The Drum Beat 342 - Communication and Change News and Issues
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This survey is an attempt for us to gather information about how you are using The Communication Initiative to respond to your interests and needs and engage and involve your analysis and perspectives for improved development action.
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1.Wan Lobi Tori: Lesley and Anne (A Love Story) - Suriname and Guyana
Produced by Stichting Projekta for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), this film tells of a love story between two youth from very different social backgrounds who are confronted by an HIV-positive diagnosis. Using edutainment, the film aims to raise awareness and increase discussion around HIV/AIDS and stigma. The film served as a pilot, to research the possibilities of using locally produced edutainment films as an information tool in the fight against HIV in Suriname, and possibly the wider Caribbean. According to the final report, the edutainment strategy was very well received. Said one young viewer, "we are used to being very bored by films that are supposedly good for you. This film made clear that messages do not have to get in the way of a great story."
Contact Stichting Projekta [email protected]
2.Trading Places - Global
This is a Panos London initiative organised around the December 2005 World Trade Organisation (WTO) 6th ministerial conference. A team of 13 Panos-sponsored African and Asian journalists covered the WTO event in Hong Kong, China, and were provided practical advice and support for their journalism. The project aimed to highlight the intersections between world trade, communication, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by enabling reporters from developing countries to report "the stories behind the mainstream headlines". Each day, the team of journalists filed stories for their own national newspapers and wrote specially-commissioned features, which are being showcased on a dedicated page on the Panos website. Short biographies of each journalist are offered there, along with links to the articles that emerged from participation in Trading Places.
Contact [email protected] or Jon Barnes [email protected] or Catherine Speller [email protected]
3.Life Choices Campaign - Ghana
This nationwide family planning campaign was launched in October 2001 in Ghana in an attempt to increase the use of modern family planning methods in urban, peri-urban and rural areas, with particular attention to communities whose pharmacies and chemical shops sell Ghana Social Marketing Foundation (GSMF) brands and where other community-based service providers have a presence. Life Choices addresses single and married adults of lower socio-economic status, opinion leaders, and service providers. Radio, TV, and print media are used to reinforce key messages from the community-level intervention in the form of testimonials that highlight satisfied family planning users in an effort to correct misperceptions and expose misinformation.
Contact Ian Tweedie [email protected] or Marc Boulay [email protected]
4.Timor-Leste Media Development Center (TLMDC) - Timor-Leste
This is a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) which draws on interpersonal interactions as well as the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as email and radio to bolster the skills of reporters in a nation that is struggling to develop a new democratic culture. TLMDC began with the launch of Timor-Leste Subscriber News, a daily local and international media monitoring service that is provided through email to share key information with an NGO audience who want to know what is going on in Timor-Leste but don't have the resources or linguistic skills to translate the daily newspapers. A key focus of TLMDC is on providing face-to-face journalism training, specifically to strengthen reporting on critical issues in politics relating to government, parliament, and political institutions. TLMDC is also producing 3 series of gender documentaries to be broadcast on Radio Television Timor-Leste (RTTL) and on community radio stations all around the country.
Contact Francisco da Silva [email protected] or Sonny Inbaraj [email protected]
5.Tangencya - South Africa
This is an inter-disciplinary, multi-media, architectural arts-based project promoting local and previously disadvantaged artists through indoor, outdoor, and online events designed to reach residents of Durban, South Africa. Featuring artists from Mozambique, Angola, and Botswana, Tangencya aims to develop Durban as a place that showcases African creativity, as well as to preserve and sustain Durban through environmentally conscious, community-based initiatives. Tangencya's projects attempt to share artistic visions and invite response and participation; face-to-face interaction is also central. For example, as part of the Taxi Rank in the City of Durban project, a life-size taxi (minibus) built out of recycled materials served as a site of consultancy where the public could get engaged around the complex issues of public transport. Comments were collected and delivered to city officials and interested parties at the end of the exhibition.
Contact [email protected]
6.AIDS Awareness amongst Rural Student Youth - India
Since 1990, the India-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) SHANTIDEEP has been carrying out HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns for young students in India. Communication approaches include peer trainings, mass awareness drives, and counselling for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Printed materials form the basis of a 3-day training programme for peer educators; these materials include UNAIDS-produced information in the form of a manual featuring HIV/AIDS facts. The training sessions are designed to foster participation, and at times draw on entertaining elements to encourage dialogue and connection. Strategies explored in the sessions to enhance community awareness and participation include carrying out school/community projects and conducting outreach to peers who are not in school.
Contact Dr. Rakesh Duggal [email protected]
7.Art for Peace Project - Uganda
Through this project, the faith-based non-governmental organisation Africa Youth Ministries Uganda (AYMU) trains former rebel soldiers and former abductees in art and crafts and works to develop their skills. Interpersonal communication (face-to-face training) engages conflict-affected youth in creative, constructive activities. In addition, the project works to promote a culture of peace and peaceful means of conflict resolution by using community-based group communication that involves: establishing peace clubs in schools in war-affected areas; developing a peace education curriculum to be used in schools; developing and implementing peace-building programmes and projects; and sensitising communities about peace building.
Contact Albert Kunihira [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]
8.BibloRed Capital Network of Public Libraries - Colombia
BibloRed is a network of 20 public libraries in the city of Bogota that is based on the concept of libraries as centres of learning, information and creativity. One of the main aims of this project is to make information accessible to youth and children from Bogota through books, mass media, a multimedia system, digital technology, and cultural, artistic, and scientific activities - all integrated into the ecological and environmental wealth of four large parks that surround the four libraries.
