Communication For Social Change Research Articles

Participatory conflict as an intrinsic dimension of participatory communication: An ethnographic study of women self-help groups from Uttarakhand, India

ABSTRACT This paper establishes participatory conflict invoked by intersectional standpoints as a critique of the conventional celebratory understanding of participatory communication for social change. The paper is based on an immersive ethnographic study in the state of Uttarakhand, India with women participants in three self-help groups. Our findings acknowledge the presence of inevitable participatory conflict in women groups’ participation due to intersectional standpoints where gender intersects with caste, economic position, and paid work exposure leading to unequal access to communication resources among members. Our study offers a nuanced framework for participatory communication for social change that can contribute to both theory and development communication practice by acknowledging participatory conflict as an integral dimension of collective and individual empowerment process.

The Feminist Gaze on Communication for Social Change

A critical appraisal of the field of feminist approaches offers a valuable critical lens to help reshape our conceptualizations of development and the roles communication may play in constructive intervention. Development communication has shifted over time from ignoring and obscuring women to recognizing gendered differences in experiences. Development approaches have also brought participatory processes into focus. However, our strategic initiatives still fall short, both in effectiveness and in ethics. At this juncture, we need to take next steps more seriously in order to promote a more humanitarian approach that would guide institutional practices in programs and research. In this article, I aim to critique the discourse that celebrates digital technologies as tools to promote participatory governance, entrepreneurship, and collective activism through a feminist gaze that privileges the political and economic contexts that condition access to voice, the capacity to listen, and potential for dialog. This analysis builds on an understanding of mediated communication as a prism rather than as a projected mirror, structuring our potential as well as our challenges in creating constructive social change. We need to be accountable toward social justice, relying on our critical appraisals and informed dialogs to create paths to stronger and more impactful communication for social change.

Civic engagement and health communication in the context of COVID-19 crisis: A systematic review

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic, the first public health crisis updated in real-time, has integrated digital communication into daily life. This necessitates reflecting on Health Communication from a sociocultural perspective and improving health literacy to effectively manage the pandemic. Methodology: Literature on health communication during COVID-19 from 2020 to 2023 was reviewed using the Scopus and Web of Science databases, following the PRISMA protocol to identify evidence and avoid bias. Results: Digital communication was essential for sustaining communicative practices and addressing the health crisis. Discussion: Citizen participation demonstrated its potential in crisis management through creativity, emotional support, and dissemination of educational messages. Communication inequities and their impacts on vulnerable populations highlight the need for continued research in health communication. Conclusions: Integrating perspectives from Communication for Development and Social Change (CDCS) and positioning health communication as a subfield of social development is essential for deepening research and promoting active citizen participation in the health sector.

Organizational communication for social change on social media: NPOs’ social media strategies based on their perception of three stakeholder networks in collective and connective action

Abstract Social media transform and complicate nonprofit organizations’ (NPOs) traditional communication to engage and lead stakeholders for collective action. Stakeholders can self-organize for connective action on social media and form stakeholder networks of varied potential and structures that NPOs may leverage for collective goals. Facing such networks, NPOs may communicate in diverse ways to accommodate and take advantage of the diverse stakeholder networks. Through two surveys conducted with 375 (Study 1) and 74 (Study 2) NPOs, this study suggests that NPOs diversify their communication to leverage different potential from each stakeholder network by crafting different types of social media activities based on their perception of different networks. This study develops a comprehensive theoretical understanding of NPOs’ transformed and complex communication strategies for stakeholder engagement in driving social change, opening up new avenues for organizational communication and collective and connective action scholarship.

Subversive Recipes for Communication for Development and Social Change in Times of Digital Capitalism

Subversive Recipes for Communication for Development and Social Change in Times of Digital Capitalism

Comunicación para el desarrollo como idea-fuerza: del instrumento al constructo participativo

The following paper reviews how communication for development has evolved regarding its uses and alongside its audiences. It is important to acknowledge an Eurocentric gaze in the application of communication projects for development in Latin America and how this concept has gained new meanings, according to the persons that use it. This paper reviews the origins of the term “communication for development” and the current debate regarding participatory communication, and communication for social change. This essay shows an evolutionary perspective that starts from the closed model conception, focused in a few protagonists to a conception of projects which could be described as more collective, communitary and focused in cooperative work. Realidad: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades No. 163, 2024: 92-105.

