Dangerous alliances: Civil society, the media and democratic transition in North Africa Lisa Garon London, Zed Books, 2003

Abstract

In a 1995 review of three books on the subject of media on the continent, South African media historian Les Switzer concluded that empirical research [on the African media] is often lacking in quantity and quality (1995:133). The main shortcomings were the lack of an interdisciplinary orientation and the fact that the research was derived uncritically from a Euro-American context (1995:133). More recently, Helge Ronning (2001) suggested that while political scientists do a bad job of appreciating the role of media in processes of change, their counterparts in media or communication studies are not doing any better.