"This evaluation covers two independent projects implemented by BBC Media Action in Zambia. Tikambe provides information to young people about sexual reproductive health and rights and youth-friendly services via different platforms. Radio Waves supports independent media as a platform for dialogue
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and accountability. The evaluation concludes that the projects are relevant and achieved important results. In the future, the projects would benefit from strengthening their participatory approach in project design, sustainability considerations in the organisational capacity development of media actors, vulnerability profile and outreach (Tikambe) and budget design transparency (Radio Waves)." (Back cover)
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"Entertainment education (“edutainment”) is a communication strategy that works through mass entertainment media with the aim of promoting a better context for behavior change than the delivery of information alone. We experimentally evaluate season 3 of the edutainment TV series MTV Shuga, prod
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uced by MTV Staying Alive Foundation and filmed in Nigeria. Shuga 3 consists of eight episodes of 22 minutes each. While the main focus of the series is HIV, a subplot involves a married couple with a violent husband. In this paper we focus on this theme and assess the impact of Shuga on attitudes toward domestic violence. We find broadly positive effects. Moreover, the effect seems to be concentrated among people who recall the show and the narrative around the characters well, consistent with the idea of edutainment. We contribute to the nonexperimental literature on the impact of commercial TV on gender outcomes (e.g., Chong and La Ferrara 2009; Jensen and Oster 2009; La Ferrara, Chong, and Duryea 2012; Kearney and Levine 2015) and to recent experimental work that uses edutainment for public policy (e.g., Banerjee, Barnhardt, and Duflo 2015; Ravallion et al. 2015; Berg and Zia 2017). We differ from the latter in focusing on changing norms toward gender based violence."
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"While global youth is often referred to as a fairly homogeneous generation of digital natives, data drawn from a survey in Jordan, Moldova, and Uganda suggests that this is not the case. Based on an instrument for measuring digital and news literacy, this paper presents a typology of five personae:
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The MIL Novice, the MIL Intermediate, the MIL Veteran, the Digital Literacy Veteran and the News Literacy Veteran. The descriptions of these five types of media users can be employed as prototypes when developing Media and Information Literacy (MIL) programs and materials for 15 to 35-year-olds." (Executive summary)
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"The results of the study indicate that copyright industries make a significant contribution to the national economy of Botswana. In 2016, these industries contributed 5.46 per cent to value added and 2.66 per cent to the total labor force; meanwhile, in foreign trade they contributed 1.28 per cent
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to exports and 3.47 per cent to imports, yielding a negative trade balance of 1,988.80 million Botswana Pula, as imports exceeded exports by this amount [...] The contribution of the copyright industries in Botswana compares well with that of other countries, especially in Africa, that have undertaken similar studies. They contribute 5.46 per cent to value added compared to 11.1 per cent in the USA, which is the global highest. In Africa, Botswana’s contribution is the highest, followed by Kenya’s at 5.3 per cent. In terms of employment, the highest contribution is 11.1 per cent in the Philippines and the lowest is 1.9 per cent, in Ukraine, while Botswana’s contribution stands at 2.66 per cent. Compared to other African countries, Botswana contributes the least to employment." (Executive summary, page 7)
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"Kenya has experienced a cycle of political violence following a series of controversial elections that have centred on ethnic competition, leading to human rights abuses, deaths, destruction of property and a downward economic spiral. At the core of election violence, witnessed in 2007/8 and in 201
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7, is the positive and negative role of social media as used by both citizens and politicians. Political competition driven through ethnic belonging, ethno-political extremism and hate speech on social media platforms has taken centre stage. This paper concludes that while social media is being exploited in a way that contributes to violence, social media is also contributing to peacebuilding. The paper calls for a multistakeholder collaborative approach to education and sensitisation programmes on the positive use of social media for democratic consolidation." (Introduction)
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"While we might blame news audiences for their short-lived engagement with foreign crises, their reactions are far less surprising when we look carefully at what news stories truly communicate to readers. As illustrated above, the subtle lessons the news media teach audiences about foreign crises wo