Intervensi Sosial Sebagai Strategi Komunikasi Dalam Menurunkan Stunting di Sidoarjo Jawa Timur

The stunting rate decreased by 2.8%, which was 21.6% in 2022 compared to 24.4% in 2021. The decline is a positive development, but it is still above the threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO) which should not exceed 20%. This shows that the problem of stunting in Indonesia still requires serious attention. The purpose of the study was to understand social intervention as one of the communication strategies in reducing stunting rates in Sidoarjo Regency. Interventions in communication for social and behavioral change include various methods such as interpersonal communication, the utilization of mass media, and community mobilization and its social aspects. Qualitative research approach with constructivism paradigm. The data collection method was an in-depth interview with 4 resource persons, namely a public relations officer of the Sidoarjo Regency Health Office and three mothers who were the target audience for reducing stunting rates. The results showed that efforts to reduce stunting were carried out through two social interventions, namely specific nutrition interventions to address direct causes and nutrition-sensitive interventions to address indirect causes. Social interventions are carried out in a convergent manner with an emphasis on handling the causes of nutritional problems. Social and behavioral change communication approaches are used to raise awareness about stunting so as to encourage pregnant women and stunted children to improve nutrition and behave healthily.

Communication for social and behavior change

Communication for social and behavior change

Unlearning Communication for Social Change—A Pedagogical Proposition

We have in recent years seen growing calls for pedagogies for social change amongst communication and development scholars, identifying resistances, critiques, and emerging practices in the field. This review article addresses this ‘pedagogical turn’, suggesting that it is in these pedagogies we can see the pathways to unlearn and relearn communication for social change. Offering a decolonial analytical lens, this article asks two questions: What characterizes these critical pedagogies? And how can the various pedagogies contribute to unlearning and relearning the field of communication and social change? This article is structured in five parts, first offering a review of key critiques articulated within the field of communication and social development in the past two decades, arguing that, in practice, what we are seeing is the organic development of a pluriverse of knowledges, values, and visions of society. Secondly, it proposes the decolonial term of ‘unlearning’ as a pedagogical pathway and epistemological ambition for the production and recognition of a pluriverse of knowledges, thereby challenging dominant perceptions of society and social change. Thirdly, it introduces a model of analysis which structures ways whereby we can think about monocultures and ecologies in relation to a range of dimensions of the pluriverse. Fourthly, it reviews key critical pedagogies, discussing how they address epistemic injustice both in broader societal contexts as well as in the university space. This article concludes by discussing how the process of unlearning through critical pedagogies has implications for the configuration and definition of the field of communication and social change, suggesting three areas for further research: ways of seeing (positionality), new subject positions (relationality), and new design processes (transition).

Shared struggles, divergent paths: a comparison of grassroots and professional feminist advocates’ communication for social change in Argentina and the United States

Abstract Contemporary activism media research, largely focused on digital media's technological and discursive aspects, often lacks comparative studies and tends to overlook institutional or cultural factors in communication for social change (CSC). This study addresses these gaps by examining advocates’ sensemaking and communication praxis in contexts shaped by different advocacy traditions and sociocultural understandings of inequality. Through an analysis of 52 semi-structured interviews with Argentine grassroots advocates and U.S. professional ones, this study reveals similar media assessments across cases yet with different intersectional emphases: class in Argentina and race in the United States. Cross-case divergencies emerge in advocates’ positionality toward institutions and in their representational strategies: While grassroots advocates act as pragmatic agents of change and adopt a flexible communication style described as a “pedagogy of patience,” professional ones act as epistemic experts who offer a feminist critique of journalistic objectivity. I reflect on how these findings attend overlooked factors in CSC.

