Media and Identity in Africa
John Middleton editor Kimani Njogu editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Edinburgh University Press
Published:9th Apr '09
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Studies of the media in Africa, incorporating both African and international perspectives, are few. The thirty papers collected here were presented at a seminar organised and hosted by the Kenya-based Twaweza Communications and the International African Institute in Nairobi in 2004. They demonstrate how media outlets are used to perpetuate, question or modify the unequal power relations between the North and the South. Focusing on east Africa, the papers include discussions of the construction of old and new social entities, as defined by class, gender, ethnicity, political and economic differences, wealth, poverty, cultural behaviour, language and religion. The authors illustrate how there is increasing control by local people of traditional and modern forms of media. Globalization is being countered by local responses, within the context of social and cultural identities. Essentially, the book describes the tensions between the global and the local, tensions not often discussed in media studies, thus pioneering new debates.
!a collective snap-shot of the variety, complexity, embeddedness and fecundity of African cultural production in a wide variety of interlocking media. -- Graham Furniss, Professor of African Language Literature, and Pro-Director, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London !an extremely valuable addition to the not-very-large body of academic writing on media in Africa! this comprehensive anthology is timely. -- Bodil Folke Frederiksen, Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Denmark 'The contributions are wide-ranging, reflecting a broad interpretation of media. That is one of its great strengths, building on a widely varied expertise and experience of the contributors. Another great strength is that what the contributors offer is an African-centred view, where for many years the view of Africa has been a western-based view ... The rich profusion of topics covered in this volume is impressive. They include popular dance music, soap operas, clothing as a form of communication (in the Akwapim kingdom in Ghana), political ridicule and cartoons.' -- Bill Kirkman, Volume 98, Issue 404 The Round Table The volume has almost everything for everyone because of the range of variety in the contributors' disciplinary approach and density of style and language. For a book aimed at meeting the needs of academic and general audiences, Media in Africa is an invaluable acquisition. African Studies Quarterly
ISBN: 9780748635221
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 679g
352 pages