"L’approfondissement des pratiques démocratiques dans les pays étudiés passe non seulement par le renforcement des capacités des médias et des journalistes, pour qu’ils puissent s’emparer pleinement des outils numériques, mais aussi par la montée en puissance d’un grand nombre de nouv
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eaux acteurs citoyens qui ont déjà montré, notamment lors de rendezvous électoraux, le rôle positif qu’ils pouvaient jouer. Les enjeux liés à la qualité et à la diversité de l’information disponible dans ces pays, à la transparence de l’action publique et à la redevabilité des institutions, sont intimement liés à l’existence d’un écosystème structuré qui englobe des journalistes, des blogueurs, des développeurs informatiques, des représentants d’administrations publiques, des spécialistes des données ou de la cartographie, des membres d’OSC ou d’ONG, etc. Accompagner ces acteurs citoyens d’Afrique dans le développement d’un espace public ouvert, pluriel, participatif et bien informé constitue aujourd’hui un défi à plusieurs dimensions : Contribuer à l’amélioration de l’accès à l’information (et donc, à l’accès à l’internet); Sensibiliser aux enjeux de la société numérique et de la participation citoyenne; Soutenir les acteurs de l’information et de la donnée au service du débat public; Structurer des réseaux nationaux/internationaux et d’éco-systèmes locaux d’acteurs citoyens; Développer une culture de la donnée publique ouverte et des usages que l’on peut en faire." (Conclusion, page 38)
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"This book investigates the role of citizen journalism in railroading social and political changes in sub-Saharan Africa. Case studies are drawn from research conducted by leading scholars from the fields of media studies, journalism, anthropology and history, who uniquely probe the real impact of t
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echnologies in driving change in Africa." (Publisher description)
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"This toolkit combines the knowledge and experience of Internews with insights from research conducted by the University of Cambridge’s Centre of Governance and Human Rights and partners in the Politics and Interactive Media (PiMA) research project. Politics and Interactive Media in Africa (PiMA),
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jointly funded by DFID and the ESRC, examined whether and how Africans, particularly the poorest and least politically enfranchised, use new communication technologies to voice their opinion and to engage in a public debate on interactive broadcast media, and its effects on modes of political accountability. Africa’s digital revolution continues apace, yet broadcast media are vital for reaching the poor, rural and remote populations and the more marginalised, and more now and in the foreseeable future. By employing survey-based, qualitative and ethnographic methods to comparatively analyse interactive radio and TV programmes in the context of electoral and everyday politics, PiMA research critically interrogated the potential for digital communications and liberalised media sectors to promote more responsive and inclusive democratic governance, with a keen eye for turning project insights into relevance for policymakers, media houses, journalists and development organisations." (Website Internews)
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"This article begins with a literature review of Participatory Photography (PP) that highlights how this tool has been mostly implemented for action research, advocacy, and public health purposes. It shows how scholars have only quite recently begun to recognise its ability to generate change among
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PP participants. This is followed by a description of the project that was carried out in Kenya, including its background, objectives and daily activities related to peacebuilding. Offering insight into crucial aspects of this work, examples of the photographs taken by participants and related stories are presented. The conclusion is preceded by reflections on the effectiveness, limitations and potential risks involved in carrying out PP projects in post-conflict settings." (Abstract)
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"As Documentary Photographers increasingly introduce the collaborative and participatory methodologies common to socially engaged art practices into their projects (particularly those that are activist in nature, seeking to catalyse social change agendas and policies through image making and sharing
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), there is an increased tension between the process of production and the photographic representation that is created. Over the course of the last five years I have utilised these methodologies of co-authorship. This article contextualizes this kind of transdisciplinary work, and examines the ways in which the integration of collaborative strategies and co-authored practice in projects that are explicitly designed to be of benefit to a primary audience (the participants, collaborators and producers) might be usefully disseminated to a secondary audience (the general public, the ‘art world’, critics etc.) through analysis of my projects Red Light Dark Room; Sex, lives and stereotypes made in Melbourne, Australia, and The King School Portrait Project made in Portland, Oregon, America."
