"Twenty-eight experts examine broadcasting in 24 countries in this essay handbook. John Lent takes on Cuba and India; Benno Signitzer and Kurt Luger look at Austria; and Marvin Alisky reports on Chile, Mexico, and Peru. Other included countries are Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, the Fede
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ral Republic of Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the Soviet Union, Sweden, and the United States. According to the introduction, "At present no reference work exists where one can readily ascertain what the broadcast structure is in a given nation and how it came to be. By filling this void, we hope that our work will make a substantial contribution to the field of international broadcasting." This they have done. Most essays include a bibliography; information on history, regulation, economic structure, programming, new technologies, and broadcast reform; and a conclusion and/or forecast. What type of information can be found under "broadcast reform"? In Israel, for example: The reaction against the "leftist mafia," a nickname coined for broadcasters, has been strongly felt in programming and personnel appointment policies. A popular TV satirical program was taken off the air in the late 1970s in response to harsh political criticism. The television prime-time weekly news magazine, broadcast on Friday nights, was cancelled in the mid-1980s on the grounds that the Israeli people should not be exposed to "demoralizing" news on the Sabbath eve." (Jo A. Cates: Journalism - a guide to the reference literature. Englewood, Col.: Libraries Unlimited, 2nd ed. 1997 nr. 445)
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"[...] Unter welchen gesellschaftlichen, organisatorischen, berufsstrukturellen und personellen Bedingungen transportieren Journalisten in Entwicklungsländern den Informationsinput in publizistische Aussagen und inwiefern korrespondieren diese Bedingungen mit der "Leitidee" von Entwicklungsjournali
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smus? Gefragt wird mit anderen Worten nach der Funktionalität journalistischer Handlungen und Orientierungsmuster. Nach einer mühevollen Datenerhebung, in der die Schwierigkeiten zum Ausdruck kommen, die hier zu überwinden sind, konzentriert sich Großenbacher auf die unterschiedlichen politischen und institutionellen Bedingungen des Entwicklungsjournalismus in den beiden Ländern. Die politische Entwicklung Senegals, das bereits vor der Unabhängigkeit gewisse demokratische Privilegien genoß, hat die Entstehung einer Tradition der Medienfreiheit begünstigt. Sie hat zu einer für franko-afrikanische Verhältnisse einzigartigen Pressevielfalt geführt. Umgekehrt sind die Medien in Benin seit den Regierungswechseln von 1937 nichts als politische Instrumente der jeweils herrschenden Elite in einem sozialistischen Einparteienstaat. Die Presse unterliegt strenger staatlicher Reglementierung. Infolge der restriktiven Bedingungen konnte sich das Pressesystem im Vergleich zu Senegal nur bescheiden entwickeln. In einem ausführlichen Schlußkapitel stellt Großenbacher die beiden Mediensysteme vergleichend einander gegenüber. Er stellt fest: Obwohl ein allgemein verbindliches Konzept von Entwicklungsjournalismus fehlt, lassen sich die verschiedenen Ansätze doch auf einen, allerdings schmalen gemeinsamen Nenner bringen. Dem erklärten Anspruch an die Medien, die nationale Entwicklung zu unterstützen, steht der Umstand im Wege, daß in beiden Ländern eine ausformulierte nationale Kommunikationspolitik fehlt. Eingehend befaßt sich Großenbacher mit der ruralen Presse. Sie erweist sich als kaum überlebensfähig, und auch die neue Regionalradiostation im Norden des Landes kann die ihr ursprünglich zugedachte Aufgabe als Radio für die ländliche Bevölkerung nicht wahrnehmen, außerdem werden im Bereich der audiovisuellen Medien zunehmend internationale Einflüsse wirksam. An diesem Beispiel zeigt sich auch die Problematik des Transfers institutioneller Strukturen aus industrie- bzw. informationsgesellschaftlichen Verhältnissen in Entwicklungsländer." (Rezension von Franz Ronneberger, in: Publizistik vol. 37, 1992, Seiten 269–270)
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"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
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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)
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"Although a number of books have been written on African journalism, this, according to Ochs, a professor of mass communication at the American University in Cairo, is the first to take an overall look at the continent as a whole, notwithstanding the lack of data and frequent change of ownership whi
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ch made his task difficult. The first 50 pages survey the continent, following which are case studies of seven countries offering representative yet contrasting languages and press situations: Tanzania and Nigeria (English-speaking), the Ivory Coast and Senegal (French-speaking), Morocco and Algeria (Arabic and French-speaking), and Egypt (Arabic-speaking). Throughout he has attempted to show the effect on the press of the extreme diversity of peoples, countries, cultures and politics. The term "press" includes broadcast as well as print media, but in the case of the former the "almost monolithic government control makes research here less productive." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 327)
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