Transcript PP MEDIeA seminar Nairobi

By Thomas Tufte, Roskilde University
Presentation given at seminar: ‘Media and Citizen Engagement –
experiences from Kenya and Tanzania’ Nairobi, 7-8 May 2014
Today’s presentation
 Youth, communication and citizenship: conceptual
reflections
 Introducing civil society driven media platforms
 The case of Femina
 Political context
 Strategy, identity and mode of operation
 Navigating colonial and post-colonial discourses of
awareness-raising and modernity
 Conclusions
Enacting citizenship
Social Movements and Insurgent Politics
 ‘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)
Disjunctions of Citizenship
- the ménage of exclusion
 ‘the state is today unable, and/or unwilling, to
promise its subjects existential security (‘freedom
from fear’, as Franklin D. Roosevelt famously
phrased it) (Bauman 2010: 65)’. When the state
acts in this way, the individual citizen is left to his
own, unable to obtain existential security, that is
unable to obtain and retain ‘a legitimate and
dignified place in human society and avoiding the
ménage of exclusion’ (Bauman).
Human Security
 Human security as freedom from fear describes a condition
of existence in which human dignity is realized, embracing
not only physical safety but going beyond that to include
meaningful participation in the life of the community,
control over one’s life and so forth (…)Thus, while material
sufficiency lies at the core of human security, in addition
the concept encompasses non-material dimensions to form
a qualitative whole. In other words, human security
embraces the whole gamut of rights, civil and political,
economic and social, and cultural (Thomas 2007: 108-109)
Assumption: Human (In)Security
this concept helps us understand:
 The subjective position from which many
marginalized people speak and act
 Conditions of existence fundamental for agency
and communiction
 The social reality citizens live in, and the sociophysic situation this reality produces
 Helps produce a parameter for the quality and
scope of civil society driven media and
communication initiatives
Civil society driven media platforms
- the new darling of development communication
- Normative (ideological - peoples’ organizations, prevalent
in the 70s and 80s)
- Issue-Driven (fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa in the 90s – now
focus is on new issues)
- Networking (Transnational Advocacy Networks – ie the
Global Justice Movement in the 00s)
- Crowdsourcing, mobilizing and aggregation initiatives –
re-invigorating local/national/global governance and
accountability processes
Communication for Social Change
and the proliferation of edutainment strategies
 Significant experiences growing out of 20-25 years of
HIV/AIDS communication
 Soul City (1992)
 ADRA (1991/2003)
 Straight Talk Foundation (1993)
 N’weti, Pakachere, Scenarios from Africa…
… and Femina
Key research questions
 What civil society sphere does Femina seek to
construct in its attempt to provide space and
opportunity for civic engagement of Tanzanian youth?
 How does Femina navigate between it’s identities as an
NGO, a social movement and a conglomerate of media
channels?
 How does it define and related to its contituency
‘Tanzanian youth’?
 How does Femina as a civil society media platform
contribute to young Tanzanian’s civic engagement?
Methodology
 12 weeks of fieldwork over 6 visits between 2009-2012
 Participatory observation in office, seminars, clubs
 Interviews
 FGDs with youth from secondary schools
Political culture in Tanzania
- looking back
REDET Study 1994:
 72% of the respondents did not discuss political issues
 80% expressed their fear in scrutinizing government
officials and their actions
 70% still depended on the government to solve their dayto-day problems’ (Killian 2008).
Since then: democratic development, media development,
civil society development. In this context, Femina evolved
from 1999 and onwards.
Citizen Engagement in 2011?
Aisha: When I grow up, I want to be a member of
parliament, to be a minister!
Why do you like politics?
Aisha: I like it because most of the politicians are
corrupt, so I might eliminate it.
Joyce: We believe them in a very few percent…maybe
20% (Mwanza, March 2011)
Femina today…
 Organizing and mobilizing for public sphere
engagement: ‘It was early morning…. (p.1)
Femina Media Outlets
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Fema
Tv talk shows
Radio drama
600+ Femina clubs
Interactive website
Facebook group(s)
 Partnership with 6-700
organisations
 Distribution through approx.
2500 schools
FEMA
 FEMA. A glossy magazine,
64 pages, 150.000 copies
published 4 x a year
 Targets youth aged 15-24
especially secondary
school students in every
region of the country
Femina HIP: A youth-oriented
communication initiative
 ‘On entering Femina HIP’s top floor headquarters…’
(p.6)
Popular culture and participation in content
production
 Street language
 Youth ‘icons’ on the cover (music, sports, politics)
 National representation (covering regions)
 Community outreach in story development, foto
novels, national events, club input
 E-feedback and dialogue (Sms’s, mails, fb, twitter)
 Youth advisory board
 Cultures of entrepreneurship and farming
NGO, media vehicle or social
movement?
 Following the elections…(p. 8-9)
Who is Femina engaging?
 The ‘Femina Family’
 Readers
 Listeners
 Viewers
 Club members
 Partners
 Who then, can Femina claim to represent when
speaking to opinion formers and descision makers, as in
the case of the Constitutional Reform process?
Building supportive environments and
telling real-life stories
 Combination prevention: sexual health and life skills,
citizen engagement and economic empowerment = ‘a
gender empowerment and rights-based approach’
 P. 12…
Conclusion: opportunities
 Systematic listening in order to develop themes. Factoring
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in the contexts youth live in
Build trust and empathy – a key principle. Are reasonably
participatory
Establish long-term institutional collabs (schools)
Develop ‘discursive spaces’
Promote further establishment at local level of such spaces
Achieve high degree of popularity, readership and
viewership. Thus, achieving reach, and political clout.
Long-term commitment/beyond campagning
Conclusion: opportunities
 Go beyond behaviour change communication….enging
in dialogue, participatory practices, a ‘liberating’
pedagogy, advocacy and social action
 Process-oriented more that results-focused
Conclusion: challenges
 Constructing strategies that:
 Enable human security to evolve…Femina works mainly
with the immaterial dimensions, although not
exclusively
 Enhance citizenship using mass communication and
‘mass self-communication’: achieving voice and
representation
 Push the boundaries of critical debate and citizen
engagement
 Influencing policies
Media, Empowerment and Social
Change – issues for discussion
 How do strategic communicators handle issues of fear,
insecurity and negotiation of identity?
 How far can civil society organizations move in
articulating citizen engagement. Bottom-up >< Topdown processes.
 The balance between tools and issues, and between
communication, organizing and mobilization for
social change.