Bi-Annual International Conference on Telecommunication and Digitality (BICTaD)

Socio-economics, Cultures and Technologies in the Changing Global Landscape”

Conference details:

Date: 20th -23rd October 2025

• 20th October 2025-Postgraduate Pre-conference
• 21st -23rd October- Main conference

Time: 09h00 - 16h00
Venue: Unisa, Main campus (Muckleneuk), Pretoria

In an era defined by exponential digital transformation, the global media and telecommunication landscape is undergoing seismic shifts that have profound implications for innovation, governance, journalism, socio-economic inclusion, and epistemic justice. Nowhere are these transformations more complex and more consequential than they are in Africa, where histories of colonial extraction intersect with contemporary struggles for digital sovereignty, equitable access, and culturally relevant innovation.

This conference calls us to interrogate the evolving contours of telecommunication and digital media economies from a distinctly global south perspective, foregrounding African experiences, resistances, and renaissance. As platforms proliferate and datafication deepens, we must grapple with the ways in which digital media often externally owned, engineered, and governed reproduce global asymmetries even as they promise connectivity and progress.

This determines who gets to set the global agenda. At the same time, communities across the globe are engaging in radical experimentation with digital tools and networks, fostering novel forms of inclusion, creativity, and social organisation that challenge dominant paradigms.content production? What are the implications of big-tech, data colonialism, disinformation, and digital entrepreneurship for press freedom, equity, and economic redistribution? How do we theorise and operationalise decolonial digital futures in contexts marked by infrastructural precarity and epistemic exclusion?

Call of Papers

The Department of Communication Science at UNISA invites scholars, practitioners, policymakers, journalists, and activists to critically engage with the interplay of media innovation, changing journalism, digital capitalism, and inclusive development. How do telecom regulations and media economies intersect with questions of linguistic diversity, algorithmic justice, and local.

Submission Deadlines:

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 19 September 2025
• Notification of Acceptance: Within Two Weeks
• Submit to: comms@unisa.ac.za

Conference Fee:

• Students: R1000
• Academics: R2500
• Professionals: R2500

Logistical Information:

• The Conference will be in person at the University of South Africa (UNISA).

Registration link: https://bit.ly/44E35xk

Special Feature

This conference is held in alignment with the annual Percy Qoboza Memorial Lecture. The lecture commemorates the legacy of Percy Qoboza, a fearless South African journalist and editor who championed truth and freedom of expression during apartheid. In his spirit, this conference explores how digital technologies, especially in media, communication, and telecommunications can be used to uphold justice, bridge inequalities, and empower new generations in Africa and beyond. As legacy newsrooms adapt to platformised environments, and new forms of digital journalism emerge across Africa, media professionals face urgent questions around sustainability, freedom of expression, and public trust.

From the rise of disinformation and algorithmic gatekeeping to the challenges of monetizing local content in global platform economies, journalists are navigating a rapidly shifting terrain. This conference offers a vital space for reflection, networking, and knowledge exchange exploring how digital tools can be harnessed not only to uphold the watchdog role of the press, but also to amplify marginalised voices, strengthen media independence. We welcome interdisciplinary submissions that draw from communication studies, digital humanities, media economics, development studies, information systems, political economy, and beyond.

Percy Qoboza Memorial Lecture

This year’s conference will culminate in the prestigious Percy Qoboza Memorial Lecture, which honours one of South Africa’s most courageous voices for press freedom. The lecture will reflect on the responsibilities of media and communication in today’s digitally connected and politically complex world.

We welcome submission that cover the broader themes:

• Inclusion, Gender, Access, and Digital Citizenship:
  • Journalism, Freedom of expression
  • Media law, Journalism education and practice
  • Health communication
  • Decolonising the Digital Economy:
• Telecommunication Infrastructure, Governance, and Geopolitics:
  • The Political Economy of Media and Telecommunications
  • The sociology of media in the digital age
  • Strategic Communications in the Digital Economy
• Education, Capacity Building, and Knowledge Economies:
  • Innovative Democracy, Digital Activism and Alternative Spaces of Participation
  • AI and Inclusive Media Futures: Challenges and Opportunities in the Global South.

Submission Guidelines:

• Abstracts (250–300 words) should clearly state the topic, methodology, and contribution to the conference theme or sub-theme.
• Include title, author(s), institutional affiliation(s), and email address.
• Panel suggestions are welcome.