"Media, Ritual and Identity examines the role of the media in society; its complex influence on democratic processes and its participation in the construction and affirmation of different social identities. It draws extensively upon cultural anthropology and combines a commanding overview of contemp
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orary media debates with a series of fascinating case studies ranging from political ritual on television to broadcasting in the third world." (Publisher description)
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"L'Afrique subsaharienne est un ensemble hétérogène, tant du point de vue culturel, historique que géographique. La place prise par les médias est récente, inégale et toujours liée à des influences extra-continentales. Parce qu'ils sont inséparables des sociétés dans lesquelles ils fonct
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ionnent, leur observation (surtout la radio, mieux africanisée) fournit un excellent indicateur du changement de ces sociétés, de leurs espoirs et de leurs illusions. L'auteur, spécialiste de la presse écrite et audiovisuelle, dresse un constat des transferts et des ruptures apportés par les médias en Afrique. Si ces modifications sont porteuses d'espérance et liées aux aspirations à mieux vivre, elles provoquent aussi des effets pervers : dépendance au niveau international et inégalités inter-étatiques. Les médias véhiculent donc autant d'espoirs que d'illusions et posent pour eux-mêmes comme pour les sociétés africaines le problème de la démocratie." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"The news media have become the central arena for political conflicts today. It is, therefore, not surprising that the role of the news media in political conflicts has received a good deal of public attention in recent years. Media and Political Conflict provides readers with an understanding of th
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e ways in which news media do and do not become active participants in these conflicts. The author's 'political contest' model provides an alternative approach to this important issue. The best way to understand the role of the news media in politics, he argues, is to view the competition over the news media as part of a larger and more significant contest for political control. The book is divided into two parts. While the first is devoted to developing the theoretical model, the second employs this approach to analyse the role of the news media in three conflicts: the Gulf war, the Palestinian intifada, and the attempt by the Israeli right wing to derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord." (Back cover)
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"In geographically oriented chapters on sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Caribbean and North America (Afro-America), four experts from U.S. universities with numerous publications present the mass media published and influenced by Africans and their descendants in Africa and America. The chapte
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rs are organized according to a uniform scheme: General principles, historical development in the individual states of the region (up to about 1993), personnel and regional characteristics, so that clarity and quick comparisons within the book are assured. Anyone expecting a reference work on the individual media based on the title of the book will be disappointed, because the authors expressly do not want to compile a bibliographical or factual reference work - although one would have liked clearer bibliographical lists and some data compilations - but they want to write an introduction to the African-influenced mass media. It is in the nature of the matter that this was only possible in broad outlines and without numerous details in view of the historical and current diversity, but it makes the book interesting as a first introduction to the subject and at the same time as the first self-portrayal on this scale and with this self-image." (Review by Wilbert Ubbens, Informationsmittel für Bibliotheken (IFB) 5:1-2 (1997)
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