Contact Mrs. Cecilia Sarria Aguirre [email protected]
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New Discussion Topic - Health e Communication
Answering the question: Why invest in health communication
"Can we document amongst ourselves examples that demonstrate the value of development communication - what compelling examples of research, case studies, strategies or simple stories of success can we share that we feel will convince others that the communication budget line shouldn't be an afterthought?
If you have compelling examples of RESEARCH, particularly illuminating CASE STUDIES, analyses of SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES or simple STORIES highlighting how you convinced your organisation to invest more in development communication, please join the discussion and contribute your experiences.
Click here to read contributions received thus far.
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9.Developing a Research Agenda for Entertainment Education and Multicultural Audiences
by Sheila T. Murphy & Michael Cody
This summary report from 2003 details discussions and findings from a 2-day conference sponsored by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of the Hollywood, Health & Society (HH&S) project. The conference sought to provide an opportunity for practitioners to exchange ideas about, and share evaluation findings from, communication-centred initiatives that have highlighted or drawn on the relationship between the mass media and African American and Hispanic audiences. Vibert Cambridge from Ohio University spoke on international Entertainment-Education (EE) efforts. Ralph DiClemente from Emory University discussed a study exploring the relationship between exposure to rap music videos and variety of risk behaviours in 16-year-old African American women. Rina Alcalay from University of California Davis reported on the impact of mass mediated health messages on Hispanic audiences. Vicki Freimuth from the CDC recounted the impact of a made-for-TV movie about the Tuskegee Syphilis Studies ("Ms. Evers Boys on African Americans"). Michael Cody from University of Southern California summarised the extant literature with respect to domestic attempts at EE.
10.Impact Evaluation: Assessing the Impact of Policy-Oriented Social Science Research
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) - a USA-based institute carrying out research, capacity-strengthening, and policy communication for food security and poverty reduction - has worked to develop methodologies for assessing the impact of social science research. Two symposia - one conducted in 1997 and one in 2001 - brought researchers together to examine how to measure the economic impact of policy-oriented social science research, and how to enhance the effectiveness of such research in policymaking environments. This summary brief emerged from those gatherings.
11.Acceptability of the Female Condom After a Social Marketing Campaign
This research summary from 2001 highlights findings from a Horizons/Population Council study that examined the role of the female condom as a method of prevention against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among female sex workers in Campinas, Brazil. These women received increased access to the product and to product information through an educational and social marketing intervention that was conducted by the Ministry of Health and DKT, a social marketing organisation. There is no evidence that the intervention led a sizable number of women to use this contraceptive or to use protection (either male or female condoms) for each sex act with all partners. [Click here to access impact data from this evaluation, which used a pre-/ post-intervention evaluation of female sex workers from 4 different socioeconomic settings at baseline (n = 211) and at 6-month follow-up (n = 216).] Evaluators identified several barriers to use of the female condom.
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PULSE POLL
Journalists must find ways of working with, instead of competing against, citizens reporting the news through their video/mobile phone cameras and blogs.
[For context, please see The Drum Beat 341]
Do you agree or disagree?
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12.Computer Games 'Can Help Children Learn'
by Lucy Ward
In this article from the United Kingdom's "The Guardian," Lucy Ward describes a group of advocates who believe that computer games should be incorporated into school curricula with as much focus as books and films. Academics and others who support the use of computer games for learning believe that "game literacy" is "a way of investigating how games are means of expression and representation, just like writing or drawing." Further, games "deserve critical analysis" in schools. They suggest that public antagonism towards computer games is a "fear of new media."
13.Problems in Measuring the Impact of Humanitarian Interventions
by Charles-Antoine Hofmann, Les Roberts, Jeremy Shoham & Paul Harvey
According to this article, a report from the Overseas Development Institute investigates the current situation with regard to measuring and analysing the impact of humanitarian assistance, with a particular focus on the health and food security/nutrition sectors. According to the report, while there are methodological and practical difficulties involved in gathering data in the environment of complex emergencies, donors and humanitarian agencies can do much more to measure what they achieve. The report notes:
- Agencies often make bold assertions of impact on the basis of limited evidence: most recently, the unsubstantiated claim that food aid saved millions of lives in southern Africa during 2002 to 2003.
- The literature on impact assessment and evaluation presumes a predetermined role for international actors: there is little assessment of the impact of local preparedness and response.
- In many humanitarian organisations there is defensive behaviour and a culture of blame: short-term funding mechanisms dictate against a learning environment for field staff, staff turnover rates are high, training is not linked to learning, and mechanisms for cross-organisational learning are poor.
14.Advocating for HIV Vaccines: A Communications Framework
by César Bazán
This article focuses on developing a communications framework for HIV vaccine trials. Based on the experience of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), responses to an international web-based survey pointed out: critical socio-cultural differences regarding HIV vaccine trials across 4 regions (Africa and Asia, the Caribbean, South America and USA) that are not addressed by the HVTN; the need to promote stronger debate about HIV vaccines in order to secure political support and participation of volunteers; and the need to strengthen the voice of community representatives to fuel community ownership and collective action. From a communication for development perspective, "the most appropriate paradigm to revise this project is multiplicity, based on the principle that each society must define development for itself to find its own strategy. Accordingly, community education on HIV vaccines is linked to Freire's idea of empowerment through education, where people are responsible of their own learning process and not merely empty recipients filled out by the knowledge of experts who are alien to their communities."
LINKS: COALITIONS
15.Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)
A global network that disseminates information about child rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
16.International Land Coalition (ILC)
A global alliance of intergovernmental, governmental, and civil society organisations working to help economically poor people in rural areas secure access to natural resources and participate in policy and decision-making processes that affect their livelihoods.
17.ICT DevLibrary
Intended for policy makers and practitioners in developing countries worldwide, this is a searchable collection of information and communication technology (ICT) for development reports and documents.
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