One of the main Ørecomm partners, ComDev in Malmö, invites all interested to its 10th Anniversary Seminar, 10–11 September 2010. This will take place at Malmö University, K3, Ö. Varvsgatan 11 A, Room U302.

The seminar programme promises a series of engaged, innovative, inspiring number of presentations, lectures, panels on many global, local and glocal themes:

ComDev at K3 – An unconventional partnership. Globalization: The Key Concepts. Voices across borders – A critical perspective on civic agency and social change. Migrant Media and good-enough Cosmopolitanism. Communication in action and globalization, or looking for social change. From Ougadougou to Malmö: Reversing the perspective. What ComDev may lead to – Art, tourism and culture from a West African perspective. Professional advances; Personal encounters – 8 years with ComDev. The Communication for Development (C4D) Network – Sharing Knowlege and Networking (www.c4d.org). Cycle of Change (Film). Loooking 10 years ahead. Drinks and Dinner and Surprises.

The detailed programme is available here (pdf). Should you wish to participate in the Saturday dinner buffet, contact Solveig-Karin Erdal.

Médiactivistes
Dominique Cardon et Fabien Granjon

La production de l’information est depuis longtemps un enjeu de lutte. Le développement de vastes conglomérats de médias professionnels tout au long du XXe siècle n’a cessé de susciter des inquiétudes et d’encourager le développement d’un «médiactivisme» qui s’est construit en opposition, ou à côté, des médias dominants.

Information production has long been a site of struggle. The development of huge professionalized media conglomerates over the 20th century has consistently been a cause of concern and of the development of a “mediactivism” which has set itself up in opposition to, or alongside, dominant media.

La producción de la información constituye un tema de lucha hace mucho tiempo. El desarrollo de vastas impresas de medios masivos profesionalizados durante el siglo XX ha continualmente provocado gran preocupación y el desarrollo de un “mediactivismo” que se ha construido en oposición a, o al lado de, los medios masivos dominantes.

Ce médiactivisme a dès l’origine pris deux chemins parallèles: celui d’un combat contre l’hégémonie culturelle des espaces publics traditionnels et celui de la production d’un autre type d’information sur des bases militantes, locales et communautaires. Aussi son évolution doit-elle être pensée en interaction étroite avec celles de l’espace journalistique et des transformations du répertoire d’action du mouvement social.

This mediactivism has taken two parallel paths from the outset: one struggling against cultural hegemony over established public spaces, and the other producing another kind of information based in activist, local and community circles. Mediactivism’s evolution also has to be seen as closely interacting both with the field of journalism and with transformations in social movements’ repertoire of action.

Este mediactivismo desde sus origenes ha tomado dos rutas paraleles: una de lucha contro la hegemonía cultural de los espacios públicos tradicionales y la otra de la producción de otro tipo de información basado en movimientos militantes, locales y comunitarios. Su evolución debe también ser concebido en interacción con el espacio periodístico y las transformaciones del repertorio de acción del movimiento social.

Cet ouvrage propose une histoire des médias alternatifs depuis les années 1960. Il s’attache à mettre en évidence sa variété, des expériences de presse révolutionnaire au médiactivisme en réseau du mouvement altermondialiste, en passant par les médias communautaires, l’internet militant, le mouvement des radios libres ou encore la création d’agences de presse dans les pays du Sud.

This work provides a history of alternative media since the 1960s. It sets out to demonstrate its variety, from revolutionary press experiences to mediactivism within the global social justice movement network, while reviewing community media, internet activism, the free radio movement and the creation of news agencies in countries of the global South.

Esta obra presenta una historia de los medios alternativos hace los años sesenta. Se asigna a mostrar su variedad, de las experiencias de la prensa revolucionaria al mediactivismo de red del movimiento otromundialista, pasando por los medios comunitarios, el internet militante, el movimiento de las radios libres o la creación de agencias de prensa en los paises del Sur.

Collection Contester n° 812 € – 128 pages – ISBN 978-2-7246-1168-7 – SODIS 727

Paris, SciencesPo Les Presses, 2010.

Human Health is one of the four themes within Universities Denmark’s initiative “Building Stronger Universities in Developing Countries”. The ambition of the Theme on Human Health is to contribute to the strengthening of capacities on a consolidated and long-term basis to conduct better research at selected universities and other research institutions. It is expected that the Theme on Human Health will primarily concentrate its efforts in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique, setting off in 2010 in Ghana and Tanzania.

