Dr Henry (Harry) Dugmore is a Senior Lecturer in Communication, based at UniSC Moreton Bay. After twenty-five years in the entertainment, marketing and strategic communication industries in South Africa, he joined Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies as MTN Chair of Media and Mobile Communications in 2009. Harry has led large-scale AIDS education and financial literacy communication programs, and was the lead author of The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) consensus study, "Diversity in Human Sexuality: Implications for Policy in Africa", published in 2015 in response to homophobic changes to laws in some African countries.
In 2018, he spent a sabbatical year based at QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC) exploring shifting economic models for journalism in developing countries.
Harry joined UniSC in 2020 and is currently researching the development of post-literate authoritarian discourses, journalism economics, news coverage of Covid-19, and regional economic development and communication in Australia.
Professional memberships
- Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
- International Communication Association (ICA)
Professional Social Media
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Research areas
- Post-literate societies and the normalisation of authoritarian discourses
- Shifts in the economics, and institutional nature, of journalism
- Regional economic development, stakeholder consultation and communication
Teaching areas
- Journalism Studies and Media Economics
- Misinformation and social polarisation
- Creative and Interactive Advertising
- Global Communication
Key recent research publications
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"‘This is ridiculous – I need to start a paper…’: An exploration of aims and intentions of regional print proprietors of post-COVID start-up newspapers" by Renee Barnes, Harry Dugmore, Peter English, Rosanna Natoli and Jane Stephens (2022) Media International Australia, March 2022.
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"Endogenous ‘Precarious Professionalism’ in African Newswork" (2022) in Kalyani Chadha & Linda Steiner (Eds) Newswork and Precarity, Routledge, London.
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"Thinking globally, acting locally: Reviving and sustaining South African journalism in a post-Covid world" (2021) Rhodes University and University of Sunshine Coast.
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"Decolonising Digital Media Research Methods: Positioning African Digital Experiences as Epistemic Sites of Knowledge Production", (2020) Alette Schoon, Hayes Mawindi Mabweazara, Tanja Bosch and Harry Dugmore African Journalism Studies, 41, 4, 1 - 15.
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“'But is it Journalism?' Reflections on Online Informational Roles and Content Creation Practices of a Sample of South African Lawyers" (2020) Heather Robertson and Harry Dugmore African Journalism Studies, 40, 3, 107 - 122.
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"Paying the Piper: The sustainability of the news industry and journalism in South Africa in a time of digital transformation and political uncertainty" (2018) Rhodes University.
- “Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and relative weight gain among South African adults living in resource-poor communities: longitudinal data from the STOP-SA Study” in International Journal of Obesity (2018) Kufre Okop, E. Vicky Lambert, Olufunke Alaba, Naomi Levitt, Amy Luke, Lara Dugas, Robert Dover, Jacolene Kroff, Lisa Micklesfield, Tracy Kolbe-Alexander, Warren Smit, H Dugmore, K Bobrow K, Feyisayo Odunitan-Wayas, and Thandi Puoane.
- “A new approach to obesity for health journalism: fit not fat”, Rhodes Journalism Review (RJR) Vol 34, 2014.
- “Citizen Journalism in South Africa and Kenya: The quandary of quality and the prospects of growth” (with Dina Ligaga) in The Future of Quality News Journalism: A Cross-Continental Analysis Edited by Peter J. Anderson, Michael Williams, George Ogola (Routledge 2013).
- “Five elements of ethical and effective heath journalism”, Rhodes Journalism Review Vol 33, 2013.
Harry Dugmore's specialist areas of knowledge are: the economics of news media; journalism’s institutional role in society; Health, Science and Environmental journalism; Behaviour Change Communication with respect to obesity, HIV/AIDS prevention and financial literacy.