Transcript Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa

Media, Empowerment and Development
Strategies to explore information and communication needs of citizens
 Today’s
objective:
To share experiences and discuss the
methodological challenges of exploring
information and communication needs of
citizens. How do we in practice research
such needs, and how can relevant
stakeholders – UN, civil society and
academia - make use of the insights
generated?
Programme
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9.00
9.15
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10.00
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10.45
11.00
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11.45
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12.15
13.15
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14.15
14.30-15.30
Welcome and Introduction to the Programme
‘People Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East
Africa’. Introducing the Research Program.
by Thomas Tufte, RUC
’Communication for Empowerment’
Bjørn Førde, director, Oslo Governance Centre
Coffee
‘Ethnographic Action Research’ (EAR)
Jo Ann Tacchi, Associate Professor, University of Queensland
‘Enhancing citizens’ information and communication rights’
Jesper Lauridsen: MS/ActionAid: Global Governance Program
Lunch
Theory and practice – is there resonance or dissonance? Workshop
activity: Connecting MEDIeA’s research agenda vis-à-vis the different
stakeholders way of working with media, empowerment and democracy.
Coffee
Discussing workshop outcome & Panel debate on seminar issues
Media, Empowerment and Development
Strategies to explore information and communication needs of citizens
Project Launch & Capacity Building Seminar
7 June 2010
Venue: MS ActionAid, Denmark
Organized by: MEDIeA/Ørecomm-RUC with MS ActionAid
Development Context
– the turn to the citizen…
 Community
Conversations…
 Listener studies and reality checks…
 Communication for empowerment…
 Communication assessments
 Exploring
new ways to connect policies
and development practices with the
protagonists of development.
Media and Communication Context
- Communication and Power
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‘In a world marked by the rise of mass selfcommunication, social movements and
insurgent politics have a the chance to enter
the public space from multiple sources. By
using both horizontal communication networks
and mainstream media to convey their images
and messages, they increase their chances of
enacting social and political change – even if
they start from a subordinate position in
institutional power, financial resources, or
symbolic legitimacy’ (Castells 2009. 302)
Key issues
 Insurgent
politics (insurgent citizenship)
 Horizontal communication
 Bottom-up approaches
 Visibility in the public space
…speaks to founding principles in
communication for social change
Insurgent citizenship
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Disjunctions of citizenship: between this emphasis on the
political project and the reality of the lived lives:
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‘This kind of political focus (democracy = electoral
democracies, ed.) fails to account adequately, if at all, for
precisely the sort of disjunctions of citizenship that I have
analyzed in Brazil and that are prevalent among most
emerging democracies – namely, the coincidence of
democratic politics with widespread violence and
injustice against citizens. This disjunction has become
just as global a condition of contemporary
democratization as free elections’ (Holston 2008: 311)
Horizontal communication, public
sphere & ’mediápolis’
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Horisontal communication: voice, dialogue and
participation
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Mediápolis – a global civic space, inclusive,
participatory, dialogic and enabling public debate,’a
space of potential and of possibility’. Criteria of
media hospitality, media justice and media ethics
Citizen Media
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The term ‘citizens media’ implies, first, that a
collectivity is enacting its citizenship by actively
intervening and transforming the established
mediascape; second, that these media are
contesting social codes, legitimized identities
and institutionalized social relations; and third,
that these communication practices are
empowering the community involved, to the
point where these transformations and changes
are possible (Rodriguez 2001/2006: 774)
Communication, citizen participation and the
power – or not – to enact change
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how can ordinary people engage in development – through media
and communication practices and networks?
How can they, or we, engage in and influence the social and political
change processes that impact upon our own lives?
With a specific focus on civil society – NGOs, community based
organisation and social movements - what particular opportunities
do they have to ensure, facilitate or enhance citizen-driven change
processes?
Key question: how can civil society driven media and
communication initiatives- in the digital era - enhance
processes of empowerment, accountability and ultimately good
governance?
Today’s seminar
 Collaborative seminar: MEDIeA/RUC
in
collaboration with MS ActionAid, and with
international guests
 Launch seminar of research project: ’People
Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and
Democracy in East Africa’ (2009-2013)
 Capacity building seminar: enhancing the
dialogue between our research project and
practitioners
Contexts and Research Interests
 Rapidly
changing media and communication
landscape – influencing development thinking
(is it?) and the practice of development
 Civil society development – engaging with the
media and engaging in public debate
 Poverty reducation and social inclusion,
citizenship and good governance
 The situation of youth, particularly young
marginalized women
Research Objective
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To explore the role of civil society driven media
and communication technologies and practices
in enhancing participatory governance
processes in Kenya and Tanzania
Program participants Kenya: Grace Githaiga,
Winnie Mitullah, Norbert Wildermuth
 Program participants Tanzania: Rose Reuben,
Datius Rweyemamu, Thomas Tufte
Intermediate Objectives (1)
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To assess the current situation of youth
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To assess how youth experience, make use of and
engage in civil-society driven media and
communication platforms and how this connects to
participation in public debate and governance
processes
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To analyse content and what the above mentioned
media and communication platforms do/produce, and
how socially inclusive the production processes are
Intermediate Objectives (2)
 To
analyse what mechanisms are developed to
hold governments accountable and transparent
(incl: what advocacy strategies do the involved
CSOs have, if any?)
 To
analyse how CSOs ensure their own
accountability to the groups of citizens they
advocate on behalf of
3 components
 Collaborative
Research: 6 interlinked
research projects
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3 universities: University of Dar es Salaam,
University of Nairobi and RUC
 Research
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PhD students, research visits, workshops
 Policy

capacity building
dialogue and dissemination
Meetings and publications
Hosted by Ørecomm
– Bi-national platform on Communication and Glocal Change
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People Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East
Africa (MEDIeA)
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Glocal NOMAD – Network on Media and Development
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The Social and Political Aspects of AIDS Working Group
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Fiction's Truth: Fiction as a Means of Exploration and a Vehicle for
Social Change
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The Nordic Research Network for Media, Communication and Popular
Culture in Africa (2006-2009)