Under the Wheel of Decolonization and Recolonization: The Crossroads of Journalism Education in South Asia

Abstract

A problem faced by journalism educators in South Asian nations is that curricula are not developed within their cultural, political, and historical context. Most often, curricula mimic those in journalism degrees in the Global South (usually from the USA) and transferred to media systems and political frameworks (often informed by the UK) that are both implemented in very different contexts. The end of formal British political colonization does not make it appropriate for journalism educators to flatly adopt US curricula, which is tantamount to the recolonization of knowledge. It has also been observed that journalism does not operate in a vacuum; it is shaped by varying moral, ethical, and religious values found in different countries around the world. Accusations have therefore been made that journalism curricula in South Asian nations, like many countries in the Global South, are grounded in Western normative ideas of the role and function of journalism and, as such, are ill-suited to, and ignore, the lived realities and contexts they serve. The global and the local do not exist as true binaries. While scholarship in the Global South has its colonial legacy, and the Global North-dominated scholarship in recent years, both have started to pay more attention to the polarization of North and South, yet less attention has been paid to a ‘de-colonization’ of the media and communications discipline. Even less attention has been paid to theory from the South that can contribute to scholarship in both the Global South and the Global North and, more importantly, that can be put at the heart of a truly global research agenda and curriculum.

To address this gap, this case study of Bangladeshi journalism education reviewed the curricula of leading university journalism programs as well as literature in journalism education and journalism cultures of the country to explore links between power, journalism education, and social relations. The study aims to encourage journalism educators to apply a decolonizing approach that appreciates the pedagogical value of local practices related to media and communication and also embeds Asian epistemologies across the curricula. This will help foster co-created learning that enriches both the professional repertoire of journalists and social well-being, by bridging the cultural, political, and social rifts between local and Western notions of journalism education. Based on the contexts and dimensions of journalistic culture outlined in the Worlds of Journalism Study (2019) and journalism teaching in the Declaration of the World Journalism Education Congress (2007, 2019), I argue that comparative studies of the news media from post-colonial societies needs to be used to provide an understanding of one’s own rather than imported curricula rooted in the Global North or West.