This book provides theoretical and empirical information related to the planning and execution of IT projects aimed at serving indigenous people. It explores cultural concerns with IT implementation, including language issues & questions of cultural appropriateness

Knowledge Workers in the Information Society addresses the changing nature of work, workers, and their organizations in the media, information, and knowledge industries. These knowledge workers include journalists, broadcasters, librarians, filmmakers and animators, government workers, and employees in the telecommunications and high tech sectors. Technological change has become relentless. Corporate concentration has created new pressures to rationalize work and eliminate stages in the labour process. Globalization and advances in telecommunications have made real the prospect that knowledge work will follow manufacturing labour to parts of the world with low wages, poor working conditions, and little unionization.

The impact of access on development and social justice Affordable,
fast and easy access to the internet can help create more egalitarian
societies. It can strengthen educational and health services, local business,
public participation, access to information, good governance and
poverty eradication. But we should not assume that all technological
innovation is automatically beneficial.

 APC Internet Rights Charter.PDF

El impacto del acceso sobre el desarrollo y la justicia social Un acceso
asequible, rápido y fácil a internet puede ayudar a generar sociedades más
igualitarias. Puede servir para fortalecer los servicios de educación y salud, el
desarrollo económico local, la participación pública, el acceso a la información,
la buena gobernanza y la erradicación de la pobreza. Pero no habría que
dar por sentado que la innovación tecnológica genera un beneficio automático.

 Carta de APC sobre derechos en Internet.PDF

L’impact de l’accès sur le développement et la justice sociale L’accès
abordable, rapide et facile à l’internet peut contribuer à créer des sociétés
plus égalitaires. Il peut renforcer les services éducatifs et de santé, les entreprises
locales, la participation citoyenne, l’accès à l’information et la bonne
gouvernance et contribuer à l’éradication de la pauvreté. Mais il ne faut pas
tenir pour acquis que toutes les innovations technologiques sont automatiquement
bénéfiques

Charte des droits de l'Internet d'APC.PDF

Equitable access to information is one of the most vital principles in the emerging global information economy, and there is perhaps no region of the world that epitomizes the conflict between the information haves and have-nots than Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In addition to the more traditional forms of poverty, a new concept, "information poverty," has emerged that better explains the true nature of being a have-not in a world increasingly reliant on information and communication technologies (ICT). This article will take a holistic approach in discussing possible first steps towards evaluating user needs in SAA, exploring the need for information professionals from industrialized nations to take a more active role in international collaboration to help combat information poverty in the developing world. This article will also examine efforts in developing countries to help bridge the digital divide with the industrialized world. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

UNESCO places a high value on mutual understanding, tolerance and a respect for the rights of individuals to a cultural identity and self-determination. Through its project "ICT for Intercultural Dialogue: Developing communication capacities of indigenous peoples" (ICT4ID) UNESCO aims to foster the creation and dissemination of local content reflecting the values of indigenous peoples’ communities and cultures.

Nineteen papers examine the driving forces affecting the supply of and demand for information and communication technologies (ICT). Papers discuss telecommunications infrastructure and economic growth--a cross-country analysis (Maximo Torero, Shyamal K. Chowdhury, and Arjun S. Bedi); institutional and public policy aspects of ICT infrastructure provision (Torero and Joachim von Braun); telecommunications privatization in Peru (Torero); public-private partnership initiated by aid in Laos (Gi-Soon Song); leadership from nongovernmental organizations in Bangladesh (Chowdhury and Abdul Bayes); competition without privatization in China (Wensheng Wang); institutional trends and infrastructural developments in telecommunications in sub-Saharan Africa--the case of Ghana (Romeo Bertolini); the economic effects of ICT at firm levels (Song and Dietrich Mueller-Falcke); the impact of ICT on small enterprises--the case of small-scale industry in India (Mueller-Falcke); whether the use of ICT improves the productivity of small- and medium-sized enterprises in East Africa--the case of Kenya and Tanzania (Francis A. S. T. Matambalya and Susanna Wolf); the impact of telecommunications on rural enterprises in Laos (Bedi and Song); ICT and export performance--the case of garment manufacturing enterprises in India (Kaushalesh Lal); the impacts of ICT on low-income rural households (Torero and von Braun); the impact of public telephones in rural areas in Peru (Virgilio Galdo and Torero); the benefits of rural telecommunications in Laos (Song and Bedi); implications of access to public telephones in rural Bangladesh (Chowdhury); farmers, incomes, and the use of telephones in rural China (Wang); the effects of public telephone services in rural Ghana (Bertolini); and ICT for pro-poor provision of public goods and services--a focus on health (Maja Micevska).

