BIOGRAPHY
Born in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, Professor Julie Reid completed her schooling in Durban before doing her undergraduate and Honours degree in Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria. She was then awarded the PUNIV PDP Postgraduate Bursary for Excellence to complete her Masters degree in Visual Studies at UP, and in 2011 achieved her Doctorate in Communication at Unisa under the supervision of Professor Pieter J. Fourie.
She began her academic career at the University of Pretoria, following which she held the position of Head of Department and National Program Manager for Advertising at Varsity College. In 2006 she joined the Department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa (Unisa).
Inspired by her father, Roland Reid, and his actions which resulted in his imprisonment under South Africa’s apartheid regime, she has from a young age been an activist at heart. In 2010 Julie joined the Right2Know Campaign. Seeking to protect access to information, freedom of expression, and promote media diversity, the Right2Know campaign became the largest social justice coalition in South Africa’s post-apartheid history. Julie regularly served on the campaign’s National and Provincial Working Groups, and as its Gauteng Provincial Coordinator.
From 2013 to 2016 she served as the President of the South African Communication Association (SACOMM). At the time, she was the organisation’s youngest ever President. In both 2013 and 2014 she was recognised as one of the Top 40 under 40 in the media industry in South Africa by the Media Magazine, and in 2014 as one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans, for her work as a columnist, a researcher of media policy, and her activism.
Julie is a co-founder of the Media Policy and Democracy Project (MPDP), which she launched in 2012 together with Professor viola milton and Professor Jane Duncan. This an inter-university collaborative research project between the Department of Communication Science at Unisa, and the Department of Journalism, Film and Television at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Since its launch the MPDP has collaborated with researchers from various institutions throughout South Africa and the world, as it aims to promote participatory media and communication policymaking in the public interest.
Since 2012, Julie has served as an expert consultant for UNESCO, contributing to this United Nations body’s World Trends Report on Freedom of Expression and Media Development. She has also played an advisory role to the South African Government Communications and Information Service (GCIS) and has made several appearances before the Portfolio Committee on Communication in the South African Parliament.
Julie has contributed her expertise to multiple national and international communications policymaking processes and institutions, including the Press Freedom Commission, the Print and Digital Media Transformation Task Team, ICASA, the Film and Publications Board, and the Facebook Content Policy Division. Since 2011 she has worked in collaboration with the Press Council of South Africa as an expert consultant and researcher to assist this media accountability institution to improve its own policies, procedures, and effectivity.
The editor, co-author and author of four books, and the author of several publications, Julie has participated in many international research projects including with Freedom House, the Jamia Millia University in India, the University of Leuven in Belgium, Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and most recently in 2022 with the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ).
When not occupied with academic work, teaching, or activism, Julie likes to run ultra-marathons. She lives in Johannesburg with her wife and her elderly cat.