Member Organization Details

CENMEDRA

CENMEDRA - Centre for Media and Development Research in Africa - is an Africa-founded, Canada-based not-for-profit social enterprise that operates as a knowledge centre dedicated to advancing research, publishing, training, and public understanding at the intersection of journalism, media, development, and digital knowledge dissemination.

As a knowledge centre, CENMEDRA builds, curates, and sustains intellectual and editorial infrastructure that supports the production, evaluation, translation, and circulation of African-centred knowledge. Its work focuses on Africa and the global African diaspora, with particular attention to ethical, inclusive, and non-extractive approaches to research and publishing.

CENMEDRA integrates three mutually reinforcing functions: research, publishing, and training. These functions are designed to operate as a continuous knowledge cycle - research informs publication, publication enables public understanding, and training builds capacity to sustain both.

CENMEDRA’s publishing program is anchored by two flagship platforms:

• Talingtaling: A Journal of African Journalism Studies, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal examining journalism as a social, political, and development practice in African contexts; and
• Tiloo: The African Diaspora Magazine: The African Diaspora Magazine, a public-facing, research-driven magazine that explores the histories, cultures, political economies, and lived realities of global Black populations.

TalingtalingandTilootogether articulate CENMEDRA’s dual commitment to knowledge production and public engagement across scholarly and diasporic spheres.Talingtalingdraws on African storytelling traditions to frame journalism as a form of narration, testimony, and public memory. Its title derives from a Mandinka expression from The Gambia meaning “story, story,” akin to “once upon a time,” reflecting journalism’s deep roots in communal knowledge-making and historical record.

Tiloodraws on African linguistic and philosophical traditions to frame journalism as a vehicle of illumination, critical reflection, and diasporic connection. Its title derives from a Mandinka word from The Gambia meaning “the light,” figuratively signifying enlightenment, clarity, and intellectual awakening. In this sense,Tiloopositions itself as a platform that brings visibility to underrepresented voices and ideas, illuminating the cultural, political, and social experiences of the African diaspora in ways that align with CENMEDRA’s broader commitment to knowledge production and public engagement. As a magazine of the African diaspora, it serves as a platform for illuminating voices, ideas, and experiences across global contexts, extending CENMEDRA’s mission beyond academia into broader cultural and public discourse.

Through its publications, training programs, and collaborative partnerships, CENMEDRA functions as a knowledge centre that strengthens African-centred media and development research while building editorial, journalistic, and digital dissemination capacity across Africa and the diaspora.

What kind of institution CENMEDRA is (precisely):

CENMEDRA is not:

• A university substitute
• A think tank in the narrow policy sense
• A publishing house alone

CENMEDRA is:

An epistemic intermediary between African knowledge producers, global publics, and formal academic systems. This description places it in a very specific institutional category:

1. I.                  CENMEDRA as an editorial institution

As an editorial institution, CENMEDRA does four things simultaneously:

1. Selects (what matters, who speaks, and what is archived)
2. Frames (how issues are contextualized historically and politically)
3. Trains (how others learn to produce and evaluate knowledge)
4. Legitimates (what counts as credible knowledge)

1. II.               Integrates research, training, and publishing

1. Training is not an add-on: CENMEDRA’s training focuses on leadership and management in journalism, integrating editorial judgement, institutional sustainability, and media-rights advocacy, with all courses producing publishable knowledge and case-based learning. In effect, its short-term courses on journalism and development (broadly defined) in Africa are not designed as generic skills workshops. Instead, they are and should be:

a)      Derived from CENMEDRA core editorial charter

b)      Feeding directly into CENMEDRA’s publications

c)      Explicit about epistemology, not just technique

For example:

1. Courses on leadership and management in journalism should culminate in:
   1. Publishable long-form journalism or editorial analysis

(reflecting strategic, ethical, or institutional decision-making)

1. Annotated case studies

(on newsroom leadership, editorial crises, sustainability challenges, or rights-based intervention)

1. Peer-reviewed reflective essays (short-form)

(examining leadership choices, institutional constraints, and governance dilemmas)

This way:

• Training feeds publishing
• Publishing feeds institutional memory
• Institutional memory feeds leadership capacity

Crucially:

• CENMEDRA is not training people to do journalism
• CENMEDRA is training people to steward journalism

This distinction matters because:

CENMEDRA approaches journalism as a contested professional field shaped by ongoing tensions between economic pressures (markets, donors, platforms) and forms of cultural and symbolic authority (editorial judgement, credibility, and public trust). Rather than focusing solely on technical training for journalistic production, CENMEDRA emphasizes stewardship: the capacity to govern editorial standards, mediate external pressures, preserve institutional memory, and reproduce professional judgement over time. By integrating research, publishing, and leadership-focused training, CENMEDRA seeks to strengthen journalism not merely as a practice, but as a durable public institution capable of negotiating power while maintaining ethical and epistemic integrity.

