"In the past few years China has rapidly become an important player in the media sector in many African countries in at least three ways. First, its economic success and the impressive growth of media outlets and users within China have quietly promoted an example of how the media can be deployed wi
...
thin the larger political and economic strategies of developing states, moving beyond the democratization paradigm promoted in the West. It has shown that heavy investments in media and information and communication technologies can go hand-in-hand with a tight control over them, posing a lesser challenge to local governments and to political stability. Second, the Chinese government, and its associated companies, have enhanced their direct involvement in the telecommunication and media markets in Africa. Chinese companies have started winning large bids on the continent, as exemplified by the 1.7 billion dollars project won by the Chinese telecom giant ZTE to overhaul Ethiopia's telecommunication system. At the same time, the Chinese government has provided significant support to state broadcasters in selected countries, such as Kenya and Zambia. Third, China's public diplomacy strategy has been stepped up through expanding the reach and content of its international broadcasters including China Central Television-CCTV and China Radio International-CRI. There has also been a heavy investment in the growth of the government news agency, Xinhua. Cultural diplomacy has been growing through the continued establishment of Confucius institutes. And programmes that offer scholarships for foreign students and journalists to study in China have been expanded." (Executive summary)
more
"Die Auslandskorrespondenten des bekanntesten arabischen Nachrichtensenders Al-Jazeera sind in ihrer Arbeit in Europa mit widerstreitenden Anforderungen konfrontiert. Sie müssen gleichermaßen den professionellen Standards der Nachrichtenproduktion wie den Repräsentanzansprüchen seitens der arabi
...
schsprachigen Community vor Ort gerecht werden. Auch ihre Rolle als kulturelle Übersetzer ist nicht immer konfliktfrei, insbesondere wenn es gilt, Themen wie gleichgeschlechtliche Partnerschaften für ein arabisches Zielpublikum aufzubereiten. Die Autorin begleitet die Auslandskorrespondenten in Berlin und Paris bei ihrer Arbeit und untersucht aus ethnologischer Perspektive, welche ethischen Maßstäbe und professionellen Selbstbilder der journalistischen Praxis zugrunde liegen." (Klappentext)
more
"This article tackles assumptions made by Louise Bourgault in her pioneering book, Mass Media in Sub-Saharan Africa. The article discusses her claims about African journalism in relation to her engagement with Western approaches, and with regard to issues of orality, the Shannon and Weaver communica
...
tion model and to the megadiscipline of media studies. Short case studies are provided of the emergence of print media in several African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Kenya and South Africa), with the South African analysis looking more in-depth at the political economy of print media in the context of post-apartheid ideologies. The article concludes by positioning media studies in Africa against western media studies, and media studies as a ‘megadiscipline’, the intention being to account for and explain some of the disparities between North—South media studies and print media economies." (Abstract)
more
"Much of the scholarly literature regarding theories of journalism practice is premised on the tenets of the western model of liberal democracy. To the extent that this model is held to be universal, it hinders the analytical theorization of journalistic precepts that have evolved locally in most co
...
untries of the developing world. This article seeks to address this problem by exploring the evolution of what may be aptly characterized as the African journalism model. This model is grounded in oral discourse, creativity, humanity and agency. By comparing and contrasting these two models, this article seeks to challenge the assumption that African journalism is one of mere 'bandwagonism' informed by western 'modernity' and 'civilization'. In particular, by exploring the origin and transformation of journalism in sub-Saharan Africa before, during and after colonialism, this article contributes to the conceptual elaboration of alternative conceptions of the African model of journalism." (Abstract)
more
"The intellectual undernourishment of journalism education and research is tied to wider problems in Pacific academic culture. On a macro level, Pacific media communities can apply their own social capital to the task of media development according to their own agendas, drawing on sound data and ana
...
lysis. The methodology of teaching that will be most effective is one where educators use data on the demand-side, that is, allowing information needs, once identified, to become the catalyst for creative production, harnessing the inherent capacities and collective wisdom of communities in their own vernaculars, rather than simply transferring the received wisdom of media technocrats." (Conclusion)
more
"Media on the Move provides a critical analysis of the dynamics of the international flow of images and ideas. This comes at a time when the political, economic and technological contexts within which media organisations operate are becoming increasingly global. The surge in transnational traffic in
...
