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Radio, Politics and Trust in Afghanistan: A Social History of Broadcasting

Andrew Skuse

International Communication Gazette, volume 64, issue 3 (2016), pp. 267-279

"This article examines the sociohistorical role of radio broadcasting in Afghanistan and analyses the interplay between the radio choices of the audience, political change and conflict. Though never explicitly trusted as a credible information source, the popularity of national radio in Afghanistan ... more

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Communication and Complex Emergencies: A Resource Guide

Andrew Skuse, Tait Brimacombe, Dianne Rodger

Adelaide: Applied Communication Collaborative Research Unit (ACCRU) University of Adelaide; Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC) (2015), 57 pp.

"This resource guide assesses the broad role of information and communication in disaster situations and complex emergencies. It highlights a number of distinct communication phases or cycles associated with emergency or crisis communication, as well as defining the broad range and diversity of init ... more

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Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit (CHAT)
Key Guidance

Andrew Skuse et al.

Adelaide; New York: Applied Communication Collaborative Research Unit (ACCRU) University of Adelaide; UNICEF, working version (2015), 67 pp.

"Welcome to the Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit, CHAT. It has been designed with practitioners in mind and is a resource that you can work with and adapt as you strive towards your communication for humanitarian action goals. The toolkit provides guidance to humanitarian and developmen ... more

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Communication for Development Interventions in Fragile States: A Systematic Review

Andrew Skuse, Dianne Rodger, Gerry Power, Domenic Friguglietti, Tait Brimacombe

JBI Database of Systematic Reviews & Implementation Reports (2013), 190 pp.

"This review identifies that while different initiatives can be pursued in different conflict situations, their direction and content needs to be driven by a close understanding of context, which in turn is driven by a range of influencing factors (contextual and programmatic), which in turn reflect ... more

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Social Networking, Social Media and Complex Emergencies: An Annotated Bibliography

Andrew Skuse, Tait Brimacombe

Adelaide: Applied Communication Collaborative Research Unit (ACCRU) University of Adelaide; Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC) (2013), 70 pp.

"This annotated bibliography compiles both peer-reviewed literature, typically sourced from academic journals, as well as a range of opinion and technical resources drawn from agencies that have a humanitarian mandate. It is important to note that this annotated bibliography does not seek to present ... more

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Communication for Development and Emergencies: A Review of Existing Approaches and Tools

Andrew Skuse

Adelaide: University of Adelaide; UNICEF (2013), 19 pp.

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Communication for Development Interventions in Fragile States: A Systematic Review. Summary Version

Andrew Skuse, Dianne Rodger, Gerry Power, Domenic Friguglietti, Tait Brimacombe

Adelaide: Applied Communication Collaborative Research Unit (ACCRU) University of Adelaide (2012), 39 pp.

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Designs, Devices and Development: Audience Research as Creative Resource in the Making of an Afghan Radio Drama

Andrew Skuse, Marie Gillespie

Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, volume 8, issue 1 (2011), pp. 132-153

"This essay analyses the role of audience research as a change agent in media development interventions in Afghanistan. It analyses how audience research in transnational contexts involves a complex set of intercultural negotiations and translations that contribute to the enduring relevance and sust ... ainability of the highly popular Afghan radio soap opera New Home, New Life. This is a ‘development drama’ that has been broadcast across Afghanistan since 1993. It is based on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers and produced by BBC Afghan Education Projects (BBC AEP). Audience research has been vital to forging a dynamic relationship between the creative teams who make the drama, the donors who pay for it, and the audiences who consume it. The article addresses three broad themes. First, we outline how data gathered in formative audience research, prior to the creation of the drama, provides the creative team with the dramatic raw material for the radio serial. The extensive qualitative data gathered by Afghan researchers in local milieux is translated so as to enable culturally diverse teams of writers and producers to ground the serial narratives in the lived experiences of its audiences, and to introduce multiple local perspectives on development issues. Second, we show how evaluative audience research, data gathered in the postproduction phase, plays a key role in providing critical audience interpretations of New Home, New Life’s dramatic themes. In so doing, it creates feedback loops that allow audiences to become active participants in the ongoing creation of the drama. The research designs and devices, developed over the last two decades to document the changing life-worlds of Afghan citizens-cum-audiences, are part of an ongoing set of transcultural encounters that contribute to strengthening the social realist appeal of the drama and to calibrating how far any given storyline can be pushed in terms of cultural propriety. Third, we examine how during periods of military conflict, when routine audience research becomes dangerous or impossible and audience feedback loops are disrupted, the writers and producers have to rely on their own personal and political experiences, often with unpredictable ideological consequences. We draw attention to the limitations and challenges of making dramas for development in highly charged politicised and postcolonial contexts. While, development dramas may be a cheap and effective way of dealing with certain informational needs, such as landmine awareness, they cannot redress social and structural inequalities or, as Western donors wish, eradicate opium cultivation." (Abstract) more

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Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS): Pacific Media Benchmarks (2005)

Andrew Skuse

Melbourne; Adelaide: Australian Aid (AusAID); Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC); University of Adelaide (2011), 87 pp.

