Department of Communication Science

Prof S Mpofu

College of Human Sciences
School of Arts
Department: Communication Science
Associate Professor
E-mail: mpofus@unisa.ac.za

Qualifications

  • PhD. Media Studies (Wits)
  • MA Film and TV (Wits)
  • Honours: Journalism and Media Studies (NUST)
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education and Training (UFH)
  • Certificate: CREST Online Training Course for Supervisors of Doctoral Candidates at African Universities
  • Certificate: Academic Literacies in Research Supervision (UJ)
  • Certificate: Strengthening Postgraduate Supervision (RU)
  • Certificate: Executive and Management Coaching-UCT
  • Certificate: Media Studies, University of Oslo

Fields of academic interests

Research interests

  • Media and Politics
  • Decoloniality
  • Media, identity and representation
  • Social media and protests
  • Communication from below

Field of Specialisation

  • Media and politics
  • Social media
  • Identity
  • Race
  • Genocide
  • Protests and social movements
  • Decolonisation

Books

BOOKS

  • Matsilele, Trust; Mpofu, Shepherd and Moyo, Dumisani. 2023. New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory and Newsmaking Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd; Matsilele, Trust; Tshuma Lungile A; and Msimanga, Mbongeni J (Eds). Forthcoming 2023. Media, social movements and protest cultures in Africa. Routledge: London.
  • Mphathisi Ndlovu, Lungile Tshuma and Shepherd Mpofu (Eds). Forthcoming 2023. Remembering Mass Atrocities in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
  • Mudavanhu, S., Mpofu, Shepherd and Batsirai Kezia (Eds). Forthcoming 2023. Decolonising Media and Communication Studies Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Rou[tledge.

Book chapters:

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2023. Monitoring the Fourth Estate: A critical analyses of the role of audiences in watchdogging journalists, in Matsilele, Trust; Mpofu, Shepherd and Moyo, Dumisani. 2023. New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory and Newsmaking Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd, Mutsvairo, Bruce and Matsilele, Trust. 2023. Whistle-blower journalism and the modification of journalism profession: A case of Baba Jukwa in Zimbabwe. In Saba Bebawi (ed), Different Global Journalisms. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.

