"This book includes 17 articles on the current state of communication for development from renowned communication practitioners and scholars. It covers five areas: an introduction to the relationship between development, participation and communication; the theoretical underpinnings of development c
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ommunication; the development communication strategies of international institutions like UNESCO, FAO and UNICEF; concrete experiences in HIV/AIDS communication and the concepts behind; and case studies on community media and media projects in conflict areas. The special value of this book is that the project examples are not just presented in a descriptive manner, but analyzed in detail according to the underlying communication concepts. In addition, various contributions trace the history of participatory communication approaches to development. This is a revised and updated version of a 2003 UNESCO publication called Approaches to Development: Studies on Communication for Development." (CAMECO Update 4-2008)
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"The history of development communication in media studies is marked by conceptual struggles and complexities that have advanced both theory and practice while leaving a number of conflicts unresolved. These struggles and complexities are not unique to development communication but parallel similar
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issues in the larger field of media studies, as well. Early modernization theories followed by the Latin American critique and subsequent rise of participatory communication reflect many of the same concerns that emerged from the effects tradition challenged by critical theorists and leading to both political economic and cultural studies orientations. Issues regarding individual–psychological versus cultural–contextual orientations, quantitative versus qualitative methods, and value-free versus power-laden positions have marked the conceptual advancements of both development communication and media studies. Moreover, criticisms of linear, transmission models of communication have created greater sensitivity to process, meaning centered conceptualizations of the relationship between media and society. While these struggles and contributions have reshaped communication methods, theories, and practices, the future direction of research continues to be debated." (Pages 65-66)
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"The essays collected here capture the richness of current discourse about democracy and cyberspace. Some contributors offer front-line perspectives on the impact of emerging technologies on politics, journalism, and civic experience. What happens, for example, when we increase access to information
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or expand the arena of free speech? Other contributors place our shifting understanding of citizenship in historical context, suggesting that notions of cyber-democracy and online community must grow out of older models of civic life. Still others consider the global flow of information and test our American conceptions of cyber-democracy against developments in other parts of the world. How, for example, do new media operate in Castro's Cuba, in post-apartheid South Africa, and in the context of multicultural debates on the Pacific Rim? For some contributors, the new technologies endanger our political culture; for others, they promise civic renewal." (Publisher description)
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"This book looks at the political economy of communication and information, media in development and social change, media theory and practice, international communication technology and communication values and ethics." (Publisher description)
"Reporteros populares (people's reporters) have emerged in a number of Latin Amer ican countries as a fruitful means of incorporating grass-roots participation into media devel opment practices. Scholars have documented and described a number of people's reporters projects, yet few have explained ho
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w participation is constructed and enacted in any theoret ically systematic way. This article reviews the limited work on people's reporters from Latin America, proposes a theoretical template for systematically analyzing participatory practice, and applies the template to data collected in the Bolivian highlands in 1993. Data for this study were collected using ethnographic field methods over a five-week period at Radio Pío XII in Bolivia. Recommendations are included for development practitioners interested in incorporating participatory aspects into their media projects." (Abstract)
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