| 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 Web site. |
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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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| Please Support Us |
Your tax deductible contribution to the Communication for Social Change Consortium will be used to support our work in a number of areas including HIV and AIDS globally and in Africa and the United States, polio communication, communication for empowerment, case story development and evidence gathering, participatory monitoring and evaluation, publications and research, Body of Knowledge and curriculum development and training.
All contributions made are fully tax deductible in the United States to the full extent of the law. The Consortium is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organisation working throughout the world.
To make a donation online, please click here. Or, contributions can be mailed to: CFSC Consortium, 14 South Orange Avenue, Suite 2F, South Orange, NJ 07079. We can accept bank drafts or cheques in U.S. dollars, British sterling, euros or South African rand.
Thank you for your support. |
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Grappling With the Complexity of Change
Message from Denise Gray-Felder |
| Complexity is a subject that intrigues and confounds scholars and practitioners the world over. Many of us who work in international development think that complexity must be grappled with, wrestled to the ground and tamed. |
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Exclusive Special Preview for Mazi Readers
Communication for Social Change Anthology: Historical and Contemporary Readings Excerpt from the Spanish Version |
The Communication for Social Change Anthology is available for the first time in Spanish. A collection of readings on the subject of communication for social change, this is an essential reference for universities and research centres as well as for departments of anthropology, sociology and international relations. The 1500-page book contains 200 readings by 150 authors from all regions of the world, including many Latin American experts on communication for social change.
Click here to order Spanish version
Click here to order English version
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| When It Comes to Social Change, The Machine Metaphor Has Limits by Virginia Lacayo |
| If social change is nonlinear, long term and rarely predictable, why do so many organisations use a mechanistic approach in an attempt to measure and evaluate development initiatives? Virginia Lacayo, a Ph. D. candidate at the School of Media Arts and Studies at Ohio University, in the United States, explains why Westerners especially are drawn to the machine metaphor, and she discusses the limitations of that approach. Lacayo, whose specialty is gender and social change, concludes by providing Mazi readers a variety of simple rules to avoid those limitations. |
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Mexico City Highlights: Looking at AIDS Globally and Locally
by CFSC Consortium Staff |
| The human battle against AIDS has become a war of attrition. The XVII International AIDS Conference, which took place in Mexico City from August 3 to August 8, 2008, highlighted both good news and bad. The death rate from AIDS is falling globally. But people on the margins—poor people, sex workers and gay people—are still the most vulnerable. The implications for communication for social change—engaging in community dialogue to identify problems and work together to solve them—are enormous. Following are some meeting highlights from the conference Web site as well as from the Web site of the Black AIDS Institute, a United States-based think tank. For comprehensive meeting coverage, see Useful Links. |
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Remembering Orlando Fals Borda (1925-2008)
by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron |
| On Tuesday, August 12, the world lost one of Latin America's most important social scientists, Colombian sociologist Orlando Fals Borda. His passing is a great loss for the academic world across borders and a particular loss for us at the Consortium: Fals Borda is one of the authors in the Consortium's Communication for Social Change Anthology: Historical and Contemporary Readings. He was also a friend to many of us in the Consortium's university network. Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, the Consortium's managing director of programmes, writes this memoriam. |
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| Photo Essay: How Community Radio Helped Move Democracy Forward in Sierra Leone by Bill Siemering |
| Community radio can help ensure people elect their leaders in fair and transparent elections. The nonprofit organisation Developing Radio Partners helped the people of Sierra Leone bring about change in their government peacefully, despite daunting challenges. |
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| DVDs: “Women of Pastapur” and "Voices from the Magdalena" Show Power of Community Media Ownership |
| A new, 27-minute documentary, a DVD directed and photographed by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron, the Consortium managing director of programmes, shows that, when people who are poor own their own media, they have the means to raise their voices as a community, address problems and improve their lives. In the villages around Zaheerabad, an impoverished area in the state of Andhra Proadesh, India, a handful of Dalit women, illiterate and mostly dedicated to farming, took communication into their own hands, using video and radio in their struggle for self-reliance. Achieving local, national and global impact, the community's broadcasts show CFSC in action. Rich in beautiful images, this DVD is a must for anyone seeking to demonstrate the power of local community ownership of media and how they can achieve positive social change. Available now for $10USD. Special offer: If you order this DVD, along with its companion DVD, "Voices of the Magdalena," the price is $16USD for both. |
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| Media’s Role in the Global Divides: A Report From IAMCR’s 2008 Congress by Florencia Enghel |
| What is the relationship between media and global inequity? More than 900 participants from 85 countries gathered in Stockholm from July 21 to July 25, 2008 to address that question. Hosted by the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), a professional association of communication scholars, the conference explored the pivotal yet under-researched roles the media play with regard to today's global inequalities. Florencia Enghel, editor of Glocal Times, attended the conference and filed this report for Mazi. |
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OURMedia 7 Meets in Accra, Ghana
by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron |
OURMedia / NuestrosMedios, a network of academics, practitioners and activists focused on participatory communication, held its annual conference in Africa for the first time this August. The meeting's theme was "Identity, Inclusion, Innovation: Alternative Communication in a Globalised World." Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron, the Consortium's managing director of programmes, shares what he calls a "vivid experience" that inspired conferees to "go forward in the continuous search of communication that struggles for justice, dignity and equality."
Read the OURMedia Communique |
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Photo Essay: Ghana Welcomes OURMedia 7 to Africa
by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron |
| In early August, Ghana opened its arms in warm welcome to conferees attending OURMedia 7. Those scholars and practitioners attending, representing 42 countries, spent 4 days in workshops and discussion sessions ranging from the future of community radio to community-based participatory approaches. During the week, the conference celebrated the 10th anniversary of Ghana's own Radio Ada and noted the upcoming 25th anniversary of AMARC. |
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| Useful Links |
Mexico City AIDS 2008: Comprehensive Conference Coverage
Mazi readers wishing to read comprehensive, day-by-day reports of the XVII International AIDS conference, which drew 23,000 people and included a trade show, exhibits, performances, symposia, etc., should visit the official conference Web site: http://www.aids2008.org/. Those wishing to read commentary on AIDS 2008 by the United States-based think tank Black AIDS Institute should visit:
www.blackaids.org
Call for Applications: Every Human Has Rights Media Awards
December 2008 will mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Elders—world leaders convened by Nelson Mandela to use their wisdom, independence and experience to tackle the world's toughest problems—will partner with the Every Human Has Rights Campaign to honor mainstream and citizen journalists from around the world who have reported powerful human rights stories. An independent international jury will select the honorees. The goal of the awards is to support human rights reporting and encourage press freedom worldwide. Application deadline: September 15, 2008, 12 midnight, Paris time. For more information:
www.everyhumanhasrights.org
International Poverty Centre to Launch
'Poverty Networks' on its Web Site
The IPC, a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme and the Brazilian Government's Institute of Applied Economic Research, promotes South-South Cooperation on applied poverty research and training. The IPC has more than 170 publications that help shape policy aimed at reducing poverty and inequality. When launched, "Poverty Networks," a section of IPC's Web site, will comprise comprehensive and accessible directory of development gateways. The IPC's Web site is at:
www.undp-povertycentre.org
Listening to the Voices of Africa's Children
Children are the fictional narrators in Say You're One of Us, a collection of stories about violence and poverty that take place in Kenya, Nigeria, Benin, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Author Uwem Akpan, a Nigerian Jesuit priest, has written a book critics describe as "amazing and moving," "ravishing and sad" and "well-crafted and chilling." For more information, including an excerpt, visit the book's official Web site:
www.hachettebookgroupusa.com
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