First published in 1983, the 25th Anniversary Edition (2008) provides a helpful update section. Though largely discussing television, it offers analyses and recommendations for understanding and countering the effects of the Euro-American media-entertainment industry and the need for African People to create/re-create our own media for information and inner-attainment. In her 1979 monograph, Should Television Be The Primary Educator of Our Youth?, Niani Kilkenny, media analyst, concludes that television is “the ruling class’ most important tool for promoting their ideology” and is “(European) society’s dominant propaganda machine.” Haki Madhubuti, director of Chicago’s Third World Press, wrote in his 1978 book, Enemies: The Clash of Races, that television is “the most dangerous weapon of the Twentieth Century.” In January 1980, Bilalian News reported that, “Some educators believe that too much television may be responsible for tired, (academically non-striving) students who resent homework and are nervous and antisocial.”
Television: a weapon, a propaganda machine, a liability to academic performance? What are the bases for such strong assertions? Can television affect cognitive development? Does it have the potential to influence the spiritual-cultural-political attitudes and behaviors of people? If so, how? This brief offering examines these questions, particularly as they relate to African People. (67 Pages)