The book is bound together by the introductory and concluding chapters by Weaver. The 21 chapters in between cover a wide range of countries and include a chapter on U.S. journalists based on the 1992 survey by Weaver and Wilhoit. Weaver says at the outset that the main aim of the book is not to test theories "...but rather to discover patterns of similarities and differences that can provide a foundation of empirical data for future theorizing about the influences on journalists and their influences on the news" (p.3). Weaver has taken an important step in this direction in the concluding chapter where he examines similarities and differences in journalists' characteristics and their professional world in the 21 countries. A challenging task, particularly because not all of the surveys followed the Weaver and Wilhoit model.

This is a very useful book in terms of helping one to understand the demographics, standards of professionalism and ethical and other issues related to journalism in various parts of the world. Journalists around the globe appear to be younger, rather than older and fall on average into the 25-44 age group. In most countries except in New Zealand and Finland, the number of women in journalism was found to be 33%. It was not typical for journalists to hold college degrees and in fact, 'tertiary' or college level education was considered as 'highly educated' in some countries. The level of perceived job satisfaction was positively related to the perception of freedom enjoyed. Regarding professional ethics, the range of practices varied. Weaver states that in the U.S., there has been an increase in the percentage of journalists (from 55% in 1982 to 82% in 1992) who thought that using confidential business or government information without permission was justifiable. In New Zealand, Lealand reports that many journalists appear in TV and radio ads to make money and then revert back to regular journalism raising the question of credibility. The British Press, with its over 500 years of history that set a model in several countries around the world, has in the last few decades "... been undermined by the sensationalist excesses of a small number of commercially successful national tabloids" (p. 143) report Henningham and Delano. British journalists approved practices such as paying sources, subterfuge, hidden cameras and microphones.

This book is a major undertaking and a project of this proportion normally also comes with its share of problems especially of providing updated information. While the chapters on Germany, Hungary and Poland examine the impact of major political changes on the journalists and their profession, the survey in Hong Kong was carried out in 1990, before it became part of China. In this case, though the survey questions were pertinent at that time, the historical changes that have taken place since are too important not to be included in this chapter. Further work in this area would have to include adequate discussion about new technologies and how this has changed the working conditions and values of professionalism.

The 21 country chapters in this book have been grouped under six geographical regions. Perhaps, a short, introductory essay describing the social, political and economic development of the region could have preceded the chapters on the countries of each region. Such an essay would have helped explain the social context and provided the opportunity to mention countries that are obviously important in the region but for various reasons have not been included in the book. For instance, Japan and India have not been included in Asia, and Algeria is hardly representative of the African continent.

This book is a must for all interested in professionalism in journalism across the globe and contributes toward a better understanding of journalists and their working conditions. This fact-filled book will make a good supplementary textbook for graduate students of International Communication and an excellent reference book to all scholars interested in the field.

Sandhya Rao, Associate Professor
Department of Mass Communication
Southwest Texas State University
____________________________________________________



Beverly Merrill Kelley with John J. Pitney Jr., Craig R. Smith, and Herbert E. Gooch III, Reelpolitik: Political Ideologies in ‘30s and ‘40s Films. (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1998), 194 pp., paper.

If you believe media are society’s teachers, Beverly Merrill Kelley’s book Reelpolitik will give you insight into some of the political lessons that were offered to the public by American filmmakers in the 1930s and 1940s. Those two decades were years of extremes for America. The country moved from isolationism following World War I, through the national economic collapse of the Great Depression that brought about a flirtation with both fascism and communism, finally to involvement in a global world war. Political awareness among Americans was becoming acute, and questions about the kind of leadership the country needed and its proper role world in the were hotly debated.

The ‘30s and ‘40s were also years when Americans looked for entertainment that would help them forget their troubles. It was the Golden Age of Hollywood, and American films offered this entertainment, but in addition they often socialized viewers to political ideals, values and behaviors. As a source for studying American politics, movies reflect indirectly. But, the authors maintain, they do reflect, and what they reflect is of interest to all those who would understand how America saw its relationship to the rest of the world.

