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In this issue (August 2007)
No full textIn the first issue of La Mestiza, a publication recently launched by four social organizations based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in an unprecedented collective effort, art and social transformation are discussed as interrelated. Art is tackled, not as a tool, but instead as a strategy for transformation. Inés Sanguinetti, a member of La Mestiza’s editorial board on behalf of Crear vale la pena, an organization that impels a series of community cultural centers in contexts of poverty north of the greater metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, argues: “These displacements of art towards non conventional spaces, like the excluded communities, are also an original way to offer new languages for participation and political action”. In discussing art’s real potential for change, Sanguinetti also refers to the fact that artists sometimes end up isolating themselves in a tribe of their own. I reflect on these matters as I introduce you to this new issue of Glocal Times, in which four articles originally prepared for the Memories of Modernity (MoM) project debate the power of words, explore the strong impact of architecture in people’s lives and share their views on commonalities and differences between two cities seemingly distinct. From South Africa, Michael Chapman proposes a provocative reading of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long walk of Freedom, and explores the dimensions of local and global, of individual ad community, of memory and oblivion, of self and other, of center and periphery, making a call for infusing with new contexts of complexity “our ongoing interpretations and reinterpretations of memories of modernity”. Franco Frescura, in turn, discusses memories and amnesias in architecture, in the context of the ideological power and impact of building, ‘recovering’ or demolishing –buildings or landscapes- on people, communities, nations. From Sweden, Ingrid Elam introduces us to the views of progress –or the lack of it- communicated by the Swedish modern and postmodern novel, drawing a line between fiction and social contexts. Oscar Hemer, instead, explores what the social impact of fiction’s truth could, should be, and why it matters. Beyond the MoM-related articles, two other contributions compose this new issue of Glocal Times From Bolivia, Canadian April Pojman uncovers the difficulties faced by young shoe shiners struggling to express their voices in the streets of La Paz and unveils their uniformed images. From The Netherlands, Niels Keijzer shares insights, accomplishments and challenges of a ‘networking for learning’ initiative called Pelican. These two contributions signal an enormous gap in terms of unresolved needs at very basic levels in terms of human security, against possibilities brought by thoughtful application of technological developments. The gap brings to mind Amnesty International’s 2006 campaign: “It’s not happening here, but it is happening now”. The next issue of Glocal Times will be online in November 2007, looking into the history and future of the Participatory Communication Research Section of The International Association for Media and Communication Research –deeply imbued with communication for development and social change- and highlighting the outcomes of its recent reunion in Paris.
ARE WE COMMUNICATING DEVELOPMENT?
Get PDFThe World Congress of Communication for Development (WCCD) took place in Rome, at FAO’s headquarters, late October 2006. Among all the international conferences on communication for development I have attended, this one was unique: it was organized by the World Bank, FAO and The Communication Initiative, institutions of very different nature that have little in common in their approach to development. With 700 hundred participants (government officials, international development organizations, NGOs and communication networks) from all regions in the world, the WCCD faced the risk of becoming a Tower of Babel where each delegate would speak his or her own language and ideas without caring much about what others would say. In fact, this is what often happens in international meetings, but it would have been sad if it happened during a communication conference, where dialogue is supposed to be central
BRIDGING THE MEDIA/COMMUNICATION GAP
Get PDFTony Blair reformed the British Labour party from within and called it New Labour. Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is trying to reform his formerly neoliberal Conservative party into Sweden’s “new labour party”. The apparent result – apart from the confusion among the electorate, especially those who voted the new government into power – is an almost complete political consensus around the basic principles of social democracy. There are however some areas where the views differ. Development cooperation is one. Even if the new government’s policy follows the outlines of the Policy for Global Development (PGD) adopted by the Swedish Parliament in 20031, there are some significant adjustments: The number of partners for bilateral development cooperation will be radically reduced, and confined to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The stronger emphasis on Democracy and Human Rights