"In the development communication equation, whether more theoretical, empirical and analytical attention is given to ‘development’ or to ‘communication’ makes a difference: where the emphasis is on development, it is at the expense of communication. Since communication and media arguably pla
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y an increasingly pervasive role in the everyday life of citizens and in the politics, economies and governance of most societies, the characteristics and role of specific forms of applied communication strategies in the context of the neoliberal project merit critical scrutiny. Given a complex global scenario, what can a political economy approach bring into an agenda for the future of development communication as a field of study, a practice and an institutional project? This article outlines ways in which a focus on political economy dimensions may contribute to understanding the obstacles and limits to a transformative practice of international development communication." (Abstract)
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"This article is based on a qualitative study that set out to analyze the labels and terms attached to 28 people affected by albinism in villages in Kilolo district, Tanzania. Even though national and international attention to killings of people with albinism has attempted to improve general knowle
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dge of albinism and reduce discrimination, most of the community members within the study had little knowledge of the (bio)medical explanations for albinism and tended to marginalize people with albinism. Framed within a wider moral discourse on illness, disability and socially appropriate behavior, albinism is mostly considered to be God’s will or the consequence of past misdeeds within the family, and many of the existing labels for people with albinism express such ideas." (Abstract)
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"This study is an attempt to see how religion plays a part in development in a country where Christianity is seen as a major force behind social change. Government and business houses have done their part in enhancing people’s livelihood. However, it is claimed that Christianity has played a major
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role in enhancing people’s well-being. How people’s well-being is enhanced is vague, and might be understood through the concept of development communication. Development communication has been defined as “the art and science of human communication linked to a society’s planned transformation from a state of poverty to one of dynamic socio-economic growth that makes for greater equality and the larger unfolding of individual potentials.” Research participants were interviewed and their narratives were analyzed using thematic analysis." (Abstract)
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"How are marginalized peoples and places framed in their dominant national media? Framing theory applied through a comparative narrative analysis of 313 news articles, 291 photos and 1051 telenovela scenes allowed Brazilian media representations of a marginalized people, favelados, and marginalized,
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contested spaces, favelas, to be juxtapositioned. ‘Organizing principles’ communicated through media reports and stories of these marginalized groups operated to shape a certain social reality within the nation-state of Brazil. The salient latent frames 'Abandoned favelas and favelados' and 'Favela life is ideal father-led life' percolated from news and novela reports, respectively. That the timing of news reports and photos with telenovela production were concurrent, yet the manifest media framing of these people and places proved so radically different, makes this study interesting. More importantly, while the telenovela initially appeared as the more progressive storyteller, latent framing across media platforms harmonized hegemonically, retrogressing Brazilian storytelling to its paternalistic past." (Abstract)
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"This paper explores the impact that emerging partnerships - particularly between freelancers and nonprofits - are having on the practices of contemporary foreign news reporting. Through an exploration of a widely published project on a health crisis in East Africa-funded by the Pulitzer Center on C
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risis Reporting and reported by the study's author-this study ultimately argues that issues of framing, representation, and ideology are not dominating foreign news production; they are being hotly contested within it. The importance of having a journalist on the ground and the urgency of "liveness", however, is argued to be losing significance within the current model, which often destines foreign news imagery to be decontextualized for universal appeal." (Abstract)
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"In February 2015, Internews established Nile FM, a community radio station in Malakal County, Upper Nile state [South Sudan]. As part of Internews' Humanitarian Information Service (HIS) that brings information to displaced and vulnerable populations throughout the country, Nile FM responds to the
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information needs of the internally displaced people (IDPs) in the region." (Introduction)
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"In August 2014 Internews launched Boda Boda Talk Talk (BBTT) in the Protection of Civilians site known as PoC 3 in Juba. PoC 3 is the newest site and is adjacent to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) UN House base that contains PoC 1 and PoC 2. BBTT is a professionally produced reco
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rded audio Humanitarian Information Service (HIS). In order to reflect the voices of the community, Internews recruited and trained community correspondents who themselves had been affected and displaced from their homes [...] A first wave (Wave 1) of surveying on information needs was conducted in August 2014 [...] Since Wave 1, the population in PoC 3 has grown radically [...] Wave 2, was conducted in January 2015 to further investigate the information needs in the area and ascertain the impact and benefit BBTT has provided individuals in UN House PoC 3. In total 319 interviews with individuals were collected." (Introduction)
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"This study examined the use of a locally developed storytelling prompt as an alternative medium for HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention messages among rural university students in Limpopo Province, South Africa. An assessment of first-year students’ (n=21) response to a storytelling stimulus wi
