Information In and On Africa

Author(s):  
Roger Pfister

Talking about Africa’s right to information means talking about communication in Africa and in the Third World generally. In Africa the channels of communication were underdeveloped or inappropriate as a consequence of the continent’s colonial past. The resulting lack of information was, among other reasons, an impediment to national development in African states after their independence. Until the 1980s, the principal means of communication were newspapers, books, telephones, radio and TV. However, with the development of modern technology, the proliferation of satellites, the advance in the computer industry and, most recently, with the advent of Internet new forms of communication were added. This contribution outlines the initiatives and discussions from the 1960s to the 1980s on the relationship between economic development and access to information in the Third World generally and in Africa in particular. The second part deals with the new communication technologies, the areas of application in Africa and their possible impact on Africa’s development. The author takes a rather pessimistic attitude as far as the advancement of sustainable development in Africa through information technology is concerned, unless such technology is applied to local circumstances.

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
LaNada War Jack

The author reflects on her personal experience as a Native American at UC Berkeley in the 1960s as well as on her activism and important leadership roles in the 1969 Third World Liberation Front student strike, which had as its goal the creation of an interdisciplinary Third World College at the university.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-263
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Surovell

In their assessments during the 1960s and 1970s of the state of affairs of Third World “revolutionary democracies” and nations that had taken the “non-capitalist road to development,” the Soviets employed a mode of analysis based on the “correlation of forces.” Given the seeming successes of these “revolutionary democracies” and the appearance of new ones, Moscow was clearly heartened by the apparent tilt in favor of the Soviets and of “progressive” humanity more generally. These apparently positive trends were reflected in Soviet perspectives and policies on the Third World, which focused confidently on such “progressive” regimes. Nonetheless, so-called “reactionary” regimes continued to be a thorn in the side of Soviet policy makers. This study offers a fresh examination of the Soviet analyses of, and policies towards three “reactionary” Third-World regimes: the military dictatorship in Brazil, the Pinochet dictatorship of Chile, and Iran during the reign of the Shah. The article reveals that Soviet decision makers and analysts identified the state sector as the central factor in the “progressive” development of the Third World. Hence the state sector became the focal point for their analyses and the touchstone for Soviet policies; the promotion of the state sector was regarded as a key to the Soviet objective of promoting the “genuine independence” of Third World countries from imperialist domination.


1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-198
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Vasquez

Brazilian educator Paulo Freire played an influential role in the development of grass-roots religious movements throughout the Third World from the 1960s to 1980s. Partaking of the Enlightenment affirmation of critical thinking as the key emancipatory tool, Freire's pedagogical method has empowered hitherto marginalized subjects. Toward the end of the 1980s, however, postmodernist critiques of Enlightenment rationality as domination have raised some troublesome doubts about the viability of modernist emancipatory projects, including Freire's method. In this article, I reformulate Freire's method to respond to the challenges of postmodernist critiques. I argue that despite some serious shortcomings, the emancipatory impulse behind Freire's pedagogy is worth preserving. Further, I see a revised Freirean approach as a salutary counterpoint to postmodernism's excessive localism and elective affinity with neoliberal capitalism.


1982 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-103
Author(s):  
John A Lent

To produce a selected bibliography on Third World mass communications has become rather difficult in recent years, because of an abundance of materials. The controversy that led to and nourished the New World and International Information Order augmented the literature by many fold and in some cases impressively — though not always differently, as catch phrases and arguments on all sides of the debate were repeated almost slavishly in packaged articles and books reminiscent of the works of a public relations practitioner. The growth of journalism training, research and educational institutions — and a corresponding increase in teachers, researchers and writers — in Third World nations also produced a glut of information. Because of these factors and a space limitation, this bibliography is devoted almost entirely to books and monographs published between 1971 and 1981. A list of periodicals which carry Third World mass communications articles is added, with notations on special issues devoted to the topic. To do more than this concerning periodical literature is prohibitive in this article. Categories used are bibliographies; mass communications, broken down into general, advertising and public relations, broadcasting, film and press; communication and development in the Third World (including media's role in social change, national development and integration, rural development and revolutionary movements); communications, politics and governments in the Third World (including law of the press, political processes and ideologies, right to communicate and press freedom); and the New World and International Information Order and the Third World (including media imperialism, flow of news and information and national sovereignty). This listing in no way is meant to be exhaustive; instead, it is designed to serve as a basic bibliography of the most recent books and monographs written by researchers and scholars throughout the world, but mainly from the United States.


1989 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 939-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Hanson

I test the hypothesis advanced by Richard Easterlin and others that the importation of modern technology and prospects for economic development in the Third World are principally a function of the local population's formal schooling. According to orthodoxy, manufacturing more than any other sector should repay investment in human capital. Yet the correlation of schooling with the manufacturing sector is much lower than with the mineral sector, an enclave in colonial economies and a symbol of underdevelopment.


1987 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Oldenburg

Corruption—like the weather—is a phenomenon people in the third world talk about a great deal, and, it would seem, do little about. Scholars of political change in the third world share this interest, but—although they are usually not expected to deal with corruption itself —they should move beyond the recounting of vivid anecdotes to a more systematic analysis of the problem. Steps in this direction were made in the 1960s and 1970s, but surprisingly little more work has been done since.


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