as main objectives, along with the over-arching goal of poverty reduction, may be a matter of nuance -but potentially it could also imply a long-needed recognition and support for media and communications as means for democratization and social change processes. When the newly assigned “Democracy Ambassador” -former head of the Swedish Liberal Party Maria Leissner- called to the first in a series of consultative seminars in September 2007, the theme was How media can contribute to democratic development. All the major Swedish actors in the field of media support were represented, along with three international speakers. Kabul Budiono, from Radio Republik Indonesia, talked about the transformation of the former tool for state propaganda into a modern public service company – an ongoing process initiated through cooperation with Swedish Radio’s Media Development Office. Kim Maung Win, representing Democratic Voice of Burma, based in exile in Oslo, gave an insider’s report of the early phase of the recent upheaval in Burma and underscored the media’s crucial role in the process. Lem van Eupen, general manager of the Radio Nederland Training Centre (RNTC ), one of the major European actors in media support along with BBC World Trust and Deutsche Welle, made the seemingly obvious but still controversial statement that ‘media for development’ and ‘development of media’ are actually two sides of the same coin. Conventionally, media support has been defined in a quite narrow sense, merely as ‘development of media’. Media, in turn, have been defined as traditional media organizations -newspapers and radio/TV. Journalist training and the exportation of (Western) media legislation have been the main media support objectives. Deliberately or not, such a focus has drawn a clear distinction between media support on the one hand and communication for development on the other, sometimes even leading to both being regarded as conflicting strategies. Among journalists, to date communication for development is commonly associated with top-down information and persuasion campaigns (propaganda), as opposed to free and independent media. The naïve faith in media freedom and independence notwithstanding, this is a view based on an obsolete understanding of the rapidly changing conditions of media production and consumption. Jan Peterson, former head of Swedish Radio’s MDO, and now strategic director of the Swedish Television, pointed to the ongoing democratization of both production and distribution, using Al Gore’s Emmy award-winning “Current TV”2 as an example of the completely transformed media landscape.The seminar made it quite clear that media support policies need a radical revision in order to keep pace with global media development. First of all, the very notion of ‘media’ needs redefinition in order to comprise not only traditional media but also the Internet and other ICTs as well as the multitude of combinations of old and new media. Secondly, media should not only be regarded from a nation-state perspective. In Sweden, as in most European countries, the public sphere has historically had the same extension as the nation-state. This former correlation is being blurred with globalization, making transnational communication an increasingly important part of the global mediascape. Bilateral development cooperation builds, however, on a state-to-state relationship, and tends, understandably, to reproduce the nation-state frame of understanding. Transnational advocacy networks, TANs, with their great potential for inducing democratic change, fall between the chairs. Thirdly, a subsequent redefinition of the profession is required.Journalists should not be the only target group for media support. The media are more than means for communication. From a democracy perspective, it’s the communication process itself that is essential. Journalist training is important, but there is also need for communicators-advocates and agents for participatory communication. Differences of perspective or at times even conflicts of interest notwithstanding, the roles are not mutually exclusive. They ought in fact to be mutually supportive. ComDev is and should be an intrinsic part of media support. This may seem self-evident for those of us who work in the academic interdisciplinary field of communication for development and social change, as well as for all those practitioners who almost daily are confronted with this rigid division, and often obstructed in their ambition to bridge it. Last but not least: Media support needs a stronger research base, which in its turn requires higher education – at both Master and PhD levels. Giving students and professionals from developing countries the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and undertake research in their own profession is just as important as providing basic journalist training in local communities. And again, these objectives are not contradictory or conflicting; they go perfectly well hand in hand. The expanding global network around Malmö University’s ComDev Master has accumulated considerable knowledge and experience in this field over the years and shall gladly contribute to the reassessment of media and communication in democracy and social change processes. 1 http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/3428/a/24520;jsessionid=a6hwJzXSALbg 2 An independent cable and satellite TV network launched in August of 2005 in the US, and in the UK and Ireland in March of 2007. See http://current.com/ for more information
