Herman Wasserman
PROFESSOR
BA (Hons), Hons.B.Journ., MA, D.Litt (Stellenbosch)
Herman's primary research interests are media ethics, global journalism and the intersections between journalism and popular culture. He is a former print media journalist, has authored and edited books on tabloid journalism in South Africa, popular media, democracy and development in Africa and global media ethics, and published widely in international journals. He edits the journal Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Australian Journalism Review, Communicatio and Journal of African Media Studies. He holds an Honorary Senior Lectureship at the University of Sheffield in the UK.
Professor Wasserman holds a B2 rating by the National Research Foundation, awarded to researchers who enjoy considerable international recognition by their peers for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs.
Prof Wasserman heads the Research Unit for Media in the Global South (RU MIGS)
News
Herman Wasserman has been invited to deliver a keynote address at the workshop ‘Mobile phones: the new talking drums of everyday Africa?’, as part of the research programme “Mobile Africa revisited. A comparative study of the relationship between new communication technologies and social spaces” at the African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, Netherlands, in December 2010.
Herman Wasserman was selected as a fellow of the Media Ethics Colloquium “Who will watch the watchdog in the Twitter Age?” St Louis, Missouri, USA, April 2010.
Latest Research
Books
- Wasserman, H. 2010. Tabloid journalism in South Africa: True Story! Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Wasserman, H. (ed.) 2010. Taking it to the streets: Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa. London: Routledge
- Ward, S.J.A. & Wasserman, H. (eds.) 2010. Media Ethics Beyond Borders. New York: Routledge (originally published in 2008 by Heinemann, Johannesburg)
Book chapters:
- Wasserman, H. 2010 The Search for Global Journalism Ethics. In: Meyers, C. (Ed.) Philosophical Approaches to Journalism Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 69-83
- Wasserman, H. & De Beer, A.S. 2010. Glimpses through the windowpane: A South African perspective on universal media ethics. In: Fortner, R.S. & Fackler. P.M. (eds.) Ethics and Evil in the Public Sphere: Media, Universal Values & Global Development. Festschrift for Clifford Christians. Creskill: Hampton Press
Journal Articles
- Ward, S.J.A. & Wasserman, H. 2010. Towards an Open Ethics: Implications of New Media Platforms for Global Ethics Discourse Journal of Mass Media Ethics25(4):275-292
- Wasserman, H. 2010. Political journalism in South Africa as a developing democracy – understanding media freedom and responsibility in the relationship between government and the media. Communicatio special issue: Journalism in the Global South: South Africa and Brazil 36(2):240-251.
- Wasserman, H. 2010. Freedom’s just another word? Perspectives on the media freedom and responsibility in South Africa and Namibia". International Communication Gazette 72(7): 567-588
- Wasserman, H. 2010. ‘We’re not like that’ Denial of racism in the Afrikaans Press. Communicatio 36(1):20-36
Conference presentations
- Wasserman, H. 2010. Of glasses half full: exploratory notes towards the role of new media technologies in democratic politics in South Africa. New Media|Alternative Politics: Communication Technologies and Political Change in the Middle East and Africa. Cambridge, UK. October.
- Voltmer, K. & Wasserman, H. 2010. Contested freedom. Re-defining the boundaries of media freedom and media responsibility in four new democracies. Paper presented at the European Communication Research Association, Hamburg, Germany. October.
- Wasserman, H. 2010. Zooming in to the local and out to the global: towards critical-culture global journalism studies in South Africa. South African Communication Association annual conference, University of Johannesburg. October.
- Wasserman, H. 2010. Global Journalism 2.0. International Association for Media and Communication and Research, Braga, Portugal. July
- Wasserman, H. 2010. Roles, responsibilities and relationships: Perspectives on political communication in South Africa and Namibia. International Association for Media and Communication and Research, Braga, Portugal. July
- Wasserman, H. 2010. Global Journalism 2.0. World Journalism Education Congress. Grahamstown, South Africa.
- Wasserman, H. 2010. The meanings of social responsibility: African perspectives on global ethics. . Global Media Ethics Roundtable, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE. March.
