In 2017, I began researching the relationship between Bob Marley and radio. What started as a focused study about radio interviews soon developed into a broader investigation of how Marley was represented across radio, the printed press, and television between 1972 and 1981.
This research culminated in my book, Bob Marley and Media: Representation and Audiences, originally published by Rowman & Littlefield on February 15, 2023.
In 2025, the book was taken over by Bloomsbury Publishing, who released it in paperback format, making the work more widely accessible to students, researchers, and general readers. The cover illustration was designed by my longtime collaborator and artist Versioncos (Costantinos Pissourios), whose visual interpretation complements the book’s exploration of media, myth, and meaning.
The book examines how different media institutions constructed and circulated images of Bob Marley during his lifetime and how those representations evolved following his death in 1981. It explores the relationship between media narratives, cultural identity, and audience reception, asking not only how Marley was represented, but also how those representations shaped his global legacy.
Shortly after the book was published, I was honoured with an invitation to deliver a prestigious lecture at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. Presenting at the 26th Annual Bob Marley Lecture marked a defining moment in my academic journey.
To speak about Bob Marley in Jamaica itself—within the cultural and historical landscape that shaped his life and music—was deeply meaningful and remains one of the most special milestones of my career.
Reviews
“Mike Hajimichael’s exhaustive research mines data never before examined to reveal the myth-making, often contentious coverage the Reggae King received. Issues of objectivity, outright antagonism, and deliberate misinterpretations are highlighted, showing how Marley was virtually ignored by television in his home country of Jamaica, the UK, and the U.S. despite his stadium-filling live shows and hit singles and albums. A true revelation, this book is important for academics and lay-persons alike, a one-of-a-kind study, not only entertaining but truly enlightening.”
Roger Steffens author of So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley
“A significant addition to the literature. This ethnographic examination of Bob Marley’s media coverage is engaging, painstakingly detailed, and touches on the humanity of Marley in a way very few books have done before. Hajimichael accurately captures Western media’s subaltern gaze.”
Dennis Howard, author, The Creative Echo Chamber: Contemporary Music Production in Kingston, Jamaica
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This section of my blog shares some of my research data and findings. It’s largely structured with reference to sections in the book with key data and visual illustrations. As time goes by, updates will happen on presentations and events around the world happening in 2023 to promote the publication
Verse Three – Radio Waves Limiting The Gong
Radio interviews with Marley are, like those on teltelevision,limited. When I started researching this, it surprised me, but as time progressed, evidence suggested Marley was even excluded from radio, including the BBC. Nevertheless, there are some interesting interviews with the singer on radio, including Neville Willoughby, 1973 and David Rodigan 1980
Verse Four – What The Papers Say
When collecting data for the book I suddenly realized there was much more texts in print form, largely form magazines and newspapers, than exposure for the singer through radio and television interviews. As a result I collected 1000 articles of which I focused on a sample of 100 in-depth. I then applied a document analysis which gave the ability to dissect and organize a wide range of information, from sources ranging form NME, Black Music, The Guardian, Creem, Crawdaddy, Sounds and many others, into manageable components through the use of codes and specialized themes.(Bowen 2009).
This is illustrated below in Diagram 1 Thematic Coding Tree of Print Data on Bob Marley:
The coding tree took about six months to develop through a close reading of the 100 articles. Once it was done, the chapter on printed press could effectively, to coin a phrase write itself. There are a couple of interesting things as well outside of this, particularly how Bob Marley perceived media, which is an important finding throughout the book, and how the ways in which he was represented were important to him.
Further reading:
Bowen, Glenn A. 2009. “Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method.” Qualitative Research Journal 9 (2): 27–40.
Bordowitz, Hank, and Bob Marley. 2005. Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright : The Bob Marley Reader. Cambridge, Ma: Da Capo Press.
Daily Mirror Bob The Wild Man
In 1976 Bob Marley hit the front-page of a UK tabloid, ‘The Daily Mirror’ twice. Bob seldom featured on front pages of British tabloids. Cindy Breakspeare, who was crowned Miss World in 1976 was in a relationship with Bob Marley. Both stories, based on ‘gossip’ depict Marley as the ‘wild man’ and Cindy as ‘the beauty’.
Miss World’s Wild Man 20th Nov 1976 Daily Mirror front page
Miss World goes into hiding 17th December 1976 Daily Mirror front page
The Assassination attempt on Bob Marley 3rd December 1976
The is a lot of misleading information about the assassination attempt on Bob Marley’s life, at his home in Hope Road, on 3rd December 1976. One cutting from United Press International (UPI) even implied in its headline that he was dead – something which I guess people would classify as misleading fake news in todays terms:
Bob Marley in “Playboy” and “The Daily Gleaner” 1976 – an early example of ‘copy-cut-paste’
“Playboy” is possibly one of the last places I would have expected to find an article on Bob Marley in 1976 largely because the singer is incompatible aesthetically, culturally and politically with the publication. But here it is from 1976…
The same article appears shortly afterwards in “The Daily Gleaner” (Sept 7th 1976) with a short reference at the start that it if from “Playboy” but no critique whatsoever on how Bob Marley is characterized in such “mainstream” way by the US based magazine, which by the end of the 1970s was selling more than 6million copies. This feels like an early example of ‘copy-cut-paste’ to me.
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Verse 5 – Bob on The Box – The Revolution That Was Not Televised
My main concern in this section of the book is to analyse around fifteen television interviews featuring Bob Marley. Certainly the most hostile one happened in June 1978, on Marley’s first tour in Canada. At the time Sandie Rinaldo was an up and coming news reporter at CTV in Toronto, and while the program starts off in a cliché like manner, following Marley and the band around various places to the gig, the minute the interview starts its all ‘hard talk’ and stereotyping of Rastas.
Sandie Rinaldo CTV Interview Canada 1978
Of course not all television was negative. Cable television in the USA featured Marley the most. Two of the best television interviews happened on cable. Notably Bingie Barker in Canada 1979 and Gil Noble, USA 1980
Verse Six – Duppy Conqueror – Life After Death
Researching this section revealed a lot of interesting insights and facts about Bob Marley’s popularity after his death. There is an interesting article for example by Chris Kornelis from 2014 on the making and marketing of ‘Legend’ called Legend in the Making: How Bob Marley Was Sold to the Suburbs
The book has travelled well beyond the page. I have presented Bob Marley and Media at academic and cultural events across Sweden, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, and Cyprus — engaging audiences in conversations about media representation, diaspora, identity, and global reggae culture.
From Northern Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean, these lectures have explored how Bob Marley was constructed through radio, television, and the press — and how those representations continue to shape his global legacy.
You can view recordings of my presentations at Örebro University and University of Nicosia below.