  • Matsilele, Trust; Mpofu, Shepherd and Moyo, Dumisani. 2023. Diasporic Media and the Appropriation of Technologies: The Case of Nehanda Radio and Zimbabwean Politics in Matsilele, Trust; Mpofu, Shepherd and Moyo, Dumisani. 2023. New Journalism Ecologies in East and Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory and Newsmaking Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2022. Marginal societies online: A critical appreciation of genocide and its politics in cyberspace. In Ndlovu, M and Mlotshwa, K. (Eds). The Idea of Matabeleland in Cyberspace: Genealogies, Discourses and Epistemic Struggles. Pennsylvania: Lexington Books. pp. 3-15.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd and Matsilele, Trust. 2023. They steal our jobs and our women and sell drugs to our youths: Hybrid-media framing of South Africa’s ‘criminal non-nationals’. In Innocent Moyo and Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni (Eds.) Planetary human entanglements and politics of living together: Identities, borders, migration and citizenships. Palgrave. Pp. 103-123.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2022. His excellency, His Eternity and His outraged citizens: An analysis of the Big Man syndrome and internet shut-downs in Africa. In Farook Kperogi (ed), Digital Dissidence and Social Media Censorship in Africa. Routledge. Pp. 37-58.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd and Matsilele, Trust. 2022. They steal our jobs and our women and sell drugs to our youths: Hybrid-Media framing of South Africa’s ‘criminal non-nationals’. In Innocent Moyo and Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni (Eds.) Planetary human entanglements and politics of living together: Identities, borders, migration and citizenships. Palgrave.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2023. Multiculturalism discourses: Subterranean fault lines in the Rainbow Nation. In Innocent Moyo and Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni (Eds.) Planetary human entanglements and politics of living together: Identities, borders, migration and citizenships. Palgrave. Pp. 143-162.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd, Mutsvairo, Bruce and Matsilele, Trust. 2023. Whistle-blower journalism and the modification of journalism profession: A case of Baba Jukwa in Zimbabwe. In Saba Bebawi (ed), Different Global Journalisms. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2023. His excellency, His Eternity and His outraged citizens: An analysis of the Big Man syndrome and internet shut-downs in Africa. In Farook Kperogi (ed), Digital Dissidence and Social Media Censorship in Africa. Routledge. Pp. 37-58.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2022. Marginal societies online: A critical appreciation of genocide and its politics in cyberspace. In Ndlovu, M and Mlotshwa, K. (Eds). The Idea of Matabeleland in Cyberspace: Genealogies, Discourses and Epistemic Struggles. Pennsylvania: Lexington Books. pp. 3-15.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2022. Multiculturalism discourses: Subterranean fault lines in the Rainbow Nation. In Innocent Moyo and Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni (Eds.) Planetary human entanglements and politics of living together: Identities, borders, migration and citizenships. Palgrave.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2022. Mugabeism otherwise? A critical reflection on toxic leadership and Zimbabwe’s "New Dispensation", In Oliver Nyambi, Tendai Mangena, Gibson Ncube (eds) Cultures of Change in Contemporary Zimbabwe Socio-Political Transition from Mugabe to Mnangagwa. Routledge. Pp. 52-66.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2021. Ridicule and humour in the Global South: Theorising politics of laughter in the social media age. In Mpofu, Shepherd (ed). The politics of laughter in the social media age: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-19.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2021. ‘If ever I offended you I am sorry’: Black Twitectives, body shaming and disparagement humour in South Africa. In Mpofu, Shepherd (ed). The politics of laughter in the social media age: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 215-251.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2021. Social media and COVID19: Taking humour during pandemics seriously. In Mpofu, Shepherd (ed). Digital humour in the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-16
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2021. Social media memes, commentary and health disasters: Listerosis and Covid-19 in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Digital humour in the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 19-45.
  • Shepherd, Mpofu. 2021. Dark humour, ubuntu and the COVID-19 pandemic: A case of subaltern humoring of political elite deaths on social media. Digital humour in the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 319-346.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2021. Of beaches, monkeys and good old days: How social media race-talk is dismantling the ‘rainbow nation’ in Mare, Admire and Jacintha Muswede, Media and Conflict in Africa. Routledge.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd and Matsilele, Trust. 2020. Social media and the concept of dissidence in Zimbabwean politics. In Ndlovu Gatsheni S.J. and Ruhanya, P. The history of political transition in Zimbabwe: From Mugabe to Mnangagwa. Palgrave.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd and Mare, Admire. 2020. #ThisFlag: Social media and cyber-protests in Zimbabwe. (pp. 153-172). In Martin Ndlela, Social Media and Elections in Africa Vol 2. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Muswede, Thabiso and Mpofu, Shepherd. 2020. Medical xenophobia in South Africa. In Moyo, Dumisani and Mpofu, Shepherd. Co-edited Book Project. Mediating xenophobia in Africa: Unpacking discourses of migration, belonging and othering. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Moyo, Dumisani and Mpofu, Shepherd. 2020. Mediation, Migration and Xenophobia: Critical Reflections on the Crisis of Representing the Other in an Increasingly Intolerant World. Mediating xenophobia in Africa: Unpacking discourses of migration, belonging and othering. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2019. Afro-Orientalism in the Global village: Global Media imaginations of South Africa and Africa in the coverage of the 2010 World Cup. In Michael J. Gennaro and Saheed Aderinto (Eds) Sport in Africa.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2017. ‘Zimbabwe’s diasporic new media and conversations on conflict: A case of Zimbabwe genocide and new media debates’, pp. 205-221, In Ogunyemi, Ola (Ed.) Media, Diaspora and Conflict. Palgrave.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2016. ‘Blogging, feminism and the politics of participation: The case of Her Zimbabwe’, pp 271-294 In Mutsvairo, Bruce (Ed). Digital Activism in the Social Media Era: Critical Reflections on Emerging Trends in sub-Saharan Africa. Palgrave.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2016. ‘Blogging, feminism and the politics of participation: The case of Her Zimbabwe’, pp 271-294, In Mutsvairo, Bruce (Ed). Digital Activism in the Social Media Era: Critical Reflections on Emerging Trends in sub-Saharan Africa. Palgrave.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2015. ‘Transnational public spheres and Deliberative Politics in
  • Zimbabwe’, pp. 34-52. In Ogunyemi, Ola (Ed) Journalism, Audiences and Diaspora. London: Palgrave.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2014. ‘Memory, national identity and freedom of expression in the
  • · Information age: Discussing the taboo in the Zimbabwean public sphere’, In Solo, A. M. G (Ed) Handbook of Research on Political Activism in the Information Age. Pennsylvania: IGI Global Publications.

