Decolonising and Deimperialising Media and Media Studies: Local Responses to <scp>CNN</scp> 's Parachute Journalism in Myanmar

ABSTRACT Critiques by Myanmar journalists and activists to CNN's ‘parachute journalism’ in Myanmar after the February 2021 military coup exemplify growing calls for the decolonisation of media and media studies. Even prior to CNN's arrival, a backlash emerged on social media and in local and regional news outlets as local and regional journalists, activists and academics and their allies critiqued this high‐profile parachute journalism as doing more harm than ‘good’. This paper documents these local critiques of transnational media production and reporting practices in 2021, highlighting alternative strategies for change. The responses documented exemplify the growing critique from within Myanmar of problematic images and information produced by outsiders about their country and of local peoples' marginalisation from these knowledge production processes. This paper clarifies the need for a more nuanced theorisation of resistance that recognises, documents and highlights the symbiotic nature of both decolonising and deimperialising efforts, and outlines how calls for the decolonisation/deimperialisation of major academic and media institutions exemplify a form of epistemic refusal of their production practices and resulting narratives.