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The Drum Beat 507 - Communication and Change News and IssuesPublication DateAugust 31, 2009
This issue of The Drum Beat features a small selection of recent summaries available on The Communication Initiative website from 2 of our knowledge sections - Strategic Thinking and Trends - which illustrate how communication and media are contributing to positive development action, around the world. Please send additional project, evaluation, strategic thinking, and materials information on communication for development at any time. Contact Deborah Heimann at dheimann@comminit.com by Karin Gwinn Wilkins and Young-Gil Chae This article addresses the complexity of the concept of participation by exploring the organisational and structural conditions of the production of communication campaigns. Karin Gwinn Wilkins and Young-Gil Chae examine what is meant by participation in each of these models: social marketing, entertainment-education, and media advocacy interventions. They argue that a structural approach to participation recognises a variety of agents and agency involvement: "The potential integration of community members in decision-making processes needs to be seen relative to the dominance of donor agencies as well as commodity manufacturers and private firms, in order to assess a more realistic portrayal of power dynamics." by Eric Zuehlke A week-long Population Reference Bureau (PRB) seminar in November 2008 invited 12 senior-level women journalists from influential media organisations around the world to explore topics in reproductive health. Sessions were designed to strengthen the journalists' knowledge of the reproductive health policy landscape. "The lack of access to information and knowledge among women of reproductive health options emerged as a major issue, common across all countries....The participants saw their role as journalists as integral to educating women and addressing their concerns." Participants reported that being a woman journalist brings with it unique obstacles and opportunities. One challenge, according to participants, is how to communicate health issues to the public at the grassroots level rather than just to the elite. Sessions on new media training were designed to address this issue. 3. Rethinking Poverty: Making Policies that Work for Children The conference "Rethinking Poverty", held in April 2008 by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the New School University in New York City, focused on new research methodologies, exploratory research, and policy options applied to child poverty issues. This post-conference summary highlights approaches in the development environment, including situations of post-conflict or food insecurity, countries working in the context of Islamic law, and countries under economic and political transition, as well as western, industrialised countries. In the closing discussion, held as an open debate, participants were asked to propose actions which could move the policy agenda forward. Example: "Filter all policies, including macroeconomic policies, through the lens of children." 4. Warning: Habits May Be Good for You by Charles Duhigg This article describes the work of Dr. Val Curtis, director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to persuade people in the developing world to wash their hands habitually with soap in order to prevent diseases and disorders caused by dirty hands - like diarrhoea. The first goal of the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing With Soap was to double the hand-washing rate in Ghana. The strategy involved creating a habit through advertising in which the "toilet cues worries of contamination, and that disgust, in turn, cues" a use of soap. As part of post-marketing research, "Ghanaians surveyed by members of Dr. Curtis's team reported a 13 percent increase in the use of soap after the toilet. Another measure showed even greater impact: reported soap use before eating went up 41 percent..." - leading to the conclusion that advertising helped to develop new habits. 5. Can Web-based Worlds Teach Us About the Real One? by Chris Gaylord This article considers whether real-world predictions can be made from researching immersive online worlds such as Second Life. Published studies by educators and epidemiologists using these online worlds as data sets describe how players react to pandemics in World of Warcraft and to teen social settings in the social game Whyville. As stated here, skeptics differ in opinion on the authenticity of results from research based on existing virtual worlds. First, they point out that the motivations and incentives of the players are skewed towards entertainment. Second, they present statistics on the age profile of those using the online worlds, criticising the research data available as coming from a limited age group (average age: 26-28 years old). SUBSCRIBE TO THE C-CHANGE PICKS E-MAGAZINE The C-Change Picks website and e-magazine both feature selections of case studies, initiatives, resources, and thinking included on The CI website that have been specifically highlighted by the C-Change programme. Funded by USAID, C-Change works with global, regional, and local partners to apply social and behaviour change communication approaches in the health sector - HIV and AIDS, family planning and reproductive health, malaria, and primary health care - and is expanding to the environmental sector. The C-Change Picks e-magazine - is published regularly and features resources recently highlighted by C-Change. SUBSCRIBE by contacting cchange@comminit.com For a comprehensive view of what has been highlighted thus far, visit the C-Change Picks website click here. by Carolyn Curtis This presentation for the Post Abortion Care (PAC) Technical Meeting, Washington, DC, United States, March 2008, illustrates the post-abortion care (PAC) model of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which consists of 3 components: community empowerment through community awareness and mobilisation; emergency treatment; and family planning (FP) counselling, including provision of selected reproductive health care, sexually transmitted infection, and HIV testing and treatment. The document presents a comparison of the problems and resolutions of PAC model programmes within 3 countries: Bolivia, with 48 community groups involved; Kenya, with 16 groups; and Senegal, with 16 groups. 7. The Structure and Functions of the Broadcasting Industry as a Public Forum by Marius Dragomir This May 2008 paper examines the European Union dual broadcasting system of public service broadcasting (governed by State-imposed structures) and commercial broadcasting (in private hands). With an eye to exploring the criticism that this system fails to provide a balanced public forum for all political perspectives and viewpoints, the paper shares research on television in Central and Eastern Europe. Statistics and trends demonstrate that European public broadcasters consider themselves part of the democratic process served by media, providing their audiences with diverse content. In the new media environment, the author argues, public service broadcasting must reinvent itself with a wide range of content, and governance must be revamped to de-link it from government, harsh regulation, and increased politicisation. 8. Gender, HIV, and the Church: A Case Study This case study looks at the church's ability to work with communities to address culturally sensitive issues such as gender and HIV. It describes a pilot project to engage local churches in Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso through: workshops for couples to develop relationship and parenting skills, training for church leaders, and camps for young people focusing on life skills, goal setting, and making positive choices. People reported increased HIV testing, reduction in multiple or concurrent partners, and increased discussion within relationships about love and sexuality. Some also reported increased condom use, and young people said they no longer saw HIV as a death sentence. However, the case study notes that tackling deep-rooted traditions is a long-term process.
