"In this second publication in our Access to Communications Publication Series, the authors examine real-life examples of and trends in wireless technology solutions being used to drive change in the areas of health, humanitarian assistance, and environmental conservation. The compelling stories por
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trayed in this report demonstrate that telecommunications can be a powerful tool for positive change in our world." (Foreword)
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"Les radios demeurent le médium de communication le plus approprié à la communication sociale et à la communication de développement en Afrique. Dans cette étude, il s’agissait de faire l’état des lieux de la connectivité des radios ouest-africaines aux TIC (internet, satellite, ordinate
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ur, outils de stockage numérique, etc.), d’analyser les usages mis en oeuvre, d’identifier les contraintes, opportunités, et de faire des recommandations aux différents acteurs. L’étude est principalement axée sur sept pays cibles (Ghana, Bénin, Sénégal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Niger) et concerne toutes les radios (communautaires, commerciales, confessionnelles et religieuses). Deux cent vingt (220) radios ont été enquêtées." (Résumé, page 8)
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"This World Bank study discusses secondary textbook and school library availability in Africa, its cost and financing, and its distribution and publishing. The study’s objective was to analyze the issues and provide some options and strategies for improvement. Reforms are urgently required in the
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secondary school systems of most African countries in order to: (i) reduce the number of textbooks and reference books required by secondary education curricula; (ii) reduce the unit costs of textbooks; (iii) increase the target book life thus increasing cost amortization and reducing annual textbook fees/budgets; (iv) increase the financing allocated to textbook provision from either government or parents, and (v) ensure that curricula change does not make expensive materials redundant too early or too often. The authors of the study believe that if a reliable market exists local publishing can develop to service it, even in direct competition with multinationals; and that the market does not necessarily have to be large, but that the critical factor is predictability. If publishers are confident that funding will be available, from whatever source, year after year, then local publishing will emerge to serve that market. This, it is argued, is perhaps most clearly demonstrated in Botswana where a tiny but reliable and reasonably predictable secondary school sector has five competing approved textbooks in some secondary subjects." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2556)
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"This book offers a view of the cultural, family, and interpersonal consequences of mobile communication across the globe. Scholars analyze the effect of mobile communication on all parts of life, from the relationship between literacy and the textual features of mobile phones to the use of ringtone
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s as a form of social exchange, from the “aspirational consumption” of middle-class families in India to the belief in parts of Africa and Asia that mobile phones can communicate with the dead. The contributors explore the ways mobile communication profoundly affects the tempo, structure, and process of daily life around the world. The book discusses the impact of mobile communication on social networks, other communication strategies, traditional forms of social organization, and political activities. It considers how quickly miraculous technologies come to seem ordinary and even necessary; and how ordinary technology comes to seem mysterious and even miraculous. The chapters cut across social issues and geographical regions; they highlight use by the elite and the masses, utilitarian and expressive functions, and political and operational consequences. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate how mobile communication has affected the quality of life in both exotic and humdrum settings, and how it increasingly occupies center stage in people’s lives around the world." (Publisher description)
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"Struggles over the meaning of the past are common in postcolonial states. State cultural heritage programs build monuments to reinforce in nation building efforts—often supported by international organizations and tourist dollars. These efforts often ignore the other, often more troubling memorie
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s preserved by local communities—markers of colonial oppression, cultural genocide, and ethnic identity. Yet, as the contributors to this volume note, questions of memory, heritage, identity and conservation are interwoven at the local, ethnic, national and global level and cannot be easily disentangled. In a fascinating series of cases from West Africa, anthropologists, archaeologists and art historians show how memory and heritage play out in a variety of postcolonial contexts. Settings range from televised ritual performances in Mali to monument conservation in Djenne and slavery memorials in Ghana." (Publisher description)
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"Da der Staat sein früheres Medienmonopol weitestgehend verloren hat, ist eine liberalisierte und demokratisierte öffentliche Sphäre entstanden, die divergierende und miteinander konkurrierende Sichtweisen ermöglicht. Neue hegemoniale Bestrebungen gehen nun jedoch vor allem vom Pfingstchristentu
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m aus. Ghanas Pfingstkirchen haben am lautesten ihre Stimme in der neuen Öffentlichkeit erhoben und adressieren ihre Botschaften weit über ihren bisherigen institutionellen Rahmen hinaus an die Allgemeinheit der Bevölkerung. Sie haben dabei großes Geschick bewiesen in der Nutzung neuer Medientechnologien, wie in der Aufnahme populärkultureller Vorstellungen und Ausdrucksformen. Diese neuartige öffentliche Position der Religion stellt somit eine große Gefahr für den Nationalstaat dar. Dieser kann seine Deutungshoheit von Kultur nicht mehr durch eine alleinige Macht über die offiziellen Medien ausüben. Ghanas Pfingstkirchen bedrohen mit ihrer betont transnationalen Ausrichtung die nationale Einheit des Staates. Ihre Imagination einer Gemeinschaft von Gläubigen basiert in großem Maße auf medialer Vermittlung, sie ist deshalb nicht mehr territorial gebunden. Ihr der Logik des Marktes geschuldetes Expansionsstreben, welches religiöse Inhalte mit Formen der Unterhaltungsindustrie verschmelzen lässt, spricht Gläubige als Zuschauer an. Die massive Präsenz der Kirchen in der öffentlichen Sphäre macht ein Zugehörigkeitsgefühl zur christlichen Gemeinschaft damit unabhängig von lokalen Bindungen etwa an die physische Präsenz eines bestimmten Kirchengebäudes. Das Christentum bietet so eine alternative Identitätsgrundlage für das Individuum. 'Wiedergeborener' Christ zu sein ist eine Form der Identifikation, die exklusiv ist und damit inkompatibel mit anderen Entwürfen von Identität, auch mit einer nationalen. Dies führt letztlich zu der Frage, in welche Richtung sich dieses antagonistische Verhältnis zwischen Religion und Staat entwickeln wird." (Zusammenfassung und Ausblick, Seite 87-88)
