Communications and the 'Third World' (Routledge Library Editions: Communication Studies)

Originally published in 1971. An introduction to the rapidly-changing field of modern communications at the time, this book brings together a wide range of literature from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It presents a critical revaluation of the dominant theoretical perspectives which informed Third World communications studies, and it challenges popular and often greatly misinformed perceptions of the nature and the uniformity of current Third World communications. The author gives an account of the significant shifts in the theoretical orientation of cultural analysis in Third World societies, explaining the vast differences between these societies in their levels of industrialization, communications and cultural production, and their ability to utilize modern mass communications and business-oriented technologies. He reveals that the differences can sometimes be greater than those between advanced capitalist and Third World countries, and comes to reject the usefulness of the concept of "Third World" in understanding the nature of communications systems in different national societies.