Many of the movies made during the 30s and 40s dealt with the ideological arguments that have always infused American passions: populism and elitism, fascism and antifascism, communism and anticommunism, and isolationism and interventionism. These are the pairs of ideologies Kelley and her three colleagues examine through eight films of the period. The discussions about all these pairs of ideologies are refracted through the lens of the basic debate that underlies all other issues in American politics: individualism or communitarianism, the individual or the tribe. When they were released, all these films faced criticism from political figures, and some were even boycotted by groups who opposed the ideologies represented in the films.

To make the book a useful teaching tool, Kelley was careful to choose films that are available on video, that can be viewed in one or two class periods, and that illustrate clearly the gist of a political ideology. The authors bring expertise from the academic fields of government and political science, public administration and communication studies, as well as practical experience in political campaigns, to the analysis of these films.

To represent the dichotomy of populism and elitism, Kelley selected films from Frank Capra and Orson Welles. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) is Capra’s civics lesson in patriotism and populism. In "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942), Welles presents a compassionate portrait of elitism based on a kind of natural aristocracy, if not on old money. Taken together, these two films raise the question of whether people have the essential wisdom to guide themselves, as populists believe, or ought to be guided by an elite group. This argument, of course, is one that has existed since the founding of the United States, and it is one that still underlies all American politics.

The theme of fascism is explored through the films "Gabriel over the White House" (1933) and "Citizen Kane" (1941). In 1933, many Americans believed the only way out of the deep economic depression was through suspending constitutional restraints so that a strong leader would be free to do what was necessary to rescue the country. Some Americans harbored strong authoritarian sentiments and admired the Italian dictator Mussolini. In "Gabriel," the president of the United States dismisses Congress and disregards the Bill of Rights so that he can put people back to work, crush organized crime and save the country. Fascism favors force, and in "Gabriel," the president achieves his goals through force. The political message is blunt. "Gabriel" was backed financially by William Randolph Hearst, who flirted with fascism most of his life. "Citizen Kane," as everyone knows, was about Hearst. In "Kane," however, the political message is more subtle. In "Gabriel," the fascist is hero. In "Kane," the fascist is villain.

If the Depression moved some Americans to admire the efficiency of the fascists, it moved others to yearn for the solution of communism. Kelley looks at themes of communism and anticommunism in "Our Daily Bread" and "The Fountainhead." King Vidor directed both films, a testament to his ability to wrap his mind around two opposite solutions to the same problem. In "Our Daily Bread," Vidor’s attempt to illustrate the depths of the Depression, he creates a commune of characters who save the harvest through collective action. In "The Fountainhead," he portrays the ultimate individualism and egotism. The two films, with their polar points of view, illustrate the ambiguity with which Americans often approach political questions.

During this 20-year period, American foreign policy fluctuated between isolationism and interventionism, the ideologies represented by the films "Casablanca" and "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930). "All Quiet on the Western Front " clearly intended to make a pacifist political statement and was advertised as such. Made a decade after the World War I and at the beginning of the Depression, the film was immensely popular among an audience who were strongly isolationist at the time. "Casablanca" was put together in 1940, when the debate about America’s participation in the war was high, and the script and characters represent variations on the two ideological themes. By the time the film was released in 1942, world events had had their influence and, as all viewers know, the film finally endorses intervention.

The stories of the making of the each of these films is interesting Hollywood history, of course, but it is also interesting political history. The direct influence of the times on the working out of plot is often surprising. The eight essays provide some interesting insight into political movements during this period in America.

Kelley and her colleagues never claim that these films, or any films, influenced the public, but they make a strong case that they were tangible reflections of who Americans were and what we believed.

Paula Renfro, Professor
Department of Mass Communication
Southwest Texas State University
____________________________________________________



Richard Ouma-Onyango, Information Resources and Technology Transfer Management in Developing Countries (London: Routledge, 1997), 212 pp., cloth.

When French Judge Louis Joinet asserted an age-old wisdom that "information is power"nearly a century ago, he unwittingly hypothesized what has emerged as three universal truths: (1) Information is a resource, which has value because it permits people to do things they could not do otherwise; (2) Information is a form of wealth, which like all other wealth, cannot be equally distributed within and between countries; and (3) Those who have information (the so-called "information-rich") have a definite comparative differential advantage in their ability to control the forces of nature than those who do not have information (the so-called "information-poor"). Western societies have long held these universal truths to be self-evident. That is why they treat information resources like its mineral counterparts, as something to be incessantly gathered for survival through knowledge acquisition and orientation, continual processing, refinement and storage for social transformation and posterity. Through such prudent management of information resources, Western societies have been able to position themselves as pioneers and leaders of the on-going global information revolution.

