by Francis Kasoma, Kaarle Nordenstreng,

Mariluz Restrepo, B.S. Thakur and Michael Traber

It is clear from the survey that the need to publish local textbooks with a regional orientation is very strong. While textbooks rooted in the local context are very important, the aim should not be to exclude all foreign books completely. It should be recognized that some communication approaches are universal and cannot be pinned down to any particular region. There will, therefore, be a need to have certain inter-regional textbooks. But for those materials that need localizing, some of which this study has identified, every effort should be made to encourage the writing and publishing of local textbooks.

Yet publishing textbooks locally is not enough. It is important to ensure that they reach the institutions for which they are meant. In this respect, this study recommends that efficient machinery to distribute the books be established in every region. This would require local publishers, regional schools and associations to work closely together.

The study revealed that there was little sharing of textbooks at the inter-regional or regional levels. For example, books published in Nigeria were not being used in eastern and southern Africa. Part of the problem has been that countries within the same region did not know what was available from other countries as well as regions. The bibliographical lists produced as offshoots of this project will go a long way to providing such information.

However, to know of the existence of books is one thing and to be able to acquire them is another. Very often Third World countries, mainly due to lack of foreign exchange, cannot purchase even books published next door. Regional communication associations such as FELAFACS in Latin America and ACCE in Africa should take practical steps to encourage distribution of not only regional but also inter-regional books.

One of the ways of encouraging the distribution of textbooks from one region to another and within the same region is to provide translations of some of the most useful works. Some of the best textbooks in Latin America, for example, could be translated from Spanish or Portuguese into English and made available to Africa, the SAARC and ASEAN regions. Similarly Latin America could profit from translations into Spanish of some of the best textbooks in the other regions. It is clear from the survey that, except for Latin America, not many books have been translated for use in a particular region. Yet Third World communication problems have a lot in common and should therefore be shared.

One way of solving problems related to the bulky exportation of books from one region to another is that of identifying and encouraging local publishers to publish or co-publish certain books. In order to do this, publishers need to be assured of a steady and profitable market. Such assurance could come from regional communication associations which are able to marshal a sizeable number of schools which can regularly place orders for particular textbooks.

It is important that the bibliographies which this survey provides be constantly updated so that teachers within the same region are aware of new books within their region as well as those coming from outside. A good way of achieving this is to feed a central data bank with the latest information on new publications as soon as such books are out. The researchers who have worked on this survey could remain more or less permanent contact points for the schools in their regions. Schools could constantly feed these researchers with information on the latest books. The researchers, in turn, could periodically feed the data bank with a list of the latest publications. The data bank could then, say once a year, distribute to all the regions updates of the bibliographies. These updates would help communication teachers within the Third World generally and within the same region in particular to be aware of new materials coming out with a view to using them. Such updated bibliographies should be accompanied by annotations of the books so that teachers are not only informed of new titles but also given an idea about their contents.

This study does not analyse, except for Latin America, the contents of the books listed in the bibliography but merely lists them. It would be very useful for a future study to analyse the contents of at least 20 widely used books in each region and another 20 widely used books in the Third World at large. Such a study would give a useful insight into what type of material appeals to teachers in each region as well as the whole Third World. It would be a good pointer to trends in communication education within certain regions in particular, and the Third World in general.

Although this study deals with the provision of textbooks in communication schools, it should be recognized that books are not the only sources of teaching materials. In some, perhaps most, cases teachers make use of journal articles and occasional papers. These have the advantage of being more up-to-date and situationally more applicable than textbooks. It is therefore recommended that the bibliographical update referred to above should include a listing of journals in the Third World and elsewhere which carry articles that are useful for teaching as well as individual papers.

