Ghana: 'There Can Be No Development Without Communication'

OPINION
1 September 2008
Amos Safo

According to a West African Manual on "Participatory Development Communication", unless people participate in all phases of an intervention, from problem identification to research and implementation of solutions, the likelihood that sustainable change will occur is slim. Development communication is at the very heart of this challenge. The manual argues that though the term is sometimes used to indicate the overall contribution of mass media to the development of society, it is the planned use of strategies and processes of communication aimed at achieving a specific goal that has attracted academic attention.

But is development communication all about using mass media channels? Within the perspective of development communication, two trends have emerged; firstly, an approach that favours the use of mass media and an approach that promotes community participation in small-scale projects. Proponents of the latter empahise the use of interpersonal communication ( videos, posters and slide presentation and or one-on-one) to achieve results.

Read more [AllAfrica.com]

Mobile phones boost democratic processes in Africa

With mobile phones becoming more affordable and available, users are finding new ways to employ them. CNN reports that improved communications are helping election officials, journalists and citizens ensure transparent and accurate election polls.
25 August 2008, LONDON, England (CNN) -- The humble mobile phone is driving a new revolution which some experts hope could bring fairer elections and democracy to some African states.
Visiting African political expert at Indiana University, Sheldon Gellar, said cellphones were much more accessible than the internet in most parts of Africa, and therefore had greater potential to influence transparency.
Leonardo Arriola, Associate Professor at University of California, Berkeley, is wary about the potential of the technologies to make some situations worse. "... a lot of misinformation can get out that way..."
...scholars and observers agree that pockets full of mobile handsets will not be enough to build stable democratic states and hold future fair elections.
Gellar said a number of other factors needed to progress before a state could move towards a more democratic model of governance: strengthening independent media; growing and ensuring freedom of civil society; decentralizing power, ceding more control to local governments; empowering women; improving judicial systems to ensure independence and power to punish.
"New technology is not a panacea, but it can speed up processes of democratization and should be encouraged," he concluded.
[Source]

The media as a development tool

OPINION
18 August 2008
By Amos Safo

Recently a group of communications experts and practitioners met in Accra on how both traditional and new media can be harnessed to promote development.

Prof Alfred Opubor suggested that the syllabi taught in African universities and communications institutes should be changed to perhaps, reflect the growing need to use communication as a developmental tool.

The purposeful use of communication as catalysts for social development gave birth to what is now commonly referred to as development communication. How Latin American and Asian countries used and continue to use radio as a driver of economic development has been well documented.

Read more [AllAfrica.com]