"The Theater for Development (TfD) movement seeks to empower subaltern communities by using their own language and culture to strategize solutions to their problems. This chapter looks at historical and cultural factors in both the pre-colonial and colonial periods, which may have encouraged the ris
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e of TfD. It examines more immediate influences, mostly in the post-colonial period, and how they have created diverse forms of social theater in different continents and regions. After an attempt to elucidate key theories concerning the practice of TfD, the chapter discusses some of its articulations with a broader range of global communications. Arguably the most direct progenitor of TfD can be found in schools and University Drama. One of the major differences between TfD in Africa and in the rest of the Third World lies in patronage, the source of funding and its direct or indirect impact on the ideological stance of theater activists." (Summary)
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"Clear categorization of what is media development and what is communication for development is often problematic and much of this chapter focuses on continuities that exist across the fields whilst acknowledging there are genuine, well-argued, and real reasons why there should be a strong conceptua
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l distinction between the two. There are numerous cross-over organizations, which are clear in their support to both media development and media for development. The delineation between media development and communication for development is blurred. There are many reasons to think that the future will make such distinctions more blurred. The chapter looks at current trends likely to make these distinctions less useful, and suggests a terminology that might be more useful in describing the very real conceptual differences between the two fields." (Summary)
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"This chapter focuses on community radio as one form of community media, and explores how citizens and activists use community radio stations for development and social change, despite the challenges of financial sustainability. First, a brief history of community radio is provided, in an internatio
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nal context; after which the chapter explores various examples of how community radio stations have been used for social change. The chapter also explores how stations having new media technologies are accommodating digital platforms, engaging with listeners via online social networking sites, and using cellphone-based systems of feedback. The chapter concludes with some reflections on the role of radio in creating a space for the formation of publics, and as a tool of resistance." (Summary)
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"This chapter debates the relationship between youth and media by focusing on communication for social change and gives readers a sense of the history, development, and central concepts of youth-generated media. It offers a comprehensive framework for understanding young people's self-expressive art
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ifacts. The first section of the chapter offers a historical trajectory concerning the study of youth and media. The second section proposes an explication of the concept of youth-generated media as developed by young people themselves, and juxtaposed to youth-oriented media. The third section proposes two broad conceptual approaches to youth-generated media: a “sponsored-development” approach with a relatively dominant adult involvement and an “organic” approach with youth taking charge of their own media production. The fourth section offers brief illustrative case studies from the Arab Spring. The chapter concludes by highlighting the utility of the concept of youth-generated media and the challenges in understanding and interpreting young people's activities." (Summary)
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"This chapter develops an exploratory analysis of the intersections between the processes of communication, social change, development, conflict and peace, through the combined use of the lenses and the premises of two theoretical perspectives: peace and conflict resolution studies, on the one side,
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and communication for social change, on the other side. The chapter highlights areas of complementarity or overlap, as well as spaces of contradiction, with the aim of broadening the understanding of the role of both communication and conflict in the processes of social change, development and sustainable peace-building. The new spaces of interaction on a local–national–global scale afforded by new technologies, and the blossoming of citizens’ media in countries with armed conflict have opened new possibilities and opportunities for civil society to actively participate and involve itself in the different phases of the conflict cycle." (Summary)
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"Media consumption today takes on first order meanings that we can challenge, understand and clarify. This is where the audience learns to believe in watchdogging and vice versa. Citizen watchdog groups (Veedurias) attempt to critically understand public narratives beyond first order meanings that a
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re not necessarily oppositional. These readings provide a new opportunity to understand the medium, and the audience that obtains some satisfaction by listening to radio, listening to local or international music, and by watching and interacting with TV programming. Citizen watchdog groups and observatories confront the challenge of watching, debating and proposing in order to achieve a better understanding of the public world from their own private worlds. These groups and observatories are located in that interaction between public and private issues in the mass media, tracing the footprints left by public/private/intimate actors. Citizen watchdog groups and observatories analyze the mediations and intermediations that are regularly built." (Summary)
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"The story of entertainment-education (EE) is that of a highly successful communication strategy that has achieved global recognition as a useful and effective approach to tackling contemporary development challenges. This chapter discusses the observed diversification of the science produced around
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EE. First, it maps out the practice of EE as documented in peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and unpublished theses completed in the period 2002 to early 2010. The chapter then deconstructs the theoretical elements that inform the practice of EE, guided by a series of questions. By unpacking the ontology of EE, the chapter identifies conceptual and practical shortcomings vis-à-vis the development challenges identified in the studies. The main purpose of the chapter is to establish that social change is a concept embedded in theories of development and change, and in social science theory of, for example, social norms, social capital, and social determinants." (Summary)
