Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:30:16.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Nation Building and Image Building in the Tanzanian Press

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

The press in Tanzania mirrors the political consciousness of a newly independent state and reflects some of the ambiguities that accompany political articulation in a one-party democracy. In this analysis of the four daily newspapers, special attention has been given to the ‘news geography’ which is presented in an attempt to anticipate the world image or ‘psychological geography’ which results from reading the daily newspaper. For even the selection of what news to print reflects the tensions and conflicts between an ideal news policy and the limitations imposed by the lack of funds, personnel, and the influence of the western news services.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Page 335 note 1 Ngurumo is a Swahili word which refers to a loud animal roar, such as the sound of a lion. rt is also associated, by some readers, with the noise of a traditional horn which calls people to a meeting.

Page 336 note 1 Figures adjusted for differing type sizes and column widths.

Page 338 note 1 Even the residential adult education centre for ‘nation-builders’, Kivukoni College, sometimes regarded as the ‘T.A.N.U. College’, has, until recently, offered almost all its instruction in English due to staffing and library limitations.

Page 339 note 1 Even in Dar es Salaam the commercial value of newspapers for non-news purposes is different from large cities in other parts of the world. A person who makes a purchase in a shop is likely to have it wrapped in a newspaper page from Sweden or Germany, for it is cheaper to buy old newspapers from these countries in bulk than it is to find old copies of the local papers.

Page 340 note 1 In this study the news and news features of all four daily newspapers for October 1966 were analysed and compared with issues of 20 dates selected at random from the period November 1966 to March 1967. In addition, the editors of the papers and 15 news vendors were interviewed. Readers from the capital and 80 informants from all 17 of Tanzania's regions also reported on the availability and popularity of these papers.

Page 347 note 1 This is especially true of an incident like the Greek army take-over, for there is considerable satisfaction in hearing of army take-overs in the oldest of European nations instead of only in the young African states.

Page 348 note 1 Among other ‘Chinese influences’ which some critics point to are the semi-official ‘national dress shirt’ which is often compared with Chinese dress (‘Mao Tse Tung shirts’), and the labelling of the Tanu Youth League ‘the Green Guard’. The Tanzanian shirt was actually inspired by a design seen in Zanzibar and is quite different from the Chinese style; the ‘Green Guard’ label, now dying out, began as a joke.

Page 350 note 1 The popularity of the poetry appears to be greater along the coast among the Waswahili than in the interior.

Page 350 note 2 Poetry is also read and sung on the radio, and school teachers are frequently required to write the lyrics for songs of celebration, especially for national choir competitions. Poetry, like music and dance, is a very popular and important part of Tanzanian artistic expression today.

Page 352 note 1 There are some pictures of weddings, mostly of the Indian community, in the Sunday magazine supplement of The Standard. This supplement includes other features such as a children's page, a list of pen-pals, and a column of advice to the Jove-larn.