Topic: Censorship & Repression Instructor: Jack
Lule On this page are the assignments for Monday, Week 5. You should have Monday's assignments completed by Thursday, at 7 p.m. Your second research paper on a media mogul is also due at that time.
CENSORSHIP With this week, we take yet another perspective on international communication. In the first half of the course, we focused primarily on how U.S. news covers the world. We looked at serious issues concerning that coverage. In the second half, we have been looking at global journalism -- issues facing the news and journalists in other countries around the world. We started with global media conglomeration. We continue with another important theme: censorship and oppression. In the United States, censorship is not often seen as a major issue. Compared to other nations, in which journalists work under the constant threat of outright censorship, physical violence, and oppression, the United States offers a relatively unfettered site for journalists. Indeed, many Americans are unaware of the ferocity of censorship around the world. Journalists and other writers face exile, imprisonment, torture and death for their work. CENSORSHIP IN AFRICA Censorship unfortunately occurs around the globe from Asia to South America. We can best learn about censorship, however, by focusing in particular on one area of the world. Our focus for this section will be Africa, home to some of the most repressive nations for journalists. 1) We are fortunate that the American Journalism Review has devoted a number of stories to the plight of journalists in Africa. "A Ticket to Hell" is a dated but still excellent two-part analysis of the oppression facing African journalists every day. If the AJR site is down, you can find a copy of Part 1 and Part 2 here. 2) You will want to supplement and update this article by visiting the site of a fine organization: The Committee to Protect Journalists. Please visit the CPJ site. You will find lots of interest. Find links to regional home pages in the right column, select Africa, and update yourself through an Overview and other selections on the situation in Africa. 3) Please read the two AJR articles in this series and the CPJ updates and then send me a message, jack.lule@lehigh.edu, discussing what you've learned about the situation of journalism in Africa. 4) Many people -- in the United States and around the world -- have no idea of the struggles faced by Africa's people and press. These are hugely important issues. Yet many people know little about them. I want to use our conference to talk about why. First, let's talk about how much you knew about Africa -- the continent, the nations, the people and its press before undertaking this class. If you knew about events there, please tell us how you did. Have any of you lived or traveled in Africa? Where do you think your images of Africa have come from: School? Movies? Television? News? If you do not know much about Africa, why do you think that is so? Who has the responsibility to tell us about such things: the news, the schools, our parents? Is there just "too much to know" in this world? Let's talk about it in conference. Remember, to attain the best grade for conference discussions: You should post early, responding to the assignment and perhaps making reference to the readings. Then before Thursday, 7 p.m. you should be posting more, commenting on one or more of your classmates' postings. If you have any questions, as always just let me know at jack.lule@lehigh.edu. See you in conference.
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