1. III.            Research is embedded, not extracted

CENMEDRA seeks to avoid the NGO trap of “commissioned research that disappears.”

Instead:

• Every research project will be editorially destined
• Research questions will align with:
  • Magazine themes
  • Journal special issues
  • Book series

                  Research is not a separate department; it is the upstream of publishing.

1. IV.            Publishing is the public face of method

CENMEDRA’s two major publication streams have distinct epistemic roles:

Tiloo: The African Diaspora Magazine

• Curated, thematic, visually literate
• Historical depth + contemporary urgency
• Annotation without academic heaviness
• Designed for diasporic publics

Here, editorial voice matters most. The magazine exists to persuade through interpretation, not proof, which makes editorial voice its primary epistemic instrument. Editorial voice is understood not as tone, style, or branding; rather, it is the institution’s way of thinking in public. At CENMEDRA, editorial voice refers to:

• how issues are framed
• how histories are narrated
• how complexity is handled
• how authority is exercised without domination

        ForTiloo:The African Diaspora Magazine, the editorial voice will be:

• Interpretive, not reactive: The magazine does not chase events; it situates them
• Historically conscious: Contemporary issues are consistently read through longer trajectories of dispersal, power, culture, and political economy
• Context-expanding, not slogan-driven: The voice resists simplification even when urgency is high
• Ethically restrained: It avoids sensationalism, voyeurism, and moral exhibitionism, especially in representing suffering
• Diasporically plural: It refuses a single Black or African experience and makes difference legible without fragmentation.

         Editorial voice matters most because the magazine is:

• public-facing
• visually rich
• monthly
• widely accessible

           its authority rests less on formal method and more on:

• consistency of judgement
• credibility of framing
• trust accumulated over time

In summary,Tiloo:The African Diaspora Magazineis a curated, thematic, and visually  literate publication designed for diasporic publics. It combines historical depth with contemporary urgency and employs annotation for contextualization without academic heaviness. Here, editorial voice matters most because the magazine’s authority derives from interpretive clarity, historical consciousness, ethical restraint, and the consistent framing of complex diasporic realities. Its editorial voice prioritizes judgement over immediacy and context over spectacle, enabling public understanding without simplification.

               Talingtaling: A Journal of African Journalism Studies

• Methodologically explicit
• Regionally grounded but globally legible
• Peer review as mentorship, not gatekeeping
• Editorial transparency as credibility

Here, editorial rigour matters most: the journal convinces through method, not voice.    

That is why editorial rigour - not stylistics coherence - is paramount. Editorial rigour is    

 understood not as severity, exclusion, or procedural obsession. It is rather the

 disciplined alignment of method, evidence, ethics, and accountability. ForTalingtaling,

rigour refers to the reliability of the knowledge it produces. AtTalingtaling, editorial

rigour includes:   

• Methodological explicitness: Authors must clearly state how knowledge is produced, not merely what is claimed
• Contextual adequacy: Arguments must be grounded in African media realities rather than abstracted from external theory alone
• Engagement with relevant scholarship: Including African and diasporic scholarship where appropriate
• Ethical reflexivity: Attention to positionality, access, consent, and representation
• Transparent peer review: decisions are reasoned, documented, and communicated clearly.

Rigour is achieved through:

• clearly articulated submission categories
• structured reviewer guidance
• developmental peer review pathways
• editorial synthesis letters (not raw reviewer power)
• consistency across issues, not ad-hoc judgement

           In summary,Talingtaling: A Journal of African Journalism Studiesis a peer-reviewed

scholarly journal that is methodologically explicit, regionally grounded, and globally

legible. It treats peer review as mentorship rather than gatekeeping and understands

editorial transparency as a source of credibility. Here, editorial rigour matters most

because the journal’s authority rests on methodological clarity, ethical reflexivity,

contextual adequacy, and disciplined editorial processes that ensure the reliability and

durability of the knowledge it produces.