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- Description:
- This paper begins by profiling the key elements of the RASCOM study and their implications for the socioeconomic development of Africa. It then analyzes the traditional arguments in the debate about the role of the new Information and communication technologies in African development. Arguing for a regional approach to telecommunication infrastructural development, the paper examines SADCC's experience and concludes by offering a framework within which strategies can be mapped out for an integrated information and communication technologies development.
- Date Issued:
- 1992-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- Development institutions have in recent years realised the importance of indigenous culture as an important vehicle for communication. This has led to the creation of programmes in which local cultural forms have been "recruited" as the communication process for "selling" development strategies. The paper draws upon the author's experiences of theatre for primary health mobilisation and awareness in rural Malawi. The advantage of performing arts as a medium for development communication are that: 1) they provide a more entertaining form than monologous media, 2) they can easily use local languages and cultural forms such as songs and dances, 3) they encourage participation and debate in the audiences. The main disadvantage is that such intrumental use of the performing arts can lead to a cornmodification of culture which is manifested in: 1) the professionalisation of cultural workers in a context which is not normally commercial, 2) the reification and triviliation of community culture through the use of traditional external forms to convey messages totally at variance with their original context. Such cultural engineering, at its most insensitive can constitute a form of developmental imperialism which erodes rather than supports the cultural cement binding local communities. Suggested solutions demand agents' wide-ranging consultations, not only with development minded stake-holders, but also with those who possess cultural skills and interests.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- The thesis of this article is that the national interests of African states make it imperative for them to carefully evaluate, assess and examine the development of their present media structures and ownership patterns. The article identifies some of the new communication media in the African context and offers a detailed review of the national and international ramifications of their selection and adoption as privately-owned enterprises.
- Date Issued:
- 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- Paulo Freire's ideas on the contents, methods and purposes of education are relevant in any serious consideration of the African development dilemma. Not only because he worked in and experimented with African societies, but also because of the universal flavour of his pedagogy, Paulo Freire brings some refreshing insights into strategies for responsible development through culturally-sensitive direct and mass-mediated education.
- Date Issued:
- 1996-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- The decade of the 1980s could, from a communications perspective, be typified as the period of 'social mobilisation'. Rather than expanding on the theoretical assumptions underlying the social mobilisation approach for development, this article discusses the consequences of the theoretical assumptions for the use of personal and mass media, as experienced in the African context.
- Date Issued:
- 1991-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- African nations are at the crossroads. Some of their economies are tottering, and on the brink of collapse while social, cultural and political structures are becoming weaker by the day. There is need for better management of Africa's resources. The article advances an argument that communication is critical in the empowerment of civil society. It points out that communication is a doubleedged blade that can either empower or disempower a civil society. The paper highlights key areas in which communication can empower a society. These are in the economic, cultural and political spheres. The effects of modern communication technology especially the internet and e-mail among others, which have radically transformed information dissemination system are discussed. It includes that African countries must take cognisance of the role of communication and harness it for their benefit.
- Date Issued:
- 1996-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper states that the "democracy movement" in Africa has reasserted the need for independent press activity. There has emerged independent radio broadcasting, which supports the abrogation of state monopoly of the broadcast media. It is up to the media educators and communicators to ensure that the main objective of the emerging media ought to be the improvement of the people's lifestyle, both materially and politically.
- Date Issued:
- 1993-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper examines the problems and prospects of the development and application of communication infrastructures and products in order to achieve cultural synchronization. It discusses the subject from the perspectives of an emerging discipline, and against the background of ethnic and cultural conflicts in various regions of the world. It gives specific examples of the uses and applications of new communication and information technologies elsewhere in the world, and points out the tasks confronting African governments and the private sector.
- Date Issued:
- 1988-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review