As an inter-country, inter-cultural and inter-regional survey this study has served its primary purpose of making comparative analyses on the provision of textbooks in Third World communication schools. However, it also reveals the conceptual and methodological differences in the approach to communication education from region to region. These differences range from merely giving the student basic journalistic tools to trying to mould him or her into a theoretically sound communicator. The differences have been reflected not only in the type of textbooks used from one country to another and from one region to another but also in the conceptual framework of the thematic areas of study. The Latin American approach, for instance, is shown by the books used to be one which emphasizes the total theoretically-based communication picture which is deeply-rooted in the social sciences while that of Africa is seen as having a more practical bias.

Closely related to the content analysis of the textbooks used in schools is the need to analyse curricula. It would be useful to find out just what students are being offered in the various curricula. This would, of course, entail looking at the actual course contents and talking to teachers who teach them. It is necessary to contact teachers because the curriculum may not always reveal what is actually taught. Such a supplementary survey would be useful to understand the total picture which cannot be revealed by merely examining the contents of textbooks.

Another important point is the availability of equipment in schools, as some regions such as Africa and SAARC did, because equipment can be used to alleviate the shortage of textbooks. When, for instance, only a few copies of a particular title are available in a central or departmental library, students could use a photocopier to xerox parts of the book for use. It is hoped that this study will sensitize universities and other institutions under which the schools fall, governments and donor agencies, to the need for providing communication schools with the necessary equipment.

This survey provides a good basis for initiating contacts with publishers of communication books, suggesting to them which are the most urgently needed titles. For this purpose it would be useful to prepare a list of publishers who publish or are interested in publishing communication books.

Publishers, however, need a steady source and flow of manuscripts. The revelation in this survey of a general lack of local textbooks means in effect that a concerted effort ought to be made to procure manuscripts for publishers. One way of ensuring a steady supply of manuscripts is to identify and encourage research institutions, which may not necessarily be directly involved in the education of communicators, to develop manuscripts for potential textbooks.

Such manuscripts ought to be looked at and recommended for publication by a regional editorial centre. This centre, which should be set up in conjunction with the regional communication association, should also serve as a clearing house for translations of textbooks. Considering that some publishers want self-financed projects, it is further recommended that fund-raising committees be set up in the various regions for financing the publishing of textbooks. Again such committees could come under the umbrella of regional communication associations.

The ever-widening field of communication studies requires planning. Even in the Third World communication has become so diverse that a narrow definition of the profession and thus professional education is no longer valid. Besides media work per se, such as newspaper and radio journalism, and other fields like public relations and pictorial communication, are now considered part of the profession. Then there are ancillary areas like documentation and librarianship, theatre arts, semiotics, linguistics, rhetoric and studies on popular culture. All these areas are emerging in the Third World and are demanding the attention of communication educators. Therefore a follow-up survey of textbooks in these areas should be initiated. In this respect the present study was not wide enough.

Some of the findings of this survey will not be fully understood unless a global study is undertaken which would explain some of the alleged or real inter-relationships and dependencies. For instance, this research reveals that US textbooks and system of communication education are predominant in Africa, the ASEAN and SAARC regions. It would be very useful to find out the current trends in US communication education and determine how this compares with what most of the Third World claim to have copied from the US.

It is strongly recommended, therefore, that similar surveys be carried out for North America, Eastern and Western Europe, Oceania and the Far East. The African survey should also be enlarged by surveys on Francophone and Portuguese-speaking Africa.

A global survey would enable communication scholars and teachers to compare communication education from region to region and learn from each other.

Finally, this survey shows the urgency of theoretical work in the area of communication and culture. What are the paradigms or basic models of communication processes in, say, the Arab world or Africa or Asia? A 'critical mass' needs to be developed, consisting of interdisciplinary studies, particularly from the field of anthropology, social psychology and culturally relevant epistemology. It is only on the basis of new theoretical insights on the relationship between culture and communication that significant progress in educational materials for communication studies can be made.

However, a start has been made, and the process so far has been very encouraging. It not only created awareness of the situation, in most cases dismal, but actually prompted institutions and individual researchers to develop plans for the creation of new manuscripts. In addition, it has brought together communication educators and researchers from most regions of the South. These contacts have laid the foundation for South-South cooperation in what have been, hitherto, uncharted waters.