Not Available

In the first section of the book, the author provides a historical background to the evolving nature of the application of communication technology in development. From the early thrust on disseminating messages and information, communication programs have grown to focus on modifying behaviour. Of late, he argues, they have further evolved through the representation of different interest groups concerned with, for example, human rights, conservation, and environmental issues. In Section II, the author presents recent experiences in three important social sectors-literacy, population issues, and rural development (including poverty alleviation). He describes major initiatives to apply communication technologies in the design and implementation of communication strategies in these sectors. In the concluding chapter, the author draws attention to various critical issues and concerns in the context of India's development. He argues that the importance of communication in facilitating social changes is not appreciated sufficiently by policy makers, nor the need to involve local communities in such initiatives. He also draws attention to the deep-seated social norms resulting in economic and social discrimination and a resistance to change.

It has been estimated that over 700 million of the world's poor live in Asia-Pacifiui region i.e., those who earn $1 or less a day. Nearly one of three Asians is poor. It is claimed by multilateral agencies that the incidence of poverty (proportion of people below the poverty line) is slightly declining. Others question this claim and argue that the term poor should cover all those who cannot cope with survival, security, and enabling needs. If one were to apply this comprehensive definition of poverty, the poor certainly account for more than 900 million in this region. The poor experience shortfalls in economic welfare; gaps in access to good quality education and health care; deficiencies in the provision of physical infrastructure; and political barriers that stifle personal initiative and self-development. They are unable to participate in governance, which is necessary for a healthy democracy and peaceful development. The poverty encourages corruption, anti-social activities like drugs, smuggling, prostitution, and all sorts of deviant behavior. Poverty is considered an unacceptable human condition. Moreover, despite the vast advances that are being made in the spheres of science and technology, information and communication technology (ICT), medicine, capital mobility, etc., income disparities are ever widening, both within countries and nations - world's rich and poor nations. The trends in poverty reduction have recently worsened. The population growth in the developing countries is also adding to absolute number of poor. Overcoming poverty therefore remains the single most important challenge facing those involved in the development activities.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are an outcome expression of the global fight against poverty. The outcomes are based on a pro-poor enabling environment, which includes pro-poor economic growth, the delivery of services to the poor, and the responses of the poor in terms of livelihoods. The analysis of the latter can be expressed in terms of market based pro-poor growth, sustainable livelihoods, resource distribution including social assets or a rights based analysis. The fight to fulfil the MDGs is not an MDG by MDG fight or even a sector by sector fight. Poverty is multidimensional, and solutions also have to be multidimensional. This paper focuses on the three key processes that lead to the MDGs. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can enhance these processes. The question for policy makers is no longer whether ICT can be used or not - it can. However, the question is now "should it be used?"

This report aims to answer the following question: do ICTs have a special role in promoting peace? The examples of ICT use in warfare are well-known: propaganda, intelligence, communications and ICT-enabled weapons systems. But can ICTs be used in other ways, by other actors, to diffuse a situation leading to conflict, help end a conflict, or allow the stabilisation of a post-conflict situation?

The author argues that independent information carried by the mass media in every country has a huge role to play in generating awareness among citizens of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will then create the conditions for progress. The United Nations developed the goals, which are the following: (1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development. Journalism provides one important source of information and analysis that helps to shape citizens' perspective on and views on the MDGs. Communication campaigns make an impact across the spectrum from modifying an individual's own behavior to generating popular support and pressure for political change. Meeting the MDGs will require a concerted effort at all levels, from the individual through civil society to national governments and the international community. It is hard to envisage how this mobilization can be achieved without pushing the MDGs much further up the news agenda

The fruits of the information technology sector such as the Internet blue chips, online shopping, and nanosecond e-mail have failed to cure century-old malaises like illiteracy, poverty, and unemployment in India. The paper presents a few facts about the digital divide based on a global and United States perspective, its definition and types as global, regional, and national and societal implications. It highlights India in the context of the digital divide by discussing its infrastructural bottleneck that includes electricity, information technology penetration, tele-density, and Internet industry and its enabling policies to transform India as a knowledge society. It discusses various technology options for connectivity, such as terrestrial wireless, satellite, wire line, and so on and presents snapshots of select successful projects that made an impact in helping to bridge the digital divide in India, such as passenger reservations system, Akashganga, Akshaya e-centers, and the like. It concludes that creation of information and communication technologies infrastructure and content are the core methodologies and a national agenda on a C-8 thrust toward the following: connectivity provision, content creation, capacity augmentation, core technologies creation and exploitation, cost reduction, competence building, community participation, and commitment to the deprived and disadvantaged would definitely help in bridging the digital divide.

