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Television programming policy in Barbados: Loitering on colonial premises after closing time. An analytic case study

This study examined some of the most commonly cited factors that are said to mitigate against the development of coherent policies governing developing world media systems, and how these factors influence the nature and direction of television programming policy in Barbados. The subjects for this study were key actors from media, cultural and educational, economic, and government and political sectors involved in the development and implementation of television programming policy in Barbados. They included Ministers responsible for broadcasting, statutory board chairmen and members, advertising executives, media managers and practitioners, and educators and community activists. / The data of the study were collected through participant observations, informant interviewing and document review. Within the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, a number of programming documents, reports, as well as inter-office memos were consulted. Beyond the Corporation, other agencies and media sources provided insightful documentation in the form of surveys, correspondence and reports. The investigation was carried out on sites in Barbados over a period of five and a half months between February and July 1992. / The results of this study indicate that in spite of the expectation that television should be used to help foster and promote national culture, Barbados has not successfully developed and implemented policies to ensure the achievement of this objective. The findings indicate that television programming decisions are informed more by popularity and cost factors and partisan influences stemming from the structure of CBC than clearly articulated cultural development and programming objectives. The most prohibitive factors to the use of television to better project indigenously-oriented programming stem from the way in which CBC is financed and structured. Other findings indicate that the fragmentation at institutional and decision making levels in the communication sector has weakened endogenous capacity to redress pertinent programming policy issues, and that external influences are reflected in some television programming and policy decisions. / This is one of the first studies to attempt a holistic examination of the policy implications of television programming dependency in Barbados. The study's findings have heuristic value for the discipline of communication in that they contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of the issues emanating from television program dependency conditions in many of the world's countries that are said to be brought about, in part, by inept policy efforts. This study also has practical implications for the formulation of national media policies in Caribbean countries and other countries worldwide facing similar dilemmas of media and cultural dependency. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-03, Section: A, page: 0722. / Major Professor: John K. Mayo. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76872
ContributorsGooch, Cheryl Renee., Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText
Format283 p.
RightsOn campus use only.
RelationDissertation Abstracts International

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