"This DFID-funded book offers a literature review of sources that have provided insights on research dissemination both in and outside the UK. They conclude that researchers should consider the potential impact of their outputs much more carefully before producing reports. They identify organisation
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al, practical and psychological barriers to the effective dissemination of information and four explanations of how information influences policy: the 'rational' model (making information available sufficient); the limestone model (information trickles like water through porous rock); the gadfly model (information gets through because dissemination is prioritised as much as research itself); and insider model (researchers exploit links with policy-makers). While they found that non-UK researchers planned a strategy for disseminating information, the UK researchers produced lengthy outputs for a homogenised audience with little strategy for influencing. There should be more consultation between information producers and users of research on the types of outputs and strategies required for dissemination. They argue for (and give examples of) the need for dissemination plans, designing different kinds of outputs for different audiences and considering dissemination from the beginning of a project rather than the end. Their very varied case studies illustrate which dissemination strategies work in which contexts, ranging from very practical advice about translating research outputs into local languages, to more abstract principles about how dissemination can be useful if seen as a process of mutual learning. They also offer specific suggestions to contractors and DFID, as well as useful checklists of questions for researchers about planning effective dissemination, plus advantages and disadvantages of different dissemination 'pathways' (e.g. manuals, networks and briefs etc.)." (ODI website)
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"As such, support for media is an important prong of U.S. democracy and governance assistance. USAID’s objective of the increased development of a politically active civil society provides a strategic rationale for mediarelated activities. In addition, a desired result of an enhanced free flow of
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information broadly states the Agency's target for media activities. [...] The strategic approach presented in this paper offers guidance to USAID missions, rather than any blueprint, for making choices about which media activities might be most appropriate in a given context. In addition to suggesting a goal to guide USAID media programs, the approach provides examples of successful media assistance activities and discusses factors influencing their success." (Introduction, page 1-2)
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"In the pages that follow, the two authors argue that communication for social change is a distinct way of doing communications – and one of the few approaches that can be sustained. Such sustainability is largely due to the fact that ownership of both the message and the medium – the content an
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d the process – resides with the individuals or communities affected. We believe that this approach can help make greater contributions to the pace of development. From this basic assumption we move to questioning “how” and “if” and “where” we might find interesting work and committed individuals to test the effectiveness of this approach. In order to do this work, the Rockefeller Foundation has brought together a group of social activists, academics, filmmakers and journalists, funders, electronic communications experts, service providers and professional communicators. The ideas expressed in this position paper reflect discussions held at two conferences – one at the foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center on Lake Como, in Italy, and the other in the fall of 1998 in Cape Town, South Africa." (Introduction)
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"Through accounts and analysis of specific projects across four continents, the authors show how communication has been used to mobilize societies, to facilitate democratic participation, and to help people acquire new knowledge and skills. The book focuses on community radio and video, and health c
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ommunication, with major sections on projects in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines. Colin Fraser was one of the founders of the FAO communication section. Sonia Restrepo-Estrada has worked for a long time as a communication specialist for UNICEF in matters of health, nutrition and women's and children's rights." (InteRadio 1/98; Media Development 2/99)
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"Many women and men professionally engaged in advertising do have sensitive consciences, high ethical standards and a strong sense of responsibility. But even for them external pressures — from the clients who commission their work as well as from the competitive internal dynamics of their profess
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ion — can create powerful inducements to unethical behavior. That underlines the need for external structures and systems to support and encourage responsible practice in advertising and to discourage the irresponsible. Voluntary ethical codes are one such source of support. These already exist in a number of places. Welcome as they are, though, they are only as effective as the willingness of advertisers to comply strictly with them. "It is up to the directors and managers of the media which carry advertising to make known to the public, to subscribe to and to apply the codes of professional ethics which already have been opportunely established so as to have the cooperation of the public in making these codes still better and in enforcing their observance." We emphasize the importance of public involvement. Representatives of the public should participate in the formulation, application and periodic updating of ethical codes. The public representatives should include ethicists and church people, as well as representatives of consumer groups. Individuals do well to organize themselves into such groups in order to protect their interests in relation to commercial interests." (Conclusion, page 20)
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"There are no neat prescriptions for nurturing a free press in a society that has little or no democratic legacy. Every step is a first step and there are no well-worn paths or time-honored institutions. There have been obvious successes in Albania. The technical and material aid to the newspapers h
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as propelled production practices from the 1940's into the 1990's in only a few short years. Broadcasting, while still laboring under the yoke of government ownership, is changing due to cultural and political influences from abroad, and aid programs have put the building blocks in place to offer alternatives to government programming when and if laws allow. But technical successes are only part of the recipe for building a free and independent media. Albania's most potent legacy is one of totalitarian rule, and without a great deal of political maturation, the aid given to the media could easily be turned into a tool for exploiting the seamy and the sensational. Or worse; the underdog free press could become the lapdog of yet another repressive regime." (Conclusion)
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"The Oxford-based Central and East European Publishing Project was a remarkable initiative to support embattled Central and East European publishers and journals, and to punch holes through the cultural iron curtain by encouraging translations and a 'common market of the mind' between East and West.
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The nine years of its existence straddle the largest watershed in European history since 1945, and the Project's history – told here by some of its leading participants – illuminates the nature of the recent changes in Central and Eastern Europe." (Publisher description)
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"Communication for development programmes do not feature as a priority theme for most of the agencies, with the exception of UNESCO, UNICEF and FAO. UNICEF considers communication for development programmes as a priority. They have communication officers in almost all their field offices, most of th
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em with very substantial programmes. The most significant lacuna in the development machinery of the United Nations system is that the UNDP modalities of project execution do not provide scope for a communication dimension. There is, however, awareness and concern among United Nations agencies, universities, multilateral agencies and NGOs about the need for effective communication structures for attaining the desired objectives of development and humanitarian assistance programmes." (Executive summary, page v-vi)
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