"This article focuses on how the construction of ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’ as a social threat is involved in the specific ways in which climate change induced migration is communicated in Western media. It puts a spotlight on a major drawback of climate policies: the failure to make room for t
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he issue of climate migration. The article explores how a climate justice frame would allow the evolution of conceptual perspectives that are more conducive to safeguarding vulnerable communities’ rights and interests." (Abstract)
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"There are two fundamental concerns about global communication for social change (CSC) research and practice that guide the present study. The first is whether CSC researchers are collecting evidence regarding whether interventions work, the second is whether the sub-field is building theory about h
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ow CSC interventions work to promote community-led change. Based on a scoping review of peer-reviewed journal articles on international participatory development interventions, this analysis shows the field continues to lack a convincing explanation of the relationship between participation, communication, empowerment and social change. A model to elucidate this relationship is offered." (Abstract)
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"Este artículo caracteriza las prácticas comunicacionales de los comités que promovieron las consultas populares convocadas contra proyectos de extracción minero-energética en dos municipios de Colombia: Arbeláez (Cundinamarca) y Fusagasugá (Cundinamarca). Con este fin, se abordan los factore
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s que originaron el conflicto socioambiental, se reconstruye el proceso de convocatoria a la consulta y se detalla el “repertorio de prácticas comunicacionales” que organizaron los comités promotores, comprendido como la integración de nanomedios y artes populares y su articulación con las acciones de organizaciones sociales que impulsaron las consultas. Se concluye que el proceso de comunicación de los comités robustece el reconocimiento de los conflictos socioambientales en la comunidad, expande y diversifica la opinión pública y contribuye al desarrollo de mecanismos de participación popular." (Resumen)
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"Die Ausbeutung natürlicher Ressourcen und Infrastrukturprojekte bedrohen die Lebensgrundlagen indigener Bevölkerungen in vielen Staaten Lateinamerikas. Wie der Konflikt um das Territorio Indígena Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS) zeigt, stellte Bolivien während der Amtszeiten des ersten
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indigenen Präsidenten des Landes Evo Morales (2006-2019) keine Ausnahme dar. Bei diesem Konflikt stieß ein staatliches Straßenbauprojekt, das mitten durch das Schutzgebiet im bolivianischen Amazonas-Tiefland führen sollte, auf großen Widerstand. Unterschiedliche Akteur*innen aus Indigenenorganisationen, Zivilgesellschaft und der katholischen Kirche formierten sich in der sozialen TIPNIS-Bewegung und mobilisierten gegen das Projekt und dessen Auswirkungen. Diese Arbeit erklärt den Widerstand aus Sicht der selbstbezeichneten Verteidiger*innen des Territoriums. Dazu stützt sie sich auf den theoretischen Framing-Ansatz, der den Blick auf die Bedeutungskonstruktionen (Framings) der Akteur*innen lenkt. In einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse wurden die Daten von 52 semistrukturierten Interviews ausgewertet und zentrale übergreifende Deutungsmuster (Masterframes) der heterogenen Akteursgruppe identifiziert, die sich aus Diagnosen, Prognosen und Motivationen zusammensetzen. Dadurch ist es möglich, den Widerstand der sozialen TIPNIS-Bewegung, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Konfliktphase von 2017 bis 2019, in seinen komplexen Erscheinungsformen zu verstehen: Als Kampf um Legitimität in einer Situation der Fragmentierung und Spaltung der Indigenenorganisationen, als Versicherheitlichung (securitization) des Konflikts angesichts sozio-ökologischer Bedrohungen, als Anfechtung des staatlichen neoextraktiven Entwicklungsmodells sowie als Forderung nach einer Umsetzung der Menschenrechte, indigenen Kollektivrechte und der Rechte der Natur." (Abstract)
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"In partnership with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Farm Radio International led On Air Dialogues to gather thousands of small-scale farmers' and other rural peoples' perspectives on climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience. We worked with seven radio stations in Burkin
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a Faso and Ethiopia to create 21 original episodes of radio programming, complete with mobile phone-based polling. On air, broadcasters invited local experts, farmers, and guests to speak their mind and share their knowledge. Off air, we engaged listeners to join in the discussion with their own thoughts. We wanted to know: What changes have had the biggest impact on their farms? How have their communities taken action in response to climate change? What kind of information and advice is needed to help them adapt? And what message did they want to send to governments and global leaders?" (Page 2)
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"Desde DW Akademie llevamos años explorando metodologías experimentales, colaborativas y participativas en una clara apuesta por marcar una novedosa hoja de ruta en los medios que fomente la participación de las audiencias para entablar un diálogo constructivo. Un buen ejemplo de ello es el trab
