"This article describes a phenomenon known all over Africa, for which there is no really satisfactory term in English but which is summed up in the French term 'radio trottoir', literally 'pavement radio'. It may be defined as the popular and unofficial discussion of current affairs in Africa, parti
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cularly in towns. Unlike the press, television or radio, pavement radio is not controlled by any identifiable individual, institution or group of people. An examination of the social role and pedigree of pavement radio reveals it to be qualitatively different from either rumour or gossip and to have a quite different social and political function from its counterpart in Europe. It is also different from mere rumour in its choice of subject, often discussing matters of public interest or importance which have been the subject of no official announcement. Pavement radio should be seen in the light of oral tradition and treated as a descendant of the more formal oral histories associated with ruling dynasties and national rituals." (Abstract)
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"Many of the essays in this volume seek to interpret traditional Asian approaches to communication in the light of modern Western concepts. At one level, this might appear to compromise the integrity of the Asian approaches. However, it needs to be stressed that this is a calculated strategy on the
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part of the authors. The objective of the rediscovery of this terrain of Asian approaches to communication is to revitalize and expand the field of communication by drawing on these rich resources. In order to do this, one must first gain legitimacy for these approaches in the eyes of Western and Western-trained Asian communication scholars. It is for this reason that many of the authors in this volume have thought it fit to explicate Asian approaches in relation to Western concepts. This book, which addresses itself to the task of rediscovering a terrain for communication theory, consists of 13 essays. The opening essay argues for the compelling need to study Asian approaches to communication. It does this by pointing out how Asian approaches to the study of communication can supplement, enrich, and challenge Western approaches. It points out that the Asian approaches should no longer be ignored as they can prove to be extremely productive in widening the discourse of communication metatheory." (Introduction, page xii)
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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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"The 1970s is looked upon as the period marking the revival of Islam. Islam places high priority on communication and the Quran gives strict guidelines to Muslim religious communicators on the do’s and don’t that have to be adhered to. The principles of communication laid down by Prophet Muhamma
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d are discussed before the author discusses Western Communication Theories that can be effectively islamized." (Abstract)
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"[...] la lógica del aymara es trivalente, no nada más que bivalente como la del español. Es decir, la sintáxis del idioma indígena revela una lógica "no Aristotélica" porque no tiene solamente los dos valores de la lógica tradicional occidental: verdadero, falso. Tiene tres: verdadero, fals
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o, incierto. En observancia del principio de "tercero excluido", la lógica del español sólo permite hacer inferencias a partir de premisas necesariamente verdaderas o falsas. En la lógica no dicotómica, que es la del aymara, los enunciados se construyen con sufijos, en vez de palabras de conexión, y se torna posible derivar conclusiones a partir de premisas dudosas o apenas plausibles. O sea, algo puede - creámoslo o no los no aymaras - ser "quizás cierto y quizás no cierto". La ambigüedad tiene valor; la incertidumbre importa. No se trata, pues, simplemente del conflicto común entre dos vocabularios diferentes pero equiparables. Son dos maneras de pensar marcadamente opuestas que trasuntan universos culturales muy alejados entre sí. De ahí que el riesgo de incomunicación no es en este caso un problema de mera divergencia semántica puesto que, por ejemplo, "para el hombre que piensa en aymara su premisa es que el pasado está adelante y el futuro atrás". En el presente informe de la investigación que el CIID auspició, Guzmán deseoso de alcanzar con sus resultados no solamente a otros especialistas como él ofrece más de una explicación de aquella diferencia. Para los versados en lingüística e idóneos en aymara, densos capítulos de argumentación lógica y demostración matemática. Para los legos, sencillos ejemplos iluminantes y hasta un gracioso pero efectivo recurso didáctico: un diálogo imaginario entre Aristóteles y una "india" aymara. Pero ¿qué implicaciones tiene la distinción hallada por el investigador boliviano?
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"An analysis of the struggle between the Western concept of the press as a means through which the public is freely informed about those in authority so that it can form judgments and act accordingly, and the Third World concept that the press should be a national voice functioning to make a better
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life for the people in terms of such things as nutrition and literacy." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 354)
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"The verse editorial, a commentary written in poetry, not only is a curious and colorful aspect of the vernacular press in Thailand, but also reveals the spirit of Thai journalism. Poetic indirection enables editors to raise doubts or to discuss touchy moral issues, as well as entertain." (Abstract)
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