega, T. 2017. Glocal Nollywood: The politics of culture, identity and migration in African filmset on American shores. Glocalism: Journal of politics, culture, and innovation, 2, 1-26.

Boyd-Barrett, O. (2015). Media imperialism. London: SAGE.

Chakravartty, P., Kuo, R., Grubbs, V., & McIlwain, C. D. (2018). #CommunicationSoWhite. Journal of Communication, 68(2), 254–266.

Couldry, N., & Mejias, U. A. (2019). The Costs of Connection: How Data is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating it for Capitalism. Stanford University Press.

Curtin, M. (2003). Media capital towards the study of spatial flows. International journal of Cultural Studies, 2(52), 202-228.

Flock (2017). Inside Nollywood, the booming film industry that makes 1,500 movies a year. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/inside-nollywood-the-boominghttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/inside-nollywood-the-booming-film-industry-that-makes-1500-movies-a-yearfilmindustry-that-makes-1500-movies-a-year on June 1, 2022.

Hesmondhalgh, D. (2008). Neoliberalism, imperialism and the media. In D. Hesmondhalgh & J. Toynbee (Eds.), The media and social theory (pp. 95–111). Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Iwabuchi, K. (2007). “Contra-flows or the cultural logic of uneven globalization?

Japanese media in the global Agora.” In media on the move global flow and contra-

flow, edited by D. K. Thussu, 60–75. London; New York, NY: Routledge.

Kalscheuer, B. (2009). Encounters in the third space: Links between intercultural communication theories and postcolonial approaches. In K. Ikas & G. Wagner (Eds.), Communicating

in the third space (pp. 26–46). Routledge.

Kumar, S. (2014). “Media, communication, and postcolonial theory.” In The handbook of media and mass communication theory, eds. R. S. Fortner and M. P. Fackler, 1, 380–99. John Wiley & Sons: Chichester.

Kwet, M. (2019). Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South. Race & Class, 60(4), 3–26.

Matterlart, A. (2000). Networking the world: 1794-2000.Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Mayer, V. (2003). Living telenovelas/telenovelizing life: Mexican American girls’ identities and transnational telenovelas. Journal of Communication,53(3), 479-495.

Miladi, N. (2003). Mapping the Al Jazeera phenomenon. In Thussu, D.K. & Freedman, D., War and the Media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Miller, Jade. 2012. Global Nollywood: The Nigerian movie industry and alternative global networks in production and distribution. Global Media and Communication, 0(0), 1-7

Mohanty, C.T. (1984). Under westerns eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Boundary 2(12), 333-358.

Mohanty, C., T. (2003). Feminism without borders: Decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Durham and London. Duke University Press.

Morales, R. A., & Milfred, Z. B. (2025). Right to media: Breaking indigenous peoples’ systemic isolation. Frontiers in Communication, 10, 1528824.

Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.

Narayan, U. (1997). Dislocating cultures: Identities, traditions and third world feminism. New York, NY: Routledge.

Oloruntoba, S.O. & Falola, T. (eds), (2018). The Palgrave handbook of African politics, governance and development. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Pieterse, J.N. (2004). Globalization and culture: Global Mélange. Boulder: CO, Rowman & Littlefield.

Peralta, E. (2017). Why East Africa is hooked on telenovelas. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/06/05/529683214/why-east-africa-is-hooked-on-telenovelas on June 4, 2026

Ryan, Connor. 2015. New Nollywood: A sketch of Nollywood’s metropolitan new style. African Studies Review 58(3), 55–76.

Schiller, H. (1992). Mass communications and American empire. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Inc.

Shome, R., & Hegde, R. S. (2002a). Culture, communication, and the challenge of globalization. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 19(2). 172-189.

Sparks, C. (2012). Media and cultural imperialism reconsidered. Chinese Journal of Communication, 5(3), 281–299.

Thussu, D.K. (2007). Media on the move: Global flow and contraflow, London; New York:

Routledge. Thussu, D. K. (2019). International communication: Continuity and change. London: Hodder Education.

Thussu, D. K. (2021). De-Westernizing global media studies. Routledge.

Tindi, S. & Ayiku, C. N. A. (2018). Local reception of global media texts: Telenovelas as sites of cultural mixture in Ghana. Legon Journal of the Humanities 29(1), 259-282.

van Elteren, Mel. (2014). Reconceptualizing “cultural imperialism” in the current era of globalization. In Robert S. Fortner & P. Mark Fackler (Eds.), The handbook of media and mass communication theory (pp. 400-419). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Waisbord, S. (2022). What is next for de-westernizing communication studies? Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 17(1), 26–33

Willems, W. (2014). Provincializing Hegemonic Histories of Media and Communication Studies: Toward a Genealogy of Epistemic Resistance in Africa, Communication Theory, 24(4),415–434.

Winseck D.R. & Pike, R.M. (2007). Communication and empire. Durham, NC: Duke University of Press.

Witt, E. (2017). Nollywood: The making of a film empire. New York, NY: Columbia Global Reports.

Zabrodskaja, A. (2025). De Westernizing intercultural communication: Power, language, identity, and digital mediation across contexts. Journalism and Media, 6(3), 127.

Downloads

Published

2026-07-06

How to Cite

Afolabi, O. . (2026). From Postcolonial Histories to Digital Futures: Rethinking Global Communication in the Global South. International Journal of Mass Communication, 4, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.6000/2818-3401.2026.04.01

Issue

Section

Articles