"Papua New Guinea’s Tok Pisin language newspaper Wantok, founded in 1969, is one of the publishing icons of the South Pacific. Drawing on interviews with Fr Francis Mihalic and Bishop Leo Arkfeld made in the early 1990s, a manuscript history of the early days of the Wantok, written by Mihalic, and
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material drawn from the archives in the Society of the Divine Word’s mother house in Mt Hagen, this article seeks to present a picture of a man who was at once a priest, a publisher, a propagandist, a linguist, a lecturer and often a cause of bewilderment to the very bishops whose work he was supposed to be doing. While acknowledging Mihalic’s role as the creator of Wantok, it places the emergence of the newspaper within an historical, educational, religious and social framework that shows it emerging and growing in response to several broad trends." (Abstract)
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"Tok Pisin [one of the three national languages] has played a significant role as an agent of change and development in Papua New Guinea. It bridged the gap between the rural and the urban communities and brought confidence to people who are now able to communicate with others as well as among thems
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elves [...] Because of the low literacy levels, most can only read basic English and find it difficult reading newspapers in English. 'Wantok' has played an equally important part since it was first published in 1970 in bringing information to the nation, especially the grassroots. It is probably the only media capable of maintaining a written standard against which Tok Pisin can be judged and the only means of reaching many rural people." (Conclusion, page 60)
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"'The only true history of a country', wrote Thomas Macaulay, 'is to be found in its newspapers'. This book explores how the media shaped and defined the economic, social, political and cultural dynamics of the British Empire by viewing it from the perspective of the colonised as well as the colonis
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ers." (Publisher description)
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