The Drum Beat 209 - Communication and Change News and Issues

EXPERIENCES

1. Documenting Indigenous Knowledge in Sarawak - Malaysia

Works to empower local communities to maintain, document, and share their Indigenous Knowledge (IK) systems on plant resources - with a focus on the sugar palm, an essential cash crop in the Bidayuh culture. Community Knowledge Centres facilitate transmission of the knowledge to young people and enable the use of the knowledge in sustainable management of biodiversity and development of agriculture and economy within the communities. Audio and video recordings of the community's knowledge are made in the community's own language and deposited in the Community Knowledge Centre. On the basis of the recordings, farmers produce papers that can be registered in the local traditional knowledge/IK register and then re-used by members of the community as well as by research scientists.

Contact Eileen Yen Ee Lee [email protected]

2. Qwa-Qwa Community Radio - South Africa

A community-station to empower the people in the listening area to participate in the sustainable development of the community. The programming consists in 60% talk and 40% music (20% of which is local South African). Programming includes local news in an effort to bolster a sense of belonging, identity, and pride among community members. Feedback is collected from the community in order to increase the relevance and effectiveness of the content. At times, members of the community come directly, unannounced, to the station. Groups of workers may provide a spontaneous discussion of problems like job layoffs that are about to occur. The station works with the four other community stations in the Free State Province to produce pre-recorded programmes (which are mostly in Sotho) on gender, disability, women, children, crime prevention, and HIV/AIDS. Stations then localise the content at the time of broadcast through guests/interviews drawn from their respective areas.

Contact Chris Armstrong [email protected]

3. AIDSMark - Global

A project that uses social marketing in 29 countries in an effort to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT), to delay sexual debut among youth, and to franchise services to treat STIs. All of these programmes operate condom social marketing projects, 14 deliver voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) services, and 3 offer STI services. AIDSMark campaigns - which use mass media, peer education, school programmes, community theatre, mobile multi-media events, and training sessions - encourage healthy lifestyles and behaviours while communicating risks.

Contact [email protected]

4. Telamanita - Mexico

Promotes the use of video as an educational, organisational, training, and expression tool. Its purpose is to help women empower themselves by helping them use video in their work in defense of human rights, popular education, pregnancy, reproductive rights, the creation of public policies, and ecological and sustainable development alternatives. Telemanita has a video library consisting of productions made by women. These productions are exhibited in spaces open to the public at large; viewings are organised for those in several countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Contact [email protected]

5. Traditional Knowledge and Community Healthcare - Nigeria

Works with women in rural communities to understand various traditional healthcare practices and introduce best practices and safer techniques for selected treatments. One purpose of the project is to produce a written catalogue of traditional medical wisdom, the content of which is largely generated by local people. Staff of Fantsuam collects information from local healers - to bolster this information - they regularly consult the health channel of the WorldSpace Radio, Satellife, WHO fact sheets, and numerous discussion lists. These materials are then translated into the local dialect and shared with the women. Sections of a health reference text are also translated into local dialects. After this information is collated, the catalogue remains the property of the communities.

Contact John Dada [email protected]

6. Center for International Media Action (CIMA) - United States

Works to provide strategic services and tools to strengthen cooperation among media advocacy, education, and reform groups. By developing and disseminating publications, curricula, workshops, and online information-sharing tools, CIMA seeks to help diversify the participants in media policy debates, prioritise local initiatives, and promote points of engagement for media advocacy. As of this writing, CIMA is in development. In general, activities will be designed to help groups: identify allies and collaborate effectively; translate key issues for broader audiences; share "best practices"; document media advocacy campaigns, projects, strategies and meetings.

Contact Catherine Borgman-Arboleda [email protected] OR Aliza Dichter [email protected] OR [email protected]

7. Cybermohalla - India

An experimental collaborative initiative that focuses democratic access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in India. Compughar is a small media lab in Dehi running on free software and low-cost media equipment. This lab, staffed by young people, has published a book and distributes a magasine focused on daily life on the streets. The young people (mainly young women) who come to the Compughar are between the ages of 15 and 23. Most of them are school dropouts. Their writings can be seen as a database of narrative, comment, observation, word play and reflection. Published in 2002, the book Galiyon Se/By Lanes (Hindu & English) contains diaries from 12 young people working at the Compughar.