At a time in our history when the claim can be made that information is its greatest level of abundance and availability globally, the development strategies implemented in the majority of African countries appear still to be based primarily on false intuition, derived from what is at best faulty common sense logic. What prevails in Africa then is a general tendency towards disinterest surveillance of the information landscape for the most erudite knowledge to aid decision-making. There are interpretation problems as well, as many managers in Africa seem unable to predict accurately future domestic and international trends. Both of these problems seem more acute in the technology transfer arena, where the seeming incapacity to evaluate sufficient alternatives before making adoption decisions leaves Africa development planners unable to foresee all of the indirect, undesirable and unanticipated consequences of adopted technologies. Undoubtedly, therefore, African countries need to learn well the lesson that the success of development projects depends upon good decision-making at all levels, and that good decision-making emerges when the decision-maker has access to quality and timely information. This is the lesson that Richard Ouma-Onyango teaches exemplarily in his wisdom-laden book, Information Resources and Technology Transfer Management in Developing Countries.

Ouma-Onyango is currently a lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana. This is salient to the book's credibility because Botswana is presently considered one of the most progressive countries in Africa. This progress is said to emanate from the country's skillful use of available domestic resources and knowledge. One may speculate then that this book may have been motivated by the author's direct observations of Botswana information management successes, particularly the country's enviable ability to discern what is practical and probable in reaching its technology development goals. Ouma-Onyango has written extensively on information resources in Kenya and a host of other African countries.

The book is appropriately divided into three complementary sections. The first section contains five chapters, that the author uses cumulatively to attempt to situate information management within the contexts of technology transfer, industrialization and national development. This attempt is quite successful, as the author argues persuasively that national development (which encompasses industrialization by way of technology transfer) must be viewed as an uncertainty-laden endeavor that can produce both destabilizing and unpredictable effects in weak social systems, as those found in Africa. To avoid this instability, the author suggests logically that African countries take a proactive information and knowledge-seeking posture that would enable them to formulate policies that take stock of national capabilities and advance national learning. "Alertness to internal and external changes among a country's institutions," he asserts, would empower countries to take advantage of opportunities in the international arena.

The second section presents two case studies from Kenya. These are used to elucidate the books central argument outlined in section one, that "a developing country needs advanced information management abilities to acquire technology, to enhance its productivity and to adapt and develop it further." This section contains four chapters, the first of which describes the descriptive methodology applied to the selected case studies, the criteria for case selection and the limitations of the case analysis. This is followed by a chapter that is devoted to the specific analysis of Kenya's National Power Alcohol Programme, and two chapters that evaluate the National Car Project. Both case analyses are rigorous and thorough, and reveal the painful truth that aside from a serious lack of competence in information gathering and process, development agencies and institutions in Africa operate also in insularity and secrecy that undermines progressive learning. It is this realization that motivates the author's wise counsel, in the last section of the book, that Third World (particularly African) development thinkers, planners and implementers undergo attitude change to enable them to "perceive development as stemming from, and in part comprising, the advancement of capabilities in decision-making and productivity in a competitive global village."

The book is particularly valuable because it articulates what we have always known to be one of the reasons why development projects fail in Africa and the rest of the Third World, but have always been too reluctant to admit: A culture of mediocrity persists in which knowledge is seldom sought in decision-making and is sometimes viewed with skepticism and suppressed. It becomes evident from reading this book then that if Africa is to develop and fulfill its potential,the information sector must be developed and made more transparent. Information management must begin to receive high priority in development planning, especially as the information age is apt to become more entrenched in the coming millennium. The author was quite accurate in his prediction that " information management in development is the way to the future."

This book should be a "must read" for anyone associated with Third World development, in any capacity, from national leaders and heads of non-Governmental organizations to faculty, students and the person on the street. It would be an invaluable text for information resources, information management and organization behavior classes.

Osabuhein Amienyi, Associate Professor
Department of Telecommuniocations
Arkansas State University