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ajo desarrollado en América Latina reflejado en los proyectos que se describen en esta publicación, caracterizados por su afán experimental y entendidos como procesos en espiral que se retroalimentan, se autoevalúan y se perfeccionan constantemente. Por lo tanto, los cuatro proyectos que se describen a continuación no están pensados para ser replicados o aplicados en cada uno de sus pasos, sino que quieren servir de inspiración para que otras organizaciones o medios de comunicación los integren en la medida que consideren oportuna en sus propios procesos de creación." (Prólogo)
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"This report provides a summary overview of the key learning outcomes from a training workshop on communication, community engagement and accountability (CCEA) held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 10-13 October 2022. The training was a means to bring together various stakeholders with an intere
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st in CCEA issues, share experiences and develop a common understanding of how to best adapt good CCEA practices to the Papua New Guinea context. More importantly, the workshop set the foundation for developing a more consistent, coordinated and sustained approach to strengthening CCEA knowledge, capacities and skills in local, provincial and national organisations. It was also the basis for establishing a network of CCEA supporters and practitioners to promote CCEA in emergency and development programmes and decision-making processes." (Introduction, page 3)
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"Der Band bietet vielfältige Einblicke in die aktuelle kommunikationswissenschaftliche Rezeptions- und Wirkungsforschung rund um das Thema Nachhaltigkeit. Die Beiträge beschäftigen sich etwa damit, wie die Thematik in den (sozialen) Medien verhandelt wird, wie sich verschiedene Botschafts- und Ko
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ntextmerkmale auf nachhaltiges Verhalten auswirken oder auch welche Rolle etablierte und ‚neue‘ Akteurinnen und Akteure – wie Influencerinnen und Influencer oder die eigenen Social-Media-Kontakte – für die Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation spielen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Reaching people with your message is one thing, influencing and changing their behaviour is quite another. Behavioural science provides tried and tested methods that help us to better understand how people think and behave. Armed with this knowledge we can design communications that more effectivel
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y influence the decisions people make. This guide includes a checklist that details step by step instructions on how to design, develop and test behaviourally informed communications. It includes, tips, techniques and examples of how the methods outlined have been used successfully around the globe in recent years." (Pages 2-3)
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"This report defines and takes the pulse of five vital elements of digital learning. It contributes to the ongoing yet urgent aim of transforming education, and offers steps to recovery through child-centered, equity-driven, and innovative solutions. The five vital elements covered are ICT in educat
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ion policies and financing, digital learning platforms and content, teachers and school leadership, digital literacy, and holistic learning opportunities within and beyond classrooms. The report calls for a whole-of-system approach to digital learning, which includes increased resources, addressing the digital and usage divides, empowering teachers and school leaders, developing digital literacy among all groups, and meeting children where they are through entertaining and educational content and a mix of technologies. Particular attention should be given to gathering more data and evidence, which are sorely lacking; centering initiatives and solutions around the needs of marginalized learners and families, especially in low- and lower-middle income countries; and ensuring a holistic approach that considers all the vitals to make digital learning safe, equitable, engaging and effective." (Publisher description)
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"Cest la Vie!" (CLV) is a serial drama that entertains, educates, and promotes positive health behaviors and social change for West African audiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if watching the CLV Season 2 series online had an impact on people’s health knowledge, attitudes, and nor
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ms, focusing on populations in francophone West Africa. Between July 2019 and October 2019, viewers of CLV and non-viewers were recruited from Facebook and YouTube. We conducted an online longitudinal cohort study that assessed changes in health knowledge, attitudes, and norms (KAN) between these groups. Participants completed a baseline survey prior to the online airing and up to three follow-up surveys corresponding to specific health stories in the series, including sexual violence, emergency contraception, and female circumcision. We used descriptive statistics to describe viewers and non-viewers, and an item response theory (IRT) analysis to identify the effect of viewing CLV on overall KAN. A total of 1674 respondents participated in the study. One in four participants had seen one of the three storylines from CLV Season 2 (ie, CLV viewers). At follow-up, viewers were more likely than non-viewers to know when to correctly use emergency contraception and to believe that the practice of female circumcision should end. Compared to people who did not see CLV, viewers of the series had 26% greater odds of answering pro-health responses at follow-up about sexual assault, emergency contraception, and female circumcision. Further, the level of engagement with specific storylines was associated with a differential impact on overall outcome questions." (Abstract)
