"Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa examines the role that popular media could play to encourage political debate, provide information for development, or critique the very definitions of 'democracy' and 'development'. Drawing on diverse case studies from various regions of the Afric
...
an continent, essays employ a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to ask critical questions about the potential of popular media to contribute to democratic culture, provide sites of resistance, or, conversely, act as agents for the spread of Americanized entertainment culture to the detriment of local traditions. A wide variety of media formats and platforms are discussed, ranging from radio and television to the Internet, mobile phones, street posters, film and music." (Publisher description)
more
"Entreprise de domination par excellence, la colonisation s’est accompagnée et nourrie de représentations savantes, littéraires et artistiques, des sociétés colonisées, qui ont servi à la légitimer, au nom d’une prétendue mission civilisatrice de l’Occident, ou encore d’une soi-disa
...
nt hiérarchie des « races » et des cultures. Relayées par la presse notamment, elles ont connu une large diffusion par le biais de récits d’aventure et d’une imagerie populaire qui excitaient les sentiments patriotiques et les rêves de grandeur dans le cadre de la compétition entre les États-nations tout en exaltant l’imaginaire mythique et en suscitant des émotions aptes à satisfaire le goût d’exotisme en vogue dans les milieux mondains. C’est pourquoi la critique et la déconstruction de ces représentations furent des enjeux symboliques majeurs du combat anticolonial et antiraciste. Pour des auteurs comme W. E. Du Bois, Albert Memmi, Michel Leiris ou Frantz Fanon, il s’agissait également de porter au jour le point de vue des colonisés, qui n’était perçu jusque-là que comme un groupe-objet, de restituer leur subjectivité (ce qu’on appelle en anglais « agency »), tandis qu’un Aimé Césaire, porte-parole du mouvement de la « négritude », qui retournait le stigmate en emblème, opposait aux soi-disant bienfaits de la colonisation pour les colonisés la déshumanisation des colonisateurs par leur entreprise. La période postcoloniale a ouvert un espace de réflexion plus distanciée pour penser les rapports de domination en situation coloniale. Ces représentations sont devenues un objet d’étude dans les sciences humaines et, plus récemment, dans les sciences sociales." (Introduction)
more
"El artículo plantea que la Comunicología de Liberación propuesta por el boliviano Luis Ramiro Beltrán en 1976 puede ser considerada entre las fuentes del pensamiento decolonial junto a otras elaboraciones del dependentismo y el anticolonialismo latinoamericano de entonces. El programa de invest
...
igación de modernidad/colonialidad, matriz académica de ese pensamiento, expresa desde mediados de los años ‘90 la renovación que vive el pensamiento crítico latinoamericano, movimiento que tensiona los conceptos hasta ahora aplicados para dar cuenta de los procesos sociales de la región tanto como sus presupuestos, aparte de que se orienta a la conformación de un “paradigma otro” que se desmarque de la visión eurocéntrica prevaleciente desde el siglo XIX. La Comunicación posee bases suficientes para participar en estos desarrollos." (Resumen)
more
"The purpose of this book, explained further in Chapter One, is to place before the media scholar, the historicity and continuity in structures of colonialism, postcolonialism, and media globalization around the world. Obviously these are not clearly demarcated processes and colonized countries have
...
been implicated centrally in such processes as much as their colonial masters who have been the focus of a majority of theory and research in international communication. In its linkage of case studies to interdisciplinary theory, the book draws the reader into various strains of critical dialogue in the field – a dialogue that has predominantly, and unfortunately, been the prerogative of graduate studies. The scope of case studies included then, is necessarily broad. Theoretical interpretations that connect case studies could merit individual books themselves, and are provided in this book inasmuch as they advance the narrative and contextualize the examples. Through this strategy, the book presents to the reader crucial theoretical issues in the fi eld and demonstrates how they are grounded (or not) in reality. The book also attempts to recharge international media research with the political energy that informed its origins, particularly in Latin America and South Asia. It identifies the signifi cant moments in political and academic history that have fashioned international media studies, and through extensive examples, lays bare areas that require further research. Such a task is undertaken recognizing the theoretically and empirically rich writing that has gone before, and piecing together such writing to offer a comparative and ethical analysis of the fi eld. The postcolonial framework informs this project for its direct and stunningly clear focus on the historicity of international interactions and its activist component that awards the student some direction for social justice." (Preface, page x-xi)
more
"A study by De Alwis (2006) on the reporting of the Sri Lanka conflict under censorship, made comparisons to Western theories and models. The findings disclose the unique techniques used by the local press to circumvent media regulations. Censorship lacks the ability to tighten its hold on the local
...
press who flaunt social responsibility and their watchdog instincts. These results are in stark contrast to Western scholarship and express an inadequacy of the Western theoretical perspectives for understanding Asian internal conflicts. The study posits the importance of understanding cultural dimensions before theorising on media behaviour and proposes an alternative model to arrive at new theoretical paradigms. Further, perceptions of non-Asian audiences on Asian media behaviour are evaluated to invite deliberations on Asian communication perspectives." (Abstract)
more
"This paper argues that there is a need to decolonise journalism curricula and practices from the prevailing Western models. Putting journalism curricula in the wider context of higher education in developing and non-Western countries is an important step towards this direction. The paper looks at j
...
ournalism education from a society/region’s specific knowledge and information needs, placing attention on external factors such as the importance placed on Western values, education and journalism practices. It questions the Western dominance in journalism curricula and practices; discusses how journalism curricula in non-Western and developing countries require a different approach to content and delivery; and places emphasis on the value of research as a pedagogical and epistemological tool." (Abstract)
more
"An interesting collection of essays that provide a great deal of insight into the depth, complexity, richness and diversity of African children’s books. The contributors examine the major issues relating to African children’s literature from several directions and from a variety of angles. The
...
essays take either a postcolonial or revisionist approach to the study of colonial children’s literature, or examine the books published since independence in various African countries, and covering North, East, West and Southern Africa. Additionally, three of the essays focus on books written by Western authors for Western readers, and which analyze colonial bias, stereotyping, or blatant racism in some of these books, although one of the articles, by Jean Perrot, is in fact a spirited rebuttal in defence of Jean de Brunhoff’s much-maligned Babar books. There are a total of twelve essays in this collection, by both contributors from North America and from Africa, the latter including Osayimwense Osa, Mbara Ngom, and Kenyan author and publisher Asenath Bole Odaga." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1605)
more