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"Some recommendations can be made to Radio Progress and its community. The station seems to provide the Upper West people with what they needed – a voice to make themselves heard and to communicate with each other. Since the research showed that most limitations are due to the restraints in financ
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ial stability some stronger effort to receive funding would be advisable. Without undermining the non-profit character, Radio Progress could put more emphasise on some fundraising activities. More financial flexibility could solve most of the limitations the station is facing. Furthermore, the station board should pay more attention to a stable coordination of the station. The formerly absent and recently not existing coordination might bear negative impact on the staff motivation. Moreover, this rather unorganised coordination possibly restricts a consequent performance and a stringent development of the programming as well as potential improvement strategies. Some advice can be addressed to the listening communities. The research showed how vital the listeners handle information and educative input they receive through the station and as such also from other villages. By internal clustering of information and output through internal reflection they could even intensify the mutual learning effect the programming offers. Communities could form a committee to which people can address their grievances, demands and ideas on a frequent basis and which could present these collected information to the station. Such an organised information collection and transfer could overcome a crucial obstacle to participate for many people - the restriction to call or visit the station on their own." (Recommendations, page 98)
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"This collection of writing on community media describes attempts at local media development and case studies of functioning projects. It presents a range of perspectives on grassroots media originating from community groups; research representing participant observation; hands-on community involvem
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ent; service on international boards of directors; content analysis; and ethical inquiries. The book draws on both theoretical and practical examples from Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Ghana, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latin America, Native Americans, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and includes perspectives ranging from cyberdating to ethics and policy-making. Sections include Aboriginal/Indigenous Experiences, Current Case Studies, and Virtual Community Visions. It intends to appeal to a range of academic disciplines, community media groups, and people who work in their local cable television centres in order to provide an alternative voice to mainstream media." (https://www.comminit.com)
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"The iConnect website and monthly e-Bulletin is a major source for information on the application of knowledge and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in sustainable development. In 2005, as part of an effort to get more ‘southern voices’ into the current global discourse on ICT fo
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r development, iConnect formed a team of six coordinators in Africa who regularly commission articles by local journalists on the impact and the use of ICTs for development. The articles, written from a southern perspective, appear regularly on the iConnect website in English, French and Spanish." (Back cover)
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"The media sector in Ghana has witnessed some dramatic, positive changes over the past few years, made possible by the promulgation of the 1992 democratic Constitution and the election in 2000 of President Kufuor’s government. All interviewees agreed that democratisation and the repeal of the Crim
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inal Libel Law have been the most important changes for the media sector, allowing for an explosion in the number of media houses in Ghana. Training was identified as the single most important media development initiative in the individual interviewees’ areas of work." (Summary & conclusions, page 57)
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"This research initiative assessed the key media changes and developments in seventeen African countries over the past five years and aimed at recommending intervention strategies for strengthening an independent, professional media sector. The summary report presents the main findings regarding med
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ia landscapes, media legislation, media technology and equipment, journalism training and principles of media development. According to this publication "substantial evidence is provided that points to: non-sustainable and short-term approaches to projects; disconnected programmes; unneccesary competition amongst donors; and, consequently wasted investment of donor funds" (Page 15). In addition, individual country reports have been released, written by renowned African media specialists and researchers. They include: Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Each country report consists of three sections: 1) Media sector developments, 2) Challenges for future media development activities, 3) Case study: illustrating good practice in media development." (commbox)
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"Instead of limiting ourselves to an enumeration of the obstacles to pluralism, we tried to push the analysis further, proposing draft solutions to problems raised, in a realistic way. The democratic debate today can not be limited to the political arena only, by turning up one’s nose at the debat
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e on the media, especially at television pluralism, as in a kind of conspiracy of silence by politicians in power or in the opposition. Our inner conviction is that there can be no democracy in this twenty-first century without audiovisual democracy. Unless Africa, persisting in its denial of development or having opted for backwardness, by afro-pessimism, is not yet mature for any kind of pluralism. Which is obviously not the case, because Africa is already embracing television pluralism, something which, to quote a famous retort, is too serious to be left solely in the hands of politicians. The real challenge is and remains that of professionalism and economic viability." (introduction, page 15)
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