| CFSC Consortium Body of Knowledge |
Are you looking for articles, books, essays, journals or reports on communication for development and social change? Is your interest HIV/AIDS, human rights or rural development? No matter what your issue, as long as it deals with communication for social change, you should be able to find useful references in the Body of Knowledge, the CFSC Consortium’s searchable database.
The body of knowledge has more than 3,000 references from around the world now registered. We invite you to consult the database for your use. And we encourage you to submit any reference you consider relevant to helping our database continue to grow. |
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| Inviting Guest Contributors |
Do you know of interesting examples of successful applications of communication for social change principles within your community or country?
Mazi is looking for good case stories of CFSC at work: illustrations of the process of dialogue leading to community decision-making, action, implementation, monitoring, assessment and evaluation. We’re especially interested in examples of how communication processes have been strengthened or established at a community level by people who have been traditionally marginalised.
Help all of us build a better understanding of the many and varied ways that public dialogue leads to community decision-making and action. Describe for us where it takes place and why. Explain how CFSC is working. Inspire us all by telling us your community’s story.
Please e-mail your contribution of at least 250 words to mazi@communicationforsocialchange.org
Please make sure your story includes the CFSC elements: catalyst or catalytic event, problem identification, dialogue, decision-making, community action, monitoring and evaluation, and assessment of change at the individual and societal levels. Include your name, phone number, fax (if available) and email address.
The facts of all submissions will be verified. Once verified, they may be included either in Mazi or on the Consortium’s website. |
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| Inviting Artistic Images, Songs, Poetry Showing CFSC In Action |
Mazi invites your original images showing communication for social change in action. Whatever your medium—photography, painting, sketches, mosaics, murals, songs or dances—if you have an image showing people working together to give everyone a voice—we will consider publishing it in our online magazine. Unfortunately, we are unable to return your submission. We also reserve the right to crop and/or edit your work for style and content. Each creator will be credited online for his or her submission.
Please e-mail your contribution to mazi@communicationforsocialchange.org |
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When Parents Say No
Message from Denise Gray-Felder |
| Does any parent have the moral right to refuse care that might save his child’s life? This type of medical ethical question is debated often in professional journals and even mass media, especially those in North America and Europe. Before I became a parent I likely would have answered, "Of course she does: It's her child." But as I practice this craft of parenting I become more conflicted with each passing year. |
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The Irony of Communication for Social Change
by Silvio Waisbord |
| Communication must demonstrate its relevance if it is going to take a central role in development, argues Silvio Waisbord. Waisbord, a native of Argentina, is an author and scholar and is currently a professor at George Washington University. In this piece, based upon a speech he delivered during the 20th anniversary celebration of the communication for development program at Ohio University, he offers us tactics to meet the challenge of relevancy. |
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Reflections on Communication Challenges of HIV-AIDS
by Alfonso Gumucio, Ailish Byrne and Denise Gray-Felder |
| In this piece, prepared for a UNAIDS consultative meeting on social change communication held in August 2007, the Consortium's Alfonso Gumucio, Ailish Byrne and Denise Gray-Felder examine the opportunities ahead and failures to date of HIV-AIDS communication approaches They point out that "information dissemination per se, or marketing messages, are not enough." What's needed are communication processes involving people and helping them make shifts in the cultural norms and values of their societies. Clearly, they say, the emphasis should be on deeper and lasting social change. |
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From Early Field Trials to Global Reach: The Roots of the Communication for Social Change Consortium
by Francina Radford and Denise Gray-Felder |
| Many people working in development know how and why the Consortium got its start. Yet many do not. This review by Francina Radford and Denise Gray-Felder is a summary of the earliest days of communication for social change projects in Southern African. From this early exploratory work, the Communication for Social Change Consortium was born, with its current foci on training practitioners and students, expanding the field and building knowledge, developing resources and training, working with local partners to use communication for social change, maintaining networks of universities and practitioners skilled in CFSC, and serving as a repository for information and data on communication for social change. This review was compiled from various reports, including a review of CFSC programme evaluations. Raiford, a graduate of Spelman College, now works with ABC television and was the Consortium's first intern. |
