Dr Marcela Pizarro Coloma
Marcela has worked as a journalist at Al Jazeera English and the AP in news and programmes around the world.
Staff details
Position
Lecturer
Department
Media, Communications and Cultural Studies
m.pizarro (@gold.ac.uk)
Links
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
Marcela Pizarro Coloma has worked as a journalist in international news and filmmaking for over 20 years. She began at the Associated Press and then went on to work at Al Jazeera English, most notably at The Listening Post, the channel’s media critique show. She has focused on the political economy, geopolitics and culture of the news media around the world. Her long form reports, documentaries and animations look at issues of race, gender and class and much of her work has been dedicated to histories of journalism in the Global South.
She completed her AHRC funded PhD in 2004 at the University of London. Her thesis focused on the work of one of Latin America’s most important cultural theorists, Nelly Richard.
Academic qualifications
- PhD 2004
Teaching and supervision
Marcela supervises research on the geopolitics of international news, the cultural history of media in the Global South, the politics of representation in legacy media as well as scholarship on histories of independent news production around the world.
Research interests
Marcela's main areas of research and practice focus on journalism and theory in the Global South.
She recently wrote and produced Race Historicised: Epistemologies of Colour - a series of short films using animation, showcasing key thinkers in the Black radical tradition for Al Jazeera English.
Featured publications
2025:
Race Historicised: Epistemologies of Colour
A animated series on Al Jazeera dedicated to key thinkers in the Black radical tradition for Al Jazeera English.
2023:
Extractivism and Its Discontents Al Jazeera English's Coverage of Latin America
Book chapter
2022:
Digital dispatches from la Crónica Roja
Why Sensationalism and Crime still matters in the New Latin America
2018:
Media Theorised: Reading against the Grain
Want to understand the media better? Here are five thinkers to help you read against the grain: Roland Barthes, Noam Chomsky, Stuart Hall, Marshall McLuhan, and Edward Said
Professional projects
Documentaries and broadcast on media politics and culture include:
Why we still need to talk about Chile’s El Mercurio and the CIA (Al Jazeera English, 2019)
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2019/9/14/why-we-still-need-to-talk-about-chiles-el-mercurio-and-the-cia
Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent: Revisited (Al Jazeera English)
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2018/12/22/noam-chomskys-manufacturing-consent-revisited
History through Cuban eyes: El Noticiero Icaic (Al Jazeera English, 2017)
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2017/12/30/history-through-cuban-eyes-noticiero-icaic
Radio La Colifata: Argentina's 'loony radio' (2017, Al Jazeera English)
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2018/1/5/radio-la-colifata-argentinas-loony-radio
Conferences and talks
2019:
Sports Journalism & The 2022 World Cup: Views from the South
Organiser
2014:
In Conversation with Baltasar Garzón, Forensic Architecture, Berlin
Moderator