PARTICIPATION AS STRUCTURAL. A critical approach to the dynamics of power in media for social change
Get PDFMedia for social change refers to strategic media projects designed to advance causes for the public good. Those projects are rooted in development communication, health communication, environmental communication, social movement theories and other approaches to public communication campaigns. This emphasis is increasingly recognized as interdisciplinary, through the work of research scholars in communications, sociology and other fields, and of professionals in project implementation and evaluation. Although there has been widespread enthusiasm for the integration of participatory approaches within these comprehensive strategies, the diversity of conceptual and operational definitions of participation suggests that consideration of its complexity has not yet been exhausted. To this end, we propose considering participation as a structural consideration within the production of media strategies
TOWARDS TRANSDISCIPLINARITY AND A COMPLEX ROLE FOR THE SCIENTIST. IAMCR\u27s Participatory Communication Research section in action
Get PDFWhat is the role of the communication researcher or scientist in participatory communication processes? Rethinking and repositioning the concept of participation implies a discussion on such a role
MEMORIES, TEXTS AND COLLAGES
Get PDFAn old Italian proverb, often used by Italo Calvino, states that “A city without old buildings is like an old man without memories”. Buildings, regardless of their style or aesthetic or function, form an important element in our memories of time and place. Design might not have the power to change people’s lives for the better, but bad design most certainly has the ability of creating living hells for them to inhabit
MEMORIES OF MODERNITY IN SWEDISH PROSE FICTION
Get PDFIf the modern Swedish novel told the story of the individual and his place in history, the postmodern novel reminiscing modernity tells many different stories about the individual and his lack of place in any version of history. Fiction is not so much a means of communicating a better, future society, but rather an alternative view on the present
MEMORIES OF DIVISION, MEMORIES OF RECONCILIATION. A reading of a life in Mandela’s "Long Walk to Freedom"
Get PDFHow can memories of division as have characterised modernity in South Africa turn towards memories of reconciliation? The difficulty is captured in Benedict Anderson’s apparent paradox: that the nation, if it is to cohere, has to know not only what to remember, but also what to forget. A reading of Mandela’s life in his autobiography illustrates the challenge.www.michaelchapman.co.za
In this issue (February 2006)
No full text“Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?” Lao Tsu, 6th century BC [1] It was a short piece by Ariel Dorfman published by the Argentine newspaper Página/12 on December 27, 2005, that led me to think of the year by then about to end in terms of communication for development. The article, entitled “An SOS for the New Year” [2], started on provocative note: “My sole certainty for 2006 is that every prediction will end up being nonsense. After all, if they had asked me, by the end of 1905, to anticipate the next year’s events, could I have predicted the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 or the even more devastating seism that shook Ecuador a few months before that? Or the tsunami that desolated Honk Kong? Or blacks rioting in Atlanta demanding equality, and workers’ mutinies in Stockholm claiming bread? No way”. Disasters and emergencies were one of the “top 10 health issues of 2005” according to the World Health Organization [3]. An article by Theresa Braine published online by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) states that “From January to October 2005, an estimated 97,490 people were killed in disasters globally and 88,117 of them in natural disasters, according to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)” [4]. After discussing the incidence of the increase in the world’s population, poverty, inequity, development, industrialization and global warming as factors related to the impact of these disasters, Braine highlights a communication-for-development-bound event noted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in its World Disasters Report 2005 , in which “a simple phone call saved thousands of lives when the giant tsunami waves hit India in 2004. A fisherman\u27s son named Vijayakumar Gunasekaran, who lives in Singapore, heard about the tsunami early on the radio and phoned relatives living on the east coast of India. Following his warning, all 3,630 residents evacuated their village there before the waves arrived”. Which brings me back to Dorfman’s piece, and this issue of Globala Tider. The fact that the ability to listen to critical information (a reference to the tsunami on the radio) could lead to action in the form of communication (a phone call to warn relatives further away), which in turn transformed into networked communication (villagers warning each other), resulting in many lives