Oscar Hemer and Thomas Tufte:
2011 communicated for social change worldwide!

Ørecomm co-directors Oscar Hemer and Thomas Tufte summarize 2011 from an Ørecomm perspective – and point to ongoing and upcoming activities. Full 4-page report available here.

“A little over a year ago, who would have thought so much would change in 2011? Revolutions and massive social mobilizations across the globe – from the already iconic ‘Arab Spring’ to civil unrest and strikes in Malawi, massive student protests in Chile, a Europe in profound crisis from Greece, UK and Italy to the indignados of Spain. 2011 culminated with the widespread Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in the US and the beginning mobilization around Putin’s possible reelection for president in Russia in 2012.

The much discussed role of social media in many of these mobilizations has sparked a historical attention to communication for social change in the spheres of media and communication scholars. Which current conferences or new calls for publications are not about voice and participation, mobilization and rights, citizenship and change? Communication for social change as a terrain of practice and as a cross-disciplinary field of scholarship and research is at the verge of drowning in success! In this environment, our field of communication for development and social change has proliferated, becoming increasingly institutionalized, and the participants in Ørecomm have done a pretty good job of moving along and taking up the challenges.

Ørecomm has in 2011 been active both in collaborating around the institutionalization of communication for development programs worldwide, in initiating and participating in new publications in the field, in having PhD-students take up a series of the emerging research challenges and lastly, Ørecomm has in 2011 hosted a long range of seminars, guest lectures and most importantly, the 5-day Ørecomm festival in September 2011.”

Download the full 4-page report here.