| 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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The Consistency of Stories, Dialogue and Reflection for Healing
Message from Denise Gray-Felder |
| In this letter and in this issue of Mazi, CFSC Consortium President Denise Gray-Felder and staff reflect on how storytelling and collective dialogue contribute to development progress. But such progress may require expanded ways of looking at how communication interventions are delivered. |
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Photo Essay: How Does Communication for Social Change Impact the Lives of Women Refugees
by Lourdes Margarita Caballero |
| This spring, Lourdes Margarita Caballero, a communication associate at the Consortium, travelled to the Kiziba Refugee Camp, in Karongi District of western Rwanda for a first-hand look at the camp's Abakundanye Association. Her goal was to learn how communication for social change has impacted positively on the lives of the female Congolese refugees in this cooperative. She found that communication fostered collective responsibility and helped the women feel less lonely and more powerful. |
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FUTURECONNECT™ Forum in Taiwan
by Lourdes Margarita Caballero |
| The growth of global platforms such as Facebook or Orkut and of national or regional sites such as Renren and Ibibo has been explosive. This trend presents opportunities and risks for those working in HIV/AIDS. In 2009, aids2031 and the Communication for Social Change Consortium commissioned research on the impact of social networking on AIDS communication. The resulting report, FutureConnect: A Review of Social Networking Today, Tomorrow and Beyond, and Challenges for AIDS Communicators explores how young people rely on and trust social networking sites as reliable sources of information on sexuality and other important aspects of their lives. To prompt discussion about the findings of this research, the Consortium is sponsoring a series of dialogues around the world, starting in Asia. In this article, Lourdes Margarita Caballero, a communication associate at the Consortium, describes one such dialogue in Taipei, Taiwan. |
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Positive Deviance and Social Change
by Arvind Singhal, Ph.D. |
| Local wisdom trumps outside expertise when it comes to solving the most intractable problems. Internal change agents can solve such problems as widespread child malnutrition. Arvind Singhal, Ph.D., Samuel Shirley and Edna Holt Marston professor and director, Social Justice Initiative Department of Communication, at the University of Texas at El Paso, explains the power and effectiveness of "positive deviance." The following, a shortened version of a chapter to appear in Advances in the Study of the Diffusion of Innovations: Theory, Methods, and Application, by Arun Vishwanath and George Barnett, focuses on how a team working in Vietnam used the positive deviance approach. They learned what was going right in a community and amplified it—instead of zeroing in on what was going wrong and "fixing" it. |
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Photo Essay: Participatory Media Help Ugandan Women Who Have Experienced Obstetric Fistula Tell Their Stories
by Amy Hill |
| Several years ago, Amy Hill, an instructor in storytelling, a documentary filmmaker and a public health/community development consultant travelled to Uganda to gather stories of rural women who have endured obstetric fistula. This article describes her methods, which offer women opportunities for counselling, health education and leadership development. She includes story excerpts and highlights local uses for such media pieces, which today are shared in training sessions to improve the skills of health providers. They also are effective in policy advocacy settings, to advocate for women's rights, gender healthcare equity and improved access to childbirth services. |
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Global Media in Disasters and Media Disasters: Alleged Looters in Haiti
by Jude Fernando, Ph.D. |
| Global mass media often sensationalise disasters: Disaster sells. Depending on how they cover the disaster, the media can either help or hinder relief efforts. Jude Fernando, a Clark University professor specialising in humanitarian assistance in complex emergencies and natural disasters, explains how repressive governments often play up stereotypical images of alleged looting to transform a humanitarian crisis into a law-and-order crisis. |
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Communication for Empowerment: Global Report
by Elizabeth McCall |
A few years ago, the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre developed a UNDP Guidance Note on Communication for Empowerment, drawing upon the expertise of the Communication for Social Change Consortium. The purpose of this Guidance Note was to turn general insights into mainstream planning tools that facilitate an understanding of the information and communication needs of poor and marginalised people, hopefully also making this a permanent feature in national development planning processes.
The Communication for Empowerment: Global Report by Elizabeth McCall is the result of the Consortium's three-year partnership in piloting the Communication for Empowerment approach in five Least Developed Countries. The report presents key learning from the information and communication needs assessments conducted in the five countries, funded by a grant from the U.N. Democracy Fund (UNDEF).
The pilot process offered us a unique opportunity to test the framework and understand how information flows within communities and how the voices of those people who are often not heard or seen are unleashed. The assessments have helped us to widen our own conception of Communication for Empowerment. It has evolved from an initial conception as part of UNDP's Access to Information work—primarily geared to meeting the information and communication needs of the people through specific media strategies—to a more rigorous approach that promotes inclusive participation, empowerment of poor and marginalised people, and accountability of the state to its citizens. |
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| Public Conversation DVD Now Available |
The Communication for Social Change Consortium has launched a new DVD about how to conduct public conversations on sensitive issues. The DVD is particularly useful for those facilitating conversations about AIDS and how communities can address stigma, youth engagement and people who engage in behaviour that makes them vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. The DVD provides an array of examples from public conversations held in Mexico, Cameroon, Senegal, San Francisco and Jamaica.
The DVD is a learning tool for facilitators who want to explore public conversations as a way to build the communication capacity of stakeholders. Professors can use it to discuss critically the challenges and opportunities of conducting dialogue with vulnerable groups, young people and advocates, among others. It also includes tips on how to organise and facilitate public conversations effectively and offers suggestions on follow through.
Click here to watch the preview. To place your orders, click here. Each DVD costs USD$15.
For inquiries and feedback, please email Lourdes Caballero at lcaballero@cfsc.org. |
Exclusive Special Preview for Mazi Readers
Communication for Social Change Anthology: Historical and Contemporary Readings Excerpts from the English and Spanish Versions |
The Communication for Social Change Anthology is the first-ever collection of historical and contemporary readings on the subject of communication for social change. With 150 contributors from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Pacific Region and North America, this is essential reference for universities and research centres. The anthology—now available in Spanish as well as English—is a practical, comprehensive and definitive guide to the critical role communication plays in helping people make positive changes in their lives and their communities.
To order Spanish version, click here
To order English version, click here
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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's former 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 $10 USD. Special offer: If you order this DVD, along with its companion DVD, "Voices of the Magdalena," the price is $16 USD for both. |
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| Useful Links |
Telling Stories of Survival
Silence Speaks is a global digital storytelling initiative supporting the telling and witnessing of stories that often remain untold. These stories are narratives of survival in the wake of abuse, war and displacement. They challenge stigma and marginalisation. Silence Speaks workshops blend oral history, popular education and participatory media production, enabling people to tell their life stories.
http://www.silencespeaks.org/ |
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