Marissa Smithinsky
04/10/18
INTSTDS 4850
Senegal: Final Information Network
Traditional Periodicals:
Le Soleil: This is a regional newspaper in Senegal that focuses on the news, politics, economics, society, regions etc. It serves as a great traditional source for all the happenings in Senegal itself. The website is in French and it appears to act as a form of local news. It updates daily and it has three other main sections such as le soleil business, le soleil grand air and le soleil diaspora. It’s also interesting how it breaks up each individual section into smaller subsections such as small opinion pieces.
It can be accessed at http://www.lesoleil.sn
I chose this news source because it was the most relevant and diverse in comparison to others I came across. While domestically focused, this newspaper does a great job of reporting on many different international events and a variety of sections such as politics, economics and culture etc. I liked how they added in opinion pieces, it helped portray the culture there. One limitation of this source is that its articles are not extremely detailed and it can be difficult to navigate the website. Nevertheless, this source gives a great overarching perspective of the country of Senegal.
BBC news: This traditional international news source acts as a newspaper, radio station and T.V. station. Based in Britain, it also has worldwide respect and prestige as a broadcasting company. It is produced in English and updates daily. It is an excellent and trustworthy source of domestic and international news. It is divided into operational divisions and commercial divisions. The commercials divisions consist of BBC Worldwide, BBC World News, BBC Studios and BBC Studioworks. Moreover, it has individual country profiles detailing their politics, media, population size etc.
It can be accessed at http://www.bbc.com/news
I chose this source because of its accuracy, reliability and familiarity. It not only shares domestic and international news but it does an excellent job of staying impartial.Unlike local sources, however, BBC has limitations in that it only reports on the overarching issues or events of the country. It is not able to zoom in on the ingrained cultural, and societal customs of local Senegalese life.
Wal Fadjri L’Aurore: This regional newspaper works as a traditional news source for Senegal. This major daily newspaper in Senegal covers articles about finance, economy, business, entertainment, sports, politics, employment, and real estate.Unlike the other traditional news sources, I have observed of Senegal, this news source gives good comprehensive coverage of the country political, social and economic viewpoints. Each article posted is longer, more detailed and covers more topics. This French newspaper is broken down into four main headings with between five to seven subheadings listed beneath each one and it has several opinion pieces. To add to the relevance of this source, the website has other major Senegalese news sources listed on their homepage.
It can be accessed at http://www.walf-groupe.com
I chose this traditional news source because of its credible and broadly serving information network. This source gives a great overview of the different viewpoints in Senegal. This can be represented through the opinion pieces posted on the website, and the diverse sections that portray the social, economic, cultural opinions and beliefs of the locals there. One setback would be the lack of sources listed on the website and its relevance in comparison to other sources. Nevertheless, this source is updated daily and appears to cover a range of different issues.
New Media Sources:
Senego: I chose Senego as my new media source which covers regional aspects of culture, politics and societal expectations. Senego is a mix between a news source and a buzz feed article, it’s what I would consider a popular culture website. While not literally credible, Senego gives us a good grasp of the cultural and societal expectations surrounding Senegal. It is divided into Politique, People, Sport, TV and Rubriques which then divides into smaller indexes. The whole website is in French and appears to be a frequent source for young adolescents in Senegal. This source does not update frequently. It updates monthly or every couple of months.
It can be accessed here: https://senego.com
I chose this source because I can see how it is part of popular culture. It is interesting how the website is divided into small subsections such as humor, TV and health. I think it’s a very new and modern approach to new media and gives each reader a good grasp of the trends present there. The main limitation present within this source is the lack of relevant and credible information. The articles are often extremely short and touch more on popular culture, than any significant information.
Seneweb.com: I chose seneweb as my new media source. This local source is interesting because it has a mixture of news, popular culture and blogs on its website. Each blog covers a different topic regarding influential people, politics and culture. Although started by Basile Niane, the blogs are written by a variety of people and appear to be very popular. These blogs are targeted towards adolescents and young adults. What separates this website from others is that it gives the ability to a general user to add their own opinions and to even create blogs. While this may lower the credibility of seneweb, it will give more creative freedom to the Senegalese people.
It can be accessed here: www.seneweb.com
I chose this source because of its relevance to the popular culture and data dissemination of Senegal. While most traditional news sources only contain news and some smaller subheadings such as culture. Seneweb.com encompasses creative freedom, news and the culture of Senegal. I think it is interesting the different viewpoint this gives.The website is in French and it is situated in Senegal.
