"Initial growth in Internet use in the 1990s resulted in many digital pioneers viewing new information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a means to radically empower people through new global connections and extensive social capital. This has extended into an interest in exploring how ICTs ca...n contribute to international development, and particularly in the field of ICT for development (ICT4D). Evidence from the minority and majority worlds has tempered some of this initial enthusiasm and visions of technological determinism. This article is structured around a piece of coproduced writing to reflect on a project in a deprived neighbourhood in Edinburgh, Scotland, to empower a community through new technology and digital art. The approach involved social history in the form of an archive of images of the neighbourhood, a blog and Facebook page, and a range of physical outputs including social history walking guides and a digital totem pole. The article sets the coproduced paper in the broader literature on ICTs in community development to draw out lessons on the challenges and also the strengths of using novel methods to engage communities. While ICTs cannot develop extensive social capital within deprived neighbourhoods, it was clear that they can offer low-cost ways for institutional social capital to be developed improving partnership working." (Abstract)
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"The thesis investigates community radio as a tool for development drawing on case studies of Nkhotakota and Mzimba community radio stations in Malawi. The thesis employs communication for development and ‘another’ development theories to help understand the role of community radio in developmen...t. The research aims are firstly, to investigate the extent and ways in which community radio is used as a tool for development through audience participation; and secondly to examine the extent to which communication for development in community radio in Malawi takes the form of participatory communication. Using the case study approach (Yin, 2009), the thesis specifically examines the functions of participation in development through community radio; whether community radio can encourage development through enhancing capabilities and participation even when people do not own and manage the stations; how radio listening Clubs (RLCs) help to expand people’s capabilities; and how the programming of community radio in Malawi is influenced by the agendas of development agencies. Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of participation and Carpentier’s (2011) minimalist and maximalist versions of participation are adopted as criteria for evaluating the different levels of participation in and through community radio." (Abstract)
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"The authors outline the topic of visuality in the 21st century in a trans- and interdisciplinary theoretical frame from philosophy through communication theory, rhetoric and linguistics to pedagogy. As some scholars of visual communication state, there is a significant link between the downgrading ...of visual sense making and a dominantly linguistic view of cognition. According to the concept of linguistic turn, everything has its meaning because we attribute meaning to it through language. Our entire world is set in language, and language is the model of human activities. This volume questions the approach in the imagery debate." (Back cover)
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"Der Band bietet vielfältige Einblicke in die aktuelle kommunikationswissenschaftliche Rezeptions- und Wirkungsforschung rund um das Thema Nachhaltigkeit. Die Beiträge beschäftigen sich etwa damit, wie die Thematik in den (sozialen) Medien verhandelt wird, wie sich verschiedene Botschafts- und Ko...ntextmerkmale auf nachhaltiges Verhalten auswirken oder auch welche Rolle etablierte und ‚neue‘ Akteurinnen und Akteure – wie Influencerinnen und Influencer oder die eigenen Social-Media-Kontakte – für die Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation spielen." (Verlag)
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"Comprised of 31 chapters authored by some of the world's leading experts in their respective fields, the book's contributors synthesize existing literature, introduce the historical and conceptual dimensions of the field, illustrate innovative methodologies and techniques, survey traditional and ne...w technologies, reflect on ethics and moral imperatives, outline ways to work with people, objects, and tools, and shape the future agenda of the field. With a particular focus on making ethnographic film and video, as opposed to analysing or critiquing it, from a variety of methodological approaches and styles, the handbook provides both a comprehensive introduction and up-to-date survey of the field for a vast variety of audio-visual researchers, such as scholars and students in sociology, anthropology, geography, communication and media studies, education, cultural studies, film studies, visual arts and related social science and humanities. As such, it will appeal to a multidisciplinary and international audience, and features a dynamic, forward-thinking, innovative, and contemporary focus oriented toward the very latest developments in the field, as well as future possibilities." (Publisher)
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"A Tactical Guide to Science Journalism is a compendium of advice, insights, and lessons about how to do excellent and thoughtful science journalism from some of the best science journalists working today. With chapters from more than 40 leading practitioners from around the world, representing publ...ications from the New Yorker to the BBC, Science magazine to the New York Times, the book includes sections on storytelling craft and basics, investigative reporting, digital media, international journalism, and specialty beats, ranging from infectious disease to cyberterrorism." (Publisher)
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"The purpose of the Media for Democracy Assessment Tool (MAT) is to assist United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in producing media assessments to inform strategy on media and democracy programming, help inform potential media development programming goals, and help provide an i...nformed understanding of where USAID investment is most feasible and needed and will have the best chances for impact. The MAT provides a standardized methodology to answer the key question: How do media connect to democracy and how can media support democracy promotion and civic space?" (Introduction, p.6)
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