Integrating nutrition in the Sasakawa Africa Association extension services: Knowledge, attitude and practices among smallholder farmers

This survey aimed to establish nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices, and to observe how gender influences household food-related decision-making processes in the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) intervention areas in the Oromia and Southern Nation Nationalities and People regions of Ethiopia. The findings would inform implementation of communication for nutrition social and behaviour change among small-holder farmers as part of the SAA corporate strategy on nutrition-sensitive agriculture. The study population was smallholder farmers supported by SAA from which 311 respondents were selected through multistage sampling. Data were collected via a mixed methods approach consisting of a household survey, focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs). Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was analysed using a narrative and content approach. The study focused on knowledge, attitudes and practices related to production and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods. Majority (59.5%) of the respondents were male. Men were the main decision makers on staple or commercial food crop production and proportion of produced crops to be consumed at home or sold in the market. Women mainly made decisions regarding production and consumption of fruits and vegetables, intra-household food distribution, preservation and storage. There was a lack of knowledge on iron and vitamin A fortified or biofortified sources of food. Nearly three quarters (72%) of women did not meet the minimum dietary diversity for women, a proxy indicator of adequacy of micronutrient intake and diet quality. The mean dietary diversity score was 3.8 with animal source foods being the least consumed. Not having sufficient money to buy food, unavailability of different food groups and poor intra-household food distribution were among the key reasons for lack of diverse diets. Majority of the respondents were aware of the importance of production and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods. However, there was a gap in practice and awareness about biofortified and fortified foods. While most of the respondents had produced fruits and vegetables in home gardens in the three months prior to this survey, more than half (54%) of the respondents thought it was not likely that they would produce fruits and vegetables for home consumption. More targeted nutrition campaigns are required to increase the ability of small-holder farmers to adopt best practices while reducing the barriers associated with access and consumption. Promotion of fruit and vegetable production in home gardens could be considered as option for improving household dietary quality as well as empowering women to make more decisions. Key words: Sasakawa Africa Association, Small-holder farmers, Nutrition, Knowledge, Practices

Challenge or resist dominant discourses: Authenticity as a strategic component of activist public relations

Although there is evidence that perceived authenticity has a positive impact on corporate reputation, the implications of authenticity in activist communication for social change have not been addressed. Within a sociocultural theoretical approach this paper provides an ethnographic account of how and why human rights activists enact authenticity and aims to better understand the implications of authenticity in activist communication oriented towards social change. An ethnographic study was carried out during 6 months, with two human rights activist organizations. In addition to participant observation, documents produced by the organizations were also analyzed and twenty-five semi-structured interviews were carried out. The role of authenticity in the public relations activities of this organizations was observed at two main levels: (a) as an intentional strategic choice and, (b) as a challenge or resistance to dominant discourses. Findings place authenticity as a strategic component of activist public relations illustrating the contributions of the field for civic participation dynamics.

Traditional tikuna medicine in post-pandemic times. A perspective from communication for social change

Con el objetivo de comprender las diversas formas de mantener y transmitir los conocimientos tradicionales sobre el manejo de los recursos naturales silvestres y domesticados para prevenir y tratar la enfermedad de los miembros de la comunidad tikuna del Resguardo de San Sebastián de los Lagos, en Leticia (Amazonas), esta investigación utiliza elementos del método etnográfico y la Investigación- Acción- Participativa (IAP). Este proyecto se desarrolló en tres fases: diagnóstica, acción participativa y sistematización de la información. En el contexto del trabajo de campo con la comunidad se realizaron visitas en julio de 2022 al huerto, la chagra y el bosque con las mujeres de la comunidad, recolectando hojas de un herbario que funcionó como pretexto para el diálogo sobre las propiedades medicinales de las plantas. Los resultados muestran que las personas que lograron mantenerse dentro de la comunidad, realizando cuidado a partir de la medicina tradicional con hojas, sahumerios y cuidado, lograron recuperarse del Covid-19.

La Agenda 2030 en la Organización Mundial del Turismo: comunicando sostenibilidad

Tourism is an international asset that generates incomes that place it among the main economic activities of many countries. There is growing concern about the sustainability of tourism. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the international reference organization in charge of aligning this economic sector with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This research has focused on showing how the UNWTO follows the 2030 Agenda in the design of its campaigns. Through the review of academic sources, UNWTO campaigns and the semi‐structured interview conducted with its communication director, the type of communication for social change that the institution carries out to promote sustainable tourism has been identified. The UNWTO has made a great effort to communicate the 2030 Agenda as its effective roadmap, despite not giving the task as concluded. The communication designed and implemented is a tool for sustainable development.

