Those were the words of the first Nigerian Professor of Mass Communication, Professor Alfred Opubor, and the title of one of his most discussed articles. Though that question was raised in 2000 in a book published by UNESCO, the issues that gave rise to it are still as urgent and improperly understood as they were then.
The recent political events in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, the recent historic civilian-to-civilian transition in Zambia, the seemingly unending failure of the big media to significantly bring about participation and access; the recourse to neoliberal policies by African democracies and the impact of that on the big media; are some of the issues that necessitate a thorough re-examination of that decade-old witticism. What indeed is the question? And how is it being answered? Are there more questions then than there are now? What are they?
To facilitate this re-examination, the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Nigeria; the Institute for Media and Society (IMS), Lagos, Nigeria; the African Languages Technology Initiative (ALT-I), Ibadan, Nigeria; and the Nigerian Community Radio Coalition jointly invite you to an international conference holding at the Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, March, 27 - 29, 2012.
The Conference is to mark the 75th Birthday Anniversary of Professor Alfred Opubor.
SUBTHEMES: Paper abstracts and proposals for project demonstrations are welcome on the following subthemes:
- Community Media and new media technologies
- Community media, policy and regulation
- Community media, social media and social protest
- Community media and empowerment/development: actual stories and potentials
- Community media and the management of conflict
- Community media, community engagement and democracy
- Research approaches in (and to) community media
- Community media and gender
- Community media and popular culture
- Community media and diasporas
Abstracts or proposals for project demonstration should not exceed 300 words. Abstracts should be sent to both:
opuborconference@yahoo.com and
comlangarts@gmail.com
- Deadline for submission of abstracts = Nov 30, 2011
- Notification of writers of successful abstracts = Dec 20, 2011
- Deadline for submission of full paper = Feb 20, 2012
FEES: heavily subsidised to cover conference materials, lunches and teas.
- Staff: N5,000
- International participants: $50
- Graduate Students: N1,500
- Undergraduate Students: Free
ACCOMMODATION: For information on local hotels please
click here.
For more information on venues, hotel accommodation, presenters and lead speakers, timetables etc, please send an email to:
info@alfredopubor.orgYou can access the book in which Prof Opubor’s Chapter (If community media is the answer...) was published here:
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/publications/community_media/index.html