commbox Development & Communication

WorldCat (11)

The Role of Radio Programming on Poverty Alleviation in Nakaseke District: A Case Study of Musana FM Kiwoko Town Council

Bakalu Bernard

Ndejje University, Bachelor Thesis in Journalism and Mass Communication (2017), 47 pp.

"Musana FM has done a good job in fighting against poverty in Nakaseke district [Uganda] because of its effective and resourceful programs such as income generation programs. Additionally most of advertisements are for local produce, health and medicine which encourages use of local medicines for tr ... more

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WorldCat (11)

Modeling Collective Action Through Media to Promote Social Change and Positive Intergroup Relations in Violent Conflicts

Rezarta Bilali, Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Jason Ray David Rarick

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, volume 68 (2017), pp. 200-211

"Does social influence exerted through role modeling of collective action impact social change in contexts that are not conducive to collective action, such as long-lasting violent conflicts? We examined this question in two field experiments in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. We created t ... more

Constructs of Development from Inside the Development Communication Syllabi

Jonalou S. Labor

International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, volume 13, issue 2 (2017), pp. 23-44

"Discourses of development in academic institutions must be thoroughly investigated. Using a set of Development Communication (DevCom) syllabi and the theories of Xu Xiaoge (2009) and Arturo Escobar (1995), this paper qualitatively investigated on the nature and process of the constructed discourse ... more

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Storytelling for Interactive Digital Media and Video Games

Nicholas Bernhardt Zeman

Boca Raton, Fl.: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis (2017), xv, 280 pp.

"This book is the perfect guide to aspiring storytellers as it illustrates the different manner of how and why stories are told, and how to make them "interactive." Storytelling features heavy game development as a method of storytelling and delivery, and how to develop compelling plots, characters, ... more

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Caring in Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs

Irene Bruna Seu, Shani Orgad (eds.)

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2017), xiii, 165 pp.

"Drawing on an original UK-wide study of public responses to humanitarian issues and how NGOs communicate them, this timely book provides the first evidence-based psychosocial account of how and why people respond or not to messages about distant suffering. The book highlights what NGOs seek to achi ... more

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Disability and Social Media: Global Perspectives
Top Insights

Katie Ellis, Mike Kent (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2017), xxii, 340 pp.

"Social media is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives yet the impact on people with disabilities has gone largely unscrutinised. Similarly, while social media and disability are often both observed through a focus on the Western, developed and English-speaking world, different global ... more

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Search for Common Ground’s ‘Strengthening the Capacity of Civil Society to Contribute to Sustainable Governance in Liberia’: Final Evaluation Report

Heather Gilberds, Katherina Thomas

Search for Common Ground (2017), 58 pp.

"Overall, the program set out what it achieved to do—namely to strengthen the institutional capacity of civil society organizations to improve their credibility, visibility, effectiveness and sustainability. There is evidence that many partner CSOshave refined theirmission, developed a multi-year ... strategic plan, a communications plan, a gender policy and an HR policy. In addition, they are beginning to integrate new financial reporting and M&E structures. All of the partner CSOs have improved their sustainability byreceiving additional funds to continue their work, and many of them hav developed strategies to diversify their revenue generation, such as expanding their offices to rent out board rooms. A number of organizations are eager to pass their new knowledge onto others, with many training peer CSOs on what they learned through the Search program. Finally, the program was effective in improving their own confidence, with all of the partner CSOs expressing their appreciation of the program, and in particular the freedom they had to define their own priorities and objectives.A number of lessons emerged during the course of implementation that are relevant for Search’s future work in civil society strengthening, as well as for other organizations working in this sector: 1. The participatory benchmarking approach is useful to help organizations track improvments in their organziational capacity over time. However, there was a tendency for CSOs to overstate what was possible within a limited timeframe. As a result, benchmarks were not consistently met, and many of the capacity-related development were not fully institutionalized by the project end. 2. The integration of radio programs with other civil society organizing approaches—town hall meetings, workshops, and house to house outreach—is an effective way to improve awareness and engagement of citizens in governance reform issues on a mass scale. 3. Programs to improve the capacity and sustainability of CSOs, and to professionalize the sector, are crucial but often overlooked, in efforts to improve local governance in fragile and trasitional countries such as Liberia. 4. There is a need to continue efforts to link civil society actors together for cohesive action and to further improve the enabling environment for civil society in Liberia by providing opportunities for CSOs to develop strategic collaborations, improve organizational capacity development, and attract donor funds to support their work." (Conclusions) more

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Communicating Climate Change in the Rice Sector

Jaime A. Manalo IV et al.

Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice);Bureau of Agricultural Research (2017), xi, 95 pp.

Storytelling and Evidence-Based Policy: Lessons from the Grey Literature

Brett Davidson

Palgrave Communications, volume 3, issue 17093 (2017), 10 pp.

"The article outlines some of the ways in which an understanding of policymaker psychology and factors such as group dynamics and political context are reflected in the grey literature, and the implications of this for understanding the role of storytelling in political advocacy. It highlights pract ... more

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Applied Theatre: Performing Health and Wellbeing
Inspiring Practice

Veronica Baxter, Katharine E. Low (eds.)

London et al.: Bloomsbury (2017), xxiii, 315 pp.

