"'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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"Overall, South Africa has a relatively vibrant and developing media environment. The 15 interviewees were involved in 37 media development initiatives between them. These development initiatives comprise the following: 12 training initiatives; nine advocacy initiatives; five research initiatives; t
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hree training media initiatives; two legal support initiatives; one award initiative; one grant making initiative; one conference; and, one revenue stream generation initiative [...] Through their experiences of designing, implementing and evaluating their media development initiatives, interviewees offer the following learning points regarding success. They stress the importance of strategic and long-term planning, of working with partners where possible, avoiding dependency on donors and taking the cultural context into account [...] Interviewees praised media development initiative donors for starting to seek advice about the real needs on the ground. However, interviewees feel that donors are falling short in the following ways: the withdrawal of funding from South Africa; the duplication of initiatives; conducting the wrong training; only providing short-term funding; being too prescriptive; and, not providing for core costs. According to the participating media professionals, the strategic priorities for media development are media management training, community participation, specialised reporting training and media monitoring." (Summary & conclusions, page 99-100)
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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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"Bua Fela is a tool for broadcasters who create radio for children and with children. According to the authors, Bua Fela offers the following: techniques for involving children in media production; sound advice for starting youth programmes at a community radio station; tips on how to get children t
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alking; skills to give children in your community a voice of their own, to enable them to create their own media and develop their own stories; ways of reporting on, and ethically representing, children in the media; guidance for children to work with other children as a broadcasting team; case studies from the 'Speak Free' project as practical examples." (commbox)
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"A practical step-by-step guide for self-publishers how to run a successful publishing operation, from manuscript preparation, design and production, through to distribution and marketing and promotion." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2511)
"The focus in this article is on two different modes of 'giving a voice to the voiceless' in Southern African new democracies, namely South African community radio and its support apparatus, Democracy Radio, and the Namibian People's Parliament. South African community radio operates within a sphere
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of its own, it is supposed to be closely linked to the grassroots, while the Namibian contact programmes fall under the auspices of the Namibian Broadcasting Company. There are differences in administrative form, but both models have come up against very similar problems in the design of the content. It is easy to talk about community and grassroots orientation, but to implement such policies is difficult, especially when the basic task is to promote democracy and citizenship." (Abstract)
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"In passing and implementing the Access to Information Act 2002, Jamaica has established a new and more open form of governance and accomplished what many other countries are still attempting. The Act, which provides citizens an enforceable right to official documents held by public authorities, is
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key to enhancing democracy, ensuring citizens’ participation, and building greater trust in Government decision making. Access to public documents can assist citizens in exercising their other fundamental socioeconomic rights, such as the right to housing, appropriate health care, and a clean and healthy environment, and it can serve to make government more efficient and effective. Passing an access to information law is, relatively speaking, easy in comparison to the practise of implementation, which can be challenging for any country. Successful implementation of an open information regime requires a commitment of resources (human, financial, and time), preparation of public bodies, development of procedures, change in culture and behaviours, and expertise. It is clear that the Jamaican Government and its public authorities, who entered into effect in phases with the final large group beginning in July 2005, have made great progress in the implementation of the Act including training of civil servants in the law and best practices. Many of the efforts in Jamaica serve as a model for other jurisdictions. However, as with any new regime there is the potential for constructive reform and advancement." (Introduction)
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"Commissioned by the Department of Science and Technology of the government of South Africa, this is a major study of the present state of research publishing policy and practice in South Africa. The goal of the six-chapter report is to help to "develop and maintain a robust national system of innov
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ation that contributes materially to the sustainable prosperity of all South Africa's people." Individual chapters cover a bibliometric assessment of South African research publications; a comprehensive analysis of South African research journals; a survey of journal editors' opinions; and an analysis of global e-research trends and their implications for South African research publishing, both in print and online formats. The final chapter sets out conclusions and recommendations for a strategically enhanced role of research publishing in South Africa. It recommends that all stakeholders in the South African research enterprise should each in their own way support local/national research journals that actively seek to be of international quality and are indexed in an internationally recognised, bibliometrically accessible database, through following best-practice in editorial judgment and peer review. Among other main recommendations of the report are: that funds should be allocated from the grants made by the Department of Education for research publication to support scholarly publishing in South Africa; that the Department of Science and Technology should take responsibility for ensuring that Open Access initiatives are promoted to enhance the visibility of all South African research articles and to make them accessible to the entire international research community, including the development of research repositories; and that the Academy of Science of South Africa be mandated to carry out external peer review and associated quality audit of all South African research journals in five-year cycles, and act as a support and quality control body for scholarly publishing." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 970)
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"The purpose of this report is primarily to report on the results of the 2006 Children in the Media Monitoring Project, and specifically on how children would write the news, reflected in the newspapers the children produced during a workshop in 2006. The report also reflects the results of a childr
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en’s monitoring exercise, the impact of the CCMP on reporting on children, concluding with some recommendations for child-friendly reporting." (Page 2)
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"Young people, working with a range of media materials, produce innovative content through dialogue and discussions says this publication. On the basis of case studies in Ghana, Haiti, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Vietnam, and Zambia, the study examines how
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youth get involved with an assortment of media including newspaper and magazine, radio, television and video, the internet, and personal digital assistants. The study [...] provides a detailed sketch of the various initiatives, offers some interesting perspectives on how ICTs and media mixes have become popular with youngsters both in creative engagement and content creation. It explores the various kinds of innovative uses and participation of youth in media in different cultural contexts, and demonstrates that young people, working with a range of media materials, produce innovative content through dialogue and discussions." (UNESCO website)
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"Indigenous peoples from all corners of the globe continue to struggle for acknowledgement and recognition of their unique visions of water, both at home and in national, regional and international forums. But almost without exception, their voices remain obscured by a mainstream discourse rooted in
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the conception of water as a mere commodity. Water and Indigenous Peoples is based on the papers delivered on the occasion of the Second and the Third World Water Forums (The Hague in 2000 and Kyoto in 2003). It brings to the fore some of the most incisive indigenous critics of international debates on water access, use and management, as well as indigenous expressions of generosity that share community knowledge and insight in order to propose remedies for the global water crisis." (Back cover)
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