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- Description:
- This paper analyses the concepts of development and democracy to determine their compatibility within the African situation, and discusses how the mass media could promote them. It demonstrates that, while appropriate models of the concept of democracy are still being sought, it is indisputable that there already exist sufficient elements in the African conception of human rights to provide a base for a press system that tends towards liberalism rather than authoritarianism. It, therefore, approaches the discussion from the perspective of what role the press ought to play in the African society to promote both democracy and development.
- Date Issued:
- 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This essay examines the role which the Nigerian media played in the transition from military rule to elected civilian government. It observes that the immediate political context of the transition was a post-Abacha liberalizing military administration as well as a resurgent civil society. This context meant that the media was able to play a relatively robust role in reporting and influencing the transition although the fact that the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime refused to repeal several "death decrees" targeted at the media remained a key constraining factor on the boldness and imaginativeness of the press in its reporting and monitoring of the transition. Furthermore, while the media, in all its plurality, offered coverage to all of the political parties, it was equally clear that the better financially-endowed People's Democratic Party (PDP) which also emerged as the dominant party was able to win greater advantage over the two other political parties, namely, the All People's Party and the Alliance for Democracy, through the purchase of advertisement space in the print and electronic media. On the whole, the Nigerian media played its role in the transition with credit and whatever weaknesses are observed in its performance and in the skewing of the outcomes of the transition owe more to the shallowness of the transition itself and less to the shortcomings of the media.
- Date Issued:
- 2000-12-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Science
- Description:
- Review of: Keyan Tomaselli, Ruth Tomaselli, Johan Muller (eds.). Narrating the crisis: hegemony and the South African Press. London: Currey, 1987
- Date Issued:
- 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Critical Arts
- Description:
- This article surveys the relationship between the mass media and the government in Tanzania with respect to the implementation of the country's foreign policy. It argues that although there is a unanimous acknowledgement of mass media's role in the conduct of foreign affairs worldwide and even among Tanzania's leadership, a lingering suspicion of journalists persits among most government officials which makes them withhold vital information from the country's local mass media. It recommends, among other things, an open dialogue between the officials of the Foreign Ministry and the press in the effort to forge a working relationship that would facilitate wide debate in the conduct of foreign affairs and international issues as it is the case in a socialist democracy.
- Date Issued:
- 1989-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review