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"This brief examines the status of primary school TLMs in Malawi. It is based on interviews conducted with 22 Malawian educationalists, a review of international development education (IDE) project literature, and scholarly work on TLMs. It concludes that, particularly since the introduction of Free
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Primary Education (FPE) in 1994, processes of planning, developing, producing, distributing, assessing, and preparing teachers to effectively utilize TLMs in Malawi have shifted from centralized and government-controlled to project-based, fragmented, and driven by international funders. There is limited government control over educational goals and development expenditures; little opportunity for systemic analysis or reform; extensive, but fragmented, external involvement in decision-making; and, as a result, limited scope, availability, and utilization of TLMs that support equitable, high quality, and Malawi-centric educational experiences and outcomes." (Introduction, page 4)
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"This article offers new learnings and recommended practices for documentary-centred grassroots engagement and social change research. These learnings were developed through a community engagement effort in 2020 that centred around a documentary film about racial violence and injustice, 'Always in S
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eason'. Shaped by extended dialogues with industry experts, the filmmaker, local community organizations and more than 100 community participants, these learnings should be of interest to researchers, media makers, organizers, activists, and engagement specialists who wish to engage publics in critical social justice conversations that are not possible through traditional top-down, externally driven methods and engagement approaches alone. Organized around an urgent question – ‘How can participatory methods shift how media is employed and researched for social change purposes?’ – this article responds to a recent call for researchers to avoid ‘re-inventing the wheel’ and to align new work with existing knowledge produced in the field of communication for social change and the long-tradition of community engagement work in the field of documentary." (Abstract)
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"Recent years have seen the expansion of critical scholarship on humanitarian communication across a range of academic fields, sharing recognition of the centrality of media and communications to our understanding of humanitarianism as an agent of transnational power, global governance and cosmopoli
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tan solidarity. The Handbook brings into dialogue these diverse fields, their theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches as well as the public debates that lie at the heart of the contemporary politics of humanitarianism. It consolidates existing knowledge and maps out this emerging field as an important site of interdisciplinary knowledge production on media, communication and humanitarianism." (Publisher description)
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"The contributions in the form of research articles and essays come from a variety of religious perspectives – Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim, Jain, Hindu, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox. Despite coming from different religious worldviews, the underlying message fundamentally affirms that promoting ecol
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ogical flourishing requires an approach that centers on both praxis and spirituality in order to prevent the task of caring for our common home to become simply a series of dry mechanical calculations, purely theoretical propositions, or clever policy enactments. Religions at their best inspire and infuse external acts that are consistent with authentic interior virtues ordered to the wellbeing of both humanity and the natural environment. In this respect, religions must undergo its own self-examination in order to adequately speak to the present context." (Page 176)
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"A survey in Cameroon revealed that journalists are faced with some challenges (such as lack of training and lack of resource persons) in covering environment topics, especially those related to forest and climate change adaptation. In order to address these challenges and contribute to the improvem
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ent of the journalistic style of reporting topics on forest and climate change adaptation with more scientific knowledge and to create a stronger scientific base of event coverage, pilot capacity-building initiatives were initiated with the specific objectives as follows: (1) training of journalists during workshops; (2) fellowships award for research activities to communication master students; (3) mentoring of senior and junior journalists and (4) open reflection on how to mainstream forests and adaptation to climate change in curricula of communication schools in Central Africa. This last initiative of mainstreaming forests and adaptation to climate change in the school curricula was seen as a possible sustainable way to promote scientific and environmental communication in Central Africa. These activities initiated by CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research) under the framework of CoFCCA project (Congo Basin Forest and Climate Change Adaptation) were pilot initiatives aiming to inspire others on capacity building and research related to scientific and environmental communication in Central Africa." (Abstract)
