From The Communication Initiative Network - where communication and media are central to social and economic development.
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Welcome to the first issue of The Drum Beat in 2008! We look forward to a productive and dialogue-rich year in support of your work.
This issue of The Drum Beat features a selection of summarised project experiences, evaluations, trend articles, and materials which illustrate how communication and media are being used for effective development action around the world. These resources and reports are primarily from 2007, with inclusion of a few older publications that are still available through various publishers.
If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on The CI websites and in The Drum Beat newsletters, please contact Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com
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EXPERIENCES
1. Values Grid Session: Community Debate on Biodiversity - Romania
This biodiversity communication initiative used printed materials and person-to-person contact to inform and engage fishermen (between 20 and 70 years of age) from the "Insula Mica a Brailei" Protected Area in the eastern part of Romania. The initiative drew on participatory communication involving 3 different stages of group and individual work. First, participants were provided with both written and verbal instructions, including an overview on biodiversity and the purpose of the session. The moderator also provided a values grid form and personal factual data form, offering coaching on how to complete these forms. After working individually, participants clustered into small discussion groups and debated one topic selected from among those earlier identified by the whole group as relevant for biodiversity. Organisers contend that this technique facilitates identification of issues of interest for participants (as opposed to presenting them with a pre-determined set of questions), which engaged participants in debates designed to foster changes in values and attitudes. In addition, they say that the event produced information that could be statistically analysed and used in comparative research.
Contact: info@spiruharet.ro
2. Dramatool - Global
Launched in 2002, Dramatool is a web-based platform described as "an international meeting point for drama/theatre education". Available in Amharic, Chinese, English, French, Kiswahili, and Spanish (as of this writing), this website is an effort to empower drama and theatre practitioners through networking. Dramatool is run by a team of 11 people from 5 countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Sweden, Tanzania, and Uganda) who have experience in working with drama and theatre as a tool for an inclusive and humane society. Dramatool aims to be an open forum, which is available to anybody who is interested in and works in the area of drama education and performing arts.
Contact: info@dramatool.org
3. Hometown Baghdad - Iraq
Hometown Baghdad is an online documentary series created by Chat the Planet about life in Baghdad, Iraq. It tells the stories of 3 young Iraqis struggling to survive during the war. The production process was fully participatory, in that it was shot completely by young Iraqis. The intention of the filmmakers and subjects was to show the world what Baghdad is truly like. The series premiered on March 19 2007 and the final episode went live on June 17 2007; all episodes are viewable online as part of this initiative, which also includes news, a blog, and various forums.
Contact: Michael DiBenedetto mike@hometownbaghdad.com
4. Computer Clubhouse - United States
Established in 1993, the Computer Clubhouse uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) in an effort to help youth (aged 10-18) acquire the tools necessary to succeed in their careers and contribute to their communities. With the support of corporate sponsors, the original Boston, Massachusetts model has been replicated in various states within the United States, as well as other countries throughout the world. The purpose of the programme is to provide a creative, safe after-school learning environment where young people from under-served communities work with adult mentors to explore their own ideas, develop skills, and build self-confidence through the use of technology. Activities are guided by educational research which shows that adolescents learn most effectively when they are engaged in designing and creating projects, rather than memorising facts or learning isolated skills out of context. The Clubhouse provides the resources, materials, and tools for young people to develop projects in areas such as: computer simulations, multimedia creations, electronic music, computer game design, electronic publishing, computer-controlled devices, 3-dimensional design, and developing web pages.
Contact: Gail Breslow gbreslow@mos.org
5. AI.COMM - Global
The Global Avian Influenza Behavior Change and Communications Support Activity (AI.COMM) project provides behaviour change technical assistance for avian and pandemic influenza. The project scope spans pre-outbreak, outbreak, and post-outbreak communications. AI.COMM seeks to provide backyard farmers, small-scale poultry producers, consumers, health care workers, veterinary staff, and communities with technical and programmatic support in the following: formative research, communication strategy development and implementation, material and media development, outreach and advocacy, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). The overarching goal of AI.COMM is to provide a wide range of rapid-response and long-term technical assistance for avian influenza behaviour change, media, and other communications to avian influenza-affected countries in Eurasia, the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Launched in June 2006, the AI.COMM project is expected to run until mid-2009.
