Rethinking media diversity policy on the community press in South Africa

ABSTRACT

It has been well acknowledged by historians of South African media that the country had a vibrant grassroots community press under apartheid, which declined with the advent of democracy. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has supported media diversity in its media policy and has also criticised the supposedly anti-transformative nature of mainstream agenda-setting press. It has called for a range of measures to counteract this problem, including media diversity and intensified support for community media. However, apart from the establishment of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), in its practices in government, the ANC has adopted a market-driven approach to the development of the sector, leaving questions of market structure to the Competition Commission and Tribunal. Evidence from the community press suggests that this approach, which amounts to an adaptation to neoliberalism, but with a public service top-up, is inadequate to the task of realising diversity. As a result, the community press is facing deep crisis. The article will then consider why the ANC has adopted an incoherent, even contradictory approach to press diversity, and what policy measures are needed to encourage the sorts of vibrant community press that a democratic South Africa needs.     

Gals on the slab: Fetishism,re‐animation,and the dead female body

The simultaneous presence and absence signified by the dead body constitutes a very powerful, and resistant, text. This paper examines the representation of the dead female body in a range of fiction and films, and explores the extent to which these silent and absent bodies might be said to speak louder, and exert a greater presence, in death than in life. The power and appeal of these bodies is further explored in relation to the arguably fetishistic impluse underlying the desire to possess, and somehow re‐animate, them, as readily controllable substitutes for the ‘real’ women they once embodied.     

Designing,Implementing, and Evaluating a Media Campaign Illustrating the Bystander Role

SUMMARY

The present article discusses convents as homes. Resulting from the study of a Gregorian source presently housed at DePaul University's Richardson library, this article probes the complexities and restrictions of convent life in 17th century Spain. The Sanctoral de Visperas (1653) functions as a backdrop for a consideration of how singing chant and attendant rituals enriched the lives of nuns. Also included are references to nuns from this period who were outstanding musicians and poets and whose works have recently received enthusiastic attention.     

The link between dyslexic traits, executive functioning, impulsivity and social self-esteem among an offender and non-offender sample

PURPOSE: The current study had two core aims; first to explore the link between dyslexic traits and other aspects of functioning among a sample of offenders and non-offenders (students); and, second, to explore if dyslexic traits were over-represented among offenders. A subsidiary aim was to explore if the results were influenced by an offender's current index offence (i.e. violent versus non-violent). METHOD: Ninety-two adult male participants took part: sixty offenders and thirty-two non-offenders. All completed a structured interview assessing dyslexic traits, namely the Dyslexia Adult Screening Test battery (DAST: Fawcett and Nicholson, 1998). Participants also completed a measure of executive functioning (Benton Word Fluency Test, Benton, A. (1968) Differential behavioural effects in frontal lobe disease. Neuropsychologica, 6, 53-60), impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale: BIS-II, Barratt, E.S. (1994), Impulsiveness and Aggression. In J. Monahan and H.J. Steadman (Eds.), Violence and Mental Disorder: Developments in Risk Assessment (pp.61-79). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.) and social self-esteem (Texas Social Behavior Inventory: TSBI, Helmreich and Stapp, 1974). RESULTS: Offenders presented with more dyslexic traits than non-offenders, with those with violent index offences presenting with more traits than those with non-violent index offences. Offenders performed poorly on assessments of executive functioning when compared with non-offenders. Dyslexic traits were predicted most significantly by executive functioning difficulties followed by decreased social self-esteem. There was a trend for increased impulsivity to correlate with increased dyslexic traits. Dyslexic traits were also predictive of membership to the offender group whereas impulsivity, executive functioning or social self-esteem was not. CONCLUSION: Preliminary evidence is provided for increased dyslexic traits among offenders compared to non-offenders. The study highlights the correlates of dyslexic traits. The implications of these findings for future research are outlined.     

Continuity and Pathways from Aggression in Childhood to Family Violence in Adulthood: A 30-year Longitudinal Study

Literature suggests that early patterns of aggressive behavior in both girls and boys are predictive of later violent behavior, including violence that takes place within family contexts. Utilizing the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project, a study of individuals recruited as children in the 1970s from inner-city schools in Montreal, this study examined different pathways whereby aggressive behavioral styles in childhood may place individuals at risk for continuing patterns of violence towards children and spouses. Childhood aggression directly predicted self-reported violence towards spouse for both sexes, with indirect routes through lowered educational attainment and marital separation. Aggression in childhood was also found to predict parents’ self-reports of using violence with their children. For mothers, educational attainment and current absence of the biological father from the child’s home also played important roles in predicting violent behavior towards offspring. These findings provide evidence of both continuity of aggressive behavior and indirect risk paths to family violence, via lower educational attainment and parental absence. In both men and women, childhood aggression may be an identifiable precursor of family violence and child abuse.     

Efficiency,equity and girls' education

This article analyses World Bank strategies for education in the context of gender equity. Developing countries face the challenge of expanding education with limited resources. At the same time, promoting gender equity is vital to achieving basic development goals. Appropriate governance strategies are needed to provide education in a way that is cost‐effective and inclusive. Privatisation, decentralisation and citizen participation are three strategies that are promoted by the World Bank to control costs and improve transparency in education. Intended to promote efficiency, these strategies can harm equity. This study compares World Bank strategies to proven effective programs in girls' education. Empirical analysis reveals that while many World Bank projects include effective strategies for girls' education, governance reforms generally do not promote awareness of gender. Implications for expansion of girls' education are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.