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"The subject of this paper is communicating with indigenous communities via grassroots comics, in this case the Khwe San who live in Platfontein in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The study is largely informed by contemporary shifts in development theory, particularly that of participato
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ry communication, which values individuals who live in the community as active participants in the research process. The use of grassroots comics is based on theoretical concepts surfacing in current literature regarding the field of development communication nd is somewhat critical of older, top-down theories of development." (Abstract)
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"Este livro reúne experiências e reflexões de académicos e não académicos sobre as potencialidades dos media para envolver e capacitar comunidades. Ao longo destas páginas, encontram-se textos que documentam propostas educativas e cívicas em torno dos media ou refletem sobre as capacidades d
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os media para trabalhar no seio das comunidades, incluindo as esferas da infância/juventude e/ou dos adultos e seniores. As metodologias participativas têm uma grande tradição em países da América Latina, de África e da Ásia e estão agora a ser mais usadas na Europa, particularmente, em Portugal. Esta inspiração reflete-se nas diferentes geografias que podem ser encontradas nesta obra, desde Reino Unido, Alemanha ou Brasil, até ao Quénia. Este livro está dividido em quatro partes. Uma primeira foca-se no projeto que deu mote ao livro, o RadioActive Europe, dando conta das suas práticas em Portugal e noutros países europeus. De seguida, juntamos experiências comunitárias e participativas nacionais e internacionais e, por fim, expomos vários caminhos de reflexão em torno da literacia e dos media." (Sinopse)
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"Participatory photography initiatives promise to ‘empower’, ‘give voice’ and ‘enable social change’ for marginalised communities through photography. This thesis questions this promise, demonstrating participatory photography to be a contested practice defined as much by inherent tensio
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n, ethical complexity and its limitations as by its potential. Caught up in governmental practices and instrumental discourses, ‘NGO-ised’ participatory photography has lost its purpose and politics. Using multiple case-studies and presenting empirical research on TAFOS, a pioneering Peruvian participatory photography project, this thesis explores under examined areas of participatory photography practice, including its governmentality, spectatorship and long term impact on participants. It establishes the effectiveness of photography as a tool for fomenting an enduring critical consciousness (Freire 1970, 1973) while questioning the romantic narrative of participatory photography’s inherently empowering qualities and capacity to enable change. Pluralism is used as a theoretical and conceptual framework for re-framing the promise of participatory photography. It is argued that a pluralized notion of participatory photography highlights the paradoxical, uncertain and negotiated character of the practice. It re-conceptualises the method as a mode of mediation that enables a plurality of seeing, that supports emerging and unrecognized claims and that cultivates a critical engagement with difference; qualities that are vital to democratic pluralism. The notion of a ‘Photography of Becoming’ re-imagines the critical and political character of participatory photography and the complex and vulnerable politics of voice in which it is immersed." (Abstract)
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"This paper presents the findings from a one-year applied research pilot project, Africa's Voices, run by the University of Cambridge's Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR). Africa's Voices developed out of CGHR's wider research programme on politics, ICTs and interactive media in Africa. Th
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at research analyses how audiences interact with radio stations through mobile phones; how different actors including audiences, radio journalists, and governance actors (state officials, but also others such as community leaders and aid actors) perceive the importance of these interactions; and what the practical implications are for public discussion of political and social issues and for governance processes that shape access to and the quality of public goods. With Africa's Voices, the CGHR research team piloted a programme format with local radio stations in eight sub-Saharan African countries with the objective of practically assessing the potential for deploying interactive radio to gather and comparatively analyse opinions of harder to reach sub-Saharan African populations. Besides evaluating optimal modes of working with smaller and more rural radio stations, the research has focused on patterns of audience participation in different formats of mediated public discussions and on the efficacy of different approaches to defining, gathering and measuring public opinion. This paper presents the results of the pilot and discusses them with respect to the above mentioned objectives. The paper also discusses some of the methodological and ethical challenges of using the affordances of ICT and interactive media that make them suitable for gathering and researching citizens' opinion in Africa." (Abstract)
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"The primary audience of this toolkit is anyone using or planning to use radio to enhance the impact of their development programs. It does not assume any level of prior knowledge of interactive radio from the reader. It will primarily appeal to practitioners who are planning to work through establi