Contact: Matt Tingstrom mtingstrom@aed.org OR avianflu@aed.org
6. Raising Community Awareness on Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS - India
This was a 13-month project to address the increasing feminisation of HIV/AIDS in India, with a specific focus on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV/AIDS integration. Theatre, film, and posters were used in an effort to develop and strengthen community-centred approaches to meet the SRH and HIV/AIDS-related needs of women in low-income settings. The organisers further sought to focus on creating increased informed demand and enhancing awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and SRH, with special emphasis on increasing access to health, social, and legal support services for women affected by HIV/AIDS or vulnerable to HIV. This project also sought to create a body of knowledge that can be readily used by a range of stakeholders, including policy makers, donors, and representatives from civil society organisations (CSOs) such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the mass media, and academia. Partnerships were key in approaching these goals; the project worked with 19 NGOs in 17 districts across 6 Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Orissa, and Delhi.
Contact: Priya Mohanty pmohanty@allianceindia.org OR setu@allianceindia.org OR info@allianceindia.org
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PLEASE VOTE IN OUR NEW POLL:
Which countries provide the best examples of effectively addressing priority development issues?
[choose as many as you wish and note that you can submit your own recommendations and explanations online in the "Comments" box below the poll - see the right side of this website]
Thailand
China
Viet Nam
Malaysia
Dubai
India
Algeria
Ghana
Uganda
South Africa
Brazil
Venezuela
Jamaica
Other
VOTE BY clicking here.
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EVALUATIONS
7. INFORMO(T)RAC Programme - Joint Review Mission Report
by Roy Kessler and Martin Faye
This evaluation report explores the role community radio stations (CRS) can play in poverty alleviation by sparking dialogue about social issues. The authors of this piece find that in 3 West African countries - Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone - CRS has contributed to civil society development and, thus, indirectly, to economic development, especially in societies that have been impacted by conflict.
8. Applying Freirian Model for Development and Evaluation of Community-based Rehabilitation Programmes
by Manoj Sharma
Published in the Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, this article explores the potential application of Paulo Freire's model of adult education to the development and evaluation of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programmes in developing countries. As the author explains, Freire's model has been used in community organisation, health education, alcohol and substance abuse prevention, development work in agrarian cultures, and coalition building. However, the effectiveness of this model has generally been measured qualitatively. In order to quantitatively transcribe this model, Sharma identified 5 distinct constructs: dialogue, conscientisation, praxis, transformation, and critical consciousness. Specific directions for quantitative applications for developing and evaluating CBR programmes using these constructs are presented in this paper.
9. "As Though There is Peace": Opinions of Jewish-Israeli Children About Watching Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim Amidst Armed Political Conflict
by Yael Warshel
This article discusses the reception of a peace communication intervention designed to promote pro-social intergroup relations among young children during a period of political conflict. Warshel's audience reception analysis was conducted in 2001 with the Jewish-Israeli child audience for the peace-building edutainment television programme "Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim", the Israeli/Palestinian version(s) of "Sesame Street". Conducted during a period of heightened hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians known as the Al-Aksa Intifada, this research was based on the observation that, despite adult concern about the impact of armed political conflict on children, "adults often neglect to discuss armed political conflict with children. They may...think children are impervious to the constructs of conflict or in need of sheltering from it and so fear raising the subject."
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Which communication and media for development initiative most impressed you in 2007? Why?
Please click here and scroll down within the middle column to submit your list.
