Bio / abstracts for student workshop presenters, 11 September 2011
(alphabetical, by surname)

Amaranta Alfaro (Hamburg University):
“Civic Engagement through Social Media in Chile: Exploring its potential to reinforce social cohesion”
amaranta.alfaro@uni-hamburg.de

BIO: Amaranta Alfaro is a PhD student in the Graduate School for Media & Communication at Hamburg University, with a background in Media, Communication and Cultural Studies (Roskilde University & University of Kassel) and in Communication and Journalism (Diego Portales University, Chile). Her current research interests are the integration and participation possibilities of social media in Chile and Latin America, and media competences applied. She hopes to link the latter with her interest on social cohesion and development in the region.

ABSTRACT: Chile, a highly stratified society, with huge income and education inequalities, is experiencing an expansion in digital media usage among the younger generations. The latter have been framed as disengaged and politically apathetic, leading the declining of civic engagement in the last 30 years. But lately citizen movements’ sites have increase their amount of users and are becoming relevant actors in the national discussion, especially on environmental concerns.

This research will examine the uses of social network sites (SNS) to identify its potential in reinforcing social cohesion in Chile. Through the observation and study of the uses and participation features of young people coming from different socio-economical and educational backgrounds, on Chilean citizen movement groups on Facebook.

How are these platforms being used for civic engagement purposes among the different groups? Are they minimizing disparities and encouraging integration and participation among young users?  Are they fostering social cohesion by offering a space to bond and interact with like-minded-others around a particular issue regardless their educational or socio-economical differences?

The study will seek to answer these questions by exploring Facebook groups and Fan-Pages of environmental citizens’ movements with digital ethnography methods –such as online survey and participant observation-, analyzing and categorizing the posts. This method will be conducted alongside personal interviews and focus group; and combined with experts interviews.

Pia Beltoft & Liv L. Petersen (AU): 
“Kuchus in Print – Representations of Sexual Minorities in the Ugandan Press”
piabeltoft@gmail.com lading.liv@gmail.com

BIO: Pia Beltoft carries a BA in Rhetoric and a Masters in Analytical Journalism - cand.public. Her final thesis, written in collaboration with Liv Lading Petersen is focusing on sexual minorities in the Ugandan press. Pia has worked as volunteer coordinator with the Danish NGO IBIS focusing mainly on the right to education e.g. by facilitating ”the Reading Caravan”, a project in Angola. She has also worked with communication and programme documentation for both a Ghanain NGO and a cultural centre in the Zambian bush.

Liv L. Petersen holds a BA in International Development from Roskilde University and a MA in Analytical Journalism, cand.public, from Aarhus University. Her MA thesis, which was carried out in collaboration with Pia Beltoft, is written on the subject of the representation of sexual minorities in the Ugandan press. Liv has previously worked with communications for several Danish NGOs including MS ActionAid Denmark, Forests of the World, and currently Danwatch.

ABSTRACT: The presentation will focus on how sexual minorities are being constructed discursively in the Ugandan English press and how social practice affects this representation based on an empirical study conducted in Kampala 2010. The “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” was presented in the Ugandan Parliament on October 14, 2009 proposing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”. The Bill is part of a social practice in Uganda characterised by strong Christian beliefs and a largely negative attitude towards homosexuality.

Applying a critical discourse perspective the study of four Ugandan newspapers shows that a range of dominant discourses constructs sexual minorities negatively e.g. a nationalistic discourse framing sexual minorities as a threat to Ugandan sovereignty and as an expression of neo-colonialism. A range of mainly negative meanings is assigned to sexual minorities creating a mythical representation of sexual minorities as a negatively constructed and marginalised ‘other’. Various counter-discourses, which oppose the dominant perceptions are also identified. The presentation will focus on the discoursive construction of sexual minorities dominating the English press in Uganda and the social concerns affecting the representation of the minority group.

Ricky Storm Braskov (RU):
“Communicating Crime Prevention – Participatory and Community Approaches in Nairobi”
ricky.braskov@gmail.com

BIO: Ricky Storm Braskov graduated from Roskilde University in 2010 with his master's thesis on crime prevention for youths in Nairobi's slums. Ricky has for the past years been working in Kenya for UNODC and in Sierra Leone on a capacity building project. Currently Ricky is working at Roskilde University as a research assistant.