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Photo Essay: Community Dialogue Tool Helps Prevent Polio in Nigeria
by Dominique Thaly |
| The Communication for Social Change Consortium has been working on polio communication in Nigeria since 2005, following the suspension of polio immunization in two northern states. The Consortium is working with several local partners to help local people use community-based communication processes in order to better address the reasons why some parents reject polio vaccines for their young children. |
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Strengthening Our Alliance with the Universidad del Norte
by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron |
| The Consortium continues to forge strong alliances with universities worldwide. Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, managing director for programmes, reports the latest developments in the Consortium's relationship with the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia. |
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‘When the Task is Accomplished, Can We Say We Did It Ourselves?’ A Quest to Eliminate MRSA at the Veterans Health Administration’s Hospitals in Pittsburgh
by Arvind Singhal and Karen Greiner |
| How do you the battle the spread of invisible, devious and deadly bacteria called Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)? Some 100 million Americans carry staph aureus; of which three million carry the drug-resistant MRSA. Infection rates are spiraling upward in almost all United States hospitals. In this report, Arvind Singhal, a department of communication professor at the University of Texas, El Paso, and Karen Greiner a graduate student in the school of communication studies at Ohio University, show how the communication for social change approach has helped the Veterans Health Administration in Pittsburgh Healthcare System sharply reduce its MRSA infection rate. |
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| Send Us Your Nominations for Experts on Social Accountability |
The Consortium is looking for well-recognized experts to participate in an upcoming workshop sponsored by a large funder on social accountability mechanisms. If you know of people with extensive experience in social accountability and how it can be measured and assessed, please send us the name and the email address of that person, along with a brief description of the person's background and experience.
Recommendations must be received by September 10, 2007. |
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| CFSC Anthology: Historical and Contemporary Readings |
On Sale Now. $120 per copy for this two-volume reference bound into one book. Special price: $75 per copy for orders of three or more. Order today online. Shipped within 24 hours.
The Communication for Social Change Anthology:
Historical and Contemporary Readings
This groundbreaking book brings together a broad variety of views and features more than 150 key thinkers throughout the world. Edited by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron and Thomas Tufte, the anthology reviews the evolution of communication for social change thinking from the early 20th century to the present. With more than 1,000 pages, this reference work is essential for communication and development experts as well as for anyone conducting business globally.
Click here now to order your copy. |
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| Useful Links |
African Framework for the Development of a Sustainable and Pluralistic Media
The media in Africa have a critical role to play in the development of the continent. A result of 2006 and 2007 consultations with leading players in African media, this Economic Commission for Africa report calls for a “big push,” both financial and intellectual, toward ensuring a healthy media sector. To download a copy:
http://www.uneca.org/
Intellectuals Searching for Publics: Who is Out There
In this Management Communication Quarterly article, Michael Papa, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, and Arvind Singhal, University Texas-El Paso, discuss what it means to be a public intellectual, especially in today’s media-rich, computer-mediated world? This article, reprinted here with permission by Sage Publications, traces the authors’ journey in their shared understanding of how intellectual pursuits connect to the world’s marginalized people.
http://mcq.sagepub.com/
Going Beyond the Mainstream Corporate Media
If you’re interested in news and features about global issues and trends from an online resource that crosses borders and goes beyond the mainstream corporate media—go to LinkTV, where you can find such features as an interview with Afropop star Angelique Kidjo, in which she talks about her music, ideals and activism, as well as “Mosaic: World News from the Middle East:
http://www.linktv.org/ |
| Donating Made Quick and Easy Online |
| If you would like to donate to the CFSC Consortium, it is now easier than ever. Simply visit our Web site. We now accept MasterCard, Visa, Amex, and Discover. |
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