Edited books

  1. Mpofu, Shepherd; Matsilele, Trust; Tshuma Lungile A; and Msimanga, Mbongeni J. Forthcoming 2023. Media, social movements and protest cultures in Africa. Rowman and Littlefield: Maryland.
  2. Mphathisi Ndlovu, Lungile Tshuma and Shepherd Mpofu. Forthcoming 2023. Remembering Mass Atrocities in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
  3. Mpofu, Shepherd; Matsilele, Trust and Moyo, Dumisani. 2023. New Journalism Ecologies in East And Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory And Newsmaking Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
  4. Mpofu, Shepherd. (Ed). 2021. The politics of laughter in the social media age: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan.
  5. Mpofu, Shepherd. (Ed). 2021. Digital humour in the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan.
  6. Moyo, Dumisani and Mpofu, Shepherd. (Eds). 2020. Mediating xenophobia in Africa: Unpacking discourses of migration, belonging and othering. Palgrave Macmillan.

Journal articles

  • Mpofu, Shepherd; Matsilele, Trust; Tshuma Lungile A; and Msimanga, Mbongeni J. Forthcoming 2024. Media, social movements and protest cultures in Africa. Palgrave
  • Mudavanhu, S., Mpofu, Shepherd and Batsirai Kezia (Eds). 2024.Decolonising Media and Communication Studies Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Routledge.
  • Mphathisi Ndlovu, Lungile Tshuma and Shepherd Mpofu. 2024. Remembering Mass Atrocities in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd; Matsilele, Trust and Moyo, Dumisani. 2023. New Journalism Ecologies in East And Southern Africa: Innovations, Participatory And Newsmaking Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd, Mnisi, Sifiso and Makgoba Metji.  2023. ‘Money does not stay, it is a visitor': Conspicuous consumption and the fleeting riches in pursuit of elusive happiness. Journal of Asian and African Studies. DOI: 10.1177/00219096231173385/ ID: JAS-22-0767.R2).

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2023. Ruling from the grave?: The political instrumentalization of Robert Mugabe’s corpse in contemporary Zimbabwean politics. Journal of Asian and African Studies. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00219096221120925
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2023. Ruling from the grave?: The political instrumentalization of Robert Mugabe’s corpse in contemporary Zimbabwean politics. Journal of Asian and African Studies.

  • Nenjerama, Tinashe T. & Mpofu, Shepherd. 2022. Populism from Below and Social Movements: A Case of Zimbabwe’s #ThisFlag Movement.  Journal of Asian and African Studies 57(4): 693-711.