Since its publication in October 1980 by UNESCO’s International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, the MacBride Report has spawned heated discussions on issues relating to cross-border media flows, professional norms and ethics, communications technologies, and the role of media in social transformation. In this article, the writer argues that political, economic and cultural transformations in the global arena over the past 15 years have given rise to new realities that seem antithetical to the MacBride legacy of “many voices and one world.” It has been noted that growing U.S. domination of world political and economic developments has had adverse effects on a range of communication issues like diversity, cultural identity, sovereignty and the right to communicate. However, the writer draws on current globalisation literature to argue that while the world seems to be converging on a globalised American-style model of political, cultural and economic evolution, forces of indigenous cultural expressions embedded in non-Western communities will always make a difference in the emerging communication landscape.

This report is part of a series of knowledge products initiated by the Poverty Group, Bureau of Development Policy, UNDP New York to facilitate evidence-based discussion of innovative and emerging policy.

Not Available

In 1997, IDRC launched its Acacia initiative in an effort to empower sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply new information and communication technologies, or ICTs, to their own social and economic development. Now, 7 years later, the Acacia initiative presents this unique and groundbreaking three-volume collection of original research on this important and timely issue.

Volume 1 looks at the introduction, adoption, and utilization of ICTs at the community level. In various contexts – geographical, technological, socioeconomic, cultural, and institutional – the book explores the questions of community participation. It looks at how communities in sub-Saharan Africa have reacted to the changes brought about by the introduction of these new ICTs and, in detail, presents both the opportunities and the challenges that ICTs present for community development. The book will be useful for both researchers and development practitioners active, or just embarking upon, an “ICT for development” program. It will also be a very useful reference tool not only for academics but also for policymakers, decision-makers, and development professionals interested in the issue.

Around the world, citizens in local communities are utilising ICTs to underpin the creation of a participatory and democratic vision of the network society. Embedded in the richness and diversity of community practice, a vision of a 'civil network society' is emerging. A society where ICTs are harnessed as tools to improve the quality of life and reflect the diversity of social networks; where people are viewed as citizens, not just as consumers, and where heterogeneity is perceived as strength rather than a weakness. "Community" "Practice in the Network Society "looks at the broad context in which this is happening, presents case studies of local projects from around the world, and discusses community ICT research methodologies. Not only does it highlight the symbiotic relationship between community ICT practice and research, but it also provides evidence supporting the case for the development of more inclusive and participatory pathways to the network society.

Micro Radio became a lightening rod for the emerging Media Activism and Reform Movement. Like the environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s that focused on specific issues like nuclear power, the Media Activism Movement discovered a significant formative issue in micro radio at the turn of the millennium. This book is a close examination of the struggle over micro radio. Throughout this research micro radio is viewed as a site of social activity, a unique cultural and historical bond where ideas about the relationship between media and democracy are explored. This work is the first to spotlight this emerging social movement and uses critical historical analysis to provide a description of it. The information in this book shows the struggle over micro radio as the most recent manifestation of a growing social movement, a movement of media activism and reform. As local people took to the airwaves, illegally broadcasting the frivolous to the serious, theoretical concepts such as localism and public access suddenly became grounded in a real world radio show. Micro radio broadcasters were able to demonstrate what is left out of most mainstream media. They showed what could happen when a diverse public is allowed to access the most universal telecommunications of the day. This look at micro radio will be valuable to communications students who are interested in the strategies behind media and social movements, alternative media, and news media practices.

