 Today’s objective: To share experiences and discuss the methodological challenges of exploring information and communication needs of citizens. How do we in practice research such needs, and how can relevant stakeholders – UN, civil society and academia - make use of the insights generated? To share experiences and discuss the methodological challenges of exploring information and communication needs of citizens. How do we in practice research such needs, and how can relevant stakeholders – UN, civil society and academia - make use of the insights generated? Media, Empowerment and Development Strategies to explore information and communication needs of citizens

Programme  9.00 Welcome and Introduction to the Programme  9.15‘People Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa’. Introducing the Research Program. by Thomas Tufte, RUC by Thomas Tufte, RUC  10.00’Communication for Empowerment’ Bjørn Førde, director, Oslo Governance Centre  10.45Coffee  10.45Coffee  11.00‘Ethnographic Action Research’ (EAR) Jo Ann Tacchi, Associate Professor, University of Queensland Jo Ann Tacchi, Associate Professor, University of Queensland  11.45‘Enhancing citizens’ information and communication rights’ Jesper Lauridsen: MS/ActionAid: Global Governance Program  12.15Lunch  13.15Theory and practice – is there resonance or dissonance? Workshop activity: Connecting MEDIeA’s research agenda vis-à-vis the different stakeholders way of working with media, empowerment and democracy.  14.15Coffee  Discussing workshop outcome & Panel debate on seminar issues

Media, Empowerment and Development Strategies to explore information and communication needs of citizens Project Launch & Capacity Building Seminar 7 June 2010 Venue: MS ActionAid, Denmark Organized by: MEDIeA/Ørecomm-RUC with MS ActionAid

Development Context – the turn to the citizen…  Community Conversations…  Listener studies and reality checks…  Communication for empowerment…  Communication assessments  Exploring new ways to connect policies and development practices with the protagonists of development.

Media and Communication Context - Communication and Power  ‘In a world marked by the rise of mass self- communication, social movements and insurgent politics have a the chance to enter the public space from multiple sources. By using both horizontal communication networks and mainstream media to convey their images and messages, they increase their chances of enacting social and political change – even if they start from a subordinate position in institutional power, financial resources, or symbolic legitimacy’ (Castells )

Key issues  Insurgent politics (insurgent citizenship)  Horizontal communication  Bottom-up approaches  Visibility in the public space …speaks to founding principles in communication for social change

Insurgent citizenship  Disjunctions of citizenship: between this emphasis on the political project and the reality of the lived lives:  ‘This kind of political focus (democracy = electoral democracies, ed.) fails to account adequately, if at all, for precisely the sort of disjunctions of citizenship that I have analyzed in Brazil and that are prevalent among most emerging democracies – namely, the coincidence of democratic politics with widespread violence and injustice against citizens. This disjunction has become just as global a condition of contemporary democratization as free elections’ (Holston 2008: 311)

Horizontal communication, public sphere & ’mediápolis’  Horisontal communication: voice, dialogue and participation  Mediápolis – a global civic space, inclusive, participatory, dialogic and enabling public debate,’a space of potential and of possibility’. Criteria of media hospitality, media justice and media ethics

Citizen Media  The term ‘citizens media’ implies, first, that a collectivity is enacting its citizenship by actively intervening and transforming the established mediascape; second, that these media are contesting social codes, legitimized identities and institutionalized social relations; and third, that these communication practices are empowering the community involved, to the point where these transformations and changes are possible (Rodriguez 2001/2006: 774)

Communication, citizen participation and the power – or not – to enact change  how can ordinary people engage in development – through media and communication practices and networks?  How can they, or we, engage in and influence the social and political change processes that impact upon our own lives?  With a specific focus on civil society – NGOs, community based organisation and social movements - what particular opportunities do they have to ensure, facilitate or enhance citizen-driven change processes?  Key question: how can civil society driven media and communication initiatives- in the digital era - enhance processes of empowerment, accountability and ultimately good governance?

Today’s seminar  Collaborative seminar: MEDIeA/RUC in collaboration with MS ActionAid, and with international guests  Launch seminar of research project: ’People Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa’ ( )  Capacity building seminar: enhancing the dialogue between our research project and practitioners

Contexts and Research Interests  Rapidly changing media and communication landscape – influencing development thinking (is it?) and the practice of development  Civil society development – engaging with the media and engaging in public debate  Poverty reducation and social inclusion, citizenship and good governance  The situation of youth, particularly young marginalized women

Research Objective  To explore the role of civil society driven media and communication technologies and practices in enhancing participatory governance processes in Kenya and Tanzania  Program participants Kenya: Grace Githaiga, Winnie Mitullah, Norbert Wildermuth  Program participants Tanzania: Rose Reuben, Datius Rweyemamu, Thomas Tufte

Intermediate Objectives (1)  To assess the current situation of youth  To assess how youth experience, make use of and engage in civil-society driven media and communication platforms and how this connects to participation in public debate and governance processes  To analyse content and what the above mentioned media and communication platforms do/produce, and how socially inclusive the production processes are

Intermediate Objectives (2)  To analyse what mechanisms are developed to hold governments accountable and transparent (incl: what advocacy strategies do the involved CSOs have, if any?)  To analyse how CSOs ensure their own accountability to the groups of citizens they advocate on behalf of

3 components  Collaborative Research: 6 interlinked research projects 3 universities: University of Dar es Salaam, University of Nairobi and RUC 3 universities: University of Dar es Salaam, University of Nairobi and RUC  Research capacity building PhD students, research visits, workshops PhD students, research visits, workshops  Policy dialogue and dissemination Meetings and publications Meetings and publications

Hosted by Ørecomm – Bi-national platform on Communication and Glocal Change  People Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa (MEDIeA)  Glocal NOMAD – Network on Media and Development  The Social and Political Aspects of AIDS Working Group  Fiction's Truth: Fiction as a Means of Exploration and a Vehicle for Social Change  The Nordic Research Network for Media, Communication and Popular Culture in Africa ( )