The Drum Beat 49 - Perspectives from the Network

New VACANCIES also follow

NETWORK PERSPECTIVES

The new Communication Chat Fora now involve 300 people. In this DB we highlight excerpts from some of the contributions. To access full contributions please click here. 

A. STRATEGIC THINKING 

Documentation/Analysis

1. "Video... [is] a powerful media, but our ability to produce and show video (particularly with communities with no electricity or accessible roads) is limited. 
I am interested to learn of others' efforts and ideas around how to strengthen the capacity of local programs to document and share information...[and to use].. communication activities to stimulate community analysis and action." [Catheryn Koss] 

Definitions

2. "Principal definitions like Health Communication, Health Education, IEC..[have] many confusions...appreciate any help" [Rosario Leon]..."My advice: do not worry...about the definitions. If you request definitions from the specialists in the United States, they will respond with explanations of the approaches that they have invented in their universities...In Latin America we have a great wealth that they ignore because of the barrier of the language: 50 years of participative and communitarian communication" [Alfonso Gumucio] plus contributions from Eduardo Contreras-Budge, Royal Colle, David Curtis and Savina Ammassari and Nirupama Sarma in the Consultants forum.

Overviews

3. Three insights:

"...[we] use communication to build and maintain alliances, raise supplemental funds,
manage crises, recruit staff and volunteers, create and maintain supportive media and policy climates, disseminate results and findings, and move issues and solutions into mainstream thinking and practice."

"communication is ... a critical, but insufficient and often over-promised tactic...we are awash in communication tactics (participatory models, advertising, advocacy, inter-educate, etc.) which are guided by weak strategies"

"Communication media and messages are important, but they are not ends in themselves...communication should begin by listening to rural people, taking into account their perceptions, needs, knowledge, experiences, cultures and traditions." 

Issue 

3. What are the key strategic communication challenges for organisations seeking to address priority development issues? Which are the best investments? 

Maternal Health and Mortality are priority development issues that pose major strategic problems. Check out Mona Moore's review and suggestions: "SAFER MOTHERHOOD 2000: Toward a Framework for Behavior Change to Reduce Maternal Deaths" 

Complete the critique form to share your ideas with others and contribute to further development of effective responses on these issues.

B. ENTERTAINMENT 

Compendium

4. "Preparing a compendium on entertainment-education programs around the world (1989-2000). Are you aware of any entertainment-education projects? Drop me a note..." [Vibert Cambridge]

Entertainment?

5. " ... question the use of the word 'entertainment' which seems an inadequate term to describe a diverse and well-established area of cultural practice...The use of 'entertainment' based media in development...has a history stretching back at least 30 years... The term culture and development is therefore becoming well known and widely used. So using a new term, like entertainment, at a time when we are just getting one set of terminology recognised, is not very helpful!" [Helen Gould] plus other contributions including Nick Putz on Macedonia and Associação de Apoio à Criança em Risco on Brazil. 

Local Entertainers and Broadcasters 

6. "Almost all entertainment on Indian Reservations is imported from the mainstream society...Social dances, high school basketball games or summertime spiritual ceremonies serve as social events but there is no locally-produced entertainment that would be appropriate for the graceful incorporation of a development message and very few local entertainers to do the job. So, we train students and health workers as local entertainers and broadcasters. For example, we facilitated a group of Navajo health workers writing and acting in their own short fitness and nutrition drama for local cable TV. [Paul Santomenna]. 

Issue

7. Strategic choice: Develop your own entertainment or work with the people and organisations already providing popular mainstream entertainemnt? 

C. EVALUATION AND RESEARCH 

Literacy

10. Wanted: "Literature on measuring literacy and numeracy levels - especially any decriptions of measurement projects that have taken place in recent years in Africa...and...organisations in Malawi which may be capable of carrying out large scale field research projects?" [Dave Ostry] 

Rural Telecentres

11. " A key focus of my work is the evaluation of rural community telecentres/
multipurpose centres, using applied research methodology of both a qualitative and quantiative nature...keen to hear from anyone working in a similar or related field. [Christél Jacob]

Techniques

12. "...the most prominent feature [of the Soul City Evaluation] is that we have taken "triangulation" to new levels. The evaluation as a whole is unfolding through a number of discrete, but closely interwoven sub-studies - literally and deliberately put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Furthermore, we are consistently using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and methods within discrete studies, both as stand-alone, and completely interlinked. [Esca Scheepers]

Social Change 

13. "...grateful if anyone can share with me experiences in developing indicators to measure the performance of advocacy and IEC activities...[and]...would like to learn more about the research methodology both qualitative and quantitative ones in studying impacts of mass communication on social changes." [Bui Phuong Dinh]

D. CONSULTANTS 

Private Sector

16. I wonder whether we sometimes are unwilling to learn more from the commercial world...people in the development communications business, including those in research, tend to turn their noses up at what the advertisers do...the development research community could learn a lot from commercial research but seems reluctant to do so." [Graham Mytton]

17. Responses: "agree wholeheartedly... dev comm has learned a lot: social marketing (for all its failings) is nothing more than the application of well-known marketing principles to a social product. But there's a lot more that can be learned..." [Paul Mundy] "I have been adapting commercial techniques and strategies of communication for and in rural areas for the past 5 years and I think that is the way to go. [Titus Moetsabi] 

Misunderstandings

18. I have found that I have used the same words as the organisation that I will be working for, in my faxes and emails beforehand, but the same words have different meanings in different parts of the world. What can a foreign consultant do before arriving, to reduce the likelihood of such misunderstandings? [Andrew Hobbs]

E. NEWS AND INFORMATION 

Networking

19. "few organisations...are investing in communication - to their rue. You grow only when you learn. And how do you learn if you don't network? That's what my organisation has been trying to do...- learning through networking." [Omololu Falobi] 

Issue

20. Are the traditional news and information strategies of issuing a press relaease, holding a news conference, staging a photo opportunity, etc, becoming outdated? 

F. WEB DEVELOPERS 

Statistics Packages

21. " [Try] www.superstats.com [Ben Norris]; "...check out Analog: ...[for] sites with a small budget...Web Trends does most everything we need." [Todd Hooge]; 

Paying Online

22. "...difficult for a non-profit to afford the price of a secure certificate and additional banking costs. 2 recommendations: (a) use amazon.com [as] they will provide a free link and post it but they take a percentage for each publication purchased...(b) non-profits pool their resources and purchase one certificate together..." [Cecilia Snyder]

23: Requests:

• Know anything about IPIN? Bills your phone bill. [Jo Tachhi]
   
• COLD FUSION - would love to network with anyone who has experience with it. [David Mariner]
   
• Software for Events Calendars...anyone know of a good product? [Warren Feek]
   

VACANCIES

24. Recent:

• Participatory Communication and Adult Learning - FAO
   
• Deputy Director - PATH Kenya
   
• Social Communication Adviser for Latin America - PAHO 
   
• Community Arts Programme Manager - Macedonia - Children's Aid Direct 
   
• Social Marketing Expert - GFA-Medica 
   
• Web Site Writer - UNICEF New York
   

This Drum Beat edited by Warren Feek - wfeek@comminit.com

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