Recent theories of communication for development consider the lack of political, economic and cultural power of lower-status sectors as the central problem to be addressed in development. The majority do not have access to the education, technical assistance, good health and housing needed to make a contribution to national development. A deeper issue are the cultural values which see minorities such as women as not capable of making a contribution. Thus, the new movements seek to ‘empower’ themselves by resignifying the meaning of gender, youth, race, ethnicity and region as key actors in the development process and therefore as worthy of access to resources. Empowerment is central to the process of development, but empowerment, it is argued, needs to be located within a broader framework, which sees the goal of development as the cultural and political acceptance of universal human rights. Power must be seen as a source of social responsibility and service. Movements cannot stop at their own empowerment but must gain the respect for the rights of all in the society.

In this book Ernest Wilson provides a clear, nuanced analysis of the major transformations resulting from the global information revolution. He shows that the information revolution is rooted in societal dynamics, political interests, and social structure. Using the innovative Strategic ReStructuring (SRS) model, he uncovers links between the big changes taking place around the world and the local initiatives of individual information activists, especially in developing countries. Indeed, Wilson shows that many of the structural changes of the information revolution, such as shifts from public to private ownership or from monopoly to competition, are driven by activists struggling individually and collectively to overcome local apathy and entrenched opposition to reform.

Wilson applies his SRS model to the politics of Internet expansion in Brazil, China, and Ghana to illustrate the real-world challenges facing policy-makers and practitioners. Examples of such challenges include starting Internet companies, reforming regulatory laws, and formulating NGO strategies for dealing with the digital divide. Wilson identifies the tremendous possibilities for innovation and advancement in developing countries while acknowledging the structural, institutional, and cultural constraints that work against their realization.

The role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in poverty alleviation is discussed based largely on what has happened in the past six years in a cluster of ten villages in Pondicherry, Southern India through the intervention of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai. If intelligently used, ICTs can make a difference to the lives of people. The article concludes with a set of recommendations and action points for governments in developing countries, donor agencies and non-governmental organizations involved in implementing micro level poverty alleviation programmes.

This article describes two enthnographic research projects-one in Australia and one in South Asia. These projects stand apart from more traditional ethnographies in the way in which they combine ethnography with action research; they are, in effect, applied ethnographic research. The first project is a UNESCO initiative that uses information and communication technologies in creative and innovative ways to reduce poverty in nine locations across South Asia. The second enables groups of young people from Queensland to become part of a network of active content creators for a streamling audio Website. Both projects reflect an interest in examining the changing processes and applications of creativity, production, and consumption and the desire to gain deeper understandings of what roles new technologies play in all of this. The research attempts to develop answers to some very basic questions about the implications of new technologies on the everyday lives of a wide range of people and the implications of the everyday lives of those people on the uses and potential uses of new technologies.

Not Available

This multi-author English compendium offers interesting insights and examples to prove that the field of communication for development is still alive and kicking. In essence development communication is the sharing of knowledge aimed at reaching a consensus for action that takes into account the interests, needs and capacities of all concerned.

International and Development Communication: A 21st Century Perspective examines the exciting field of international and development communication and illustrates how this field of study is composed and how it has grown. Derived from the successful Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication, Second Edition, this book opens with an updated and expanded introduction by Bella Mody, showcasing the effects of globalization, and contains those chapters from the Handbook that deal with international and development communication. International and Development Communication provides a historical perspective and a contemporary analysis of the field of international communication and its application to development communication. The book examines how communication media and telecommunications are considered central to globalization and to national development, and discusses globalization in history, the role of media, changes in structural biases of media and telecommunication institutions, national forces of capitalism, and biases in international and development communication messages. The book, divided into two parts, revolves around media institutions and the conditions under which they have been used by the state and private capital. Part One covers international communication and presents the thinking of several well-known authors from areas such as South Asia, East Asia, Europe, and North America. Part Two focuses on development communication applications by various active researchers and professors, drawn from Latin America, South Asia, and North America. With contributions from experts in the field, each part of the book begins with a chapter on theories and closes with one on issues. Chapters within each part examine the distinct and broadly recognized topics of research within each area, such as media corporations in the age of globalization, transnational advertising, the global-local dialectic and polysemic effects, development communication campaigns, communication technology and development, and international development communication.

Not Available

This paper attempts to analyze the significance of the right to communicate as a basic human right and the factors that deprive the vast majority of Indians of this right on the 'global village green'. The study reveals that while liberalization and globalization have aggravated the communicational inequality between the developed and the developing countries, the denial of access to the new communication media tends to stifle popular participation in public debate. The incorporation of such a right as a fundamental right of the citizens would make it justiciable and ensure the citizens' participation in the public sphere for democratic deliberation.

