News/Research

Reginold Royston on Podcasting Africa: Pedagogy, Research and Praxis

27 Jan, 2022

Reginold Royston on Podcasting Africa: Pedagogy, Research and Praxis

Reginold participated in "Podcasting Africa: Pedagogy, Research and Praxis" to discuss the role of podcasts and media in teaching and studying Africa in a roundtable continuing the conversation of the 2021 ASA Annual Meeting. This year's session looked at Dario Linares' "liminal" practice of podcasting, the intersection of writing and morality, and the media that incorparates voices that were previously voiceless.

From Reginold during the roundtable:

I had a great conversation with Dario Linares about this. I mentioned him earlier. In his concept of podcasting as a form of what he calls liminal practice between let's say elite media voices and people who are emerging, and I think that's particularly true and relevant for the African mediascape as well. My research started in 2014. I put a bookend at 2018 which also happened to be the year the Spotify began to roll out podcasts ont heir platform which made it much more accessible. When I started searching in 2016 on Apple, Stitcher, at best I could find 50 podcasts that were coming from Africa or stating they were African as such. Now there are 1000s as such. There have really been a flowering of podcasting on the African continent since 2018. What we have seen are new platforms emerging and new voices emerging to do the work and the digital media claiming the vibrancy of African orality.

Watch the event here!