Dr. Elastus Mambwe is a media, communications and film scholar, educator, award-winning journalist and content producer. He is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Media and Communication Studies, where he has taught since 2013 and held a Special Research Fellowship from 2017 to 2022.
He completed his PhD at the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town, with a political-economic study of the development of the film industry in Zambia, examining post-colonial Zambian filmmaking through the joint lens of political economy and the small national cinema approach. He earned both his Master of Mass Communication and his Bachelor of Mass Communication — the latter with Distinction and as Best Graduating Student in the Broadcasting major — at the University of Zambia.
Since 2014 he has built a publication record across screen studies, journalism education and media industries research, appearing in journals including Journalism Practice (Q1), Global Media and Communication (Q1), Critical Arts (Q2) and Frontiers in Communication (Q1), with chapters published by Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, Intellect and IGI Global. He has presented at conferences in the United Kingdom, United States, India, South Africa, and other countries, and has peer-reviewed for Digital Journalism (Q1), the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Communication, Media Asia (Q1) and the Journal of African Media Studies (Q3). He is a member of the International Association of Media and Communication Researchers (IAMCR), the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASA-UK), the South(ern) African Communication Association (SACOMM), and the African Journalism Education Network (AJEN).
He coordinates the Media and Journalism Studies (BA MJS) programme and teaches and supervises Master’s candidates in the Masters in Mass Communication (MMC) and Masters in Communication for Development (MCD) programmes . He is a fellow of the Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI) programme for scholars in journalism, technology and democracy, The Media Project leadership and coaching programme at the Poynter Institute, and the Young African Leaders Initiative. Before joining academia he was Director of Programming and Public Relations at One Love Radio and a technology and telecommunications journalist in Lusaka.
Peer-Reviewed Journals
- Mambwe, E. (2026). Examining the motivations, experiences and challenges of indigenous language filmmaking in Zambia. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 13(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2026.2678925
- Mambwe, E. & Kalungwana, L. (2026). Female Journalists in Zambia and the Trauma and Toll of Reporting During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journalism and Media, 7(2), 76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia7020076
- Mambwe, E. (2025).Exploring the Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the Teaching Hospital Model of Journalism Education in Resource-Constrained Zambia. Frontiers in Communication, 4. DOI: http://www.doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2025.1625763
- Chibbonta-Phiri, C., Muchangwe, R & Mambwe, E. (2025). Teaching journalism and mass communication during the COVID-19 pandemic: Zambian lecturers’ experiences of the transition to online instruction. Discover Education, 4(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-025-00624-1
- Siluonde, M. & Mambwe, E. (2025). ‘Supa Team 4 in the Byu’: Agency, Voice and Decolonisation in Mama K’s Supa Team 4. English Academy Review: Journal of English Studies, 42(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2025.2483095
- Mambwe, E. (2024). What the COVID-19 Pandemic has Brought to Light about Journalism Education in Zambia: A Reflexive Analysis of the Transition to Online Teaching and Learning. Journal of Digital Educational Technology, 4(1). ep2412. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30935/jdet/14474
- Hamusokwe, B.N., Ncube, L., Phiri-Chibbonta, C., Tembo, J. & Mambwe, E. (2024). The Reproduction of Power and Jargon in COVID-19 Coverage in Zambian Media: An Analysis of the Zambia Daily Mail and Mwebantu. Journalism Practice, 18(3) 642-657. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2022.2048204
- Mambwe, E. (2023). Changing tides in Zambian television broadcasting: Digital migration and Chinese engagement. Global Media and Communication, 19(3), 1-15 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/17427665231205469
- Lufungulo, E.S., Jia, J., Mulubale, S., Mambwe, E & Mwila, K. (2023). Innovations and Strategies During Online Teaching in an EdTech Low-Resourced University. SN Computer Science, 4(4), 328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-023-01729-w
- Hamusokwe, B.N. & Mambwe, E. (2021). Populism, Media and Elections in Zambia: The case of the Patriotic Front in the 2011 and 2016 elections. Research Review: International Journal of Multidisciplinary, 6 (12), 01-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2021.v06.i12.001
- Mambwe, E. (2019). Investigating the use and impact of social media in Zambian newsrooms between 2011-2013. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, 6(4), 30–37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2636081
- Mambwe, E. (2014). 20 years of internet in Zambia-how has journalism been impacted?: African trends. Rhodes Journalism Review, 2014(34), 77–80. Permalink: https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC159491
- Screen Studies
- Media Industries
- Popular Culture
- Journalism Education
- Zambian Film and Television
- Social Media
- Broadcast Policy