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"This chapter first discusses evaluation of communication for development in relation to ideas around participation and social change, before presenting the framework for evaluating communication for development and social change, and the key principles that underpin it. It then describes some of th
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e most interesting current trends and debates in development evaluation that informed the development of the framework, and outlines some strategies for overcoming the many challenges and issues associated with implementing this alternative evaluation approach. The chapter discusses some of the aspects of systems thinking and complexity theory that informs the framework, and gives brief examples to illustrate their relevance. Finally, the chapter discusses the implications for increasing the sustainability and effectiveness of communication for development and social change." (Summary)
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"This chapter argues that narrative can be particularly well suited to transcend the unhelpful polarizations – behavioral versus social change, diffusion versus participatory approaches – that have characterized and restricted global health communication to date. The chapter describes a series o
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f theoretical rationales and cases that can be enlisted to support the conceptualization of storytelling for social change practices and their effects at multiple levels of analysis. Next, it considers the theoretical base and cases on narrative and narration into articulation with the “Scenarios from Africa” process. Culture has been conceptualized as a “static set of never-changing values and norms” to which individuals are subject, rather than as “a complex, dynamic, and adaptive system of meaning” that is constantly evolving under the influence of individuals and collectivities. The theory of narrative and education proposed by cultural and educational psychologist, Jerome Bruner, provides a compelling grounding for this social constructivist perspective." (Summary)
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"The phenomenon of academics committed to social justice interrogating social science theory and research, frames the formation of the fields of citizens’ media and citizens’ journalism in the Latin American region. This chapter explains how Chantal Mouffe's ideas and her theory of radical democ
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racy inform citizens’ media and citizens’ journalism. It then describes how these concepts are used in specific research analyses. Belgian political scientist Chantal Mouffe shifts theories of democracy from a liberal perspective based on individual rights and responsibilities to a more nuanced analysis of power and political action. The goal of public journalism is to use media technologies to move dissent – the multiple voices of counter-publics – to the public sphere. Gaining a space among the elites who previously had made decisions without consulting citizens has been one of the greatest achievements that public journalism has had in our society." (Summary)
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"This chapter documents the experience of the Communication for Change (C-Change) project in developing and rolling out a holistic and comprehensive socioecological approach to social and behavior change communication (SBCC) within the context of a donor-funded program with short term goals. C-Chang
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e's SBCC framework uses a socioecological model for change. This model views social and behavior change as a product of multiple, overlapping levels of influence as well as political and environmental factors. The “health belief model” helps to find out why audience's perceptions are not in favor of change in the search for tipping points for change. The chapter describes three characteristics of SBCC. The key models and concepts of the C-Change's SBCC framework are incorporated into at least 75 government programs in Africa. The advocacy and social mobilization strategies of SBCC are aimed at ensuring sustainability through host government “buy-in” and support." (Summary)
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"This volume brings together a range of different specialists in the arts and cultural industries, as well as international academics and public intellectuals, to explore how media and communication practices for social change are currently being reconfigured in both conceptual and rhetorical terms.
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" (Publisher description)
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"If radio and film were the emblematic media of the Maoist era, television has rapidly established itself as the medium of the "marketized" China and in the diaspora. In less than two decades, television has become the dominant medium across the Chinese cultural world. TV China is the first antholog
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y in English on this phenomenon. Covering the People's Republic, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora, these 12 original essays introduce and analyze the Chinese television industry, its programming, the policies shaping it, and its audiences." (Publisher description)
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"This article is based on the analysis of 198 communication and media projects financed by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Nearly 80% of the projects were aimed at communication infrastructure and training for its maintenance." (commbox)
"To reshape the field of development communication, Redeveloping Communication for Social Change proposes situating theory and practice within contexts of power, recognizing both the ability of dominant groups to control and the potential for marginal communities to resist. Contributors from communi
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cation and anthropology explore the global and institutional structures within which agencies construct social problems and interventions, the discourse guiding the normative climate for conceiving and implementing projects, and the practice of strategic interventions for social change. Examining early and emerging models of development, power dynamics, ethnographic approaches, gender issues, and information technologies, they speculate how a framework accounting for power might contribute toward new directions and applications in the field. Instead of mourning the demise of development communication, this volume should provoke critical debate that will help us change our approaches to meet new challenges." (Publisher description)
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"In this paper, I explore institutional discourse on the role of gender in constructions of development communication beneficiaries and on the process of social change facilitated through communication intervention. Analyses are based on description of health, nutrition, and population projects impl
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emented by several organizations since 1975. Since the Decade for Women, dvelopment communication projects have focused their attention on women and other marginal groups, whereas U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has replaced informing strategies with persuasion approaches that target women as reproducers to consume products and services available through the private sector." (Abstract)
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