The Human Health theme will be launched at an open meeting at the University of Copenhagen, 15 September 2010 (10-15 hrs). For details, see the full invitation and programme. Registration is required.

Professors Lisa Richey and Thomas Tufte from Ørecomm are among the active participants in the Human Health theme, now with its own homepage.

Ørecomm co-director Thomas Tufte will give a keynote speech at Intercom 2010, XXXIII Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, to be held at Universidade Caxias do Sul, Brasil.

Tufte’s speech will discuss “Youth, Communication and Social Change: Negotiating, Navigating and Narrating Youth Lives in a Glocal Reality”. This is the keynote abstract:  

“In our mediated and globalized world of today, how are young people negotiating identities and social relations? How do they use media and engage in communication, and for what purposes? How do young people engage with the development processes and challenges in the world? While ‘youth’ is a socially constructed conception of age and not just a biological given, this presentation will contextualize the ways in which and means with which youth engage in the world via media and communication. Based on my qualitative research experiences from Africa, Europe and Latin America, I seek to identify and explore some of the multiple dimensions of youth agency in their meeting with and uses of both new social media and more traditional media formats. My current research on youth, communication and social change in Tanzania in East Africa will be highlighted.

In discussing youth agency in the intersection between citizenship, social change, consumption and performance I outline three main analytical perspectives upon the way youth both negotiate, navigate and narrate their identities, experiences and social actions: consuming youth; performing youth and insurgent youth.”

The School of Public Health at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, seeks to appoint a person with excellent skills in social and behaviour change communication to join its team. The person will contribute to curriculum development, teaching and research. Closing date: 23 September 2010. For more information see the full announcement here.

One or two positions as Professor in Communication Studies at Roskilde University are to be filled by 1 March 2011.

We are interested in applicants with expertise in communication studies in a broad sense. We are especially interested in applicants who can document a contribution to the theoretical and methodological development of communication studies. We are also interested in applicants with expertise in the internal and external communication of private and public organizations, including corporate communication.

Those appointed will join, and are expected to play a leading role in, the large and versatile group of scholars in Communication Studies, which is characterized by interdisciplinarity, plurality, and innovativeness, within a broad variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. More specifically, they will join one of the three research groups: “Knowledge Production and Communication”, “Communication, Journalism and Social Change”, or “Visual Culture and Performance Design”.

More information on the Roskilde University web.

This issue of The Drum Beat explores entertainment-education (also called “E-E”, or “edutainment”) – a strategy designed to maximise the reach and effectiveness of behaviour change messages through the combination of entertainment and education.

A small number of vacancies is announced by the UNDP Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme, located in Copenhagen. Current vacancies are in Israel, Guatemala, Sudan, Senegal and in New York.

Herman Wasserman has edited this new book to appear in September. From the promo text:

Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa examines the role that popular media could play to encourage political debate, provide information for development, or critique the very definitions of ‘democracy’ and ‘development’. Drawing on diverse case studies from various regions of the African continent, essays employ a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to ask critical questions about the potential of popular media to contribute to democratic culture, provide sites of resistance, or, conversely, act as agents for the spread of Americanized entertainment culture to the detriment of local traditions. A wide variety of media formats and platforms are discussed, ranging from radio and television to the Internet, mobile phones, street posters, film and music.

Grounded in empirical work by experienced scholars who are acknowledged experts in their fields, this contemporary and topical book provides an insight into some of the challenges faced throughout the African continent, such as HIV and Aids, poverty and inequality, and political participation.

The International Journal of Communication, in collaboration with the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), has just published a collection of essays featuring contributions from invited participants to the IJoC/SSRC Forum on “Making Communication Research Matter.”

These four essays explore how and why engaged research should be conducted, with each one taking a unique approach and focusing on a specific topic:

• Inquiry into how researchers can include and collaborate with under-represented populations by asking the underlying question: For whom should our research matter?
• Examination of how different roles―practitioner, academic, and activist―can overlap and complement each other to support the community radio cause in the policy arena.
• Analysis of the obstacles and methodological challenges of working with grassroots activists that addresses the question of how different organizational cultures can best talk to each other.
• Discussion of how personal and collective processes of reflection and action can empower researchers and practitioners in understanding dynamics of power and participation.

In the IJoC Table of Contents go to the Features section a couple of screens down to find these articles. Should you want to browse the full contents, remember to expand the contents list, clicking on [+More Articles...], [+More Features...] etc.