  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2022. Religious and political intersections: The instrumentalisation of Christianity during Zimbabwe’s 2018 presidential elections. Canadian Journal of African Studies 56(2): 383-406.
  • Shepherd Mpofu. 2022. Booty Power Politics: The Social-mediated Consumption of Black Female Bodies in Popular Culture, Journal of African Cultural Studies, 34(2): 186-204.
  • Nenjerama, Tinashe T. & Mpofu, Shepherd. 2022. Populism from Below and Social Movements: A Case of Zimbabwe’s #ThisFlag Movement. Journal of Asian and African Studies 57(4): 693-711.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. (Ed). 2021. The politics of laughter in the social media age: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. (Ed). 2021. Digital humour in the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives from the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd; Ndlovu, Mphathisi and Tshuma, Lungile. 2021. The artist and filmmaker as activists, archivists and the work of memory: A case of the Zimbabwean genocide. African Journal of Rhetoric 13(1): 46-76.
  • Matsilele, Trust, Mpofu, Shepherd, Msimanga, Mbongeni, & Tshuma, Lungile. 2021. Transnational hashtag protest movements and emancipatory politics in Africa: A three country study. Global Media Journal – German Edition, 11(2), DOI: https://doi.org/10.22032/dbt.51029.
  • Siziba, Gugulethu, Mpofu, Shepherd and Ndlovu Mphathisi. 2021. The Beginning of an End? Online (and Offline) Popular Resistance against Mugabe’s Strained Legitimacy in the Post-GNU Zimbabwe. African Renaissance 18(4): 31-53.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd; Matsilele, Trust and Nyawasha, Tawanda, S. 2021. The iconography of persuasion: An analysis of political manifestos and messaging of top three parties in South Africa’s 2019 elections. Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa 40(1): 67-88.
  • Moyo, Dumisani and Mpofu, Shepherd. (Eds). 2020. Mediating xenophobia in Africa: Unpacking discourses of migration, belonging and othering. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Mathobela, Semang Ramasela Lydia; Mpofu, Shepherd and Mrubula-Ngwenya, Samukezi. 2020. Coming out of the closet? Audience reactions to the heteronormative disruptive advertising. African Journal of Gender, Society & Development 3(2): 75-102
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2019. For a nation to progress genocide victims must ‘move on’: A case of Zimbabwe’s social media discourses of resistance. African Identities, 17(2): 108-129.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2019. Jesus comes to South Africa: Black Twitter as citizen journalism in South African politics. African Journalism Studies, 40(1): 67-90.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2019. Art as journalism in Zimbabwe: The case of Owen Maseko’s banned Zimbabwean genocide exhibition. Journalism Studies, 20(1): 60-78.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2019. Pornographic intersections: race and genitalia in South African political art in the age of digital media. Critical African Studies. 11(2): 230-261
  • Mpofu, Shepherd and Nenjerama, Tinashe T. 2018. Imaginations and narrations of the nation: The music of Raymond Majongwe and Brian Muteki in the identity construction of post-2000 Zimbabwe. Muzika 15(I2): 75-94.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2017. Making heroes, (un)making the nation?: ZANU-PF’s imaginations of the Heroes Acre, heroes and construction of identity in Zimbabwe from 2000 to 2015. African Identities 15(1): 62-78.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2017. Disruption as a communicative strategy: The case of #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall students’ protests. Journal of African Media Studies, 15(1): 351-373.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd and Chasi, Colin. 2017. Mandelaism in newspaper advertising that ‘pays tribute’ to Mandela after his death. A Special Issue in African and International Creative Imagination: Journal of Literary Studies, 33(4): 1-19.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd and Barnabas, Shanade. 2016. Citizen journalism and moral panics: a consideration of ethics in the 2015 South African xenophobic attacks. Digital African Review: A special issue of African Journalism Studies 37(4): 115-136.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2016. Participation, citizen journalism in the contestations of identity and national symbols: A case of Zimbabwe’s national heroes and the Heroes’ Acre. African Journalism Studies. 37(3): 85-106.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2016. Zimbabwe’s state-controlled public media and the mediation of the 1980s genocide 30 years on. Journal of African Media Studies. 8(2): 145-165.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2016. Toxification of national holidays and national identity in Zimbabwe's post-2000 nationalism. Journal of African Cultural Studies 28(1): 28-43.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2015. When the subaltern speaks: citizen journalism and genocide ‘victims’’ voices online. Digital African Review: A special issue of African Journalism Studies, 36(4): 82-101.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2013. Social media and the politics of ethnicity in Zimbabwe. Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 34(1): 115-122.
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2013. New media, old news: Journalism and democracy in the digital age. Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 34(3): 161-163 (Book Review).
  • Mpofu, Shepherd. 2011. African media and the digital public sphere. Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 32(1): 104-106 (Book Review).

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

  • Goldern Key
  • NRF Rating Research Funding R60 000
  • AHP
  • Merit Award, University of the Witwatersrand.
  • Editorial Board: Digital Journalism.
  • Editorial Board: Journal of Global Diaspora and Media.

Projects

  • New Journalism ecologies
  • Protest cultures in Africa
  • Decolonising journalism, media and film studies
  • New media and Identity construction
  • Social Media and gender in Africa

Other

Encyclopaedia Entries

  1. Mpofu, Shepherd. 2020. Audiences. In D. Merskin (Ed.), The SAGE international encyclopaedia of mass media and society (Vol. 1, pp. 116-118). Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781483375519.n52
  2. Mpofu, Shepherd. 2020. Twitter. In D. Merskin (Ed.), The SAGE international encyclopaedia of mass media and society (Vol. 1, pp. 1802-1803). Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781483375519.n695
  3. Mpofu, Shepherd. 2020. Zimbabwe. In D. Merskin (Ed.), The SAGE international encyclopaedia of mass media and society (Vol. 1, pp. 1926-1928). Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781483375519.n748
  4. Mpofu, Shepherd. 2020. South Africa. In D. Merskin (Ed.), The SAGE international encyclopaedia of mass media and society (Vol. 1, pp. 1635-1637). Thousand Oaks,, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781483375519.n632.