Karen Wilkins:

New Challenges in Communication for

Development

Articulating Power in Models of Development Communication

Development Communication

• Development as strategic social change (Jan Nederveen Pieterse)

• Development communication as one set of strategies (Karin Wilkins)

• Entertainment Education as an approach to Dev Com (Rafael Obregon & Thomas Tufte)

Development Communication

• Communication FOR Development– Strategic intervention

• Build Infrastructure• Create messages on existing infrastructure

• Communication ABOUT Development– Critical approach to discourse– Deconstruction leading to constructive

praxis

Approach to Power

• Third Face of Power– Power to change the rules of the game

• Underlying Assumptions– Audiences (individuals, communities)– Texts– Media Producers– Political-Economic Structures– Historical & Global Contexts

Modernization

• Focus on the individual– Empathy

• Linear transmission model

• National contexts

• Less emphasis on specific texts, more on exposure more generally

Dependency Critique

• Global contexts

• Political-Economic structures

• Less attention to – specific texts– Individual or collective agency in audience

Participatory Approaches

• Development– Communities not nations

• Communication– Dialogic not linear

• Focus– Collective agency of audience– Process over outcomes

Complexities of “Participation”

• End vs. means

• Process vs. outcome

• Ethics vs. efficiency

• Working within, against, or parallel to dominant agencies

Power in Participation

• Community Beneficiary Focus– Processes within Funding Recipients

• Community Media Focus– Focus on Community Production

• Structural Participation– Recognition of key players and processes

of funding agents and others with allocative control

Social Movements

• Development– Collective groups not formal agencies

• Communication– Mobilization toward resistance

• Focus– Nature of message– Collective agency

Communicating for Development

• Power of media technologies– Radio, tv, film, internet

• Power of strategies– Social marketing: individual behavior– Ent-educ: social norms, individual behavior– Media Advocacy: media coverage, policy

change

• Infrastructure

– Government Agendas• Transmission models• Feedback loops

– Community Media• Power of text• Process of production• Structure of funding

Communicating about Development

• Focus on development industry

• Development institutions connected to political-economic structures relevant to global, regional, national, local contexts

• Post-development

Deconstruction of Discourse

• Rhetoric– Use of terms to describe problems, groups,

solutions– Cooptation of terms over time (women/gender,

empowerment, sustainable dev)

• Practice– Funding of projects– Policies structuring practice– Project implementation

Geometry of Development

• Dominant approach– Nation-states– First, second, third worlds

• Emerging approach– Transnational concerns and organizations– Social, financial… capital

• Access to resources• Apart from geographical positioning

Approaches to Power

• Individual Behavior

• Social Norms

• Mediated texts

• Communication Technologies

• Process of Production

• Political Agencies

• Corporate Agencies

Potential Contributions of Research to Dev Com

• To satisfy intellectual curiosity?

• To improve program efficiency?

• TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Nature of Critique

• Structural Independence of Researchers– Importance of Research Universities and

Organizations• Funding parameters• Political affiliations

– Selection of Researchers• Investment in projects? • In theories? • Methodological approaches?

Constraint to Critique

• Need to demonstrate success– Economic

• Funding cycles• Composition of funding

– Political• Affirm approach• Foster commitment

Research Questions & Design

• Scope of Focus– Not just one project but sets of interventions

• Duration of Time– Not just immediate effects but long-term trends

• Comprehension of Context– Cultural, political, economic contexts– Historical conditions

Research Advocacy

• Contributes to improved efficient and effective allocation of resources

• Engages salient ethical issues of social change, such as poverty, violence, discrimination, disease, human rights abuses, and more

New Research Agendas

• Importance of Collaborative Work– Orecomm: across countries– Interdisciplinary– Varied institutional affiliations

• Value of Critical Approach– Ability to pursue critical questions– Abililty to address long-term, systemic

issues