ABSTRACT: With point of departure in fieldwork conducted in the Nairobi slum Kibera, the thesis addresses crime prevention for youths in Nairobi’s slums. Focussing on community-based approaches and participatory communication, the thesis seeks to identify strategies and frameworks, for more sustainable and effective ways of managing crime prevention for youths in Nairobi’s slums.

Nairobi has for many years been suffering from high levels of crime and violence, which has far reaching consequences for the city economically and for the welfare of the citizens. Up until now there has not been much focus on establishing preventive means to address the challenge, and most initiatives have been in the hands of the private sector and NGO’s, without clear leadership from the local government. However, with the recent establishment of the Safer Nairobi Initiative, as a coordinating office in relation to crime prevention at the Nairobi City Council (NCC), the city has taken steps towards addressing the issue. At the same time Kibera has seen a surge in newly established youth self-help groups based on developing income generation for unemployed youths. These groups are actively encouraged by the NCC, and are to a large extent comprised of young unemployed men, who are the most likely to be either perpetrators or victims of crime.

Focussing on the Nairobi City Council and the youth self-help groups based in Kibera as potential crime prevention partners, the thesis presents findings on how the youth self-help groups could potentially contribute to more sustainable crime prevention interventions in Nairobi.

Sine Gyrup (RU):
“Breaking the Silence – dialogic practice and social changes in maternity wards in Kazakhstan”
sinegyrup@gmail.com

BIO: Master Student in Communication and International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark. In her recently finished MA thesis, “Breaking the Silence”, she investigates how a dialogic practice is introduced to health care providers in Kazakhstan by the World Health Organization. This included qualitative interviews and participatory observations at the hospitals in Kazakhstan, and a theoretical approach based on dialogic theories and to some extend participatory approaches, cultural studies, theories on discursive practice of inclusion and exclusion in dialogue.

ABSTRACT: Many researchers have stressed the current trend in the development industry of incorporating participatory and dialogic elements into their programmes. At the same time critical voices have questioned whether these attempts are just another way of masking existing power-relations reproducing practices of exclusion of marginalized voices in development programmes.

Based on a case study of how the dialogic approach is utilized to empower health care providers to improve the quality of care in the hospitals in Kazakhstan, the MA thesis “Breaking the Silence” homes in on how dialogue and participation is understood and practiced in a specific development programme in a local context. The thesis analyzes how a dialogic programme is implemented by the World Health Organization and local providers in the hospitals in Kazakhstan. It reflects critically on the potential of such approach in a post-Soviet context, characterized by command and control, where telling the truth until now has been bound to a system of punishment. The research is based on a field study conducted in Kazakhstan in April-May 2010, which includes interviews with; participants representing the WHO National Office of Kazakhstan, top management at a local hospital, heads of departments and local providers all implementing or preparing for implementing the programme. The thesis position dilemmas and challenges of dialogic approaches in a global, national and local context, all shaping the space for dialogue among the local health care providers.

Rikke Hostrup Haugbølle (KU):
“Mapping the role of media in the Tunisian uprisings 2010-2011”
rikhostrup@hum.ku.dk

BIO: Rikke Hostrup Haugbølle is a Ph.D. fellow at the Department of Cross Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her current research project analyses the relation between new media, Islam and negotiations of identities in Tunisia. Since 1996, she has carried through field research in Tunisia and lived for extended periods in Tunis, Hammamet and Douz, and she has published internationally about different aspects of Tunisian and Maghreb politics, economy and social changes.

ABSTRACT: On January 14th 2011 Tunisia’s president during 23 years fled the country after massive popular protests from December 2010 to January 2011. Many early comments and small articles labelled the event a “Twitter Revolution” and pointed to the important role of Facebook, Twitter, blogs and the internet in the demonstrations. In addition to the new social media Arab media and communication studies have generally focused on the impact of satellite TV since the launch of Al- Jazeera in 1996. However, what has been out of focus in both the covering of the Tunisian uprisings and of the satellite channels are the Tunisian terrestrial media. As I will demonstrate in this paper there are several reasons why much more attention should be paid to the Tunisian radio- and TV-channels.

In 2003 a media reform was carried through by president Ben Ali and since then Tunisia has experienced the launch of five private radio stations and three television channels. Each of them has in different ways contested the national homogeneity and national identity which was an important part of the narrative of the legitimacy of the Ben Ali regime. Furthermore, many of these channels introduced new styles of journalism with discussion programs taking up issues which prior were taboos.

