Author: Kwesi Kwaa Prah
ISBN No: 1-919932-27-5
Cost: 96.90
Anyone paying a visit to Africa today after a few years' absence will immediately notice two major changes: wherever they go, there are people using cell phones and people “speaking African” on FM radio. In Africa's rapidly changing media landscape, one of the most remarkable features of the burgeoning FM and local radio sector is the significant new role taken on by African languages in broadcasting. In the same way that mobile telephony has taken off in Africa, the use of African languages on air has spread exponentially. What is the impact of this phenomenon? This study offers some intriguing insights into the ways in which people in three West African countries perceive and respond to African language broadcasts. The findings point to a highly dynamic relationship between the medium, the idiom and the public. The study suggests that there are links between African language broadcasting and a deepening of the culture of democracy, the opening up of access to information, education and social participation for the illiterate, as well as a sensitisation of young people to their heritage. Not least, their presence on the airwaves may be fostering to the growth and development of the African languages themselves.
ALSO AVAILABLE IN FRENCH - See Monograph Series No. 46.
ISBN No: 1-919932-27-5
Cost: 96.90
Anyone paying a visit to Africa today after a few years' absence will immediately notice two major changes: wherever they go, there are people using cell phones and people “speaking African” on FM radio. In Africa's rapidly changing media landscape, one of the most remarkable features of the burgeoning FM and local radio sector is the significant new role taken on by African languages in broadcasting. In the same way that mobile telephony has taken off in Africa, the use of African languages on air has spread exponentially. What is the impact of this phenomenon? This study offers some intriguing insights into the ways in which people in three West African countries perceive and respond to African language broadcasts. The findings point to a highly dynamic relationship between the medium, the idiom and the public. The study suggests that there are links between African language broadcasting and a deepening of the culture of democracy, the opening up of access to information, education and social participation for the illiterate, as well as a sensitisation of young people to their heritage. Not least, their presence on the airwaves may be fostering to the growth and development of the African languages themselves.
ALSO AVAILABLE IN FRENCH - See Monograph Series No. 46.
