Cultural Economy and Television in Jamaica and Ghana

This book proposes contemporary decolonization as an approach to developing cultural economies in the Global South.  It presents the account of the transformation of television in Jamaica and Ghana to audiovisual subsectors; from cultural institutions to cultural industries and then subsectors of emerging cultural economies as representative case studies. 'Glocal' changes are presented within five organizing phenomena: philosophical, ideological, and economic change, and their impact on governance and the operational transformation of the television sectors of Jamaica and Ghana. This book represents the first critical examination and comparison of cultural and creative industries (CCI) and economy concepts in the Caribbean and Africa. It is an original contribution to the development of strategies that influence processes, structures, and policies related to the cultural economy concept and those required to improve television industries. This process of describing culturally specific characteristics of CCI is designed to be applicable to the CCI of developing countries including those in Africa and the Caribbean, where interpretations and implementation suited for advanced industrial nations have been insufficiently questioned and challenged.

Deborah Hickling Gordon is a communication and culture-in-development specialist. She is a member of the UNESCO Expert Facility on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2019-2022) and coordinates the Bachelors of Cultural and Creative Industries programme at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. As an audiovisual producer specializing in television production, she has local, regional and international production credits.