Comparing Media Systems : African Background Essay

Africa has undergone a long history of being invaded, taken advantage of and colonized. European powers are primarily at fault for this, however they have experienced their own turmoil in this time period: war. This led Europe to create mercenary armies of African soldiers to fight for their countries, particularly in the World Wars. The rampant injustice of this system and many African lives lost was a spark for the African nation states under colonial rule. It led to the wildfire that was African independence movements, protests, and riots. It also led to the Year of Africa, where most countries were recognized as their own entities and no longer colonies. While there are many factors involved in this portion of history, the importance of

The media in the US has been accused of misrepresenting African Americans consequently enhancing their discrimination(The Leadership Conference, 2014). Media is key in reinforcing or advancing specific cultural practices both positive and negative. Research studies conducted on race in media representation identified that from 1955 to 1986, only 6% of media characters were African Americans while 89% were white. Of the identified blacks, 49% lacked high school certification while 475 were poor. The poor representation of the blacks by the media is instrumental in reinforcing the perception that African Americans are inferior to their white counterparts. Given the historical events of the American society, media should make efforts to address racism and related mentalities. Adverts and other mass media content was and continues to enforce racism. The use of racially insensitive caricatures and content with racial undertone continues to bedevil the American society. Given that virtually every household in the US owns a television, broadcasting racially offensive or advancing related themes is bound to reinforce the racist attitudes among Americans.

In the late nineteenth century the European powers of the world began imperializing Africa. This annexation, occupation, and division of African territory has since led to much strife within the continent and has caused many struggles politically. This period known as the “Scramble for Africa” has led to the many problems that Africa faces today and has been the root of several wars in Africa to assume control. After World War II many European imperialists began to give African nations autonomy. This seemed like a step forward for African nations, but without any plan to transition into self governance many African nations have faced bloody civil wars and corruption. Along with political struggles, numerous African nations face rising debt and other economic problems. Many of these political and economic issues stem from the “Scramble for Africa”. Once the European countries left Africa had very little to support itself. To explain the issues left by imperialism the three African nations of Rwanda, South Africa, and Sierra Leone will be put under the scope.

After World War II (WWII), Europe did not have the man power to control Africa, as they once did. During this period Africa started to gain independence (“History of Africa, n.d). United States

In 1885 at Berlin, the major european powers meet together, each seeking to increase their influence on the world by taking control of the African continent. Europe had a grip on Africa until a series of African independence movements in the 1960s. Between that time the native people of each African colony were treated differently and used for different purposes. Compare and Contrast how each European country used and treated the people of their respective colonies.

In the end, of World War II, there was an era called the "liberation movement" that continued through the twentieth century. There were movements to defeat fascism and end colonial and racial domination in other places of the world. It took two decades, but most of Africa and Asia had been decolonized. And so in most cases liberation was peaceful, but other places had a struggle with it. With those struggles in showed that independence would bring a whole new set of challenges. New African states had a hard time with developing political systems. Africans were really not happy with the fact that they had limited gains from colonial reform of 1940. Decolonization was going on in other parts of the world such as India and elsewhere.

In the eyes of the media, the notion of The African-America Institute was formed in order to give Africans the opportunity to gain an American education. AAI was founded in 1953 by Dr. Horace Mann Bond, who was also the President of Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania and Professor William Leo Hansberry, a Howard University educator of history. Bond and Hansberry focus was to ensure all Africans who came into the country and of the country would get the proper funding, in order to attend the American Universities in United States of America. Upon seeing having negative cognition to their image would be of the African Union, former known as, Organization for African Unity.

The majority of the decolonization process spanned from the early 1950s to 1970s with a few states under foreign control until the 1980s. The misconception, however, was that once the last African country was liberated, all ties with European colonizing powers would be cut loose and wealth accumulation would be redirected inwards. However, that is far from the truth. Liberation from colonial control failed to transform underlying realities; in actuality, a new form of colonialism was erected—neocolonialism, the “continuation of colonial exploitation without formal political control”.1 In other words, African states remained largely dependent on their colonizers.

In the latter half of 1885 several European empires gathered together for a conference in Berlin. At this meeting of utmost importance, the various European powers laid claim to their African colonial territories, thus dividing the continent like a birthday cake among themselves. The new boundaries now united thousands of cultures, nations and ethnicities under the banner of white ethno-centricity. Thus began the final colonial dominion of Europe which would last well into the 20th century. Although the white minority has relinquished it?s stranglehold on Africa, the ramifications of hundreds of years of political dominion can be found throughout the continent. In 1962 during the heat of these

Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and

Despite the growth of the Internet around the world, television is still probably the largest and most influential media network. This extends across the world, as stated in The Three Ecologies, “Many people in the Third World will have televisions long before they have proper irrigation.”(Guattari, 1989) While radio may have existed before it, television played a larger role in the spread of capitalism and the development of the global village. Television also contributed more to the growth of the power of media networks, all this due to the effectiveness of imagery over simply

Through this course, we have discovered many ways to look at the continent of Africa. Each topic that we covered looked at a specific aspect of Africa that makes it unique and unlike any other part of the world. What makes it so unique is that it had its own history before the Western world interrupted the progress and altered the identity of Africans. It has taken many years to recover from the atrocities of the Western world’s invasion to create the recovering continent that is now Africa. While there are certainly aspects of Africa that are more contemporary and are certainly important, it is even more necessary to understand the history of Africa and what has caused Africa to adapt to its current state.

The Cold War; tension between the world's greatest superpowers, the United States, a democracy, and the Soviet Union, a communist nation after WWII. This event caused both positive and negative effects on Liberia, although they were not directly involved, they were very much impacted from the relationship they had with the United States. Although there were both positive and negative impacts on Liberia from the Cold War, the negative impacts largely outweighed the positive.

More than 850 million people in developing countries are excluded from a wide range of information and knowledge, with the rural poor in particular remaining isolated from both traditional media and new information and communication technologies which would improve their livelihoods.

This article highlights the role of Mzee Kenyatta’s nation building press and Media in the “Nyayo Republic” in developing media in Kenya. Kenyatta’s reign was characterized by less stringent controls of the media. Moi on the other hand towered Kenya’s political scene during his regime and greatly impacted the direction the media took through his relations with them and the policies that his government put in place. Of interest is the fact that Kenya had just acquired its independence and the perception of a one nation, one people would prevail, however the country set out with political fall outs, emerging oppositions and ethnicity issues. Both regimes used the media and state resources to