"Dans les démocraties africaines encore fragiles et à citoyenneté postulée, ce livre, en prenant l’exemple du Sénégal, pose la question des mass média sénégalais dans la perspective historique de leur émergence, dans leurs tiraillements ontologiques (tradition ou modernité) et dans leur
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s orientations parfois contradictoires; le tout sous-tendu par la question prospective de leur devenir. Les mass média sénégalais, malgré leur foisonnement, sont encore en quête de leur identité. Des spécialistes se sont penchés avec intérêt sur les contradictions qui traversent cette presse, dont le rôle considérable joué dans les avancées démocratiques du pays, avec en point culminant, l’alternance politique survenue en 2000, est unanimement reconnu. Cependant, ce foisonnement exceptionnel et ce rôle incontestable ne sont pas forcément signe de maturité; dans une certaine mesure, les mass média sénégalais s’inscrivent dans un processus de maturation encore non abouti, malgré la croissance exponentielle des titres. Les medias sénégalais sont, en effet, tributaires d’un environnement social, économique et juridique qu’il est nécessaire de pénétrer pour comprendre leur dynamique propre et leurs difficultés, comme la contradiction entre oralité et nouvelles technologies qui n’est pas la moindre." (Préface, page 9-10)
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"A short but succinct four page overview of the book publishing industry in Nigeria, which has been in steady decline since the 1980s: "At one stage, prospects for the book industry in Nigeria appeared rosy. The Federal Government established paper and pulp making industries, and an elaborate plan w
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as drawn up for achieving self- sufficiency in the production of books for the nursery/primary, secondary, and tertiary tiers of education. Unfortunately all that, or most of it, collapsed following the nation's economic downturn of the 1980s. Book famine descended on Nigeria." The author examines various initiatives to improve the state of the book sector to make it meet the needs of the educational system, government decrees regarding indigenous publishing, national book policies (or the lack of it rather at the present time), a national book development council (which has been dormant for years), and other interventions." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 799)
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"This report outlines the findings and conclusions derived from the assessment mission undertaken by the ‘Partnership for Media and Conflict Prevention in West Africa’ to Liberia in December 2003. This mission brought together the expertise of a number of the national, regional and international
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media development and freedom of expression actors. The report seeks to layout collaborative approaches for supporting the media during the immediate and longer-term transition periods, both in terms of overcoming obstacles and developing capacities and resources, as well as contributing towards the creation of lasting peace, stability and democracy." (Executive summary, page 3)
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"The evidence of the Ghana and Nigeria experiences suggests that prospects of realising the right to information are more propitious if the challenge is civil society led and driven. The successful passage of a right to information act in any one country should also provide the necessary impetus for
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other countries to join the global wave of change towards greater disclosure and transparency." (Conclusion)
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"Emphasizing post-independent films released since the 1950s and the burgeoning commercial film production of the last decade, Focus on African Films provides unique and pluralistic perspectives on filmmaking throughout Africa. As a whole, the collection highlights the distinct thematic, stylistic,
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and socioeconomic circumstances of African filmmaking. Individual essays show how conditions in Africa have generated a broad range of views and techniques, from the stylistically innovative documentaries of Jean-Marie Teno and Abderrahmane Sissako and the "documentary fiction" of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun to the vibrant art films of Jean-Pierre Bekolo and the new films from South Africa. Contributors also outline the direction of increasingly popular, less didactic sub-Saharan filmmaking in films such as Daniel Kamwa's Pousse-Pousse, Ngangura Mweze's La vie est belle, and Imungu Ivanga's Dôlé." (Publisher description)
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