This Second Edition illustrates how the field is composed and looks at how it has grown. The four parts examine cross-cultural communication; intercultural communication; international communication; and development communication. Each part begins with a chapter on theories and closes with one on issues. This Edition is thoroughly revised and reorganized with expanded coverage of international, development, and cross-cultural communication and new chapters.

Thoroughly revised and updated, this Student Edition of the successful Handbook of New Media has been abridged to showcase the best of the hardback edition. This Handbook sets out boundaries of new media research and scholarship and provides a definitive statement of the current state-of-the-art of the field. Covering major problem areas of research, the Handbook of New Media includes an introductory essay by the editors and a concluding essay by Ron Rice. Each chapter, written by an internationally renowned scholar, provides a review of the most significant social research findings and insights. This new Student Edition: Incorporates a reorganized format into three clearly-defined sections (culture and society; systems, design and industries; and institutions and governance) to make the material more accessible for students and easier to incorporate into course design Provides updated chapters to combine classic studies and background material with latest developments in the field since the first edition appeared in 2002 Offers a new introduction by the editors to clearly lay out several main themes in new media studies and distinguish the field from and relative to mass media research, as well as providing instructors a guide for ‘how to use the Handbook' in courses. Includes re-titled chapters to reflect their central focus or topic and help students and instructors frame the diversity of material in the book The First Edition of the Handbook immediately established itself as the central reference work in the field. This new revised edition offers students the most comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the area.

Often funding agencies and donor governments face the question should they support information and communication technology (ICT) activities in their development projects. Should the money be invested in computers and communication devices or will it be better spent on food, shelter, health and education? The choice need not be ‘either/or’. If used intelligently and innovatively, ICTs can form an integral component of developmental projects, as is shown by the award-winning Information Village project of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. The important point to remember is that one does not have to use technology because it is there, but one uses it if there is a genuine advantage. In any developmental programme, people and their contexts should decide how one goes about implementing developmental interventions. The needs of the people and the best means to satisfy them should determine the whole programme. Often ICT-based developmental projects do not bring in the expected results because of undue emphasis placed on technology. Against this background, the factors that led to the success of the Pondicherry experience are analysed.

The authors examine the co-evolution of information/communication technologies and communication rights, with emphasis on the right to communicate. They focus attention on several communication modalities and the related social and organizational developments, including: bi-directional, interpersonal communication telephony; unidirectional mass media; and the bi-directional, many-to-many communication supported by the newer broadband technologies. In this context, they describe three generations of human rights: civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; and the emerging collective rights, as exemplified by the right to communicate.

This Second Edition of Communication for Development in the Third World builds on the framework provided by the earlier edition. However, this edition is organized conceptually where the first edition was organized historically. It is updated to include the literature on development and communications from the 1990s and integrate it with the theory and practice of development communication. Praise for the First Edition: `The book's worthiness as an excellent decade-by-decade analysis of the theory and practice of DC by a Third World scholar who has not only learnt about problems of development from books but has experienced them. No school is better than the school of life. The book is an excellent study' - Media Development

This text aims to highlight Paolo Freire's influence on both the theory and practice of communications for development. It focuses on Freire's pedagogy and its implications for emancipation through learning.

This volume is written from the authors' personal experiences in conflict intervention. Using a communication perspective, the authors examine methods of private mediation, small group facilitation, system design, large-scale interventions, and public issue management. They offer encouragement for a world seemingly overwhelmed by conflict and present an expanded and pragmatic definition of peace. The authors discuss numerous methods and principles in conflict resolution, including transformative mediation, the team mediation system, assessment and evaluation, systemic design, gaming methodology, issue framing and public deliberation, study circles, and dialogue groups. They also describe their own innovative approaches adapted from these methods.

