"This study explores the usefulness of Community Information Centres (CICs) amidst growing ubiquity of mobile phones. It examines how CICs can play a complementary role to personal mobile phones, specifically in facilitating access to information that translates into social and economic progress. Th
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is study was guided by an Integrative Model of Digital Engagement and Impact (IMDEI) employing selected constructs from three dominant theories namely the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Through a quantitative research design, 500 respondents from 10 CICs were surveyed with 451 valid responses returned. SPSS and SmartPLS software version 25.0 were used to process and analyse the data collected. The findings indicate that although mobile phones are suitable for simple tasks, complicated tasks are better performed in CICs, suggesting a complementary nature of the two (2). The study recommends that future telecentre initiatives adopt models of co-location, which are so far lacking in the Ghanaian case. Moreover, the paper discusses the implications of increased information availability, which allows CICs to widen the scope of services and involve more citizens in their operations, thereby enhancing involvement in activities. The research also discusses the implications of universal service on a wider scale, challenging the adequacy of current service definitions to cater to the needs of heterogeneous communities. The paper concludes that CICs remain an indispensable facility for equitable information access and a source of empowerment, but their success hinges on user participation, adequate policies, and deliberate technology integration. The paper argues for a balanced approach that utilises both mobile technology and CICs to maximize community development and engagement. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on the role of information access in community development in an increasingly digitalised world." (Abstract)
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"This Working Paper addresses this challenge of adopting innovations. How can development organisations institutionalise a new way of working, bringing what was once novel to the core of how business is done? Analysing successful adoption efforts across five DAC agencies, the paper lays out a propos
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ed process for the adoption of innovations. The paper features five case-studies and concludes with a set of lessons and recommendations for policy makers on innovation management generally, and adoption of innovation in particular." (Abstract)
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"Community radio’s relationship with the farming communities has a long history in India. The earliest successful experiments in community broadcasting involved both farmers and agriculture. In terms of development communication, community radio in India represents a confluence of somewhat conflic
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ting paradigms. While community radio is generally presented as a highly democratic, participatory medium, the way it is operationalized in India more closely aligns with the modernization/diffusion paradigm. In 1976, Joseph Ascroft observed the phenomenon of ‘interpersonal diffusion’ among farmers, whereby for each farmer trained in new techniques, three more would adopt the innovations. While this ‘interpersonal diffusion’ was by no means perfect, it was illustrative of the complex communication networks involved in the diffusion process. It also hints towards the ways in which community radio can act as a facilitator of these processes; as somewhat of an intersection between diffusion and participatory communication. Drawing on ethnographically inspired qualitative research conducted at a rural community radio station in South India, this article explores the role of community radio at the intersections of participatory development and diffusion. This article argues that community radio facilitates the sharing of technical information and innovations among farmers and contributes to amplifying existing knowledge communication systems. The implications of this article suggest that a focus on existing local knowledge communication and transfer systems could contribute to achieving broader development outcomes and further situating the role of community radio within development and social change initiatives." (Abstract)
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"Der Band liefert theoretisch fundiertes Grundlagenwissen für eine erfolgreiche Online-Kommunikationsarbeit, entlarvt Mythen und bietet Einblicke ins Internetrecht und in IT-Sicherheit. Ein speziell entwickeltes Modell zur Entwicklung einer Online-Kommunikationsstrategie hilft darüber hinaus (zukÃ
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¼nftigen) Online-Verantwortlichen zu entscheiden, wann sich ein Engagement im Social Web eher lohnt und wann eher nicht. Beispiele aus der Praxis runden den Band ab." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"This article uses the Steven Framework to show the influence of research on the policies and practices of mobile money transfer and mobile phone-enabled payments in Africa. While it is a muchdiscussed subject, few people know the wider narrative by which products such as M-Pesa were intentionally c
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hampioned from outside the mobile phone industry. This championing was part of a much broader intentional strategy to change the landscape of financial service provision in Africa and to decrease the cost of international remittances. The origins of this strategy are to be found in research on the emerging behaviours associated with mobile phone use in Africa. There is an increasing call for evidence-based policymaking. The M-Pesa story shows a clear example of research informing (and thereby contributing to) policy development." (Abstract)
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"This collection of 10 original essays honors the intellectual legacy of Prof Everett M Rogers (1931–2004), a pioneering and distinguished teacher—scholar of diffusion of innovations, communication networks, and social change. Well-known colleagues and contemporaries write on topics that not onl
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y piqued Rogers' curiosity, but to which he made seminal and lasting contributions. The concluding documents Rogers' life journey from his modest farm boy beginnings in Iowa, through his distinguished academic career, to his final return to the farm." (Publisher description)
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"Twelve years later, in 1983, with the total number of diffusion publications grown to almost 4,000, Rogers published the third edition which further revised the theoretical framework and introduced new concepts and theoretical viewpoints. All three editions have extensive bibliographies of works ci
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ted and are indexed." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 364)
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"Transfer of technology it seems can also be a vehicle for the transfer of ideology. Therefore the recent interest of Australia in appropriate communication technology in order to produce adequate endogenous messages so as to redress imbalances in flow of information and cultural materials. One of t
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he most important findings of the Australian study is therefore the experience that technological progress, understood as modernization particularly in the communication field, is not per se and necessarily a beneficial process. This is also confirmed by the results of the Indonesian study which laid more emphasis on the relationship between communication, social change and development. The Indonesian study has also concentrated more on the socio-cultural impact of the domestic satellite communication project in two cities and five provinces. It was found that different economic and socio-cultural backgrounds strongly influence acceptance and use of the information provided by modern communication media. Mass media distribution and ownership is a prime factor conditioning the effectiveness of modern communication systems in traditional societies. The role of the opinion leaders is closely interrelated with the role of the mass media. Though, in general, the role of mass media as initial sources of information is seen as still relatively small, the local opinion leaders are intensively and regularly using the media. They can even be characterized by their high media exposure and they are respected and influential because of their knowledge of cultural and religious matters, and also because of their innovative and progressive attitudes and practices which seem to mainly stem from the mass media. The study also shows that there is a "two-step-flow of information". The information which is being transmitted by the mass media to the rural populations and mainly passed on and interpreted by the opinion leaders, motivates the villagers to know more, to study and adopt first technical and later cultural innovations and to participate more actively in the life of the nation." (Page ii)
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"Este libro recoge en forma acertada y amena todo aquel conjunto de pequeños grandes detalles que sumados hacen que funcione una radiodifusora, no solamente tomando en cuenta la parte técnica como base del engranaje, sino principalmente, las caracterÃsticas del elemento humano que la conforma. El
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autor brinda espontáneamente todo aquel legado de experiencias adquiridas prácticamente en el diario trajinar de la radiodifusión y sistematizado en la docencia académica del aula universitaria." (Descripción de la casa editorial)
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"10 contributions, e.g. on literacy and rural communication. The "Bibliografia de Estudos Norte-Americanos sobre Comunicação no Brasil. Bibliografia Anotada" (pages 151-246) includes 235 North American publications on communication in Brazil." (commbox)
"In the 1971 edition of Communication of Innovations: A Cross-Cultural Approach, research had almost quadrupled, and its nature had become more varied and more involved with developing countries, necessitating a change in generalization about the theory." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass medi
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a bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 363)
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