Contact [email protected]

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Pulse Poll

The most important development communication question is "Why"?

If you agree, please elaborate. If you disagree, please indicate what you think is the most important development communication question and for what reason.

VOTE

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TRENDS

8. Asia's Community Media Struggle to be Heard by Marwaan Macan-Markar

Considers trends in community media development in Asia. Examines the state of community radio stations in Thailand. Also provides information on the difficult community media situation in South Korea, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. One notable exception is The Philippines, where a free-media tradition has proved supportive of community media...

9. Israeli Software Enables Deaf to Use Cell Phones

Mobile phone operator Cellcom and start-up SpeechView launched a worldwide patented software in Nov 2002 that will allow the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate through mobile phones. The software kits, including a CD and cable, will cost $125. A spokesman for SpeechView said 10 percent of the world population had different levels of hearing difficulties, of which half were suited to use the software...

10. (Low) Power to the People by Suzanne Charlé

This article explores trends related to low power FM radio (LPFM). Today, nearly 219 million Americans (96% of those 12 and over) tune into 13,012 radio stations for news, sports, weather, traffic, music, and talk. Two corporations, Clear Channel and Viacom, claim 42% of listeners and 45% of industry revenues. Owned by churches, charities, environmental groups, schools, and governmental agencies, the LPFM stations use as few as 100 watts (the power of the average light bulb) in contrast to the 50,000 wattage of commercial stations...

STRATEGIC THINKING

11. Call for advert-free 'toddler TV' by Julia Day

"A Labour MP has called for a total ban on advertising food and drink to children under the age of 5, in direct conflict with the government's stance...Debra Shipley, the backbench MP for Stourbridge, spoke out against advertising food to young children after the government issued the food industry with a guarantee that it has no plans to outlaw their ads...

12. Formative Evaluation Techniques & Purposes

A closer look at Media assessment, health infrastructure assessment, literature review, community infrastructure and network assessment, and qualitative assessment. From "Modeling and Reinforcement to Combat HIV: The MARCH Approach to Behavior Change" by Christine Galavotti, PhD, Katina A. Pappas-DeLuca, MA, and Amy Lansky, PhD.

13. Media and Peacebuilding - Concepts, Actors & Challenges: Working Paper by Christoph Spurk

This report summarises the basic concepts of media and peacebuilding. It focuses on media assistance in conflict regions, mainly in a short- to a medium-term perspective. It aims to: present a clear picture on the concepts, provide an overview of the strategies applied by different actors, highlight the actual trends and future challenges...

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We are seeking information on University Programmes that focus on the use of Communication for Development or Social Change. See our University Courses listing.

ALSO - Upcoming topics for The Drum Beat:

* Arts-based Community Development

* Ethics in Communication for Development

* Sustainable Development

Please send information to Deborah Heimann [email protected]

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MATERIALS

14. Building Capacities in Analyzing & Documenting Lessons Learned: Planning Workshop Report by Lydia Braakman

This report contains insights gleaned from a March, 2002 workshop organised to help field workers in community forestry programmes analyse and document their experiences through the writing of case studies, and make those case studies available to partners and clients...

15. Coming Together, Caring Together: A Report on the Communities Responding to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic (CORE) Initiative, January 2001-June 2002

Chapters focus on the motivation for the initiative and on the means of reaching communities, raising awareness within communities, and connecting communities. Five appendices provide more detailed information on the programme.

16. An Information Revolution for Small Enterprise in Africa: Experience in Interactive Radio Formats in Africa by Mary McVay

Details the work of the International Labour Organization's In Focus Programme on Boosting Employment through Small Enterprise Development (SEED) to collaborate with the commercial radio media. IFP/SEED's goal is to use radio to provide marginalised business people with a voice to influence their environment and those policy decisions that are important to the survival of their businesses.

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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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