The paper will demonstrate how Facebook and Twitter played a role at certain moments in the Tunisian uprisings but that the role and impact of the terrestrial media from 2003 to 2010 was very important in paving the way for the uprisings.

Jake Hunter (MAH):
“From the desk to the field: First-hand look at ICT projects in Ghana”
jakehunter.020@gmail.com

BIO: Jake Hunter is a Master student in Communication for Development at Malmö University. He has worked with the organization Social Scientist Without Borders since January 2010. As part of the organization he has offered support to various projects ranging from crating awareness for solar lanterns in Ghana to speaking student groups about how to apply studies in social sciences in a broader context.

ABSTRACT: Inspired by working with World Partners for Development (WPD ) and their Global video Exchange project, Patrik Jonasson and Jake Hunter decided to undertake a live video conferencing project of our own titled Voicing Ideas. The motivation of this project was to give the opportunity for people to participate and interact in discussions over various topics were the overall purpose is to create an exchange of ideas and experiences for sustainable development and learning. This project is a chance for people to come together cross-culturally and cross-disciplinary to exchange ideas on topics such as education, health issues, community infrastructure development and social entrepreneurship etc. After launching the project in January 2011 we decided to combine it with our studies in Communication for Development and use our experiences with the project to better understand the role of information communication technologies in development.  In June of 2011 Patrik Jonasson was able to travel to Accra, Ghana, where the headquarters of WPD is located, to get a first-hand look of the ICT situation there and better determine how we could develop our project going forward. The presentation well give a brief overview of what Patrik experienced in Ghana and the practical applications the experience has as continue with the development of the project.

 Anders Hylander & Martin Jensen (AU):
“Challenges of the Media in the Glocalised Culture of Zambia - Research and Findings”
anderskhylander@gmail.com, m_jensens@hotmail.com

BIO: Anders Hylander: Master of Arts in Media Studies from University of Aarhus and the Supplementary Education for Non-journalists from The Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus. Studies have been focused on the role of the media in the development and change in the global south, particularly Africa.In 2010 Intern at Radio Breeze in Chipata, Zambia a community radio station with a strong commitment to the development of the local community. The internship was arranged in collaboration with the Danish Communicaiton and Media Network, Danicom.

Martin Jensen: Master of Arts in Media Studies from University of Aarhus with a supplementation in Rhetoric and Communication, 7th semester spent at University of London. MA degree focused on role of the media in third world countries and campaigns as a tool for a more just and fair world. Last couple of years involved in the work of MS Action Aid Denmark, both as an intern at the interdisciplinary campaign course, Global Change, and as a coordinator for the national subscription 2011.

ABSTRACT: The Zambian democracy is new. And so are the media in terms of being the fourth estate. The aim of Jensen and Hylander’s MA thesis, submitted in February 2011 at the Department of Information and Media Studies at Aarhus University, has been to localize and understand the challenges of the Zambian media system and to discuss the future of the Zambian media and its democratic role. The point of departure of the research is a strong belief in the crucial role media can play in a democracy like the Zambian. The ideal media should be ethical in accordance with its cultural context, autonomous in terms of non-partisanship and accountable to the public. Hallin and Mancini’s media system model provides an analytical framework, and supplemented with Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis the thesis analyses how the challenges are being articulated by the people working in the Zambian media. This analysis is based on ten individual interviews and various other findings made during a three week stay in Zambia in September 2010.

Furthermore, the thesis focuses especially on the fact that Zambia is a glocalised culture, where local cultures are merging with global and Western culture. Specific attention is therefore being paid to the history of the country, especially in relation to the media and the political system.

 Nina Grønlykke Mollerup (RU):
“Revolutionising Citizen Journalism – Rassd News Network and the Egyptian Revolution”
ninagmollerup@gmail.com

BIO: Nina Grønlykke Mollerup is an industrial PhD candidate with International Media Support and Roskilde University. Her PhD project is about the relationship between social media activists and conventional journalists in the context of the socio-political changes taking place in Egypt.

ABSTRACT: Citizen journalism has played a crucial role in the Egyptian revolution by providing documentation of events journalists wereunable to document and by challenging and influencing the mainstream media. One of the most prominent examples of this is Rassd News Network (RNN). RNN is until now entirely based on Facebook and the original founders exclusively knew each other through Facebook. It is run on a voluntary basis and has no commercial interests. Only few of the people involved in the news network have official journalistic training, nevertheless RNN has around 1,500,000 followers and gets attention from major news organisations such as Aljazeera and Reuters as well as from the Egyptian army, which is now ruling the country. In this presentation I will discuss the implications of news production being done by volunteers with a vested interest in the events they are covering. I will also discuss RNN’s strategy of balance through diversity and compare this to the unviable journalistic quest for objectivity. The presentation is based on preliminary interviews with people from or connected with RNN.

