News From the Global Village: Elihu Katz on the Structure of Television in Developing Countries

There are few countries in the world where television is thought to be fulfilling its potential for the communication of culture and the illumination of public affairs: least of all is it doing so in new and small nations. Yet there is a tendency for people In each country to think that their problems are indigenous problems, that television is much better elsewhere. In some countries it is assumed that the ills of television are the result of commercial sponsorship; in some, television's cultural problems arec said to be related to political domination; in some, blame is assigned to inadequate funds, or to inadequate talent, or to the colonisation of television by the vested interests of radio. While each of these diagnoses has some substance, there is also something generically wrong. This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/166