Social Media Sources:
Amnesty Senegal: I chose this international source for the social media component of my country. Amnesty International is an organization that is well known around the world. Thus, Amnesty Sénégal is a domestic form of the organization which focuses on events and happenings in Senegal. Amnesty Sénégal is focused on the promotion and the protection of human rights in Senegal and in the World. Within this organization, there are local Senegalese working to combat human rights injustices. In this way, this source gives a credible centralized point of view of Senegal.I found their main social media site on twitter, but they are also in a sub-index on Amnesty International. Both sites are in French and contain relevant events pertaining to human rights violations and efforts.
They can be accessed at https://twitter.com/AmnestySenegalor @AmnestySenegal and http://www.amnesty.sn
I chose this source because of how closely I align with their mission. Moreover, this source provides a great reference to the efforts of Senegal in fighting human rights violations. Through these different access points, one can get a solid perspective on the who, what, where and why of Senegal’s human rights movement and advocacy. The twitter posts, in turn, present provoking commentary on different news sources throughout Senegal. In general, I would say the main limitation for this source is that it doesn’t give an overarching perspective of human rights abuses, it is very locally centralized.
Le Senegal: I chose Le Senegal for my social media source. Unlike my other sources, this one provides a different scope on Senegal. It provides a national viewpoint of Senegal through sports. Like most countries in the global south, sports are an innate part of their culture and I feel as though this source can give great coverage of the culture and society present in Senegal. Le Senegal is a platform on Facebook that posts up and coming events in both English and French pertaining to soccer in Senegal. It is a Media/News company situated in Dakar, Senegal and it has over 511,901 followers on Facebook.It is in French and in both languages, French and English on Facebook.
This source can be accessed on Facebook, but also at its media website http://www.lesenegal.net
I chose this source because I believe that it portrays perfectly how the Senegalese people think and act in their community. In most countries, especially in the United States, people embrace sports as a respected tradition but more so it often symbolizes the patriotism one feels for his/her country. I think that this social media source gives a great scope of how the Senegalese people see sports and more importantly their country. The main limitation of this source is that it doesn’t diversify the sports it covers or the viewpoints. It focuses on one central perspective.
UNFPA Senegal: I chose the UNFPA Senegal as my social media source for Senegal. Found on Facebook, Twitter and the main UNFPA website, this source encompasses many of the requirements that the other sources include that being those of traditional, data or new media sources. The UNFPA in Senegal is put in place to assure reproductive rights to all. The UNFPA stands for the United Nations Population Fund. It directly advocates and supports the reproductive health of women, guaranteeing that there is reliable health care, services and consultation for those who need it. Although UNFPA is a global initiative, it is broken into UNFPA global and UNFPA West and Central Africa. This source directly focuses on Senegal and the website is broken down into news, publications, multimedia and data visualizations. It is produced in both English and French.
It can be accessed here: http://senegal.unfpa.org/fr and on Facebook and Twitter
I chose this global source because of the insight it gives us on reproductive rights in Senegal. As Senegal is one of the lesser developed countries, it lacks many basic resources such as education, health services and proper infrastructure. I believe that this source gives a detailed and zoomed in perspective of reproductive rights in Senegal. The data visualizations help to convey the true extent of reproductive failures and successes in Senegal. The only limitation I can see with this source is the idea that it is branching off from the global UNFPA source. In this way, it has fewer resources and most likely funding regarding dissemination of information.
Audio/Video Sources:
Radiodiffusion Television Senegalaise (RTS): This audio-based source is a local, state-run form of television and radio broadcasting in Senegal. Most audio sources in Senegal are private, as such RTS is one of the more relevant and accurate forms of broadcasting. It operates Chaine Nationale and Senegal Internationale, Dakar FM and regional services. It is also broken up into actualités (news), emissions (channels) and many others. RTS is broadcasted in French and the website appears to have a diverse amount of news portrayed.The news presented contains sections on the local news, state-run channels and mini archives.
It can be accessed at http://www.rts.sn and on most social media sites such as Facebook, google plus, Instagram and Twitter.
