"Laura Edmondson examines how politics, social values, and gender are expressed on stage. Now a disappearing tradition, Tanzanian popular theatre integrates comic sketches, acrobatics, melodrama, song, and dance to produce lively commentaries on what it means to be Tanzanian. These dynamic shows inv
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ite improvisation and spontaneous and raucous audience participation as they explore popular sentiments. Edmondson asserts that these performances overturn the boundary between official and popular art and offer a new way of thinking about African popular culture. She discusses how the blurring of state agendas and local desires presents a charged environment for the exploration of Tanzanian political and social realities: What is the meaning of democracy and who gets to define it? Who is in power, and how is power exposed or concealed? What is the role of tradition in a postsocialist state? How will the future of the nation be negotiated?" (Publisher description)
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"Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction shows that bestseller lists monitor one of the strongest pulses in modern literature and are therefore worthy of serious study. It lifts the lid on the bestseller industry, examines what makes a book into a bestseller, and asks what separates bestsellers from
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canonical fiction. Exploring the relationship between bestsellers and the fashions, ideologies, and cultural concerns of the day, this Very Short Introduction includes short case-studies and lively summaries of bestsellers through the years, including both classic and contemporary novels, alongside some surprising titles and long-forgotten names." (Publisher description)
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"The text focuses on the process of genre analysis, using the selected approaches discussed. The book provides examples and analyses of genres in an effort to support, illustrate, and extend any abstract concepts that have been introduced. More important, it gives students the theoretical tools to c
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onduct their own primary research into genres. In that sense, the methodology is expansive rather than reductive. Presumably, two students could conduct an analysis of the same genre using different approaches and come up with divergent interpretations. In all cases, for an interpretation to be valid: (1) the analysis must be systematically applied, and (2) the analysis must be supported with concrete examples from the text (i.e., film, television episode, newspaper). It must be emphasized, however, that depending on the specific area of study, one approach may be more useful than another." (Preface, page xiii)
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"Following on an earlier study (Makotsi, 2000) on the inter-African book trade that was commissioned by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa: Working Group on Books and Learning Materials (ADEA) in association with the African Publishers Network (APNET), ADEA recommended that A
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PNET should facilitate the sharing of information between national publishers’ associations as it relates to the different procedures that need to be followed when exporting books from/to a particular African country, and with which all publishers and booksellers need to be familiar when embarking on the export of their books to another African country. Each national book trade association was asked to complete a detailed questionnaire setting out procedures, and the legal and fiscal regulations in each country. A total of 29 national book trade associations responded and completed questionnaires. Each country response offers useful information not only on aspects of book export/import procedures and financial aspects (e.g. customs tariffs on imports, exemptions, tax systems on inputs, other taxes such as VAT, export regulations, cost of financial transactions such as bank transfers, etc.), but also a variety of information on the “book chain” in each country, for example number and type of publishers, printers, booksellers and book distributors, public libraries, legislation on copyright, book trade associations, national book policy situation, and other information relating to the state of the book in each country. This a valuable and information-rich resource." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1890)
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"This textbook is an excellent introduction to quantitative audience measurement, especially to sampling and designing questionnaires. In addition, qualitative research, data analysis and the follow-up ("how research is used [...] understanding audiences [...] strategic research") are handled as wel
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l. The author, a former head of audience research for BBC World Service, combines the discussion of methods and cientific background with concrete examples in developing countries. Why is it important to train the interviewers? How to avoid mistakes by translating the questionnaires in indigenous languages? How to organize focus groups? How to interpret ratings? This publication is a gold mine of experience for anybody who needs to know more about his audience and to reflect on the own research practice." (CAMECO Update 1-2008)
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"In diesem Aufsatz wird der Status quo der theoretischen und empirischen Erfolgsfaktorenforschung für belletristische Bücher aufgezeigt. Die abgeleiteten Einflussfaktoren, die zentrale Steuerungsgrößen für das Management der Verlagshäuser darstellen, werden nach den vier Elementen des Marketin
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g-Mix – Produkt, Preis, Kommunikation und Distribution – untergliedert. Neben inhaltlichen Erkenntnissen stehen auch methodische Aspekte im Fokus, denn die gewählte Forschungsweise hat in der Erfolgsfaktorenforschung erhebliche inhaltliche Konsequenzen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich die bisherige Faktorenforschung auf den Einfluss des Starwerts des Autors, die Aktualität des Inhaltes, die Editionsform und Cross-Selling (Komplementärgüter) sowie den Einfluss der Werbung für Kunden, Rezensionen durch Kritiker bzw. Kunden und Bestsellerlisten konzentriert. Somit liegt der Schwerpunkt der bisherigen Forschung auf Variablen der Produkt- und Kommunikationspolitik. Der Verkaufspreis als Kerndeterminante der Preispolitik findet ebenfalls Berücksichtigung, während im Bereich der Distributionspolitik nur der Einfluss von Verlagsgröße und Verlagsimage genauer untersucht wurde." (Zusammenfassung)
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"A study commissioned and funded by the South African Department of Arts and Culture. It comprises an investigation of the factors that affect the cost of books in South Africa, conducted in order to identify possible ways in which government, industry members and other stakeholders can work togethe
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r to reduce the cost of books and make books more accessible. The factors that affect the cost of books are dealt with by examining each of the five principal segments of the book value chain separately, namely paper, printing, publishing, distribution, and bookselling, and by furthermore investigating the sector-specific drivers of cost in the following three book market segments: (1) Educational books, comprising books used in primary and secondary education, i.e. books for [South African] Grades 1 - 12; (2) Academic books aimed at the tertiary education sector; and, (3) Trade books, which include both fiction and non-fiction books aimed at the general market." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1076)
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"These guidelines on digital publishing are targeted primarily at small organizations with limited resources in developing countries, in order to facilitate decision-making on how to publish and disseminate their information. The Guidelines are based on the years of experience of the Network of Aqua
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culture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and its partners. The approach is practical in orientation, covering topics including: (a) planning, building and maintaining a sustainable digital publishing system, focusing on a common scenario of setting up a Web site as a digital publishing platform; (b) producing user-friendly digital publications and making them accessible; (c) some recent international developments in digital publishing; and (d) recommended software tools and technical resources for further reading." (Abstract)
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