Governments sometimes seem to forget that information and communication technologies may not only have a direct impact on the economic development, but also on the political organization, and socio-cultural value system of a society. Many policy-makers seem to assume that technical and economic progress is simply a means to an end and that it hardly affects the culture in which it occurs. It seems as if they believe that they can achieve Western-style progress while at the same time retain the essential parts of their culture. This book takes a closer look at the other side of the information highway. It wants to find out what is happening on and around the dirt roads. It does so by looking at the problems of communication, culture and development from different perspectives: historical and futuristic, theoretical and applied, institutional and organizational, strategic and methodological. Global and local, globalization and localisation, are terms which could be used to characterize the processes of growing interconnection and interdependence in the contemporary world. It is generated by growing international economic, cultural and political cooperation and links, as well as by the need to respond together to complex problems which can be solved only on a planetary scale. The world is "shrinking" as a result of increased human mobility, and the increasing contacts between the world’s people, possibly with the aid of cheap and speedy travel, the telephone, fax and the Internet. Barriers have been eased with the reduction in trade barriers, the expansion of capital flow and the transfer of technology. However, we lack insights into how the processes of cultural globalization and localisation actually operate in locally defined public spheres. We consequently also lack insights into how the global is linked to the local and how new perceptions of the global and the local lead to adjusted (cultural) identities. These are the issues which the 12 contributing authors of this book are trying to get a grip on.

This article discusses the impact of multilateral trade negotiations, particularly trade in goods and services and its consequences for communications futures in India. It argues that the neo-liberal policies espoused by the World Trade Organization have begun to shape domestic practices and inform attitudes to communications priorities. The article specifically highlights issues related to intellectual property and charts the travails and dilemmas of local communications industries as they respond to liberalization in every communications sector, inclusive of information technology, broadcasting, film and the press. It also grapples with issues related to media imperialism, and suggests that despite new opportunities to reverse one-way flows, the systemic and systematic incorporation of countries like India into the circuits of globalization inevitably leads to them becoming mere appendages of transnational powers. The article implicitly takes the position that people's expressions in support of the right to communication are fundamentally important to stemming the flow of a rampant neo-liberalism, with its accents on quantity, technological rationality and privatized futures.

The current digital revolution, the fourth information revolution in history after the invention of writing, the book and printing, has serious potential to exacerbate the gulf between the North and the South. As has been observed in the USA, even within an affluent country, with inadequate policy interventions, information technology not only widens the digital divide but also deepens the racial ravine. The implications of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) for science and scholarship and for development are examined. The maldistribution of access to ICTs - telephones, computers, networks, Internet, bandwidth and electronic journals - is bound to make it even more difficult for the developing countries to contribute to, and take advantage of, knowledge in the sciences. These countries will get further marginalised. As suggested by Bruce Alberts, President of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, knowledge dissemination structures need to be put in place which are not entirely based on commerce. Innovative models, such as the community access model of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, which attempts to transform the otherwise divisive information technologies into allies in the equity movement, can make a difference to the life of the rural poor. The Swaminathan model emphasises delivering locale-specific knowledge that the people actually need and can use to improve their lot. The model follows a bottom-up approach, involving the user community as partners right from the beginning, emphasises knowledge delivery and uses technology - a hybrid wired and wireless network - only when it is necessary to achieve its major goal of knowledge delivery.

How does television explain poverty? Taking case materials from the Irish television station Radio Telefis Éireann, this book examines the construction of poverty stories across news, current affairs, soap opera, and telethon programs. In examining these programs, the study combines a series of ethnographic accounts of their production with a critical content analysis of how poverty is portrayed. The book argues that poverty coverage on television is constructed in such as way as to be largely nonthreatening to the status quo. The book deepens the understanding of how television contributes to the maintenance of an unequal society. It also makes the case for the continued relevance of the concept of ideology within the analysis of media and communications. The book examines how television coverage about poverty manages to construct the poor as both deserving and undeserving. It further argues that television coverage of poverty fashions benign and heroic roles of the powerful, thus sustaining unequal relations of power.

This article offers some reflections on the state of development communication in South Africa, and suggests that closer attention needs to be paid to the theoretical underpinnings of communication for development practices, the emerging institutional, contexts and the capacity building that is required in rapid change. It suggests that academics and practitioners need to find a middle way through the anything-goes and developmentalism poles of the debate about how best to use communication for development, particularly in light of the new Government Communications and Information Service and its Poverty and Inequality Report. The author suggests that some of the following issues should be considered: (a) Facilitation is an urgency; as institutional frameworks for policy implementation are consolidated, so too a new institutionally driven process of facilitation is underway, albeit with a number of different approaches and models. What are these methods and models that underpin interventions? (b) Information is essential: as the importance of communication is increasingly recognized (in all its forms, but driven by the information technology revolution) so there remains the problem of capacity, both in institutions and on the ground. (c) Research forms the core of any effort at development communication: What, then, are the research priorities for academics and practitioners in a context of nation building, GEAR, and information technology? How do academics relate to the people who are directly involved in communicating around development issues?