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"This paper examines the extent to which an edutainment programme, MTV-Shuga, was reported to influence young people’s engagement with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In 2019 we conducted eight community-based screenings of MTV-Shuga episodes
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followed by 25 individual indepth interviews and 13 focus group discussions with young people aged between 15 and 30. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was thematic and complemented by constant comparison and deviant case analysis techniques. In this rural and poor setting with a high burden of HIV, young people exhibited high levels of awareness of SRH and HIV but had constrained access to services, and limited ability to engage with parents or guardians on SRH matters. MTV Shuga provided an entertaining guide of ways to navigate the risks that they faced in a way that resonated with them. The findings highlight the importance of enabling young people in rural areas to watch MTV Shuga with peers in a safe space in which discussion of the content is facilitated. There is also value in encouraging parents to watch MTV Shuga as a means of enabling discussions between children and adults in their lives about SRH matters." (Abstract)
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"This report provides an assessment of the reporting trends in the coverage of COVID-19 in nine SADC countries. The countries are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Stories published between 1 January and 30 June 2021 were selected from 38 ne
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ws websites from the different countries. COVID-19 has remained on the media's news agenda and journalists have continued to extensively cover the different aspects of the pandemic. The media however continued to focus on hard news on the pandemic, with most news articles based on statements by government officials. Media continued to report mostly on the numbers of COVID-19. While these figures are important, the media is also encouraged to report more on qualitative aspects of the pandemic, including beliefs, culture and religion that drive citizens' behavior around the pandemic." (Executive summary)
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"To date, no study has evaluated the effect of a radio-only campaign on infant vaccination coverage, timeliness, and related morbidity in a low-income country. We implemented the "10+10+30" radio campaign involving broadcasting a weekly 10-minute radio drama series on vaccination, followed by a 10-m
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inute discussion by community health workers, and then a 30-minute listener phone-in segment in Jimma Zone, Ethiopia for three months. To assess the impact of 10+10+30, which was aired on a community radio station, we recruited mothers of infants up to 5 weeks old in intervention district clusters that were inside the radio station's reception range (n = 328 dyads) and control district clusters that were outside of the range (n = 332 dyads). Intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses, adjusted for pre-intervention differences between the districts, were conducted to examine the co-primary outcome of Penta-3 vaccination coverage and timeliness as well as those of other vaccines and outcomes related to infant morbidity. Both intention-to-treat and per-protocol analyses revealed higher vaccine coverage and more timely vaccine administration in the intervention district relative to the control district, with infants in the intervention district being 39% more likely to receive a Penta 3 vaccination. In addition, adjusted regression analyses of maternal retrospective reports over a two-week period revealed 80% less infant diarrhoea, 40% less fever and 58% less cough in the intervention district relative to the control district. This study provides compelling initial evidence that a radio drama integrated with discussion and phone-in components may improve infant vaccination coverage and timeliness and may reduce infant morbidity." (Abstract)
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"The chapters here explore the impact, especially of Covid-19, on the media while unpacking the complexities, intersections and dynamics surrounding technological, political and economic developments and trends. Similarly, media discourses on journalism practice, audience narratives and news discour
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ses are taken up. The contributors revisit and offer critical insights on a broad range of theories and debates, including political economy of the media, constructive journalism, the Fourth Estate, securitization and journalist safety. As such, we obtain a deeper understanding of the changes and continuities surrounding discourses on news frames, trends, actors and agendas in the context of health crises. Also, the important role for public health communication and the notion of ‘information’ as a ‘public good’, especially during health crises, i.e. Covid-19, are invaluable areas of discussion. Lastly, the volume contributes to new insights on media discourses around regulation, representation and marginalization in the context of health crises. We learn, for instance, how several governments under the guise of ‘national safety’ continue to impinge on human rights and freedom of expression for both producers and consumers. This occurs through loopholes in existing regulation but also because of non-existent policy like on social media and citizen journalism and affordances of impunity." (Preface, page xii)
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