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th local and familiar content shows a high uptake of the content messages in six persuasive narrative mediators: recall, narrative interest, absorption, identification with the main character, intention to commit to at least one health behaviour and self-efficacy. There were statistically significant correlations between narrative interest and recall, as well as between absorption and intention to commit to at least one health behaviour. Within the narrative theory framework, I argue for differentiated and culturally sensitive strategies and modes on HIV and AIDS communication to broaden the scope of focus to marginal areas where educational entertainment (EE) programmes may be inaccessible and ineffective. Finally, I discuss opportunities for further research that assess the effectiveness of local stories on a larger scale." (Abstract)
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"The contributors explore diverse contexts of performance to discuss peoples' own reflections on political subjectivities, governance and development. The volume refocuses anthropological engagement with ethics, aesthetics, and politics to examine the transformative potential of political performanc
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e." (Publisher description)
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"Through a case study of Kiva.org, the world's first person-to-person microlending website, and other microfinance organizations, the book argues that international development efforts have an affective dimension. This is fostered through narrative and visual representations, through the performance
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of development rituals and through bonds of fellowship between Northern donors and Southern recipients. These practices constitute people in the global North as everyday humanitarians and mobilize their affective investments, which are financial, social and emotional investments in distant others to alleviate their poverty. This book draws on ethnographic material from the US, India and Indonesia and the anthropological and development studies literature on humanitarianism, affect and the public faces of development. It opens up novel avenues of research into the formation of new development subjects in the global North." (Publisher description)
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"This study contributes to the field of films for social change by exploring the production process of participatory film-making for social change, whereby explicit claims of community empowerment, participation and social change are the very justification of the production. To do so, it investigate
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s the definitions and production processes of community art, participatory video and mediated participation. Using ‘practice as research’ as a key method of enquiry, we examine three film practices to explore aspects of professionalism. The objective of this examination is to elucidate the process of community member participation in collaboration with film-makers, facilitators and action researchers. People participate in film production processes by contributing to the script, acting, location scouting or any other activity at any stage of the film production. In examining this collaborative process, we focus on dilemmas encountered in relation to integrating participatory qualities and artistic qualities in a work of overall interdisciplinary and professional quality. The material used for the enquiry consists of participatory observations, scripts, films, course materials, audience observations, evaluation forms and in-depth interviews collected over the years in different projects. The analysis of the material indicates that the film-makers deal with dilemmas regarding the balance of the film’s participatory and artistic qualities and the production process. The expectations of the film-making community regarding the process, the resulting film and the related audience influence the balance between the participatory quality of the process and the artistic quality of the film. Finding a balance between participatory quality and artistic quality is a challenge, and in practice the stakeholders involved experience tensions in a continuous process of negotiation. This article demonstrates the tensions and illustrates the continuous process of negotiation between the (roles of) film-makers, facilitators, action researchers and community members." (Abstract)
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"The conference called the 'Global Media Forum: The role of media in realizing the future we want for all' was hosted by the Government of Indonesia in 2014 [...] The event brought together journalists, media experts and young communicators from South East Asia and around the world, as a contributio
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n to the ongoing international debate about the importance of media and information and communication technologies for peace and sustainable development. The goal was to advance participants’ understanding of how a free, pluralistic and independent media can contribute. This was in the context of efforts to have media issues being recognised in the UN debates about the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The output of the Global Media Forum was called the Bali Road Map, a key document that is included at the end of this book." (Introduction, page 6)
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"Entertainment education and the promotora model are 2 evidence-based health communication strategies. This study examined their combined effect on promoting healthy eating among mothers in a family-based intervention. Participants were 361 Mexican-origin families living in Imperial County, Californ
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ia, who were randomly assigned to an intervention or delayed treatment condition. The intervention involved promotoras (community health workers) who delivered 11 home visits and 4 telephone calls. Home visits included a 12-minute episode of a 9-part situation comedy depicting a family struggling with making healthy eating choices; an accompanying family workbook was reviewed to build skills and left with the family. Baseline and immediate postintervention data were collected from the mothers, including the primary outcome of daily servings of fruits and vegetables. Other dietary and psychosocial factors related to healthy eating were examined. At postintervention, mothers in the intervention reported increases in daily vegetable servings (p <= .05); however, no changes were observed in fruit consumption. Improvements were observed in behavioral strategies to increase fiber (p <= .001) and to decrease fat intake (p <= .001), unhealthy eating behaviors (p <= .001), and individual (p <= .05) and family-related (p <= .01) perceived barriers to healthy eating. Entertainment education and promotoras engaged families and improved mothers' diets. Further research should examine the dose needed for greater changes." (Abstract)
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