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rk together to suggest that there are few, if any, solutions to foreign suffering and the solutions that have been implemented do not work very well. By way of comparison, the media suggest that national crises, such as Hurricane Katrina, can and will be effectively addressed by responsible governments and engaged publics. Given these patterns in news discourse, it is no surprise that Americans engage superficially with the topic of distant suffering.… Journalists could begin to change the way foreign crises are covered and present better coverage of solutions by actually asking victims on the ground what they think rather than relying on political leaders and charitable groups for facts and quotes. For instance, despite many stories on al-Shabaab, none included any comments by Somalis themselves on what could be done to stop the group, and only a very small number of victim comments explicitly addressed causes or solutions. While several pieces stated that the famine was caused by drought, no Somalis were ever quoted regarding what government policies or international interventions might have lessened the severity of future droughts." (Conclusion)
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"Mobile phone surveys are increasingly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. The main modes include computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), interactive voice response (IVR), and short message service (SMS, or text messaging). But there is surprisingly little research to guide resea
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rchers in selecting the optimal mode for a particular survey. To address this gap, this study compares cross-sectional CATI, IVR, SMS, and face-to-face (FTF) surveys of the general population in Nigeria. We ask four research questions: (1) What are production and response rates to CATI, IVR, SMS, and FTF surveys? (2) How representative (age, gender, education, marital status, literacy, household assets, urbanicity) are CATI, IVR, and SMS respondents relative to FTF respondents? (3) Can IVR and SMS provide an unbiased estimate of voting behavior? If there is bias, to what extent can weights reduce bias? (4) How does the cost and time differ across mobile phone survey modes? We find that FTF had the highest response rate (99%), followed by CATI (15%), IVR (3%) and SMS (0.2%). All mobile phone modes had substantial deficiencies with representativeness: mobile phones underrepresented women, older people, the less educated, and people in rural areas. There were differences in representativeness among mobile phone modes, but differences were relatively small and inconsistent. Both SMS and IVR produced biased estimates of voting relative to official statistics—but SMS was less biased than IVR. Weighting SMS and IVR data for demographic characteristics did not reduce bias. With regard to cost, we find that CATI is the most expensive mobile phone survey mode. For a survey of 3,000 completes, IVR is 43% the cost of CATI, and SMS is 24% the cost of CATI. SMS is significantly less expensive than IVR. We discuss the implications of these results for research and practice." (Abstract)
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"The premise of this research is that digital activism, like many other forms of online engagement work in an ecosystem. And just like the success of a species is largely dependent on environmental factors, and its reaction to those circumstances, so does the success of a digital activist platform.
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It is a start to unify the different elements of digital activism that have been studied by various researchers and codify these into a model. The study then goes further to offer an explorative analysis on how this ecosystem works using three blogging platforms operating in Sub-Saharan Africa as examples." (Abstract)
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"Open educational resources (OER) are an important emerging genre of teaching and learning materials with the potential for providing significant learning support on a global scale. OER have the capacity to enhance the availability of quality reading and learning materials to audiences who are not c
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urrently accessing traditional print materials. However, the particular supply and demand features of OER give rise to questions about how they could best reach some of the least-resourced target audiences. This report aims to investigate these questions, particularly as they relate to the potential use of OER for helping to meet basic education needs in low-resource environments of Africa. The report draws primarily on three types of data: a review of written sources on OER in Africa, interviews of eight OER supply organizations, and interviews of thirteen teachers, headmasters and leaders of small NGOs in four countries of Africa. This data indicates that, while there is an abundance of OER available, the demand side is much less robust for a range of reasons. Based on analysis and discussion of the data, the report makes several recommendations for enhancing OER use among the target audiences." (Abstract)
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"How do journalists around the world view their own function and role in society? Based on a landmark study that has collected data from more than 25,000 journalists in 66 countries between 2012 and 2015, Worlds of Journalism examines the different ways journalists conceive of their responsibilities
