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Media Penetration in Africa
Radio and Development in Africa, A Concept Paper. Prepared for the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada by Mary Myers. August 2008 (revised March 2009). Available from
http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/12581214041Radio_and_Development_in_Africa,_concept_paper.pdf
Mobile Technology
What is Development Communication
Development communication is the process of
intervening in a systematic or strategic
manner with either media (print, radio,
telephony, video, and the Internet), or education
(training, literacy, schooling) for the purpose of
positive social change. The change could be
economic, personal, as in spiritual, social,
cultural, or political. (McPhail, 2009)
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Aims of Development Communication
• Raise awareness
• Prompt behavioural change and change attitudes
• Social Mobilisation
• Advocacy and Fundraising
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Communication and Development
• Daniel Lerner (1958): role of media in conveying actions and models
needed to allow economic gain. Media: helps agrarian communities
learn new ideas and practices
• Everett Rogers, The Diffusion of Innovations (1962): examined radio,
literacy and the role of opinion leaders in influencing the adoption of
new work habits among farmers
• Lucien Pye, Communication and Political Development (1963):
importance of communication process and the media in the
establishment of a democratic society
• Wilbur Schramm, Mass Media and National Development (1964):
mass media leads to economic growth by disseminating the
knowledge needed to replace traditional agricultural methods with
modern and more effective ones
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Want = Get
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Low level of expectation
+
High degree of
achievement
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High expectation
combined with low
achievement=
instability
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Cash + Literacy +
Motivation =
Development
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Motivation
• Motivation is considered as the main force behind social
mobility and change
• In order to promote consistent development, individuals
are supposed to have the knowledge and the
willingness to change their life standards
• Motivation, along with the right social, economic and
political scenarios is the ultimate driver of social mobility
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Biases of Development Communication
• Mass-Media and Literacy: Based on Lerner and Schramm’s
approach. The bullet theory of communication will be enough
to get people to move away from traditional forms of living
and into development.
• Psychological constrains: Rogers (1969) coined the term
subculture of peasantry that argued that the problem needed
to address a change in mind-set
• External socio-economic constraints: lack of knowledge and
skills, lack of people’s involvement, lack of financial and
material inputs, inadequate market development, lack of
infrastructure, lack of employment (Ascroft, 1973)
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Participatory Communication
• Surge as a response to modernisation and cultural
imperialism theories
• Concerned with the effects of individuals on mass
communication
• Grassroots communication: community media, community
leaders, opinion makers
• Emic perspective: understanding the communication process
from the communities’ point of view
• Considering culture and issues of importance to people. With
this it breaks away from the prescriptive approach of the
modernisation theories
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Participatory Communication
• Rights of people to be heard: the VOICE
• Participation of native populations in their own development
• Communication process is based on a horizontal exchange
of information as opposed to a vertical dissemination of
knowledge
• Changes the approach of technical assistance and aid to
capacity building and training: from “I do it for you” to “I
show you how to do it yourself”. Aid support approach
changes to the provision of facilitators, trainers or
consultants.
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Exit, Voice and Loyalty (Hirshcham, 1970)
• In organisations and firms, citizens have the option to exit
or raise their voice
• Customers perceive a decline in the quality of products or
services
• Customers’ options are either to find another provider
(company, firm) or raise their voices to prompt changes in
the services
• Voice is a bottom up response
• Do institutions/firms understand these options and do
anything to retain customers?
Freedom of speech
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
UN agreement based on the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, accepted by most Democratic countries. Outlines that:
1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right
shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or
in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article
carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be
subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are
provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre
public), or of public health or morals.
Freedom of the Press
• Based on the article 19, Press must be free from
Government intervention or censorship
• Monitors censorship as well as violence against
journalists worldwide.
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Media: Common Knowledge
Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)
“Only a newspaper can put the same thought at the same
time before a thousand readers... A newspaper is not only
able to suggest a common plan to many men; it provides
them with the means of carrying out in common the plans
that they have thought for themselves.”
Media and Good Governance
• Monitors and checks governments’ performance and
political abuse
• Transparency of the democratic process
• Accountability of bureaucracy and expenditure
• A tool to prompt changes in behaviours and attitudes in the
public: Participation in the electoral process and education
of the electorate
• Maximises awareness about wrong-doing in government
• Coordination enhancing: simultaneity and repetition of
messages ensures coordinated civil responses
Check on Governments
Amartya Sen. Development as Freedom, 1999
Active political opposition (in democratic systems) and a
FREE PRESS is the only mechanism to prevent famines
(1999:181)
Politically competitive environment:
• Opposition has the incentive to communicate the threat of
famine to the public.
• Free and independent media is the main means to
communicating this to the masses.
Coordination problem
Coyne and Leeson, Media, Development and Institutional
change, 2009
•Citizens establishing limitations on government involves a
coordination problem
•Agreement on what needs to be limited. What and How?
Political scientist Barry Weingast: “a central step in the
creation of limited government is that citizens... construct a
mechanism that solves the coordination problem” (1995: 17)
Alberto Fujimori, Former President of Peru 1990-2000
The Vladivideos
• Vladimiro Montesinos was Chief of Intelligence Service for
the President since 1990
• He recorded over 1,000 videos bribing opposition members
of parliament, judges and media companies
• September 2000: One video bribing a member of
parliament, was leaked to a small private TV not in his
payroll.
• National backlash that lead to the end of Fujimori’s
mandate in Peru in 2000 when he escaped to Japan
Vladivideos: the evidence
• The videos initiated a public backlash against the corruption
of the government. Before this, lack of evidence discredited
any attempts to uncover the widespread corruption
• Repeated public airing created common knowledge of the
corruption, leading to a concerted response against it
• Media worked as a coordination mechanism for the
population
• Economists McMillan and Zoido (2004) analysed the bribes
and found that owners of Media companies were paid over
100 times more than judges or members of parliament
Kenya: Post-Election violence in 2007
KENYA: Joshua Arap Sang on Kenya TV
The Hague Justice Portal profile of Joshua arap Sang says:
“the material presented to them by the Prosecutor provided grounds to believe
that Sang placed Kass FM at the disposal of the network, advertising the
organisation’s meetings and using his on-air position to spread hate messages
and incite violence by broadcasting false news regarding alleged murders of Kalenjins.”
Some take-away messages
• Social Media: Quick and relatively unregulated media
• Evidence of abuse is posted as YouTube videos and
broadcasted on global media generating international
support
• Unless backed by solid evidence, social media is a source
of mostly not trustworthy material which can cause
confusion rather than coordinated response
• Western media compiles information from tweets and blogs
using them as a trusted reference creating distorted
international public opinion
• Media as a stakeholder in Governance