Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Present-day communication education in Africa has not been able to build on a rich tradition of a longstanding university system. Widespread university education in Africa is a postcolonial phenomenon, with North Africa and South Africa being the main exceptions. Like other academic disciplines, communication studies suffers much of this postcolonial legacy, be it the effect of the general education system, the role of universities in general, or the media and other communication systems, which have to struggle against oppressive state regimes and survive in a globalizing world ( Bourgault 1995 ; Barratt & Berger 2007 ; →  Globalization of the Media ; Globalization Theories ). The general standard of communication as an academic field in Africa is disappointingly low when measured against western standards, but also when compared to peer-group university departments in Latin America (e.g., Brazil) and in the east (e.g., Singapore). The rapid growth of the communication media industry in some African countries did not necessarily lead to an improvement in the teaching of communication and its applied fields. However, efforts in the 2000s were under way to radically structure and restructure African communication departments (→  Africa: Media Systems ). Communication education in Africa, like the modern mass communication system on the continent, is an import from western Europe ... log in or subscribe to read full text