"This essay argues against reducing the recent history of global television to an oversimplified transition between ‘statist’ and ‘consumerist’ dispensations. As apparently irreconcilable ideologies of television, the statist and consumerist models represent two ways of imagining the relatio
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n between the deployment of media and the project of modernity. Despite their surface differences, both share a tendency to imagine television in primarily ‘representative’ rather than ‘constitutive’ terms: they both evaluate television according to its ability to represent or address supposedly pre-existing publics, as opposed to its power to help constitute those very publics. I develop the question of the constitutive potential of television by reconsidering a decade of Indian television history – the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s – that is generally dismissed as a transitional phase between statist and consumerist paradigms. Through a discussion that is empirically grounded in the Indian experience, I propose categories that might inform comparative explorations of media and modernity in an age of globalization." (Abstract)
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"Hinsichtlich der Anwendung von Kommunikationssatelliten in der Dritten Welt zum Zwecke zielgerichteter Entwicklungskommunikation sollen am Beispiel Indien Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Technologieeinsatzes überprüft und entwicklungskommunikationstheoretischen Hypothesen gegenübergestellt werden
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. Aus der Falluntersuchung werden weiterführende Schlussfolgerungen abgeleitet. Dabei werden Konzepte und Strategien der Veränderung in wichtigen Sektoren der internationalen Beziehungen, gerade auch mit Blick auf die eigenständige Entwicklung von Dritte-Welt-Gesellschaften, aufgegriffen («Weltkommunikationsordnung»)." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The initials SITE stand for Satellite Instructional Television Experiment. In this publication, commissioned by Unesco, the accent is on the word experiment. It is a summary and a critical assessment of the majority of the research studies relating to the whole complex operation, not an evaluation
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of the programme itself. The SITE project involved in- and out-of-school instruction and participation; it had complex managerial, technical and economic problems. Research had also to be organized at the formative, operational and summative stages of the experiment. This study tries to cover each of these dimensions. SITE as a project had about 50 research studies as essential components, the reports of which comprise 19 volumes. They are of especial interest to social scientists concerned with the developmental impact of modern communication techniques in rural areas and they are particularly relevant in view of the present proposal to establish a more permanent satellite-based communication system in India in the near future. However, it is unlikely that the totality of the research carried out on SITE will reach a wide audience, if only because of the considerable volume In this publication, of data produced. It therefore seemed useful 19 Unesco to commission a summary of the research findings and to present these, not as a retrospective evaluation of the project, but as a digest of what was discovered. Professor M. S. Gore of the TATA Institute in India - an eminent sociologist - was asked to undertake this formidable task. He was asked, first of all, to reduce the 19 volumes to a document of manageable size, while retaining what was essential and of universal interest. In addition, he was asked to look at the "SITE studies" from the point of view of their methodological adequacy and hence the validity of their findings. In his report he has also tried to answer in some degree the more general question as to whether the SITE experience has been worthwhile and can perhaps be transferable in suitable circumstances to other nations and regions." (Preface)
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"In spite of disappointing experiments there is a growing range of examples of systems which exploit educational technologies, including many in the developing world. Some may have been introduced for reasons of fashionable interest — some have certainly been introduced as acts of faith, as commun
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ication is a field which attracts very devoted adherents. But experience on the ground has revealed a large number of media possibilities, embracing a variety of educational needs and objectives.
Much of the text is devoted to four short case studies, covering the use of radio for extended learning in the Dominican Republic; qualitative improvement of mathematics teaching in Nicaragua; community action involving radio in Tanzania; and the experimental use of satellite broadcasting in India. Explicit in the booklet's title is the use of communication media for low-income countries, with a critical eye to cost considerations. But it is interesting, and not at all surprising, to see that the focus of the studies, in all cases but that of India, is upon radio rather than television, as a lower-cost broadcasting alternative. More than anything, this reflects a situation in which technological choice is made more directly than hitherto in relation to overall educational planning and financing, paying special attention to criteria of cost-effectiveness, even though these are more flexibly interpreted than in the past. The focus of the booklet is therefore upon the potential of educational technologies as correlated with specific educational policy objectives: in extending educational opportunity; improving the quality of teaching and learning; developing rural areas; and — still a fluid sphere — the increase of participation. What is emphasized, above all, is the need for careful planning and analysis in association with educational specialists from many fields, to envolve media systems and applications which are coherent and which do not exceed the financial possiblities of the country." (Preface, page 9)
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