Communication Issues in the Caribbean

Eneid Routté-Gómez

The history of the Caribbean is one of stories which are only just beginning to be told. In this, mass and community media have a vital role to play, on which the future of islands such as Puerto Rico depend.

Aarón Gamaliel Ramos

The Caribbean was shaped by a logic of both unity and diversity. On the one hand, the region has been historically divided as a result of colonialism by various European powers; on the other hand, the slave trade and the entry of the Caribbean into the global market by way of agricultural production, created a common cultural base which has persisted to this day. The following article sketches elements of today's Caribbean reality that foster or hinder development work in the region.

Gregory Rabess

The relatively new phenomenon of popular media in the Eastern Caribbean is discussed in the following article. It identifies some interesting and possibly useful models of popular media and highlights their cultural significance and policy implications. It shows that popular media are creating a space for ordinary people to dialogue with and impact on public debate at local, national and regional levels.

Alberto Pereira

The English language no longer has genders or declensions and so it is relatively free of the gender bias inherent in other European languages. In contrast, Spanish maintains its grammatical distinction between masculine and feminine which, according to the author of the following article, gives added weight to gender bias and social discrimination.

Patrick A.B. Anthony

Metepec sé an ti vil an Mèxik, lwen di tout traffic gwan Vil Mèxik ki kapital péyi-a. Marisule sé un plas an Sent Lisi ven minit nò di kapital-la, Kastwi. Sété an Metepec Konmité Sentwal di WACC vot pou chanjé wèg yo épi aksèpté WACC-CARIBE kon yon manm yo. Sété an Marisule an janvyé 1996 WACC-CARIBE sélébwé nésans-li.

Patrick A.B. Anthony

Metepec is in Mexico. It is a small town in the heartland, far from the maddening congestion of Mexico City. Marisule is a district, twenty minutes north of Castries, capital of the small Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. It was at Metepec in October 1995 that the Central Committee of WACC voted the constitutional amendments which created WACC-CARIBE. It was at Marisule in January 1996 that WACC-CARIBE held its inauguration.

Patrick A. B. Anthony

Dans le programme 1997-2001 de la WACC intitulé Communication for Human Dignity, la question de la communication indigène est abordée dans la section «Communication for Empowerment», où on affirme que «la vision du monde des Peuples Indigènes trouve ses racines dans les traditions séculaires de faire connaître les cultures, les religions, les histoires» qui «n’ont survécu à la colonisation et au zèle missionnaire que pour confronter l’oppression et le génocide du siècle actuel.» A Sainte Lucie, île à majorité Catholique (79%), et où la grande partie de la population est d’origine Africaine (86%), le conflit entre une culture coloniale dominante et la culture locale assujettie se déroule sur le plan religieux entre le Catholicisme Romain d’une part, et les croyances et valeurs traditionnelles du peuple d’origine Africaine, de l’autre.

Nosa Owens-Ibie

In Nigeria the prohibitive cost of producing films and other economic considerations have led producers to resort to video films. This boom has caused a general drop in quality and fuelled intense competition to promote their commercial appeal. In spite of the powers conferred on it by statute, the censors' body appears unable to stem the tide of this commercialism in a way which might effectively promote the country's rich cultural heritage.

The Ninth MacBride Round Table, hosted by the University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communication, was held in Boulder, Colorado, USA, 1-2 October 1997. The Round Table was held in association with the 12th colloquium of the European Institute for Communication and Culture on Community Citizenship.

Hao Xiaoming, Huang Yu and Zhang Kewen

The following article is a response by the authors to Kim Gordon’s critique (4/1997) of 'Crippling government information control in China: The role of new media technologies' (2/1997), which focused on challenges brought about by the new media technologies to information control exercised by the Chinese authorities. As such, it was not meant to be a comprehensive description of current media development in China although it acknowledged in passing that China’s media and public communication channels have experienced a remarkable degree of self-liberalisation and pluralisation since the 1980s (p.18). The authors believe that Gordon’s commentary may benefit readers who want to have a more complete picture of the media development in China, but they do not fully agree with some of the points he raised.