The Drum Beat 656 - Communication and Change News and Issues

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Issue #

656

The Drum Beat - 656 - Communication and Change News and Issues

THIS ISSUE INCLUDES:
STRATEGIC THINKING:	Vaccination Persuasion, Polical Empowerment
EXPERIENCES:	Social Change Theatre, Empowering Media
NEED HELP?	Start 2014 by finding a new colleague!
MATERIALS:	Story-based Inquiry, e-Learning, Sexual Health Comic

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STRATEGIC THINKING
1. Parents' Decisions about Vaccination and the Art of Gentle Persuasion by Julie Leask
This blog posting uses Dr. Seuss's book Green Eggs and Ham to provide a light-hearted analogy to the plight of anyone who has tried to persuade another person to abandon an entrenched position - especially a parent's decision to not vaccinate their child. "[I]t is more effective if professionals build rapport, accept questions and concerns, and facilitate valid consent by discussing both benefits and risks of vaccination." [Nov 2012]

2. Survey Report: Community Participation at Local and Community Radio Stations by Julia Fröhlich, Daniel Däschle, Andrés Geerts, and A. Sofie Jannusch
This report presents the main findings of 3 regional surveys on participation at local and community radio stations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Pacific. Early involvement of the communities (in the planning and implementation phase) and their organisation in listeners' clubs are 2 factors that were found to lead to stronger participation, as was off-studio broadcasting designed to bridge the geographic distance between radio and listeners. Stations from Latin America and Asia reported positive results in the inclusion of different groups in programming by offering training for youth or marginalised groups. [Catholic Media Council (CAMECO), Mar 2012]

3. The New A2B4CT of HIV Prevention by David Patient and Neil M. Orr
This approach is based on "biology, not morality. You don't need to change your personal beliefs: Instead, you need to understand how it works, and apply it. The nature of the required behaviour changes is also different and are linked to economics, gender equity, and mental health issues, including motivation towards a better future, communication within relationships, stress and depression, and substance use (especially alcohol)." [Empowerment Concepts, Jan 2013]

4. Gender and Citizenship at the Grassroots: Assessing the Effect of NGO Initiatives in Social Mobilization and Political Empowerment in Kenya and Bangladesh by Simeen Mahmud and Celestine Nyamu Musembi
This study assesses the extent to which social mobilisation and political empowerment initiatives led by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have influenced gender dynamics in Kenya and Bangladesh. In short, the study found that women who had participated in social mobilisation and political empowerment initiatives displayed more active citizenship than women who had not. While the intervention of civil associations does build and facilitate agency, which is crucial in overcoming social disadvantage, structural constraints can prove difficult to surmount. [Feb 2011]

5. Exploring School and Classroom Environments in Irish Primary Schools by Merike Darmody and Emer Smyth
"Research evidence suggests that reduced class size in the early years of primary education is positively associated with higher academic attainment and a better attendance record." Class size, as stated here, also influences teacher approaches and disadvantaged student retention in school programmes. Other factors include spatial density (the physical size of the classroom), daylight, and ambient noise, both external noise and student chatter. [Children, Youth and Environments, Jan 2012]

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EXPERIENCES
6. Y Touring Theatre Company
Y Touring works in the arena of health, sex education, and science ethics - communicating and interacting via performances that have taken place in settings ranging from theatres, schools, and science venues, to prisons and youth offenders' centres. [Central YMCA, with Wellcome Trust funding]

7. MAKE: Media for Advocacy and Empowerment
BBC Media Action is working with community radio stations in Zambia to build their capacity to hold local governments accountable and ensure they improve local services and conditions.

8. Telecentre Women: Digital Literacy Campaign
This global initiative works to help empower disadvantaged and underserved community women with knowledge of information and communication technology (ICT), entrepreneurship and employable digital skills, opportunities for higher schooling, and membership in a supportive global digital community.

9. Red por Belen (the Belen Network)
In collaboration with local citizens, governmental, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Red por Belen (the Belen Network) is committed to improve the health, education, and living conditions of children, families, and citizens of Belen, Iquitos, Peru, who are living in extreme economic poverty. "As we worked and played this year in Belen it became clear that art, in the form of collaborative creative play improvisational theater), painting of houses and murals, music, dance and art education enables community participation in other spheres, specifically health education and cooperative problem solving to address community problems."

10. Barza
Barza is an online social network designed especially for African radio broadcasters that seeks to increase the extent to which rural radio helps African small-scale farmers meet their food security, farming, and livelihood goals. [Farm Radio International (FRI), with support from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), in collaboration with Digital4Good]

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MATERIALS
11. COMDIS HSD Field Communications Toolkit
From an organisation conducting research primarily in low-income countries with the aim of improving the delivery of basic health services, particularly for communicable diseases, this toolkit emphasises collecting stories as evidence: "[T]he anecdotes you hear or the small changes in behaviour you see when you are focused on undertaking research or writing formal reports....Capturing this information as you carry out your work will add immense value to reports and provide materials for case studies, news articles, interviews, photo stories and even films, all of which can be used online and in print, to advocate for changes in policy and to raise the profile of [your] organisation." [Communicable Diseases Health Service Delivery (COMDIS-HSD) Research Consortium, Apr 2012]

12. Story-Based Inquiry: A Manual for Investigative Journalists by Mark Lee Hunter, Nils Hanson, Rana Sabbagh, Drew Sullivan, Pia Thordsen, and Flemming Tait Svith
This manual focuses on the hypothesis-based inquiry approach, which takes the basic assumption that a story is only a hypothesis until verified. The methods and skills applying to every step of the investigative process - from conception to research, writing, quality control, and dissemination - are analysed and are illustrated by case studies in each chapter. [United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Jan 2011]

13. A Summary of the Television Programmes: "Revelados: desde todas las posiciones" (Revealed: Seen From Every Angle)
This summary of programmes is part of the Revelados educational materials package, including 20 one-hour episodes of the TV programme, 3 handbooks for young people, and 1 handbook for educators to help open space for conversations, debates, and reflections on sexual and reproductive health and rights in youth groups, as well as between young people and adults. The package focuses on three themes: a) making decisions about your sexual and reproductive life; b) equal and equitable relationships between women and men; c) respect for sexual diversity. [Jan 2011]

14. e-Learning Series on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education
UNESCO Bangkok with funding support from Japanese-Funds-In-Trust (JFIT) has published an e-learning course on ICT in education containing 2 modules designed for policymakers, educational planners, school administrators, education specialists, and educators. [Jun 2009]

15. Kiss Me Deadly by Richard Van Camp
This is a sexual health comic book for young people from the Canadian organisation The Healthy Aboriginal Network (HAN). It stars fictional characters Mona, Clint, Dougie, and grandparents and looks at aspects of respect and communication in relationships, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), two-spirited people (gays and lesbians), and sexual health as a career or youth-led project. [Jan 2011]

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This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

The Drum Beat is the email and web network of The Communication Initiative Partnership - Partners: ANDI, BBC Media Action, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Breakthrough, Calandria, DFID, FAO, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI), Inter-American Development Bank, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, MISA, Oxfam Novib, PAHO, The Panos Institute, Puntos de Encuentro, The Rockefeller Foundation, SAfAIDS, Sesame Workshop, Soul City, STEPS International, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, The Wellcome Trust, World Health Organization (WHO), W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

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The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.

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