For years, the world saw the Internet as a creature of the U.S. Department of Defense. Now some claim that the Internet is a self-governing organism controlled by no one and needing no oversight. Although the National Science Foundation and other government agencies continue to support and oversee critical administrative and coordinating functions, the Internet is remarkably decentralized and uninstitutionalized. As it grows in scope, bandwidth, and functionality, the Internet will require greater coordination, but it is not yet clear what kind of coordinating mechanisms will evolve.

The essays in this volume clarify these issues and suggest possible models for governing the Internet. The topics addressed range from settlements and statistics collection to the sprawling problem of domain names, which affects the commercial interests of millions of companies around the world. One recurrent theme is the inseparability of technical and policy issues in any discussion involving the Internet. Contributors: Guy Almes, Ashley Andeen, Joseph P. Bailey, Steven M. Bellovin, Scott Bradner, Richard Cawley, Che-Hoo Cheng, Bilal Chinoy, K Claffy, Maria Farnon, William Foster, Alexander Gigante, Sharon Eisner Gillett, Mark Gould, Eric Hoffman, Scott Huddle, Joseph Y. Hui, David R. Johnson, Mitchell Kapor, John Lesley King, Lee W. McKnight, Don Mitchell, Tracie Monk, Milton Mueller, Carl Oppedahl, David G.Post, Yakov Rekhter, Paul Resnick, A. M. Rutkowski, Timothy J. Salo, Philip L. Sbarbaro, Robert Shaw. "A publication of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project"

In the following pages, Cees Hamelink reviews the background of the current “information revolution” explains its principal technical features and explores possible scenarios for the future. He challenges the frequently held disposition to accept the current direction of change without question. The course of technological development, he reminds us, is always shaped by human beings with particular interests and goals, and a certain (sometimes implicit) view of the future. The latter should be examined openly, not taken for granted.

Unesco endorsed the principles of Development Support Information and Project Support Communication officially in June 1971, indicating its readiness to: promote the awareness of the potential of communication in development; include support information oriented activities in its own work; and, assist projects in need of communication support. Emphasis was laid on identifying, at the earliest possible stage of project development, the communication elements that should be taken into consideration.

Part of a special section on the media and social change in Africa. A study was conducted to examine the attention given to the small participatory technologies of audio and video cassettes in effecting the social change needed for the development of rural women in Nigeria. Results revealed that Nigeria's rural women are a marginalized group, characterized by poverty and high rates of illiteracy. The cultural realities of these women demonstrate that they rely mainly on interpersonal face-to-face communication through traditional channels and favor these channels over the mass media as sources of development information. However, the communication strategy for rural development is seemingly characterized by an overemphasis on mass media technology and pays little attention to small media technology that is better able to complement interpersonal communication to effect rural development. Such an approach is inappropriate and is incapable of altering, for the better, the lives of these rural women.

During the last ten years, there has been a gradual shift from hierarchical, top-down communication to a two-way process that is interactive and participatory. This change in perception about the communication process, coupled with th e dramatic spread of democracy in recent times, are working in favour of more participatory decision-making at the local level, and of communication as a part of the process. This book resulted from a two-day consultation focusing on "Participatory Development Communication in the West and Central African Context" held in Toronto, Canada in 1995. It was attended by 49 participants drawn from development agencies, universities and NGOs. The participants were a unique mix of communicators, development workers and adult education specialists.

This article begins by outlining John Locke's concept of global civil society and how it is embodied in the global non-governmental movements for peace, human rights, social justice, and environmental preservation and sustainability. The article then sum marizes the role that new globe-girdling communications technologies are now playing within the NGO movements and describes the emergence of one global computer network known as the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) which links more than 15.000 NGO computers in 95 countries. As one case in this dramatic trend, the paper then examines North American Free Trade Agreement, a market- and government-imposed plan to unite the economies of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

In a rural community, where illiteracy is very high and modern communication facilities are very scarce, the exercise of the right to communicate demands more than is obvious. In the developing world, communication has an important role to play. Its principal function is not merely to inform but to educate with a view to raising people's aspirations, generating among them the willingness to improve their conditions, motivating them to action and guiding and directing their activities to a successful end.

