The Drum Beat 547 - Communication and Change News and Issues

This issue includes: 

• Selected STRATEGIC THINKING on communication and development. 
• AWARD: call to journalists to submit articles. 
• Please vote in a POLL: definition of journalism? 
• C4D EXPERIENCES from around the world. 
• POLIO COMMUNICATION: articles, discussion, poll, survey. 
• Update: C-CHANGE in Albania.

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STRATEGIC THINKING

1. What's in a Name? Problematizing Communication's Shift from Development to Social Change

by Karin Gwinn Wilkins

...traces the history and shape of the shift in rhetoric from the term "development communication" to "communication for social change"...

2. A Guide for Fostering Change to Scale Up Effective Health Services

 ...offers the principles and "how-to" of fostering change in performance and quality of services to reproductive health programmes...

3. Understanding Community-Based Information Systems In the Millennium Villages

...describes the application of the Community-based Information System, designed to build on traditional knowledge systems with strategic and technological adjustments to collect community data and distribute them automatically, at a low cost, and in a culturally appropriate manner...

4. Talking About Sex: Using Youth Language in Sexuality Education

by Chi-Chi Undie, Joanna Crichton, and Eliya Zulu

...reviews a study conducted by the African Population and Health Research Center in 2006 that sought to gain insights into the ways young people in Malawi think about sex and sexual relationships by analysing the language - specifically, the metaphors - they use... 

5. Content in Local Languages Is as Essential as Connectivity

...summarises the key points of an Open Dialogue plenary session on "Reaching the Next Billion: Access and Multilingualism", which gave panellists and participants of the Internet Governance Forum 2008 an opportunity to discuss the relationship between internet access and multilingualism...

6. Performing Arts for Behavior and Social Change: Summary of Sharing Session of Creative Communication on 8 April 2010

...describes the second round of a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) sharing session on creative communication held in Hanoi, Vietnam under the theme "performing arts for behavior and social change"....

7. On Social Marketing and Social Change

by R. Craig Lefebvre

 ...a resource for social marketing information and opinion as it can be applied to social change...

8. Political Extremism, Terrorism, and Media in Central Asia: Examples of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

...a study on how the media cover acts of terrorism and political extremism in Central Asia...

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 Awards: Media Reporting on Development

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) invites entries for their first awards for reporting on international development, soliciting provocative and original stories, compelling alternative narratives, and critiques, and encouraging discussion on development issues and processes. Journalists from around the world are requested to submit their best articles, news pieces, critiques, and editorials that focus on poverty alleviation, democracy and governance, rights, health, and other Millennium Development Goals.

There will be 3 awards: one of UKP 500, and two of UKP 250.

Deadline for submission of articles is July 9th 2010.

In order to participate either by submitting a story or commenting on stories submitted by others, please go to The Communication Initiative’s Development Networks Group "Awards: Media Reporting on Development".

For more information about criteria and the awards process, click here. 

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Please VOTE in our Poll on the current definition of journalism

In your context, is this definition of journalism still relevant and valuable?: "a truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account of the day's events in a context that gives them some meaning." [see Melvin Mencher, "Will the Meaning of Journalism Survive?" - Neiman Reports.] Please comment.

- Yes  

- No

- Maybe

VOTE and COMMENT - click here.

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EXPERIENCES

9. Reporting on Agriculture and Women: Africa - Mali, Uganda, Zambia

...a 4-year project by the International Women's Media Foundation designed to enhance reporting on the role women play in agriculture and rural development in Africa...

10. Citizens' Constitutional Forum (CCF) - Fiji

...a non-governmental organisation that advocates and educates for good governance, human rights, and multiculturalism in the Republic of Fiji...

11. Jovens Para Mudanca e Accao (Youth for Change and Action) - The JOMA Project - Mozambique

...a project working to develop young Mozambicans' capacities to recognise and adopt behaviours that reduce HIV transmission by pairing life skills with technical skills training in more than 40 secondary school-based clubs...

12. AudienceScapes - Global

...an online tool and research programme providing media use and communication information on developing countries from a bottom-up perspective...

13. Desh Pardesh [At Home and Abroad] - India, Nepal

...an edutainment radio programme at the centre of a cross-border HIV/AIDS prevention initiative designed for Nepalis and Nepali migrants working in India...

14. Young People for Non-Violence - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay

 ...an initiative exploring how information technology can be used as a creative, educational, and catalytic tool for young people concerned about drug abuse and violence in their communities... 

15. Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) - Philippines

...an effort to widen public participation and involvement in fighting corruption, in part through an interactive website that aims to link media, civil society, government departments, and ordinary citizens, as well as to build public understanding, dialogue, debate, and action on public sector finances and spending in the Philippines... 

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Health Communication: Polio Lessons

As part of its polio programme funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The CI recently coordinated the publication of a supplement in the Journal of Health Communication (JOHC) which focuses on health communication lessons from the polio experience.

The papers include:

• A Drop of Tension
• Communication for Polio Eradication: Improving the Quality of Communication Programming Through Real-Time Monitoring and Evaluation
• The Complexity of Social Mobilization in Health Communication: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Experiences in Polio Eradication 
• Using Data to Guide Action in Polio Health Communications: Experience from the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI)
• Polio Eradication Is Just Over the Horizon: The Challenges of Global Resource Mobilization
• Health Communication: Polio Lessons

DISCUSSION

CI's Polio Communication Forum is hosting a discussion related to the Journal of Health Communication supplement Health Communication: Polio Lessons. We hope you can join us and some of the authors of the papers in a discussion which will start with the question "What, if anything, does the polio communication experience have to teach about health communication?" and then go where the conversation leads. If you haven't yet joined the forum, please take a minute to follow the link above and register. Once registered, you will be able to participate fully online and will be able to receive email updates (if you so choose) whenever someone makes a comment. If you have registered, we look forward to your contributions! Click here to contribute.

POLL 

Do you feel the polio experience has a lot to teach us about health communication?

VOTE and COMMENT - click here.

SURVEY

And, if you have used our Polio Theme site, please participate in our survey: click here. 

With the support of USAID, CI has been working with health communicators and the many people engaged in eradicating polio to share knowledge and to facilitate independent review of polio communication action. Now we need your help to review an important part of our own contribution by taking about 15 mintues to participate in a brief survey on online knowledge sharing, networking and CI's Polio website. 

To access the survey follow this link: click here.

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 C-Change in Albania

In Albania, C-Change - USAID's flagship programme to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of social and behavior change communication - has launched a second mass media campaign to increase use of modern contraceptives to prevent unplanned pregnancies. "A Happy Life" campaign provides information to young women and men ages 18-35 about modern contraceptive methods and counters misconceptions about side effects of these contraceptives. The campaign is being broadcast nationally on television and radio, in ads in major Albania newspapers, and on outdoor billboards on buses and buildings. The programme also works with pharmacists and physicians on how to counsel women and provide the latest information about the benefits of family planning. See the C-Change/Albania webpage for additional information.

C-Change Picks

Looking for social and behaviour change communication resources? See the C-Change Picks website.  To subscribe to the C-Change Picks e-magazine and receive updates on case studies, evaluations, and resources that will support your SBCC programming and planning, send an email to [email protected]

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The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.

Please send additional project, evaluation, strategic thinking, and materials information on communication for development at any time. Send to [email protected]

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

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