"This study draws together two bodies of work concerned with media pluralism, effectiveness, development and strengthening in the developing world. One is drawn from UNESCO’s global work on media assessment and impact indicators, the other from AusAID’s Pacific Media and Communications Facility ... more

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AusAID Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS), AidWorks Initiative No: INJ270: Journalism Training Study

Andrew Skuse

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) (2011), 21 pp.

External Link (15)

Google Scholar (11)

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Radio Sound and Social Realism: In the Terrain of Drama for Development Production

Andrew Skuse

International Communication Gazette, volume 73, issue 7 (2011), pp. 595-609

"This article explores the use of sound in the context of two BBC World Service development-focused social realist radio drama productions in Afghanistan (New Home, New Life) and Nepal (Sweet Tales of the Sarangi). It examines the various ‘sound strategies' employed to enhance the realist aspirati ... more

Google Scholar (13)

WorldCat (12)

Drama for Development: Cultural Translation and Social Change
Inspiring Practice

Andrew Skuse, Marie Gillespie, Gerry Power (eds.)

Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage (2011), xxiii, 324 pp.

"By assessing edutainment as a space of cultural translation, Drama for Development advances an often neglected perspective in this topics' research. It focuses on what happens when various goals, worldviews and needs from donors, producers and the audiences come together in the production and meani ... more

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Poverty and Digital Inclusion: Preliminary Findings of Finding a Voice Project

Andrew Skuse, Joann Fildes, Jo Tacchi, Kirsty Martin, Emma Baulch

New Delhi: UNESCO (2007), 48 pp.

"This paper presents preliminary findings from a multi-sited qualitative study of poverty and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in India, Indonesia Sri Lanka and Nepal. It draws upon data gathered by 12 ethnographic action researchers working across 15 community ICT initiatives. Thes ... more

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Voices of Change: Strategic Radio Support for Achieving the Millenium Development Goals
Key Guidance

Andrew Skuse

London: Department for International Development (DFID) (2006), 28 pp.

"Highlights the relevance of radio in poor communities, its broad applicability to a range of sectoral activities such as health, rights, education, livelihoods, and conflict prevention, and identifies the need to deepen the capacity of radio broadcasters at all levels to conduct effective monitorin ... more

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Local Information Networks: Social and Technological Considerations

Seema Nair, Megan Jennaway, Andrew Skuse

New Delhi: UNESCO (2006), 82 pp.

"This publication aims at understanding the nature and importance of various configurations of social and technological networks in community settings that combine to form a Local Information Networks (LIN). In this study LINs are conceptualised as comprising of two very different elements: one soci ... al, the other technological. Disaggregating the social and technological dimensions of local information networks helps us to understand how they work in practice and how they might be strengthened to bring greater social and economic benefits to the poor communities in which they are located. Hence, in both a practical and theoretical sense, a local information network can be thought of as a larger living field of social connections and communicative that determines the nature of information flow. On the technological side, the ICTs respond to specific local information needs expressed by recipient communities. On the social side, the combination of technological and human capacities embodied in a given intervention is superimposed upon a pre-existing field of social relationships. The three initiatives have been selected for the ways in which they demonstrate the use of social and technological elements within the local environment. Namma Dhwani and Nabanna were established through UNESCO’s Information and Communication Technologies for Poverty Reduction project, developed under UNESCO’s crosscutting theme on the eradication of poverty, especially extreme poverty. Akshaya on the other hand, is a State Government of Kerala initiative aimed at ICT literacy. The study concludes with the understanding that the technical dimensions of communication can never be fully divorced from the social if ICTs are to genuinely reach the poor with the information they need. Investment in social networks is critical since traditional forms of communication like word-of-mouth remains the most powerful, intimate and effective form of communication available to the very poor. The study also highlights the importance of local content production and the need to involve communities in the content creation process as key to achieving success is the quality, reliability and relevance of the information communicated." (Foreword) more

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AIDS Communication

Andrew Skuse

London: Information and Communication for Development (ICD) Department for International Development (DFID) (2005), 36 pp.

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Radio Broadcasting for Health: A Decision Maker's Guide

Andrew Skuse

Nadia Butler (collab.)

London: Information and Communication for Development (ICD) Department for International Development (DFID) (2004), 48 pp.

"This paper provides an overview of the role radio broadcasting can play in promoting better health for poor people. It has been conceptualised within the context of global efforts to reduce the burden of disease and ill health on poor people and advocates a people-centred and rights-based approach ... more

Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit (CHAT) Key Guidance

Drama for Development: Cultural Translation and Social Change Inspiring Practice

Voices of Change: Strategic Radio Support for Achieving the Millenium Development Goals Key Guidance

Communication for Humanitarian Action Toolkit (CHAT)
Key Guidance

Drama for Development: Cultural Translation and Social Change
Inspiring Practice

Voices of Change: Strategic Radio Support for Achieving the Millenium Development Goals
Key Guidance