The human rights claim that everyone has the right to communicate connects two ideas. The right is universal; it belongs to everyone. The right is an active right; resources must be made available to implement it. The two parts of this claim incorporate the two themes that permeate all human rights efforts: the moral and the positive law theme. But with its insistence that resources be available, this concept introduces a third theme: call it the resource theme.

It seems that the concept of the right to communicate will remain sophisticated and somewhat luxurious in most of the developing countries. My experience is confined to certain parts of East and North Africa whose great part belongs to Asia. Therefore I hope that my views will be interpreted accordingly. In the Arabian peninsula there were societies that had existed for centuries before the advent of Islam; it was a cradle of cultures and religions. The religion of Islam and the system of government it founded secured civil rights to an each individual in the state and defended his rights against any violation, even by the ruler. Among the rights were the right of expression, the right of opinion and right to be informed of what is happening. This background contributes today to appreciation of the right to communicate and those who exercise it.

The time will come when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will have to encompass a more extensive right than man's right to information, first laid down twenty-one years ago in Article 19. This is the right of man to communicate. This is the angle from which the future development of communications will have to be considered if it is to be fully understood. If we bear in mind that social structures are created for man and that any attempt to maintain them once they have outlived their usefulness is bound to end in violence, we shall see that the direct broadcast satellite and its associated technology will lead to infinitely greater communications possibilities, to a real right to communicate in all forms. On this road, time itself is of secondary importance; what counts is the will to get there in the end.

We do not want to engage in a discussion of abstract principles, which might easily turn into verbalism. Rather, we think our task is to describe in an ever more concrete way what are those situations which prevent men and women from living in a true dialogue, and which are the aspects that must of necessity be changed if we want arrive at a better situation. In sum, we believe that the right to communicate today can be a meaningful concept only if it embraces the effort to overcome the structural and economic limitations that are still essential parts of the international market system. The roles of transnational corporations are important in this respect.

Research of recent years proves that the modern world is strongly affected by scientific and technological progress. Positive changes can be seen in all spheres of human activity. However, we should explain this conclusion more thoroughly.

Use of the approaches of traditional economics for an analysis of the allocation of resources to communication must be done in two stages. In the first stage we would be concerned with the use of existing resources in communication for immediate, identified purposes. It is in the second stage of analysis, when the effects of communication must be taken into account, that great difficulties are occasioned. There is a serious danger that well-intentioned policy efforts will lead to undesirable consequences unless they are reinforced by carefully coordinated action on a wide front. Thus, the right to communicate can be a reality and be beneficial only if the policies of the state are carefully coordinated toward that end. Research is needed on the economics of information and information policy coordination at the national and international levels.

This guide is intended for people working in research and development. It introduces participatory development communication concepts, discusses the use of effective two-way communication approaches, and presents a methodology to plan, develop and evaluate communication strategies.

This volume consists of two parts, the first focusing on alternative media more generally and the second focusing on alternative radio. The first part begins with an examination by John A. Lent of comic art as an alternative medium, drawing on examples from five continents. Lent distinguishes between mainstream and alternative comics, discussing cartoon publications that have been called variously ‘[u]nderground, dissident, radical, activist, small press, independent, street press, new wave, mini and alternative’. Following this are discussions by Michela Ledwidge of audience modification of films and Sripan Rattikalchalakorn of weblogs. John F. Bourke’s discussion of Australian courts as an alternative medium takes the notion into a forum that is not normally a premise of media and communication. He discusses alternative texts representing events being presented and discussed in a public forum attended by groups of court observers whom he describes as alternative medium users.

The second part, on alternative radio, is led by a discussion of broadcasting audience research in Australia by Michael Meadows, Susan Forde, Jacqui Ewart and Kerrie Foxwell. This is followed by a case study of a particular university public radio station, CU Radio in Thailand, by Joompol Rodcumdee and Suwanna Sombatraksasook. Sripan Rattikalchalakorn and Naren Chitty report on field research conducted under a Macquarie University Research Development Grant on CU Radio, security and crisis management. Weerapong Polnigongit and Passawan Korakotchamas report on case studies of community radio in Thailand, the former focusing on transborder community radio on the Thai-Laos border and the latter on community radio as an alternative education provider.