I chose this audio source because I thought it encompassed well the radio coverage of Southern Africa, specifically Senegal. It was also in French, their native language which helps diversify the source. The main limitation to this source, however, would be the navigation of the website and the depth of news covered. RTS does a great job of broadcasting on a range of different news, but it does not include much detail in its articles or make it easy to navigate its website. RTS is on most social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and updates daily.
Radio France Internationale (RFI): This audio-based source is an international, and regional form of television and radio broadcasting in Senegal.Although situated in France, RFI has many channels that broadcast out to countries in the Global South. RFI is a French public radio service that broadcasts in Paris and to the rest of the world. It is one of the most listened to international radio stations in the world and it broadcasts 24 hours a day in 12 different languages. All channels are operated by the state company, France Médias Monde, situated in France. Moreover, RFI also covers a wide variety of different sections including economy, culture, sports, sciences, technology and sections on France itself, the international world and Africa itself.
It can be accessed at http://www.rfi.fr and is also found on several different forms of social media, those including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Dailymotion, YouTube, Soundcloud and Tune-In.
I chose this audio source because of how widely used this radio station is throughout the world. In general, radio usage in Senegal is crucial due to the present high illiteracy rate and most locals therefore only use the radio for information about the rest of the world. It is for this reason that I believe this audio source provides great coverage of Senegal. It gives an international viewpoint but also aids in the regional understanding of the country. The only limitation with this source is that it may not be completely in touch with the local viewpoints concerning societal and cultural expectations and customs.
Data Sources:
CIA World Factbook: This U.S. global source works as an English data source for Senegal. The CIA World Factbook is an excellent reference for an overview of a specific country. In this case, the fact book outlines Senegal through its geography, society, government, economy, energy, military etc. For each section, it provides a detailed outline of the country’s profile in general. It also gives several relevant statistics surrounding the country’s infrastructure and economic development.
This source can be accessed at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/sg.html
I chose this data source because of the relevance of the CIA. The CIA is a world-renowned organization that is a credible and recognized international source. In this way, the information portrayed on the website is very accurate and reliable. I already use the CIA World Factbook for several projects I work on, so keeping up to date should not be an issue. However, as the source is only updated yearly, this database will not be the most reliable news source for updated daily news.
Encyclopedia Britannica: This U.S. and UK news source works as a data news source for Senegal. The Encyclopedia Britannica works almost identically to the way the CIA World Factbook does, in that it is an excellent reference which gives a great overarching view of a specific country. In this case, it would be Senegal. The Encyclopedia Britannica is a general knowledge English-language encyclopedia that is shared between the U.S. and the UK. This data news source is broken into several different subsections which cover the country of Senegal. The most prominent being the Introduction and Quick Facts, Land, People, Economy, Government and Society, Cultural life and History. Within each of these headings are smaller more detailed subheadings.
This source can be accessed at https://www.britannica.com/place/Senegal
I chose this data source because of its prominence as an internationally renowned reference for relevant information on the world. Encyclopedia Britannica is a global educational publisher that promotes knowledge and learning. It is also one of the oldest English-language encyclopedias still in production. In fact, this shows that Encyclopedia Britannica has been respected andis a trustworthy source of information. It is for these reasons that I believe this source give good comprehensive coverage of Senegal. This source will not be updated regularly and for this reason, this source will provide a great background on Senegal, but not necessarily up and coming news. Moreover, as this is a worldwide source, it will not be as relevant to the local culture and societal expectations of Senegal.
Europa World Plus Database: This global news source works as a data news source for Senegal. This source is produced in English and covers the historical, geographical, economic, and political profiles of 250 countries and global regions. It is the online version of the Europa World Year Book. This database gives a great overview of Senegal. It consists of several subheadings such as the Country Profile, Country Statistics and the Directory. Within each category there are much more detailed aspects of the country such as the statistics concerning population, mining, industry and finances etc. This database is great for Senegal because it pays attention to detail and includes several different domains to obtain information from.
It can be accessed at http://www.europaworld.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/entry/sn
I chose this source because of its relevance and world-renowned resources. This online version produces impartial and efficient background information on the country of Senegal and 249 other countries. This database has been utilized by the media, major business, companies, governmental agencies and libraries for its credible information. It provides an overarching perspective of the country for the international world. A limitation of this source would be the idea that it is not addressing the local perspective of the people. Simply fact-based and written by experts, the societal expectation and culture are not addressed within the database. As this source is updated yearly, I will use it as background information for Senegal.