"The book provides a succinct and comprehensive study of the history, aesthetics, and theory of sub-Saharan African cinematic productions that is grounded in the field of film studies instead of textual interpretations from other disciplines. Bringing African cinema out of the margins into the disci ... pline of mainstream film studies and showcasing the diverse cinematic expressions of the continent, the book covers: Overview of African cinema(s): Questions our assumptions about the continent’s cinematic productions and defines the characteristics of African cinema across linguistic, geographic, and filmic divides. History of African and African-American cinema: Spans the history of film in Africa from colonial import and ‘appropriation of the gaze’ to the quest for individuality. It also establishes parallels in the historical development of black African cinema and African-American cinema. Aesthetics: Introduces new research on previously unexplored aesthetic dimensions such as cinematography, animation, and film music. Theoretical Approaches: Addresses a number of theoretical approaches and critical frameworks developed by scholars in the study of African cinema. All chapters include case studies, suggestions for further reading, and screening lists to deepen the reader’s knowledge with no prior knowledge of African cinema required." (Publisher description) more

"As a follow up on the Media and Development Forum, which took place in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on 11-13 September 2008, the European Commission initiated this study to map out the projects and programmes which European donors have in place to support media development in Africa [...] Some 240 co ... ntacts were identified and sent the questionnaire. 148 responses have been collected. 200 projects/programmes have been identified and analysed. These projects/programmes amounts to a support worth more than 100m €. The projects/programmes involve 46 out of the 57 African countries. Training is the dominant activity area. More than 1/3 of the projects have training as the main content. Additionally, in many cases the training activities support other activity areas, like production of programmes, setting up of radio stations etc. Only one small project address education of future journalists. 152 projects (76%) address only one country. These projects include 36 countries (63% of the countries in Africa and 78% of the countries which have received support). The projects targeting only one country amount to 60.739.635 €, which is 60% of the funding recorded in the survey. Very few countries receive the majority of the funding. The three countries receiving support for more than 5 mil € receive 32,8% of the total support. The data indicates that the major part of the support goes to countries in conflict/post-conflict or democracy crisis situations. ¾ of the projects are implemented by non-African organisations/institutions. Regarding New Media, the analysis shows that mobile phones and the Internet are gaining importance in the continent because of the numbers of subscribers and access possibilities are increasing. Initiatives are taken in many countries to make these tools real means of communication as well as sources of information and evidence and channels of dissemination of information in several areas of development. Despite of this development, only very few projects address new media." (Executive summary, page 5-7) more