Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1971

Publication Title

American Universities Field Staff Reports

Department

Geisel School of Medicine

Abstract

The mushrooming importance of the film media in education needs little documentation; today the average high school graduate has seen 500 feature-length films and been exposed to 15,000 hours of television. By comparison, he has had only about 12,000 hours of live instruction. The facts are sobering if for no other reason than that film is commandeering the minds of students and displacing face-to-face teaching. However, the amount of quality film material that analyzes foreign areas, particularly Africa, is shockingly small. Many of the films ordinarily shown are patronizing and badly distorted, often illustrating the film-maker's lack of substantive knowledge, and in fact contributing more to misunderstanding than to enlightenment.

Original Citation

Miller, Norman. “Teaching African Development with Film.” American Universities Field Staff Reports X.1 (1971): 1–20

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