Communication for Social Change

1. Communication for Social Change Thomas Tufte, Prof. Roskilde University Presentation given at Institute for Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, February 23rd 2012

2. Introduction • CFSC – defining the field • CFSC – how to workstrategically? • DevelopmentIssues • Keyplayers and theirapproaches • Storytelling & edutainment • Theoreticalchallenges • Discussion

3. Defining the field • Buzz for 5 minutes with your neighbour: What are three characteristics of communication interventions that articulate social change…

4. I have a Dream… Martin Luther King Capitol Hill, 1963

5. Communication for Social ChangeDefinition CFSC is a process of public and private dialogue through which people themselves define who they are, what they need and how to get what they need in order to improve their own lives. It utilizes dialogue that leads to collective problem identification, decision making and community-based implementation of solutions to development issues (Ref: www.communicationforsocialchange)

6. Development Issues (1) where media and comm play a role • Good Governance (transparency in decision-making and in internal and external communication) • Health Issues (HIV/AIDS prevention, life style changes, diabetes, nutrition) • Sustainable develpment and Climate Change • Popular Education (social movements in Latin America, ie indegenous groups)

7. Development Issues (2) where media and comm play a role • Human Rights Violations (campaigns, ie Amnesty International) • Conflict Resolution (theatre and sport in Burundi) • Trade (EU Sugar Policy: Oxfam Campaign) • Cultural Heritage (reclaiming urban sites)

8. Key players… • Governments • UN/International governmental agencies • INGOs/NGOs • Social Movements/TANs • North/South • Local/National/International/Transnational

9. Approaches within Communication for Development Individual/Diffusion Structural Causes/ Participation Dissemination /Persuasion IEC BCC UNAIDS CFSC Convergence model No magic formula Diversity of frameworks + diversity of strategies + multiplicity of interventions = Growth of the field = New conceptual approaches

10. Communicating for what? • Development Support Communication (UN/FAO) • DevelopmentCommunication (Los Banos/Quebral) • BehaviourChangeCommunication (Health) • Information, Education and Communication • ParticipatoryCommunication • Alternative Comm (Latin American Scholars) • Communication for Development • Communication for Empowerment (UNDP) • Communication for Social Change (RF) • Comm for Social and StructurlChange (Servaes) • Comm for Social and SustainableChange • Social and BehaviourChangeComm (Wits) • C4D (UNICEF)

11. The driving forces of communication for social change • CFSC is horizontal and strengthens community bonds by amplifying the voices of the people who are poorest • people within poor communities must be the protagonists for their own change and manage their own communication tools • rather than focusing on persuasion and information dissemination, CFSCpromotes dialogue among equal voices, and debate and negotiations within communities • the results of the CFSC process go beyond individual behaviour and consider the influence of social norms, values, current policies, culture and the overall development context • CFSC strives to strengthen cultural identity, trust, commitment, voice, ownership, community engagement and empowerment • CFSC rejects the linear model of information transmission from a central sender to an individual receiver, and relies instead on a cyclical process of interactions focused on shared knowledge and collective action

12. Types of Social Change Outcome Indicators • Leadership • Degree and Equity of Participation • Information Equity • Collective Self-Efficacy • Sense of Ownership • Social Cohesion • Social Norms

14. Telling Stories, Changing Lives? (1) • Compared with the reality which comes from being seen and heard, even the greatest forces of intimate life – the passions of the heart, the thoughts of the mind, the delights of the senses – lead to an uncertain, shadowy kind of existence unless and until they are transformed, deprivatized and deindividualized, as it were, into a shape to fit them for public appearance. The most current of such transformations occurs in storytelling… (Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 1958: 50)

15. Telling Stories, Changing Lives? (2) • Storytelling is a copying strategy that involves making words stand for the world, and then, by manipulating them, changing one’s experience of the world. By constructing, relating and sharing stories, people contrive to restore viability to their relationship with others, redressing a bias toward autonomy when it has been lost, and affirming collective ideals in the fact of disparate experiences. It is not that speech is a replacement for action: rather that it is a supplement, to be exploited when action is impossible or confounded (Michael Jackson, 2002: 18)

16. The Strategic Roles of Telling Stories 1. Making the private public 2. A vital human strategy to sustain a sense of agency when confronted with disempowering circumstances

17. Strategic Aims of Edutainment • Articulate processes of building trust and raising awareness • Articulate the voices of marginalized groups • Facilitate social mobilization • Contribute to the creation of an enabling environment where the ‘ordinary citizen’ can feel a sense of agency

18. Three Generations of Storytelling (1)

19. Three Generations of Storytelling (2)

20. Communication and Development: New Theoretical Perspectives Post–Development * Issues of voice, questioning the dominant discourse of development Radical democracy • Framework on democracy and citizenship (Chantal Mouffe – 1993/2005) Cultural Studies • Audience Reception Analysis and Sense–Making processes • Telenovelas, storytelling – understanding potential of soap operas Dialogic Communication and liberating pedagogy (Paulo Freire 1967) Voice and public discourse • Theory of public sphere (Habermas/Thompson/Rosa Maria Alfaro) • Discourse Analysis

21. Contemporary Themes in theComDev Debate • Developmentparadigms – increasedfocusoncitizens, participation, agency • Role of popularculture, narrative and identity formation • Power issues and (mediated)public sphere • Social movements, TANs • Social media (mobile phones, internet) Connecting back to Civil Rights Movement in USA..