Development action with informed and engaged societies
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Quantum Shift TV

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Quantum Shift TV is a Canadian, web-based effort intended to renew the cultural values of community, care, and interconnectedness through the use of technology and citizen journalism. Guided by research from the Max Plank Institute in Germany, organisers seek to use web-based technology to shift culture from a "me" to "we" paradigm - through what is characterised as a "socially responsible media business that shares the stories of those who positively impact social and environmental change on our planet."

Online discussion is fostered through "Quantum Shift Channels", which are designed to engage people in dialogue and debate about issues such as climate change, democracy, education, energy, giving, health and wellness, human rights, and peace.
Communication Strategies

Visitors to the interactive Quantum Shift TV website may engage in a variety of learning and communication process related to this effort to tell stories to inspire positive action. Quantum Shift seeks to educate through games and entertainment, and to connect companies with conscious consumers.

For example, Quantum Shift TV's contest engine enables anyone to create a team to support a person's video(s), and generates points for that team from all kinds of activity on the site - e.g., watching, rating, commenting on, and forwarding videos to friends, uploading new videos, and answering trivia questions and solving the puzzles that are woven throughout the contests. Winning is based not only on how many votes a contestant receives, but on points generated by their team of supporters. One video, termed "SOIL: The Secret Solution to Global Warming", was uploaded to the website by Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, who makes the case (addressing President Bush, Prime Minister Harper, and Prime Minister Blair) that shifting existing subsidies to sustainable farming practices could offset greenhouse emissions 10% to 20%. Members of the global public were invited to vote on policy proposal via an online poll (Click here to view this video, and others.)

Development Issues

Environment.

Key Points

This excerpt from the Quantum Shift TV website may help to explain the motivation behind the project: "A culture's behavior is based on its values and beliefs, which in turn are based on, and reinforced by, its stories. In today's world, the media is our storyteller. The way in which the media presents news stories shapes the values of our children and teenagers and reinforces those values in adults. So what happens when traditional newsrooms focus on death, catastrophe, violence, conflict and controversy rather than on the daily stories about success, breakthroughs, the perseverance of the human spirit and the caring in our communities?....Is that how we want to educate our children? Is that the world we truly want to create?"

Sources

June 5 2007 press release, forwarded to the WorldWire resource (provided by Environment News Service and Quantum Shift TV and Percy Schmeiser); and Quantum Shift TV website.

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