"Applied Theatre: Performing Health and Wellbeing is the first volume in the field to address the role that theatre, drama and performance have in relation to promoting, developing and sustaining health and wellbeing in diverse communities. Challenging concepts and understanding of health, wellbeing ... more

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Information Needs and Access to Media Among Sudanese Refugees in Northern Unity State, South Sudan: Findings from a Survey of the Refugee and Humanitarian Communities

Arcata, Calif.: Internews (2017), 43 pp.

"In April 2017, Internews conducted a field assessment that investigated access to media and information needs among Sudanese refugees in Yida, Ajuong Thok, and Pamir, a settlement and two refugee camps in the northern part of Unity State, South Sudan. The assessment followed the February 2017 launc ... more

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Environmental News in South America: Conflict, Crisis and Contestation

Juliet Pinto, Paola Prado, J. Alejandro Tirado-Alcaraz

London: Palgrave Macmillan (2017), xi, 168 pp.

"Combining perspectives from media studies and political ecology, this book analyses socially constructed news regarding three environmental conflicts in South America. In recent decades, South American political administrations have tied national economies to neo-extractive development strategies, ... more

Utilising Social Media to Support HIV/STI Prevention: Evidence to Inform a Handbook for Public Health Programme Managers

Judit Takács et al.

Stockholm: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) (2017), 21 pp.

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Storytelling for Social Change: Leveraging Documentary and Comedy for Public Engagement in Global Poverty

Lauren Feldman Caty Borum Chattoo

Journal of Communication, volume 67, issue 5 (2017), pp. 678-701

"Narrative is essential for public engagement with global poverty. Stand Up Planet, a documentary about global development, was produced to evaluate the effects of a little-utilized nonfiction comedy narrative. Using a pretest–posttest experimental design, this study examines shifts in U.S. audien ... more

The Future of Learning and Technology in Deprived Contexts

Tim Unwin, Mark Weber, Meaghan Brugha, David Hollow

London: Save the Children (2017), 51 pp.

"This report has focused on predicting what basic education, the use of ICTs, and the ways that these technologies will contribute to education will look like by 2025, with a particular emphasis on the implication for those living in the most deprived locations. Three broad conclusions are appropria ... te. First, there is immense diversity, not only in education delivery but also in access to, and use of, ICTs. This will remain the case in 2025, and the resultant inequalities might well be very much worse than they are today. If current trends continue, then the use of technologies by the rich will be markedly different from the use of ICTs by the poor. The most deprived will continue not to have access to ICTs, will continue not to benefit from them, and will become relatively more disadvantaged. However, millions of slightly better off poor people will indeed be able to benefit from the potential that existing ICTs will be able to deliver over the next decade, especially in terms of access to educational content that may enable them to live more fulfilled lives. Second, for education systems to be improved, especially for the poorest and most marginalised children, there must be a fundamental rethinking of the vision for education in almost every country of the world. Educational change is slow, but some of those consulted for this report were optimistic, and thought that the pressure for change will soon become so high that governments will have to respond by instigating fundamental reforms. These, though, will be very expensive, and it still remains unclear how they will be funded and implemented. While the ICT sector is still likely to experience much rapid innovation, it is much more probable that the education sector will only evolve slowly. It is therefore also important that these technologies are used to enhance opportunities for learning everywhere, even where the education systems are slow to evolve. Third, there have indeed been many exciting and innovative uses of technology within education over the last two decades, and some of these are already being applied in contexts of both physical and socio-cultural deprivation. However, all too often those implementing ICTs initiatives in the education sector focus primarily on the technologies, rather than the education. If technology is indeed to be used to support learning, both in school and out of it, there needs to be a complete reversal of much current practice. The focus must be first on the education, and only then on the various technologies that can help deliver it." (Conclusions, page 20) more

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The CNN Effect and Humanitarian Crisis

Piers Robinson

In: The Routledge Companion to Media and Humanitarian Action

Robin Andersen; Robin Purnaka L. de Silva (eds.)

London: Routledge (2017), pp. 528-535

"Piers Robinson revisits the debates over what has been called the "CNN effect," a term that assumes media coverage of crises invariably leads to instigating humanitarian responses. While many claimed that interventions during humanitarian crises were influenced by media reporting of suffering peopl ... more

Inclusive Rural Communication Services: Building Evidence, Informing Policy
Top Insights

Rome: FAO;University of Queensland (2017), viii, 90 pp.

"This publication is the first scoping study aimed at compiling existing evaluation cases in the field of Communication for Development as applied to agricultural and rural development initiatives. It draws on a literature review and 19 cases across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribb ... more

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Communicating Development with Communities

Linje Manyozo

London, New York: Routledge (2017), xii, 165 pp.

"Building on the work of Robert Chambers and Arturo Escobar, 'Communicating development with communities' is an empirically grounded critical reflection on how the development industry defines, imagines and constructs development at the implementation level. Unpacking the dominant syntax in the theo ... more

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How Media Portrayals of Suffering Influence Willingness to Help: The Role of Solvability Frames

Lauren Kogen, Susanna Dilliplane

Journal of Media Psychology, volume 31 (2017), pp. 92-102

"When we hear stories of distant humanitarian crises, we often feel sympathy for victims, but may stop short of taking action to help. Past research indicates that media portrayals of distant suffering can promote helping behavior by eliciting sympathy, while those that prompt a more rational respon ... more