"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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"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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"This article highlights the key areas in which Communication for Development (C4D) can play a role in the aftermath of conflict, with a focus both at the community and at the national level. It provides an overview of the literature that has begun to discuss C4D in the light of peace creation. It i
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dentifies research directions that aid to shed light on the effectiveness of C4D interventions targeting issues that are specific to post-conflict environments. It recognises its strengths when working in conjunction with broader peacebuilding programmes. Finally, it introduces a new Theory of Change (ToC) framework that is helpful in assessing the role of C4D in the achievement of sustainable peace after violence." (Abstract)
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"The complexity of development and social change and growing tensions between dominant results-based and emerging learning and improvement-based approaches to evaluating development interventions have created major challenges for the evaluation of communication for development (C4D). Drawing on our
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recent research, we identify significant tensions, challenges and issues in evaluating C4D. They include contextual and institutional challenges, problems with attribution and unrealistic timeframes, a lack of capacities in both evaluation and C4D, and a lack of appreciation, funding and support for approaches that are more appropriate for the evaluation of C4D. We propose various strategies that can help to address these challenges and issues, including using a rigorous mixed methods approach, and implementing long-term, holistic evaluation capacity development at all levels and our new framework for evaluating C4D." (Abstract)
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"How effective are celebrities, not just in helping to draw attention to distant suffering, but in actually regulating spectators’ mediated experiences of the lives of distant strangers? What function does the perceived authenticity of a celebrity play in their role as mediator? This article seeks
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to address such questions by analysing the results of an audience study involving two phases of focus groups separated by a two-month diary study. The results show that celebrities certainly help to shape our mediated experiences of distant suffering – but not always in the ways and to the extent we might expect. What is clear is that celebrities are generally ineffective in cultivating a cosmopolitan engagement with distant suffering." (Abstract)
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"This article provides an overview of subdisciplines in the field of Communication for Development and Social Change. Different subdisciplines of communication science are analyzed to assess their connection to the field. Building on these subdisciplines the article reviews health communication, agr
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icultural extension and rural communication, and environmental communication as practice-based subdisciplines of Communication for Development and Social Change. By assessing the current development and communication approaches within the different subdisciplines, the article aims to better understand the current state-of-the-art of the field and identify future imperatives." (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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"This article examines German public service broadcasting and its message for African female audiences. It situates the activities of Deutsche Welle (DW) within public diplomacy theory and analyses the content of DW's Learning by Ear series, which is geared towards young African women. The article i
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nvestigates DW's view on gender and education in Africa and positions the broadcaster's activities within the broader context of the German and European Union's (EU) development assistance to the continent. Through critical discourse analysis, the article examines the broadcaster's perception of Africa. It argues that DW constructs a flattened, reductionist and often incorrect image of Africa. In its stories, Africa is depicted as a continent of harmful traditions that need to be abandoned, gender-biased schooling practices which are a product of regressive African communities, and women who are voiceless and powerless. The article concludes that although well intended, DW fails to grasp the complexities of African realities. Its broadcasts emerge as a series of culturally insensitive programmes that perpetuate well-worn stereotypes. Supported by Germany's Federal Foreign Office and designed to dispose of ‘backward’ African traditions to make space for the ‘new’ and the ‘modern’, the Learning by Ear series echoes the language of the mission civilisatrice of Africa's imperial past – something that contemporary development discourse has significantly moved away from." (Abstract)
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"To a certain extent the field's shortcomings could be the consequence of academic work increasingly trapped in the normativity of the development industry and out of touch with the variety of agents concerned with social injustice worldwide, who are deploying communication and media strategies to a
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dvance their struggles." (Page 134)
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"This report: 1. Defines “information ecosystems” and proposes an analytic framework of eight critical dimensions for understanding them; 2. Analyzes information ecosystems across a spectrum of change and their impact on resilience, referencing four case studies of Internews’ previous work [In
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stability and Underdevelopment in Fata, Pakistan; East Japan Earthquake 2011; Myanmar's Democratization and Opening; Three Environmental Disasters in Indonesia]; 3. Shares insights from the Jakarta Information Ecosystems pilot, which investigated the relevance of information ecosystems to communities living in chronically flood-prone environments; and 4. Reveals the utility of an information ecosystems approach and highlights preliminary conclusions on why information matters for resilience." (Page 2)
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"This report reviews and highlights some key issues in the current debate on development communication. To do so it draws on experiences and inputs from members of the Informal Network of Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Development Communicators (DevCom) [...] The report starts by looking at
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one of the fundamental elements regarding development communication: the monitoring of public support [...] the report then looks at communications strategies. Whereas only a few years ago they were somewhat rare among development ministries and agencies, they are now becoming common currency. Some are on their third or fourth generation and others have developed specific strategies (e.g. for the use of new media). This professionalisation of development communication is also seen in the next section, which covers the question of the measurement of the impact of these communications strategies and activities. Evaluation in this type of area is always challenging, and often ends up being built on the measurement of activities and output (and less on impact and effect)." (Executive summary)
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"Radio and online audio-formats are valuable instruments for international cultural work, and for education and development programmes. However, political developments following the end of the Cold War and the rise of satellite TV and online media have brought with them far-reaching cuts in the radi
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o programming of international broadcasters, and led to fundamental changes in the way radio and audio programmes are produced and distributed. Major western broadcasters, such as BBC World Service, BBG, RFI and DW, have limited their shortwave services to a small selection of countries, mainly in Africa and parts of Asia, where the infrastructure does not offer real alternatives for addressing the respective target groups. In these regions, radio still plays a vital role, not only for reasons related to infrastructure, but also because a great number of illiterate listeners can access information, knowledge and education best via audio. Traditional radio production and terrestrial transmission are also useful and efficient tools in media development work, as they can reach out into remote or rural areas and empower people to strengthen their community and cultural identity. But radio’s relevance goes beyond the local needs of regions that have not kept pace with the rate of recent technological change and media innovation. Radio has been at the core of international broadcasting right from the start, and now that it has become one element in a new mix of media, it turns out that there are some attractive core qualities of radio and audio that remain. These qualities are: 1. the direct and emotional impact of the human voice, 2. radio’s well-established culture of dialogue, 3. its potential to involve listeners as coproducers, 4. the flexibility, mobility and comparatively low production costs of audio, 5. its ability to subvert censorship." (Conclusions and Outlook for the Future, page 20)
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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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"La presente publicación tiene como principal intención revisar la riqueza analítica y propositiva de la comunicación en el campo del desarrollo, en el actual contexto de “redimensionamiento” de la cultura y su relación con el cambio social; entendiendo que esta diversidad de puntos de part
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ida reconfiguran los escenarios y competencias del quehacer de los comunicadores en la sociedad actual. Este libro nace de una preocupación pedagógica de los autores quienes construimos cada uno de los artículos que lo integran a propósito de nuestra labor docente en el marco del Seminario “Usos Socio-políticos de la Cultura en el Desarrollo”, que dictamos entre 2010 y 2012 en la Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (FPyCS – UNLP) y en la Licenciatura en Comunicación Social de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)." (Presentación, página 6)
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"[This book] examines the work of celebrity advocacy and lobbying in international development. Its purpose is to understand the alliances resulting, their history, consequences, wider contexts and implications. It argues that celebrity advocacy signals a new aspect of elite rule. For populist celeb
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rity advocacy can mark, ironically, a disengagement between the public and politics, and particularly the public and civil society. Recognising this poses new challenges, but also presents new opportunities, for the development movement." (Publisher description)
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