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, their relationship to society and government, and the work they do. The authors conclude that there is no one conception of journalism and instead advance a global classification of journalistic cultures: the corporate libertarian model (e.g., U.S. and Australia); the public-service remit model (e.g., parts of continental Europe); the social interventionist model (e.g., parts of the Islamic World); the developmental faciliative model (e.g., parts of Africa and Asia); and the coercive heteronomy model (e.g., China and Russia). The book is organized around a series of key questions regarding journalists' autonomy, influences on their practice, journalism's role in society, journalists' trust in social institutions, and their perceptions about the ongoing transformation of journalism. Worlds of Journalism reveals how perceptions of journalism are created and re-created by journalists and how the practice of journalism is affected by different political, social, and economic institutions. The authors challenge essentialist ideas about journalism and provide an understanding of the diversity of worldviews and orientations of journalists in terms of roles, ethics, and influences." (Publisher description)
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"News media played a prominent role in perpetuating the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Since then, Rwanda has undergone impressive social and economic growth, but the media landscape during this redevelopment remains understudied. Qualitative interviews with Rwandan journalists reveal that reporters censor
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themselves to promote peace and reunification. Short-term, prioritizing social good over media rights might help unify the country, but ultimately it could limit development and reinforce existing authoritarian power structures. Findings suggest that McQuail’s development media theory and Hachten’s developmental concept maintain relevance but point to the need for a new or revised media development paradigm." (Abstract)
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"Les entretiens menés en septembre 2019 avec des communicateurs en santé et des résidents ont révélé que les barrières linguistiques empêchent la compréhension d’informations cruciales sur l’Ebola. Les informations diffusées en français et en swahili ne sont pas comprises par tout le
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monde. Les gens ont du mal à interpréter le sens de termes médicaux en français qui paraissent pourtant simples. Le swahili est mieux compris dans la variante locale de Beni, tandis que les femmes et les personnes âgées de la région ont besoin d’informations dans la variante locale du nande. Pour les militaires et leurs familles, c’est en lingala qu’il faut donner les informations. Pour communiquer de façon efficace au sujet d’Ebola, il faut relayer l’information dans ces quatre langues. L’utilisation de la terminologie technique présente sa propre barrière linguistique. Certains termes médicaux clés spécifiques à l’Ebola sont en français et ne sont pas toujours traduits de la même manière. Les personnes chargées de la communication en santé ellesmêmes se trompent sur leur sens. Les participants de cette étude ont expliqué que certains des mots liés à l’épidémie sont inacceptables sur le plan social et culturel. Ces mots sont perçus comme étant violents et offensants, surtout ceux associés à la mort. Par conséquent, beaucoup de gens rechignent à les employer. Les communicateurs en santé les remplacent par leurs propres explications enveloppées d’euphémismes. Ces alternatives peuvent parfois être incohérentes et vagues et causer des malentendus. Les personnes chargées de la communication en santé ont besoin de soutien pour traduire les termes liés à l’Ebola d’une manière harmonisée et acceptable pour la population locale. La teneur des informations communiquées pose, elle aussi, un problème. Les messages actuels sur l’Ebola ne communiquent que des informations et des consignes de base. Ils ne fournissent pas les éléments nécessaires qui pourraient aider les gens à comprendre pourquoi et comment la prévention et le traitement d’Ebola fonctionnent. Aussi, avec l’évolution de l'épidémie et de la stratégie d'intervention, les questions des gens ont changé. Les participants de cette étude ont demandé que des informations complexes et transparentes leur soient communiquées dans une langue et un style qui leur sont familiers. Ils veulent des explications approfondies sur les derniers développements. Or il manque aux communicateurs en santé les outils de communication et la formation adaptés à ces développements, d’où la difficulté qu’ils ont à fournir des réponses à la fois claires et cohérentes. Les malentendus et les contradictions qui en résultent sont source de confusion pour les populations, et le manque d’explications détaillées ne fait qu’exacerber les doutes et les frustrations." (Résumé, page 3-4)
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"This paper tests the effectiveness of an entertainment education television series, MTV Shuga, aimed at providing information and changing attitudes and behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. Using a simple model, the paper shows that “edutainment” can work through an individual or a social channel. Th