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shed radio stations or disseminate audio recordings independent of radio (for example, via MP3 players or mobile phones). It is not intended to be a guide to establishing a radio station from scratch, although you will likely find much of the content relevant if that is your main objective." (Introduction, page v)
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"The article aims to provide a more historically grounded approach to the relationship between communication and participation, by distinguishing different waves of media democratization. The article first discusses the concept of participation and some of its complexities, and then sketches a serie
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s of intense moments of participation in and through the media in (mainly the second half) the 20th and the 21st century. At the same time, care is taken not to organize a linear-historical narrative, keeping in mind that the history of the democratization of Western societies and their media spheres is characterized by a series of continuities and discontinuities, dead ends and sedimented practices. Despite these ever-present fluctuations, the article argues that we can still see that structures, cultural resources and subjective dispositions have over time been geared more towards participation and equality, also within the media sphere." (Abstract)
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"Since it emerged, the field of communication for development has undergone a constant process of redefinition. Since the 1990s, the importance of participation in social and communicative processes has been stressed, and studies carried out during those years focused on participation as an importan
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t component to be considered. The so-called community media are privileged forces driving the participatory communication for development approach. Since their emergence and up to the recent studies, community media have been characterised by the centrality of citizenship participation in the creation of widespread messages, and in the processes of social change that they promote." (Abstract)
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"A collection of debate and report articles on community media and community communication, this book presents experiences, thoughts and forethoughts from Cyprus, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia and Nigeria. In the first section of the book are found studies of the practice and impact of community media, esp
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ecially community radio, in Ghanaian and Kenyan communities. The second section presents thoughts on how community media might better serve communities, democracy and development. The third section of the book, that is the forethoughts, focuses on the foreseen or preferred structure, role, funding and management of community radio in Nigeria – a country that is yet to have community radio. In that rather oracular section, contributors look into the future quite counterfactually, imagining and painting the envisioned character of community radio when the Nigerian government finally permits its establishment. The studies and discussions in this book potentially advance the conversations on the role of community media in promoting democracy and development as they affirm, modify or confute some of the known assumptions on the subject." (https://imesoimeso.org)
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"Gubrium and Harper describe how visual and digital methodologies can contribute to a participatory, public-engaged ethnography. These methods can change the traditional relationship between academic researchers and the community, building one that is more accessible, inclusive, and visually appeali
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ng, and one that encourages community members to reflect and engage in issues in their own communities. The authors describe how to use photovoice, film and video, digital storytelling, GIS, digital archives and exhibits in participatory contexts, and include numerous case studies demonstrating their utility around the world." (Publisher description)
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"Through two case studies, this paper evaluates the value of the feminist visual methodology Photovoice as an interactive consultation tool with rural Rwandan women working in agriculture. This exploratory study suggests that it is possible, through an adapted Photovoice process, to engage and empow
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er women in the production of information about what is most relevant to them, and reach and engage practitioners and officials through an exhibition of participants' photographs and captions. This confirmation of Photovoice's applicability with rural women in the generation of information that captures the attention of stakeholders demonstrates its potential for reproducibility in other development contexts." (Abstract)
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"Panos is working with 20 radio stations across Uganda to give voice to the voiceless through facilitating debate. It isagainst this background that Panos Eastern Africa (PEA) has developed this Guide to help our partner radio stations and journalists improve the quality of their debate and hope it
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will be useful to the media in general. The guide therefore highlights the role of radio producers and moderators in reaching rural communities recognizing that they too can set agenda for news and debate on radio, thereby positively contributing to the country’s development in all spheres. The rural debate methodology has highlighted the potential radio has to create an informed society that can hold leaders at the different levels to account." (Foreword)
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