Inventory of Textbooks in Communication Studies around the World

AbstractThe article summarises a project carried out between 1986 and 1995 by the International Association for Mass Communication Research (IAMCR) through its Professional Education Section. Bibliographic surveys of commonly used textbooks in institutions of communication education were carried out in Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to discover the regional relevance and topicality of educational materials used particularly in the training of journalists. Regional bibliographies were also examined by experts from other regions regarding the interest for translations across regions. The results show that textbooks used in the Arab world and Latin America are mostly produced in the region, whereas Third World regions with Anglophone and Francophone orientation are dominated by literature from Europe and North America, first and foremost the USA. There is a striking lack of knowledge about textbooks available in other regions, with a great interest particularly to tra...