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is study is a randomized controlled trial conducted in urban Nigeria, where young viewers were exposed to MTV Shuga or a placebo television series. Among those exposed to MTV Shuga, the trial created additional variation in the social messages they received and the people with whom they watched the show. The study finds significant improvements in knowledge and attitudes toward HIV and risky sexual behavior. Treated subjects are twice as likely to get tested for HIV eight months after the intervention. The study also finds reductions in sexually transmitted diseases among women. These effects are stronger for viewers who reported being more involved with the narrative, consistent with the psychological underpinnings of edutainment." (Abstract)
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"The paper seeks to identify the factors that motivate a person who champions ICT4D initiatives. Given the important contributions of ICT4D champions to initiative success, better understanding of their motivations holds the potential to identify, develop and deploy such individuals more effectively
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, harnessing their potential positive contributions to ICT4D initiative success. A multiple case study strategy is used to explore the motivational factors of three successful ICT4D champions in the South African context. The Work Preference Inventory (WPI) of personal motivations was used to design in-depth interviews with the champions and semistructured interviews with 29 other stakeholders. It found ICT4D champions are motivated by the need for personal actualization, business success and to address social concerns – origins of these motives could be traced to various internal and environmental stimuli. Practical implications drawn from the research are that profiling of stakeholder motivations in an ICT4D initiative is feasible and that organizations can use such information to create a conducive environment for grooming and empower new and existing champions to function more effectively. This first investigation of ICT4D champion motivations shows its importance and the potential thereof towards improving initiative success and emphasizes the need for further research of this nature." (Abstract)
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"This Handbook is an in-depth appraisal of the field of minority languages and communities today. It presents a wide-ranging, coherent picture of the main topics, with key contributions from international specialists in sociolinguistics, policy studies, sociology, anthropology and law. Individual ch
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apters are grouped together in themes, covering regional, non-territorial and migratory language settings across the world. It is the essential reference work for specialist researchers, scholars in ancillary disciplines, research and coursework students, public agencies and anyone interested in language diversity, multilingualism and migration." (Publisher description)
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"This study engages in a comparative analysis of the history, importance, and benefits of infographics, in general, and in the media, in particular in Nigeria. It looks at the history of the Nigerian press, as well as the scale of use of infographics and new media tools in communicating business sto
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ries in the country by its journalists. It also measures the level of approval of this new trend in the Nigerian journalism space." (Abstract, page 4)
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"This review presents evidence about the impact of mass media and digital media on young people’s family planning (FP) attitudes and behaviors. It primarily focuses on the Ouagadougou Partnership countries, but also describes lessons learned from other initiatives implemented more widely in Africa
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and elsewhere." (Executive summary)
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"The big story in this year’s data is the accelerating growth in internet users. More than 360 million people came online for the first time during 2018, at an average rate of more than 1 million new users each day. 57 percent of the world’s population is now connected to the internet, with tren
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ds indicating that all of the original ‘Next Billion Users’ are now online. We’re spending significant amounts of time online, too. The average internet user now spends more than 6½ hours online each day, meaning that the world’s digital community will spend a combined total of more than 1.2 billion years using the internet in 2019. Social media continues to account for the greatest share of that time, and the average user spends more time on social today than they did this time last year. The number of social media users around the world has increased by more than 280 million since January 2018, but there have also been some user declines across some of the world’s top social platforms. To help you make sense of this changing social landscape, we’ve included detailed data by platform across all of our reports." (Page 3)
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