media products has primarily benefited the major corporations such as Disney, AOL, Time Warner and News Corporation. However, as this book argues, new networks have emerged which buck this trend: Brazilian TV is watched in China, Indian films have a huge following in the Arab world and Al Jazeera has become a household name in the West. Combining a theoretical perspective on contra-flow of media with grounded case studies into one up-to-date and accessible volume, Media on the Move provides a much-needed guide to the globalization of media, going beyond the standard Anglo-American view of this evolving phenomenon." (Publisher description)
more
"This book argues that indigenous modes of communication - for example the oral tradition, drama, indigenous entertainment forms, cultural modes and local language radio - are essential to the societies within which they exist and which create them; and that coupled with newer, or modern forms of co
...
mmunication technology such as the internet and digitised information, endogenous modes of communication are paramount to the processes of human development in Africa." (Publisher description)
more
"The information revolution is transforming the world, especially the industrialised world. But what are its implications for the implementation of an African renaissance? Based on a Foucaultian analytical framework this book argues that the Internet has become a major Western instrument of dominati
...
on in Africa. By extending the reach of Western hegemonic discourses, the Internet adds another dimension to Western discursive power. However, by allowing for the active participation in the process of naming the world, the Internet also affords unprecedented means of transcending dependency." (Publisher description)
more
"De-Westernizing Media Studies brings together leading media critics from around the world to address central questions in the study of the media. How do the media connect to power in society? Who and what influence the media? How is globalization changing both society and the media?" (Publisher des
...
cription)
more
"This article describes a phenomenon known all over Africa, for which there is no really satisfactory term in English but which is summed up in the French term 'radio trottoir', literally 'pavement radio'. It may be defined as the popular and unofficial discussion of current affairs in Africa, parti
...
cularly in towns. Unlike the press, television or radio, pavement radio is not controlled by any identifiable individual, institution or group of people. An examination of the social role and pedigree of pavement radio reveals it to be qualitatively different from either rumour or gossip and to have a quite different social and political function from its counterpart in Europe. It is also different from mere rumour in its choice of subject, often discussing matters of public interest or importance which have been the subject of no official announcement. Pavement radio should be seen in the light of oral tradition and treated as a descendant of the more formal oral histories associated with ruling dynasties and national rituals." (Abstract)
more
"Many of the essays in this volume seek to interpret traditional Asian approaches to communication in the light of modern Western concepts. At one level, this might appear to compromise the integrity of the Asian approaches. However, it needs to be stressed that this is a calculated strategy on the
...
part of the authors. The objective of the rediscovery of this terrain of Asian approaches to communication is to revitalize and expand the field of communication by drawing on these rich resources. In order to do this, one must first gain legitimacy for these approaches in the eyes of Western and Western-trained Asian communication scholars. It is for this reason that many of the authors in this volume have thought it fit to explicate Asian approaches in relation to Western concepts. This book, which addresses itself to the task of rediscovering a terrain for communication theory, consists of 13 essays. The opening essay argues for the compelling need to study Asian approaches to communication. It does this by pointing out how Asian approaches to the study of communication can supplement, enrich, and challenge Western approaches. It points out that the Asian approaches should no longer be ignored as they can prove to be extremely productive in widening the discourse of communication metatheory." (Introduction, page xii)
more
"This volume is the first fully comprehensive account of film production in the Third World. Although they are usually ignored or marginalized in histories of world cinema," Third World countries now produce well over half of the world's films. Roy Armes sets out initially to place this huge output
...
in a wider context, examining the forces of tradition and colonialism that have shaped the Third World--defined as those countries that have emerged from Western control but have not fully developed their economic potential or rejected the capitalist system in favor of some socialist alternative. He then considers the paradoxes of social structure and cultural life in the post-independence world, where even such basic concepts as "nation," "national culture," and "language" are problematic. The first experience of cinema for such countries has invariably been that of imported Western films, which created the audience and, in most cases, still dominate the market today. Thus, Third World film makers have had to ssert their identity against formidable outside pressures. The later sections of the book look at their output from a number of angles: in terms of the stages of overall growth and corresponding stages of cinematic development; from the point of view of regional evolution in Asia, Africa, and Latin America; and through a detailed examination of the work of some of the Third World's most striking film innovators. In addition to charting the broad outlines of filmic developments too little known in Europe and the United States, the book calls into question many of the assumptions that shape conventional film history. It stresse the role of distribution in defining and limiting production, queries simplistic notions of independent "national cinemas," and points to the need to take social and economic factors into account when considering authorship in cinema. Above all, the book celebrates the achievements of a mass of largely unknown film makers who, in difficult circumstances, have distinctively expanded our definitions of the art of cinema." (Publisher description)
more