Enhancing participation, citizenship and good governance via civil society-driven media platforms - a case from Tanzania Thomas Tufte, Roskilde University, Denmark Presentation given at Lund University 7 March 2012

Today’s presentation  Conceptual framework  People Speaking Back? MEDIeA  The Tanzanian case –The organisation – Civic engagement  Recap: Accountability, voice and ’national conversation’

Communication 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 )

ICT development, content production & audience involvement  Changing dynamics and relations  Agency revisited: public connection, public sphere engagement, citizen journalism, participatory journalism, citizen media, civic engagement  Particular focus: Media development + civil society development: civil-society driven media platforms

Civil society-driven media platforms - core questions  How are they altering relations between decision-makers and citizens?  What new spaces of deliberation and public debate, critique and civic action do they create?  What processes of empowerment and civic engagement can be identified?

Communication, citizenship and social change  Co-evolution of new and old media  Citizenship: a social practice grounded in everyday life  Civic action: active manifestation of citizens as claimants of development. Citizens as media producers, citizen journalists, bloggers

Civil society-driven media platforms  How can civil society-driven media and communication initiatives enhance processes of empowerment and ultimately good governance?  Broadening the scope of communication for development and social change (fluxtuation in the relations between: institutions, activism, communication and change)

Key change agents  Civil society – gaining visibility, how? articulating change and obtaining political influence?  Citizens – (dis)connections with orgs and movements, new forms of engagement  Government, decision-makers: good governance, accountability, transparency  Civil society-driven media platforms:the object of this study

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 chages are possible (Rodriguez 2001/2006: 774)

People Speaking Back? Media, Empowerment and Democracy in East Africa (MEDIeA)  , two countries, 6 researchers  Different but complimenting research designs  Young girls’ media use, civil society development and media development. Questions of participation and good governance  Tanzania: Datius (a large survey), Rose (a media ethnography), TT (civil society case)

People Speaking Back? - the case of Tanzania  Democratic development: multi-party system (1995), civil society development, free media  3 % internet access  45% mobile phone access  6% economic growth pr year  6.2% HIV prevalence  Young marginalized women: lack voice in public life

Introducing Femina HIP  Tanzanian NGO,  Largest print media producer in Tanzania  Many donors on board, but is a ’homegrown’ organisation  Entertainment-education through real life stories  Multi-media platform

Femina HIP Objectives To build supportive environments in Tanzania where:  Young people in their communities enjoy their right to access information & services and are empowered to make positive informed choices around sexuality and lead healthy lifestyles in order to reduce the negative impact of HIV/AIDS.

Femina HIP Objectives To build supportive environments in Tanzania where:  Communities exercise their right to express themselves, participate in public debate & engage in civil society. (Femina HIP Logical Framework, 2007)

Femina’s new strategic plan  Sexual health  Economic Empowerment  Civic engagement

FEMA  FEMA. A glossy magazine, 64 pages, copies  Published 4 x a year. Targets youth aged especially secondary school students in every region of the country

SiMchezo  Si Mchezo! 32 pages, copies.  6 x a year. Targets out of school youth and their communities particularly in rural areas.

Multi Media Platform  Pilika Pilika. A radio soap opera (stopped 2011). New radio drama starting  FEMA Tv Talk Show. Half ½ hour talk show, national TV 4 times a week.  RukaJuu. Tv Show on Entrepreneurship.  ChezaSalama (‘play safe’). Interactive website. First of its kind in Tanzania.  Femina Clubs in schools and communities  Community outreach programme

’Layering’ agendas - a diachronic perspective on Femina - Since 1999:…. - SRHR – in particular HIV/AIDS - Environment (Dlight, Trees, Cop15, Masai Mara…) - Entrepreneurship - Civic engagement - WHAT determines the NGO’s agenda?

Contexts  Global discourses within development – the political economy of the ’development business’  The political changes in Tanzania – pushing boundaries, opening discourses, setting agendas, citizen opportunities for deliberation  Media developments: carving out new media and communiation spaces WHO pushes boundaries, opens discourses, carves spaces and sets agendas?

Youth and the Constitution - a synchronic perspective on Femina  Fema and SiMchezo series (print)  National Youth Conference (IPC)  International celebrity visit…led to Symposium  Club competitions  Suggesting local governance issues to the clubs

Youth and the Constitution - Symposium+  Chairperson…represents continuity  Youth vox-pop  Research driven debate  NGOs speak out  International experience  Key politicians of the new generation  Government and parliament  Day 2 for youth workshop

Outcomes - short term…and long term?  Media coverage (9xprint, 2 x radio, 2xnational tv)  Politicians blogging  Relations established with ’those in power’  Youth clubs, schools, civil society partners engaging with the issues…

Outcomes - local, national, regional/international..  Issues of clout, respect, visibility  Breadth and volume in ’own’ organisation  Partnerships evolving – in civil society, government, with MPs

Accountability and good governance  Upstream: Holding decision-makers accountable  Downstream? Ensuring the voices of youth being heard? Har far can youth set the agenda? The youth adv.board  ’Sidestream’: Strengthening civil society partnerships, setting a media agenda, gaining media visibility..

Outcomes amongst youth?  Continuity sustains engagement  Community mobilization enables engagement  Young people engage in journalistic practice and some deliberation  Sparks motivation and self-confidence  New public spheres emerge  Embryonic civil society?

Challenges  Upward Accountability: –Gaining political clout –Balancing social critique and political influence  Downward accountability –Balancing a mass vehicle for millions of audiences with space for personal engagement

Voice does matter - media and technology is carving out space  Allowing voice in public for a vastly increased range of people  A greatly increased mutual awareness of these new voices  New scales of organisation  Understanding what spaces are required for political organization  New forms of listening?

Disjunctions of citizenship  Global and national discourses on democracy, good governance and citizenship  Local realities: poverty, unemployment, lack of media access, other priorities…

Mediápolis, Femina, and the emergence of national conversation?  The polis, properly speaking, is not the city-state in its physical location: it is the organisation of the people as it arises out of acting and speaking together, and its true space lies between people living together for this purpose, no matter where they happen to be… (Arendt 1958; 198)