The Drum Beat 137 - Independent and Community Media and other stories

This Drum Beat pulls together recent stories and data from around the world on independent and community media, the globalisation debate, Guatemalan and Roma women, entertainment education, political advertising, civil society portals, street children, life expectancy trends and other issues. Links are provided for more information. Stories are featured on the homepage of The C.I. web site and change every Tuesday and Friday. Please take a look, let us know what you think and send us your stories and information. Contact [email protected]

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COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT NEWS

1. The Rise of the Independent Media Center (IMC) Movement
Jan 15 2002 Online Journalism Review. 2 yrs after the first IMC sprang to life in Seattle in time for the WTO summit; IMC's now span the globe. Their growth presents a question the Web has been raising for years now: Who gets to be a journalist? Theta Pavis looks at the emergence of these 'modern day muckrakers' and how IMC reporters make no attempt to be unbiased but often include significant research, statistics and interviews in their articles.

2. World Social Forum (WSF) Multimedia Initiative
Jan 18 2002 AMARC. Journalists from community media, networks and associations around the world will meet in Brazil at the WSF Multimedia Initiative held during the WSF Jan 31 - Feb 5, 2002. The event seeks to demonstrate that 'another world and another communication is possible'. Journalists will cover the WSF from a community-based perspective through a variety of media. For more information contact Elvira Truglia [email protected]

3. Globalisation: The Argument of Our Time - David Held & Paul Hirst in Dialogue
Feb 7 2002 openDemocracy. Everyone is now arguing about globalisation. But who really understands its landscape, from protest to the WTO? David Held and Paul Hirst, authorities on the subject, engaged in an informed argument during the run-up to the rival summits of Davos & Porto Alegre. The exchange of 8 'dialogues' covers issues such as what is globalisation?, are the protesters right? and does the WTO work?

4. New Report on Discrimination Against Women Workers in Guatemala
Feb 12 2002 Human Rights Watch (HRW). HRW reports that women in 2 of Guatemala's female-dominated labour sectors - export processing zones sewing clothes for the U.S. and private households as live-in domestic workers - face persistent sex discrimination and abuse. The report, From the Household to the Factory: Sex Discrimination in the Guatemalan Labour Force, points to poor enforcement of weak labour laws and U.S. companies ignoring their own codes of conduct.

5. Roma Women Launch New Website
Feb 24 2002 The Advocacy Project. A new website has been launched by the Roma Women's Association of Romania (RWAR). The site is the first of its kind for the growing network of Roma women activists in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. 

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NEW COMMENTARY

Much to Answer For

Does television reinforce stereotypes depicting much of the world as a place of poverty, misery, and now, a breeding ground for terrorism? Charles Morrow looks at this question and what a consortium of broadcasters want to do to challenge "current assumptions about the role of communication in moulding our world-view".

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6. Bangladesh: Effective Entertainment Education
Feb 28, 2002 JHUCCP. The International Social Communication Cinema Festival created a special day to focus on 3 television soap operas produced by the Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) - http://www.bangladesh-ccp.org/ The soap operas blended public health messages on topics such as Vitamin A, diarrhoea, family planning, and HIV/AIDS with mass media entertainment.

7. Hungarian Elections Spark Controversial Media Campaign
Feb 28 2002 Radio Netherlands. Hungary's April 7 general election has inspired a controversial series of posters. Images include a man with body piercing, 2 half-naked women embracing, a Roma family, and people in wheelchairs all saying; 'We are going to vote! And you?' The campaign encourages people outside the mainstream to vote but also 'shocks' those Hungarians who, confronted with lesbians, piercing fanatics, and Roma families, may say "if those people are going to vote, I'd better turn out, too."

8. Civil Society News & Information Portal Opens
Mar 6 2002 APC. Africa Pulse a news and information portal for the civil society sector in the Southern African Development Community, began operations Mar 8 2002, in time for Zimbabwe's elections. The portal is hosted by SANGONeT but incorporates the visions and needs of regional organisations. Africa Pulse relies on a 'bottom-up' publishing structure, with organisations publishing directly to the site.

9. On the Streets Where They Live
Mar 11 2002 Infochange/Indev. Delhi's street children have set up an alternative forum for themselves. They meet, discuss problems, and publish their own newspaper. Butterflies, a Dehli NGO, works with the children through Bal Sabhas (children's councils) which meet wherever the children normally gather - there are no centres. The children have set up the Bal Mazdoor Union and produce a bi-monthly Hindi newspaper, Bal Mazdoor Ki Awaz (The Voice of Child Labour).

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NEW Pulse Poll

The results from the U.N. Conference on Development Financing [which concluded last week in Monterey, Mexico] will mean significant economic and social improvements in the world's poorest countries.

Do you agree? Disagree? What are your comments?

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INTERIM RESULTS: The Internet is a force that destroys cultural diversity.

AGREE: 13.7%
DISAGREE: 80.82%
UNSURE: 5.48%

SURPRISED? NOT SURPRISED? This poll remains open.

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BASE LINE

10. Africa: Life Expectancy to Reach Lowest Levels Ever
Source: IRIN

• By the year 2005 most Africans will die before they reach their 48th birthday.
• AIDS in particular, but also civil war, poverty and disease have reduced average life expectancy by 15 yrs over the past 20 yrs.
• In Mali 130 children out of 1000 die before their first birthday.

11. Western Cows/Southern Farmers: An Absurd Inequality
Source: INFOCHANGE story by Devinder Sharma

The 1.5 billion cows in the developed world receive subsidies amounting to almost twice the annual income of the 1.5 billion marginal farmers living in the 3rd World.

12. Foreign Aid Reaches Low Point
Source: World Bank Development News Headlines

• Foreign aid in 2000 reached a low point of US$56 billion.
• Recent communiqués for the UN-sponsored Financing for Development conference in March have dropped reference to the goal of countries committing .7% of GDP to foreign aid.
• The EU recently agreed to propose a reduced goal of .33% by 2006.

13. Costs of the Millennium Development Goals
Source: Oxfam International Briefing Paper - Last Chance in Monterrey: Meeting the Challenge of Poverty Reduction

• Extra funding required to meet the goals: US$100 billion.
• Extra funding generated if countries met their pledge to spend .7% of GNP on aid by 2007: US$114 billion.
• Average increase in government spending required to meet this goal: 1.4%.
• Costs of maintaining the status quo: 56 million additional child deaths, 75 million children out of school, and 1 billion people living on less than a dollar a day.

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This issue compiled by Chris Morry [email protected]

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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.

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