Kevin Perry (RU):
“Face-to-face Encounters – Public Service Workers and Young Men with Ethnic Minority Backgrounds”
perry@ruc.dk

BIO:  Kevin Perry is a qualified social worker from England (DipSW); BA (Hons) in European Social Work; MSc in Sociology with many years experience of working with children, young people and their families in the local community. Currently he is employed at the University of Roskilde in the final year of the PhD process. His research concerns how frontline local authority employees include young men from ethnic minority groups in innovation processes.

ABSTRACT: This paper reports on some of the preliminary findings from work still in progress. This study set out to investigate how young people as ‘service users’ are included in innovation processes by the Local Authority in the role of service provider. In short, this study concerns the face-to-face interaction (Berger & Luckmann 1966), between frontline street level bureaucrats and young people from ethnic minority groups in and around two large social housing complexes in Denmark.

Comparable to other countries, innovation in the ‘public sector’ in Denmark is firmly on the agenda. The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation argue that an innovative strategy for the public sector should take its point of departure in the tangible experience of both public sector employees and public sector service users. Furthermore, international and national legislation requires that children are heard in decisions made by adults affecting their lives.

From the 1st of October 2009 to the 31st of June 2010, the author conducted an ethnography focusing on a number of key sights on and around two large social housing complexes localised in two large province towns in Denmark where young people encounter Street Level Bureaucrats (SLBs). Here the approach and actions by SLBs are significant due to the interactive nature of service delivery (Grönroos 1983). Here the demeanour and reactions of “customer-contact” employees can affect ‘service users’ views concerning both the service encounter and quality positively or negatively (Bitner 1990).

 Orsolya Petrity (RU):
“Myths in Past and Present Societies”
orsolya@ruc.dk

BIO: Orsolya Petrity is a student at Roskilde University, enrolled in the Masters programs Global Studies and Cultural Encounters. She holds a Bachelor's degree in international relations from Hungary, from Széchenyi István University. Her field of interest is intercultural communication connected to literature, especially mythology, and how this connection can be used as a source of problem-solution in practice.

ABSTRACT : "The main question tackled in the project is how different types of myths depict different types of societies both in the past and in our times as well. Describing all the possible aspects of whole societies is of course not the point here, but getting a picture of similarities and differences between the values, these societies (cultures) consider to own. In order to make these pictures I use different hero-stories and I focus on the following three elements: heroes, symbols and rituals. Considering heroes, I take into consideration different sub-groups within this topic. (negative hero, failing hero)

The other part of the project is of more general nature, where I try to make use of my experience with the above mentioned stories of old days in our present time.

As for describing the nature of mythology and how it can be connected to past, present and future problems in the world. Theories on myths and mythology from Mircea Eliade, Georges Dumézil and Joseph Campbell are used in order to find the needed connections between the stories of the past and the present situation.

Karen Kisakeni Sørensen (RU):
“Social mobilisation in Nairobi”
karen.kisakeni@gmail.com

BIO: Karen L. Kisakeni Sørensen - MA in Communication and International Development Studies from Roskilde University. Karen has contributed to the publication "Merry Go Round - A Study of Informal Self-Help Groups in Kenya" published by Nokia Research Centre Kenya, as part of the investigation of the potentiality of mobile phones and informal groups in humanitarian interventions on behalf of International Media Support (IMS). Karen is currently Junior Fundraising and Communications Coordinator at Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

ABSTRACT: Access to information and communication technologies or new media has developed into a necessary condition for achieving effective participation in the modern information society. In the field of development a bulk of actors – multilateral, bilateral and international organizations – have focused mainly upon providing access to new media to close the gap between those with access to technologies and those without, also known as the digital divide. Access to new media is thereby believed to enhance civil society participation, and thus lead to civil society empowerment. However, various academics have pointed out that the mere focus on providing access neglects the social, political and cultural relations that shape the access and usage of new media. Therefore, it was found necessary to look at how use of new media can lead to empowerment and how the civil society finds ways to adapt these technologies to their context to achieve empowerment.