Professor Herman Wasserman

Herman Wasserman is Professor of Media Studies and Director of the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He holds a doctorate from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and worked as a journalist before starting an academic career. He has held positions at the universities of Stellenbosch, Sheffield, Newcastle and Rhodes. He has published widely on media in Africa, media and conflict and media ethics. His books include the monograph Tabloid Journalism in South Africa (Indiana University Press, 2010) and the edited collections Chinese Media and Soft Power in Africa: Promotion and Perceptions (with Xiaoling Zhang and Winston Mano, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), Media Ethics and Justice in a Global Age (with Shakuntala Rao, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), Reporting China in Africa (Routledge, 2014), Press Freedom in Africa: Comparative Perspectives (Routledge, 2013), Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa (Routledge, 2011), Media Ethics Beyond Borders (with Stephen J. Ward, Routledge, 2010), Media and Citizenship: Between Marginalisation and Participation (edited with Anthea Garman, HSRC Press, 2017) and Media, Geopolitics, and Power: A View from the Global South (University of Illinois Press, 2018).

He has held a Fulbright research fellowship at Indiana University in the US, and has twice been elected a fellow of the media ethics colloquia hosted by the University of Missouri. He is a recipient of the Georg Foster Award for his research achievements from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. Herman edits the academic journal African Journalism Studies.