Ørecomm at Social Media Week in Copenhagen

Mark your calendar for 17-21 February 2014! Social Media Week in Copenhagen is coming up, and Ørecomm has the pleasure to contribute with two panels.

We are looking forward to a great opportunity for debate and hope to see many new and old friends. Places are filling up really fast, so don’t wait to long to register.

Live stream? Yes, we are planning on live streaming the events. More information about this will be posted closer to the event.

Social Media and International Development – Communication for Social Change in the Digital Age

Tuesday 18 February, 9.30-10.30 am at Danish Design Centre

Social media are widely discussed in international politics, development and humanitarian aid. Between critical discussions around ‘clicktivism’, celebrity advocacy and traditional media reporting about the ‘Third World’ lies a more nuanced debate about social media’s limitations, the chances of technology and how digital development can have an impact…

#GOComm

Communication for Development at a Crossroads –The Challenge of Social Movements

Thursday 20 February, 9.30-12.00 am at UN City

Thomas Tufte, Tobias Denskus and Norbert Wildermuth are some of the leading Scandinavian scholars in the field of Communication for Development. As a part of Ørecomm, they have extended academic knowledge as well as personal experiences with the interrelationship between communications and global change…

#smwc4d

Seminar: Communication for Development and Social Change in a New Era

The emergence and global spread of new ICT:s has forever changed the landscape in the area of Communication for Development. New tools makes new opportunities for social change, but also present challenges.

On Wednesday, 22 January, Ørecomm members Oscar Hemer and Tobias Denskus will speak on the subject at a unique seminar organized by Sida in cooperation with Malmö University.

The seminar takes place in Stockholm and is an open event, although seats are limited (RSVP no later than 20 January).

You can also follow the seminar online. For details, look here.

We hope to see you there!

Programme

13:00-13:25 Oscar Hemer, coordinator of the Master programme in Communication for Development at Malmö University on ‘Advances in Communication for Development’

13:30-13:55 Tobias Denskus, senior lecturer at Communication for development, Malmö University, ‘From social media to social change – Insights into digital development trends’

14:00-14:25 Jens Karberg, program officer ICT4D at Sida, ‘ICT – a game-changer for development?’

14:25 -14:45 Panel discussion and questions (Moderator Tove Silveira Wennergren)

14:45-15:00 Coffee

Where? Room 18 Djenné, Sida, Valhallavägen 199

New Report: Sharing of Stories Creates Dialogue

The collaboration deals with central issues relating to public memory and archiving. One such issue is the tension/difference between collecting for storing and exhibiting and then on the other hand: a sharing of stories and experiences to create dialogue, movement and change.

Reporting back to those participating, and those who are just interested to be informed, is an important part of the process and movement. As a first step the project group compiled a newsletter in the form of a report from the workshop.

Parvin Ardalan, the initiator of the project, introduced the workshop:

She continued:

“The aim of this project – which really is a movement and a process – is to document stories by interviewing, collecting life stories, holding seminars and workshops, organizing exhibitions etc. With the participant’s tales we would like to question and explore responses and answers to promote a collective discussion with and about immigrant women in Malmö.”

In addition to introductions from Parvin Ardalan and several other speakers, participants were invited to express and discuss their own memories and ideas in small groups.

The newsletter, containing quotes, summaries and pictures of the outcomes from the workshop in the form of a report, can be downloaded in English as well as in Swedish.

This text was originally published here.

Book Launch: Popular Representations of Development – in London on 13 January

Örecomm member Tobias Denskus will be participating in the official book launch of Popular Representations of Development – Insights from Novels, Films, Television and Social Media on 13 January 2014.

The launch will be at the London School of Economics’ Clement House, Room CLM502, from 4 – 6.30. The editors David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers & Michael Woolcock and several contributors will briefly present their works, followed by a discussion and a wine reception.

The plan is to have the presentations and discussion from 4 – 5.30, followed by the wine reception and selling of books between 5.30 and 6.30.

More information on the book and Tobias Denskus and Daniel Esser’s contribution can be found on Tobias’ blog Aidnography.

Welcome!

News: Ørecomm in Collaboration with UNICEF

Exchange of knowledge and strengthening of communication for development practices forms the basis of a new collaboration between Ørecomm and UNICEF, established this month.

“We are really happy about this opportunity and are looking much forward to collaborating with UNICEF,” says Marie Brobeck, project manager at Ørecomm.

“Global networks are of increasing relevance in the work towards social change. And so is cooperating across different sectors. This way we can learn from each other and develop communication for development both as an academic field and a field of practice.”

Drawing on the expertise and experience within the organizations, the collaboration will be formed through different activities such as training and capacity development, joint research studies and resource mobilization.

But most importantly the collaboration aims to expand the reach and impact of efforts in the field. Through a unified approach and harmonized strategies to advocating the understanding and use of C4D, steps can be taken towards better practices in promoting the rights of all persons to communicate and participate freely.

