By Enock Sithole
The Adwa Victory Memorial Museum in Addis Ababa is preparing to welcome African media and communication scholars to the 15th edition of the East African Communication Association (EACA) conference, scheduled for 27-29 August 2025.
Standing as a reminder of a country in Africa that fought off European invaders from colonising Ethiopia – the only country not to have been colonised – this historical place was deliberately chosen by the hosts, the Addis Ababa University (AAU).
“We chose this venue for its historical value. We think many African delegates will be proud to be in this venue,” Local Organising Committee (LOC) chairperson, Dr Agaredech Jemaneh, told Ajenda.
The EACA 2025 expects more than 300 media and communication scholars from several parts of the world to attend.
The LOC has been hard at work preparing for the conference since AAU was chosen as the host during EACA 2024 in Dar-es-salaam in September last year.
Part of the preparations included inviting abstracts for conference papers and presentations. The response was incredible, with 221 abstracts received, said Dr Jemaneh.
Abstracts were invited on the theme Media and Communication for Africa’s Integration, with 15 sub-teams, 13 of which were covered in the abstracts.
Abstracts were received from many African scholars, especially from Eastern Africa, the neighbours of Ethiopia, as well as from West Africa, such as Nigeria and Cameroon. “We also managed to attract the attention of many scholars from European countries such as Norway, Sweden and England. We also received abstracts from China, and we expect 10 delegates (from China) to attend,” said Dr Jemaneh
“During the process of selecting and reviewing the abstracts, we felt that some people had submitted more papers, so we advise them to select some for poster presentations and focus on one or two for oral presentations,” she said.
Some sub-themes that attracted more abstracts include Developments in Artificial Intelligence and their Impact on Media and Communication. “Here we have the majority of the abstracts and presentations. Similarly, Journalism and Communication Practice and Education in the Global South is also where people are more interested in coming to present on.” The third most attractive sub-theme is Public Relations or Strategic Communication, which received 21 abstracts presentations.
The environment and climate change themes also received a considerable number of abstracts.
The sub-topic of Media Laws and Regulatory Frameworks attracted only three presentations, while the Safety and Security of Journalists in the Global South and The Media and Information Literacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence sub-themes received a small number of six abstracts each.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t receive abstracts on two topics, which are actually very serious, for me. But, unfortunately, no one submitted an abstract on Media Diversity and Pluralism in sub-Saharan Africa.” We introduced this sub-theme intentionally because the theme is about Africa’s integration, so diversity and pluralism, we thought would be very nice (to have). Another topic which we missed in the abstracts is Political Communication for Better Regional Understanding, said Dr Jemaneh, expressing her disappointment.
“Surprisingly, we have received so far about 50 full presentations in addition to the abstracts. That shows that people are interested in publishing their works,” she said.
The LOC is sponsoring the attendance of scholars from the country’s 24 institutions that teach journalism and public relations courses, “because this is a place where more African professionals and academicians in this media and communication area are going to converge. So, we want to create strong collaboration between Ethiopian (academics) and those from other African and European countries”.
Dr. Jemaneh said the conference would leave a legacy the country would build on “because the media, journalism and communication areas are practiced by non-professionals (in Ethiopia) and they are not supported by knowledge… It has to be supported by knowledge, ideological frameworks, guided by principles, disciplines and ethics… All these have to be developed or strengthened through discussion, experience, sharing and knowing the ABCs of the discipline, and the sensitivity of communication in diverse environments.
“So, definitely, I believe it (the conference) will do something”.
Registration to attend is still open, and Dr Jemaneh invited scholars from all over the continent to seize the opportunity and attend.
This article was originally published by the Ajenda Newsletter