Cartoons and Comic Art

Adriana Puiggrós

It could be argued that the directions taken by Paulo Freire were determined as much by political struggle as by tensions between the teaching-communication models that developed in the progressive field in Latin America during the last 30 years. Freirian discourse is composed of elements derived from very different theoretical and political tendencies which, nevertheless, have certain points of contact. They share the hope of a more just and democratic society, but their philosophical assumptions and strategies differ. Consequently, as the author of the following article argues, Freire's theoretical thinking and experiences cannot be reduced to simple paradigms. Far from being fundamentalist, Freirian pedagogy is the result of complex permutations of discourse.

Sarah McNeill

Unesco's Chief of Free Flow of Information and Communication Research, Carlos Arnaldo, heads a small team in an office in Paris. His remit is informatics. With experience spanning the gamut of media and contacts throughout the world of communications, how does he define his role?

John A. Lent

This article surveys comics from two perspectives: as an entertainment medium and as a type of education and social change. Comic art here is divided into two parts, mainstream cartooning and outside the mainstream, a distinction that at times is not clear-cut or apparent. The emphasis is on the countries of the South - most of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Niels Thure Krarup

In 1996 a first workshop for Christian cartoonists in Europe was held in Denmark. The following article describes the problems its organisers faced, and the challenges posed to the churches by humour and graphic art.

Koch

Mission agencies have long been confronted with the tension between proclaiming God’s authority and contextualizing the meaning of Christ’s good news in cultural communities. This tension often influences the structures and cultures of media production. In some cases communicative agencies have radically decentralized for participatory media. In other cases agencies have retained an international hierarchy not dissimilar to colonial structures. This study describes some of Kenya’s church related televisual media and notes the particular challenges facing media which seeks to be a part of the religious and cultural dialogue in that country.

Kim Gordon

It is not often that material published in Media Development provokes a direct response. The following article is a critical commentary on "Challenges to Government Control of Information in China" which appeared in the 2/1997 issue. The author contends it is possible for a viable capitalistic and consumerist culture supported and promoted by a commercialised media and communications system to coexist with the continued domination of a Chinese "Communist" Party government.

Cheryl Renée Gooch

Although President Nelson Mandela has proclaimed that 'press freedom is not under threat in South Africa and will never be so long as the ANC (African National Congress) is the majority party,'1 he recently accused some senior Black journalists of trying to undermine the new government. These journalists, many of whom have demonstrated commitment to the liberation struggle, argue that their criticisms of the government's slow progress are not conspiratorial, but rather well founded and in the public interest. While Mandela and journalists have appeared to reconcile some of these differences, his criticisms raise pertinent questions about press and government relations, the changing role of Black journalists, and the future role of the press in South Africa's transformation.

Gado

The recent histories of African countries suggests that cartoonists, with their pointed wit and ability to reduce key issues to a single drawing, would be unwelcome. However, times are changing, as the following article reveals, and there is now more tolerance and scope.

Roland Francart

La bande dessinée chrétienne? C'est la petite sœur de la bande dessinée classique - dite BD - appelée aussi 9e art . Elle n'a que cinquante ans, et elle est plus discrète que Tintin ou Astérix. Dans le monde francophone de l'édition, elle est forte de 40 000 pages réparties en plus de 700 albums, dont beaucoup dépassent le tirage de 20 000 exemplaires, quelques-uns de 100 000. Elle a rassemblé plus de 250 dessinateurs travaillant pour une centaine d'éditeurs de dix pays différents. On la recense en plus de cent langues, traductions de BD américaines ou françaises, ou production locale en croissance. Sa présence dans la presse chrétienne est infiniment plus vaste et sera seulement évoquée ici par quelques exemples.

Bruce David Forbes

Why do comic books include religious language and imagery? The following article discusses the implications of this trend, arguing that their presence reflects religion's continuing role in providing resources for people engaged in quests for meaning or caught in struggles of good and evil.