saved in the midst of a catastrophe, speaks to me about hope [5] . The hope that through improved and consistent education, training and advocacy in the field of communication for development, a positive, tangible impact can be made in the lives of many. What predictions cannot foresee, communicative action can definitely prevent. In this edition of the webmagazine, we are pleased to present a unique gathering of accomplished guest contributors from different parts of the world. James Deane discusses the need to bridge the gap between successfully promoting communication for social change among development and donor organizations at the policy level, and achieving concrete coherent results in terms of what they actually do in practice. Helen Hambly introduces us to teaching and learning communication for development in Canada. And it is through her that we obtained kind permission to publish Paul MacLeod’s compelling introduction to the Fogo process -a groundbreaking participatory communications initiative that empowered people through the use of film and video in the late 1960s, in what was then one of the least developed regions of Canada. Nora Quebral, a leading figure in the field in the Philippines, discusses the ethics and specifics of educating communication developers in a borderless, global world. Cel Cadiz, from the Philippines as well, introduces us to the close relationship between the development of teaching and learning devcom in her country and Nora Quebral’s professional trajectory. We also welcome Malmö University’s graduates from the 2002 and 2003 Master courses in Communication for Development. César Bazán, from Peru, discusses how a communications framework to advance the trial of HIV/AIDS vaccines should be established. Gabriella Westberg, from Sweden, examines a development digital broadcast initiative set in Nepal. Sara Johansson, from Sweden as well, takes us back to the Balkans and looks into the role of personal narratives in group contexts as a tool for reconciliation. Also devoted to the Balkans is journalist Andrew Finkel’s contribution, looking into some of the highlights of the workshop “Towards a New Balkan Cultural Studies” that took place in Istanbul in October 2005. Asking himself about hope, Dorfman ended his article looking back again into 1906 for a clue, and tells us that it was then that the Morse-coded SOS signal was adopted [6]. “Anyone who distinguished Three Dots Three Lines Three Dots in a Morse telegraphic transmission would know, with certainty, transcending the barriers of language and the pitfalls of nationality, that someone was asking for help”. As you delve deeper into this new year, we hope that this issue of Globala Tider will act, if not as an SOS or a warning phone call, to inspire and inform your activity in the field, be it as teacher, learner, practitioner, researcher, or advocate. Please help us disseminate its contents, and do not hesitate to contact us with your comments, questions and suggestions while we prepare the fourth issue of the webmagazine –a special edition on HIV/AIDS communication, edited jointly with Thomas Tufte, from Roskilde University- which will be online in June 2006. [1] Quoted by Jan Nederveen Pieterse (2001) in Development Theory: Deconstructions/Reconstructions, Sage, London. [2] Retrieved from www.pagina12.com.ar Original version in Spanish. The translation is mine. For more information about Ariel Dorfman, a Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, journalist and human rights activist, visit http://www.adorfman.duke.edu/ [3] See http://www.who.int/features/2005/health_survey/en/index.html [4] Theresa Braine, “Was 2005 the year of natural disasters?”. See http://www.paho.org/English/DD/PIN/pr060109.htm and bear in mind that those figures do not take into account those killed in the 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Asia: they refer only to the earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan, the hurricane season in Central and North America, and the famine in Niger. [5] For my definition of choice of hope in the current context of communication for development, see Paulo Freire (1993) Pedagogy of hope/Reliving Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group. [6] For a compelling account of the ‘Morse telegraphy era’, and an in-detail introduction to “a medium which in the 19th century had created a revolution in world communications”, see Tony Smith, “Morse: the end of an era?”, UNESCO courier online, available at http://www.unesco.org/courier/1999_08/uk/connex/txt1.ht
DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION IN A BORDERLESS WORLD
Get PDFA curriculum is not a random patchwork of courses. It is the representation of a worldview that the curriculum developers think their intended learners should have. We are here today to dialogue on the development communication worldview. Reciprocity of thought is the very essence of communication, and its practice is central to genuine human development. Development communicators would not be true to a principle of their profession were they to insulate themselves and others from give-and-take with other minds. Development communication would not stay development communication were it cut off from ideas coming from various sources and disciplines –and by which it is nourished