Global community of professionals working in Communication for Development
A special issue of The International Journal of Media and Culture titled ‘Refugee Socialities and the Media’ looks at diverse media and communicative practices about the European refugee crisis – and the relationships and communities they can create. We share the main issue’s main contributions and conclusions in this blog post.
To read the full blog click here.
This RDI Network conference 2019 side-event brings together academics, researchers and practitioners from across Australian universities, think tanks and NGOs. The aim is to provide a platform for international development actors involved or interested in Communication for Development (C4D) work to share experiences, lessons learned and recommendations that can contribute to an improved practice. It also wants to be a space to encourage and facilitate collaboration between practitioners and researchers on C4D-related research projects that strengthen the value of the practice.
Following on from the 2015 and 2017 Communication for Development gatherings, the specific focus of this roundtable is to discuss how civil society groups, social movements, and development organisations can more effectively lead the path to an inclusive development through the use of the media and communication. Both practitioners and researchers will share their experiences in either implementing or studying media and communication interventions designed to engage citizens (in general) or disadvantaged and marginalised groups (more specifically) in participating in debate and having a voice on issues that affect them.
Reports from the previous events can be accessed here:
This event is free for participants, but RSVP is essential
If you would like to attend, please email [email protected] by Sunday 12th May 2019 with a short paragraph about your background
Access to accurate and useful climate-related information is a prerequisite for smallholder farmers to use and benefit from climate services with respect to both agricultural and livelihood decision-making. Whether or not farmers access particular climate-related information products is determined by the types of information products that the national meteorological service and other providers make available, by access to the communication channels used to disseminate information, and by demand for the information. Gender-based factors can influence differing access to communication channels for women and men. The present brief highlights some of these key challenges to achieving socially inclusive access to weather and climate information, and presents promising pathways for developing gender-sensitive communication channels in climate services.
Click here for full brief.
Safer cities strive to create public spaces that are open and accessible to everyone, without exception. Most cities, however, are not totally safe for
adolescent girls. What’s more, they are run and developed predominantly without their needs being taken into account. Each week 1 million people
move from the countryside to city slums, of which a growing number of migrants are girls, and there is growing pressure to find ways to address the myriad of dangers girls face, from violence and exploitation to discrimination and access to schooling and safe housing.
Communication for Development (C4D) has emerged as an important addition to those promoting the rights of girls in the city. Programmes based on C4D take into account the fact that, as experts in their own safety and use of the city, girls are best positioned to identify the issues and priorities
that affect them today and in the future, in order to make cities safer and more inclusive. In short, C4D gives adolescent girls a voice with which to take an active role in the development of safe urban environments.
Click here for full report.
In 2009 the International Broadcasting Trust published research on the quantity and nature of international news coverage by the main UK television and radio broadcasters. This report presents a detailed picture of how television news on all the main UK TV channels covered international stories in a two week period in January 2016 which was contrasted with radio and online coverage. The results were then used to inform interviews with news executives, NGOs and media academics.
Whilst the findings reveal a strong commitment to international stories they also highlight some concerns. The present study shows an increase in the amount of coverage, compared with 2009. However, it also shows a decline in the number of countries featured. The report looks at who reporters interview and found that the type of voices featured across many of the bulletins is strikingly similar, leading some of our interviewees to raise concerns about homogenization in news coverage. Few NGO voices appear in these bulletins. It could be argued that featuring the voices of those directly affected by events, rather than NGOs, is an indication of greater authenticity in storytelling. But there may be a risk that some crucial context is lost.