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TRENDS
10. The Un-wired Continent: Africa's Mobile Success Story
by Vanessa Gray
This paper explores trends in mobile telephone use on the African continent. Drawing on International Telecommunication Union (ITU) databases, the author shares a variety of figures and patterns to illustrate and explain the success of mobile telephony in Africa. For example:
- The number of mobile subscribers passed the number of fixed lines in Africa in 2001, and the total number of mobile subscribers at the end of 2004 stood at 76 million. This represents a tripling in the total (fixed and mobile) telephone penetration - from 3.5% in 1999 to 11.5% in 2004.
- By 2004, almost 75% of all African telephone subscribers used mobile; the figure was even higher in Sub-Sahara, where more than 4 out of 5 telephone subscribers use a mobile. In Nigeria, for example, mobile telephony has helped to increase total telephone penetration from 0.5% to 8% between 1999 and 2004. Gray calls this "the highest ratio of mobile to total telephone subscribers of any region in the world."
- In 2004 alone, almost 15 million people in Africa joined the mobile cellular subscriber base - a figure equivalent to the total number of (fixed and mobile) telephone subscribers on the continent in 1996.
11. How Have Radio and TV Broadcasting Been Used in Education?
In the interest of exploring how information and communication technology (ICT) can help transform the learning environment into one that is learner-centred, this article provides an overview of how radio and television (TV) have been used in education over the past 80 years. Indicating that these ICTs have been "used widely" as educational tools since the 1920s (radio) and the 1950s (TV), the article lists 3 general approaches to the use of radio and TV in education and provides examples of how the approaches have been used over time. Specifically:
- Direct class teaching involves broadcast programming as a substitute for a teacher on a temporary basis.
- School broadcasting involves the provision of broadcast programming - not to substitute for the teacher but, rather, to enrich traditional classroom instruction (particularly where resources would not otherwise be available).
- General educational programming involves providing non-formal educational opportunities for all types of learners over community, national, or international stations.
12. Youth Media DNA: Decoding Youth as News & Information Consumers
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) undertook research in an effort to develop better strategies at the global and local level for reaching and delivering news content to young readers. This report shares results from the exploratory phase of this qualitative research; while it does not offer conclusions about young readers globally, it does indicate trends in youth newspaper readership gleaned from 10 focus groups of young people (15 to 24 years old) in 10 countries (Colombia, Japan, Lebanon, the Philippines, Serbia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States). A key finding to emerge is that young people perceive traditional media as more accurate, trustworthy, and reliable than new media, but many get most of their news and information from another source entirely: family and friends.
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To improve the effectiveness of your communication and media for development work in 2008 what do you most need? [Other than more funding which is a given of course!]
Please click here and scroll down within the middle column to submit your list.
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MATERIALS
13. Dialogue with the Public: Practical Guidelines
This guide, aimed at enhancing dialogue and discussion, is intended primarily for those relatively new to communicating science and science-related issues. Each chapter follows a similar format, with a brief discussion followed by some guidelines on issues to think about, some examples, and an organiser's checklist. It is intended that the "Guidelines" and "Organiser's Checklist" in each chapter will increase opportunities for dialogue and exchanges of ideas and views for all practising communicators. The goal is to help maximise the audience reached and the interaction with that audience.
14. Grassroots Options
This magazine, originally offered in paper format and now published online, is a media initiative of a group of working journalists in the Northeastern region of India. It was established as a means of creating space to discuss and give voice to opinions on environmental and development issues in this remote region, which is characterised by biodiversity, traditional cultures, and small-scale communities. Grassroots Options features news articles on local development-related issues.
15. Designing Print Materials: A Communications Guide for Breast Cancer Screening
This guide was designed to improve the quality of information that breast cancer screening programmes provide to consumers. A result of collaborative efforts by the International Cancer Screening Network, it offers a summary of informational materials and decision tools used internationally by breast cancer screening programmes to communicate with women about mammography. Designing Print Materials describes the tasks involved in creating printed materials, including planning, audience assessment, and message and materials testing, and assists the user in identifying appropriate communications media for maximising audience reach.
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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com
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