Sociolingo’s Africa

Africa’s Media: Democracy and the Politics of Belonging
By Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Review
“An exceptionally rich and thought-provoking work. Nyamnjoh gives us a vivid, well researched picture of the new African media landscape, while asking probing questions about both journalistic practice and the meaning of democracy.”–James Ferguson, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University
“Nyamnjoh’s book is a worthwhile addition to the growing body of knowledge on African communication and politics. It is creatively rendered in a descriptive and critical style that combines the anthropologist’s eyes for patterned behaviour and the journalist’s nose for social criticism. The result is a delicious rendition on the complex role of communication in democracy. This should be required reading in journalism, political science, and sociology.”–Charles Okigbo, Department of Communication, North Dakota State University ‘This latest work by Professor Francis Nyamnjoh raises the level of the debate on the media and the democratization agenda in Africa to a very high level with perceptive and insightful analysis of the problematic. The work is informed, detailed, useful, and meaningful. It serves as an outstanding contribution and source for scholars, professionals and top-level decision makers in the area of media and democracy in Africa. It is a “must” text for all students of mass media and development in Africa.”–Cecil Blake, Chair, Africana Studies Department, University of Pittsburgh“Nyamnjoh’s analysis innovatively develops a new conceptual framework in assessing studies on, and the state of, African media and how people use them. His theoretical achievement is to critique African essentialism on the one hand, while developing an indigenized critical theory on the other. He speaks from Africa, about Africa, in an engagement with Western theory, assumptions and policies. This study is a breakthrough.”–Keyan G. Tomaselli, University of KwaZulu-Natal and President, South African Communication Association
Book Description
This major study explores the role of the mass media in promoting democracy and empowering civil society in Africa. The author contextualizes Africa within in the rapidly changing global media and shows how patterns of media ownership and state control have evolved and the huge difficulties under which most African media workers labor. The author also explores the whole question of media ethics and professionalism in Africa. The general analysis is supported by a detailed case study of Cameroon.
Africa’s Media: Democracy and the Politics of Belonging
By Francis B. Nyamnjoh
ISBN-10: 1842775839ISBN-13: 978-1842775837
Available from Amazon.com
This entry was posted on January 28, 2008 at 1:59 pm and is filed under AFRICA, AFRICAN COUNTRIES, AFRICAN LITERATURE, AFRICAN POLITICS, African book review, African books, African democracy, African writers, Cameroon, POLITICS. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
from http://sociolingo.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/african-bookafricas-media-democracy-and-the-politics-of-belonging/#comment-24821 accessed 1/28/08

Media Literacy

"The voracious campaign press, competing daily for new material, whips small stories into twenty-four-hour firestorms. A week later, the details fade into obscurity, replaced by some new blowup, all of them distractions for voters trying to understand the issues and decide for themselves who our next President should be."
Patrick Caldwell, former intern for the Nation Institute, reflecting on the mass media's instant but short-lived reaction to his online story that the Clinton campaign had tried to plant a question at a public event.
from http://www1.medialiteracy.com/ accessed 1/27/08

Using Social Media

"If you look at nonprofits, I think the successful ones have a passionate core that want to hear what's going on, that want to see what's going on with video, that want to get regular updates, that want to comment, engage, and participate. Social media very much facilitates that in an easy and, as I said, affordable way, so it's a natural fit for what nonprofits are looking for." --Eric Mattson, co-author of Blogging for The Hearts of Donors.
Nonprofits Outpacing Business in Use of Social Media: An Interview with Eric Mattson
http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo/nonprofits-outpacing-business-use-social-media-interview-eric-mattson accessed 1/27/08

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking and common sense are more alike than they are different.

We Are The News

That's right! We are the news. And now we are wanting to participate in the reporting of the news. We will contact CBS-TV and tell them our plan. We want CBS affiliates to invite residents of their broadcast areas to appear on the six o'clock news and read the regular news from the regular teleprompter. We can do this! We want to do this because we want the public to be involved in the media of our society. We want to show that TV broadcasts can be used as a public space where citizens can make a positive contribution. Post your comments here and 'sign' your name. Contact CBS at

CBS Television Network
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
Main telephone number: 212.975.4321

CBS News
555 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Main telephone number: 212.975.4114

All best,
Erasmus