9. The Media, Government Accountability, and Citizen Engagement by Katrin Voltmer This paper explores the notion of accountability and how it can be applied to the relationship between governments, citizens, and the media in transitional democracies. Particular attention is paid to the factors that limit, or strengthen, the media's ability to act as watchdogs. Author Katrin Voltmer reviews research that has been conducted to better understand the media's influence on citizens' politics, drawing out recommendations for policymakers. For example, political communicators should not rely solely on mediated communication (professional media strategies) alone; social communication "on the ground" must be incorporated. "Practices of deliberative democracy have proved particularly effective in community decision making", especially in new democracies. Please VOTE in our Democracy and Governance Poll! How central to democracy are newspapers - some of which are being lost to budget cuts and other changes - as opposed to blogs, YouTube, emails, text messaging, twittering, and the like?
VOTE and COMMENT - click here.
~ RESULTS thus far (August 26): 46%: Pivotal - informed public debate is impossible without this kind of quality platform and trained journalistic practice. 43%: Of some importance - we need both traditional newspapers and new media voices/venues to sustain conversations conducive to transparency. 11%: Unimportant - the internet and other technologies have enabled participation on the part of both citizens and journalists by trade, making open journalistic debate both possible and popular. This is the essence of democracy. 10. Texts Tackle HIV in South Africa This October 2008 article describes Project Masiluleke, a text messaging project in South Africa that was set up on World AIDS Day 2008 to send one million free text messages a day to push people to be tested and treated. In this preventative health application, "[t]exts include: 'Worried that you might have HIV and want to talk to a counsellor about getting tested? Call Aids helpline 0800012322.' Many of the messages have been written with the help of local communities and are broadcast in English and local languages such as Zulu....The system will also eventually be used to provide information about tuberculosis." Calls to counsellors at the National Aids helpline in Johannesburg increased by 200% when messages were broadcast. by Ari Berman In this June 15 2009 blog, Ari Berman claims that information and communication technology (ICT) created access to the most recent news on the June 12 2009 Iranian opposition election protests, available through blogs, YouTube, and Twitter updates from Tehran. Berman cites reporting done over Twitter by a university student in Tehran who goes by the moniker Tehran Bureau. The Iranian authorities reportedly shut his website down, but he was able to send short posts around the world via Twitter. 12. World Press Freedom Declines in 2008 by Ivailo Anguelov This June 2009 article describes changes in press freedom from the 2009 Freedom House report on its study of the previous year, which assesses the level of freedom in web-, broadcast-, and print-based media annually. "Out of the 195 countries and regions around the world studied, 36 percent are rated free, 31 percent are partly free, and 33 percent are not free at all. Only 17 percent of the world's people live in countries that have freedom of press. For every one gain in freedom in 2008 there were two losses, marking the seventh straight year of a trend of global decline." 13. Television Across Europe: More Channels, Less Independence In January 2008, Open Society Institute (OSI)'s European Union (EU) Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP) and the Open Society Foundation's Media Program released a set of monitoring reports assessing changes in broadcasting legislation, policy, and markets and their impact on the independence of television. Key patterns in the 9 countries studied include: fragmentation in consumption; ownership consolidation - reducing the number of suppliers of media content; broadcast licensing relaxation; broadcast regulation contraction; and technology convergence - merging of telecommunications, cable, satellite, mobile operators, and traditional broadcasting. For public service broadcasters (PSBs), the key trends described here are over-extension, under-funding, and self-doubt. The trend in advertising is towards redistribution, as budgets are reallocated from traditional media to the internet. by Clare Rudebeck According to this March 2009 article, there are now around 4 billion mobile telephone subscriptions in the world, of which more than 280 million are on the continent of Africa. "The fact that it is possible to make money even from the poorest people is the reason why villagers in rural India can now call an ambulance; why housekeepers in China are no longer at the mercy of their employers; why people who have HIV/Aids in Kenya can seek advice anonymously. The flipside is that everyone on Earth, no matter how rich or poor, is increasingly finding that they have to own a mobile, otherwise they will be left behind." This June 1 2009 report highlights research by The Nielsen Company about how to reach the "wired" teenager. It gives data on media being used by youth (primarily on United States (US) youth ages 10-19) and recommends reaching them "for everything from consumer packaged goods marketing to the democratic process" through media used to reach adults. As stated here: "The notion that teens are too busy texting and Twittering to be engaged with traditional media is exciting, but false....To best engage this segment in marketing, civic and cultural pursuits, you must...examine the nuances of their media behavior as you would any demographic segment... it could mean the terms of engagement they so often want: to be treated more like adults." The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries. Please send material for The Drum Beat to The CI's Editorial Director - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com 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. To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, click here for our policy. To subscribe, click here. Placed on the Communication Initiative site August 26 2009 Last Updated August 28 2009 How useful did you find the knowledge and contacts on this page to your work? Post your comments (review comments from others below):COMMENTS POSTED |
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