Wilson Ugangu is an Associate Professor of media studies at the Multimedia University of Kenya, and holds the administrative position of Associate Dean, Faculty of Media & Communication Studies. He has taught and practiced communication for close to twenty (20) years. During this period, he has provided academic leadership & mentorship, written and researched extensively on topics relating to Kenya’s and Africa’s media and attendant issues of policy, democracy & participation, media & conflict, international communication and globalization, training and research.
Currently, Ugangu serves on the board of the East Africa Communication Association (EACA). He is also the immediate former president of the association (2018-2023). In 2023, he was appointed to the advisory board of the EU funded Erasmus+ project on Communication, Migration and Mobility- E-Learning Programs and Newsroom Applications for Sub Saharan Africa (CoMMPASS)
In 2021 he served on a government of Kenya Special Taskforce on the country’s national media policy. In early 2018, he was appointed to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, at the Multimedia University of Kenya and serves as external examiner for common undergraduate and postgraduate exams, and thesis research at several local and regional universities. He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the area of media and communication at the University of Nairobi, Moi University & currently, at the Multimedia University of Kenya.
Ugangu has worked in key strategic media and communication-related roles with various organizations including the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) as a regional information officer for Eastern Africa, the African Council on Communication Education (ACCE), as Programme Coordinator for Africa and Africa Woman and Child Feature Service (AWC) as Programme Manager. He has served in various consultancy roles for several national and international organizations, including UNESCO, former UNIFEM (now UN Women), JICA, ILRI (CCAFS), ASARECA, COMESA, and Open Society Initiative among others. In 2021, Ugangu successfully completed a comparative regional study of east Africa’s media landscape and the state of press freedom and freedom of expression for the DW-Akademie. In 2007, Ugangu was selected as an Esther Karpatkin media fellow with the Consumers Union, Washington DC.
Recent Publications