For more information about the collaboration contact Marie Brobeck.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works for the rights of children to survival, development, participation and protection as guided by the Convention on the Rights of Children (CRC). UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and their families in developing countries. UNICEF is active in over 190 countries and territories through country programmes and National Committees. Seven regional offices provide technical assistance to country offices as needed. UNICEF‘s headquarters in New York oversees overall management and administration of the organization.

Interview: Guidance in the Struggle for Social Justice

“Social media has forever changed the landscape of social and political development work. And yet, we have only seen the beginning of a phenomenon that even the experts struggle to understand,” says Thomas Tufte, media researcher and co-director of Ørecomm, in a recent article published in the magazine Rubrik (Roskilde University).

He is one of three editors who will discuss the subject in a new anthology, about to be released in February next year.

When a demonstration against raised bus fares was started in Sao Paolo, Brazil, in June this year, the riots quickly spread across more than 100 cities. The interplay between established media and social media was decisive for the development of the events.

“Traditional media, together with Facebook and Twitter, made it possible to orchestrate all these demonstrations and spread the message,“ says Thomas Tufte.

In the new book the three co-editors have collected examples from the whole world of how media and communication is being used by the UN, governments and social movements in their work toward social and political development.

The anthology holds the title ”The Handbook of Development and Social Change” and will offer both practical and conceptual guidance to all those engaged in struggles for social justice around the world.

This article is a short version of a longer article, originally published in Danish in the magazine Rubrik. Read the full article here (page 20 – 23).

New Book: Do you have Human Rights on the Internet?

“Framing the Net” is the title of a new book that examines how human rights are being applied in the digital era. The author behind this timely book is Ørecomm participant Rikke Frank Jørgensen who defended her PhD on the subject at Roskilde University last year.

Can Internet governance be better aligned with human rights law and standards of compliance? This is one of the questions she sets out to answer. She does so by suggesting four framings to be examined: the Internet as Infrastructure, the Internet as Public Sphere, the Internet as Medium and the Internet as Culture. Two chapters on women’s use of ICT in Uganda and the community life of German Wikipedia gives a practical side to the theoretical argument.

From publisher’s blurb:

‘Understanding the Internet is key to protecting human rights in the future. In Framing the Net, Rikke Frank Jørgensen shows how this can be done …’ 
– Wolfgang Benedek, University of Graz, Austria

‘Rikke Frank Jørgensen has given us a thoughtful and competent contribution to a debate of increasing global importance. Her theoretical analysis and practical case-study stimulate critical reflection on how we should connect the primary moral domain of our time – human rights – with the primary infrastructure for global communication, the Internet. This book is a must read for all who engage with the search for meaningful and practical normative directions for communications in the 21st century.’
– Cees J. Hamelink, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands


Don’t miss out on this interesting book! Read more about it here.

Malmö and Roskilde: Interregional PhD position in Communication for Development

Two interregional PhD positions are now being announced at Malmö University and Roskilde University, under the over-arching headline “Histories of Globalization, Communication and Development”.

One of the PhD positions, based at Malmö’s School of Arts and Communication, K3, and linked to the Ørecomm Centre for Communication and Glocal Change, is specifically addressing the field of Communication for Development. Deadline for application is 1 October 2013. See description and application form here.

The other position will be based at the Department of Culture and Identity (CUID) at Roskilde University. This PhD candidate will be enrolled at the Doctoral School of Culture, Language and Philosophy, and attached to the research group on Europeanization and Globalization. More information here. Deadline for the Roskilde position is 27 September 2013.

A description of the content and structure of the two PhD positions and their interregional connections is available here.

PhD course, Roskilde: Networked spaces of mediated communication forms of appropriation by new social actors and movements

This PhD course will focus on the role of mass mediated and digitally networked forms of communication in transnational advocacy and activism campaigns, spanning the spectrum of social change agency from information dissemination, to networking and mobilization. From the “Twitter revolution” in Iran, to the Satellite TV and social media conveyed uprisings of the Arab spring and activist movements’ mediation of protests against austerity programs and the drivers of the financial crisis in the industrialized and financial centers of the world, networked online media have seemingly played a prominent role in the constitution, identity-formation and reflective self-understanding of new social actors and movements on a global scale. (more…)

“Speaking Up and Talking Back”
in The Huffington Post

Speaking Up and Talking Back? Media Empowerment and Civic Engagement among East and Southern African Youth – was edited by Ørecomm participants Thomas Tufte, Norbert Wildermuth, Anne Sofie Hansen-Skovmoes, and Winnie Mitullah, and published last year by Nordicom. The book questions whether and how young citizens in Africa engage with media and communication technology in a desire to be included in the change processes of their societies. It just received an extensive note in The Huffington Post.

For more information, table of contents and to order, go here.