Pemberdayaan Masyarakat melalui Komunikasi Perubahan Sosial

Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest Muslim population, the mosque is a place intended to carry out worship and religious activities for Muslims. Activities in this community service journal are conducting community service activities which are located at the Al-Raudlah Mosque, Kasemen, Sawah Luhur, Serang. The service method used is the coordination of activities, implementation of activities and community empowerment, distribution of cleaning facilities, evaluation of activities, and preparation of reports. The problems found are the lack of public concern for the cleanliness of the worship environment, inadequate facilities and infrastructure, and security that has not been guaranteed. The implementation team hopes that in order to realize the image of the Al-Raudlah mosque, which is a place of worship and a center for Muslim religious activities, it will be kept clean and safe. Because the mosque environment has a function as a place to foster society to become a united people based on faith and piety. For this reason, through communication for social change, the implementing team hopes that the purpose of their service can be achieved, namely helping the community to be persuaded and aware of caring more in the future in maintaining the maintenance of the mosque environment.

Design for Narrative Change. A Pedagogical Model for Interactive Digital Narratives

AbstractNarratives mirror shared interpretations of the world. Still, dominant narratives prevail, pushing non‐hegemonic narratives in the corner. A change in the creation, interaction and distribution of narratives can support the design of counter‐narratives able to feed social change. Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) can be considered an emerging experimental context in which designers, researchers and practitioners from various domains operate to develop story‐based content addressing relevant social or societal issues. The IDN social constructivist role in encouraging or influencing individuals and collectivities towards social change is a relevant design issue especially from an educational perspective. Specifically, it features methodologies and praxis not yet systematised, in need of exploration and formalisation. Recognising the contribution of an approach combining transdisciplinary methods and tools, the article presents a pedagogical model for designing IDNs as complex interactive systems able to impact culture and society based on empirical study from a design course in the higher education context. Composed of theoretical and operational frameworks, the pedagogical model orients the multilayered design process for building engaging, interactive narrative artefacts systematising and operationalising knowledge from the domains of Communication for Social Change, storytelling and IDN in an iterative design process.

Paralympics as a Tool for Communication for Social Change

The Paralympics was broadcast in Sub-Saharan Africa for the first time during the 2020 Tokyo Games. This offered a unique opportunity to approach this phenomenon from a communication for social change perspective. Specifically, in this paper we conceive of the Paralympic broadcasts as a form of Edutainment. This conceptual intervention raises a number of pertinent empirical questions. Would the Paralympics be relevant and meaningful to these audiences? How would this new audience interpret the Paralympics? What are the dialogical processes required to engage communities in processes of change? Drawing on findings from an action research project, we explore the extent to which the Paralympics can be a useful and relevant platform for addressing disability stigma. We argue that mobile screenings of the Paralympics created a critical awareness and served to spark plans for collective action.

From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals: Transforming development communication to sustainability communication

At the highest international political level, the United Nations declared the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 after having announced (and later not fulfilled) the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000. This shift from the MDGs to the SDGs, in which the term development was replaced by the concept of sustainability, also demands a paradigm shift within the research field of development communication and communication for social change which needs to put the focus on sustainability, embracing the concept of sustainability communication as key when analyzing and practicing social change by the use of communication and media. The article unfolds this argument by explaining the political shift from the MDGs to the SDGs and the relevant research fields analyzing these different goals and then sketching the research areas of development communication and communication for social change as well as the one of sustainability communication. In bringing all these areas together, it is argued that the change of the political goals provokes the above mentioned paradigm shift in the research area of development communication. Transforming development communication into sustainability communication also allows to focus the broad term of communication for social change on a specific aim – which is sustainability.

Activist Public Relations in Theory and Practice: Communication for Society and Social Change

Activist Public Relations in Theory and Practice: Communication for Society and Social Change

Bibliometric analysis of Spanish research on Communication for Development and Social Change (2014-2020): emerging thematics or field in implosion?

Resumen El campo de la Comunicación para el Desarrollo y el Cambio Social, en los últimos años, ha sido analizado bibliométricamente, con el fin de identificar los rasgos característicos de su producción científica. No obstante, los estudios previos realizados no han incorporado las metodologías específicas propias de la bibliometría y de la investigación documental. Este artículo viene a cubrir ese vacío, mediante el análisis de la co-ocurrencia de palabras-clave del dominio científico de la CDCS. Se estudia la aparición conjunta de dos o más palabras representativas en campos tales como títulos de artículos, resúmenes, palabras-clave o en el texto libre. Posteriormente, el análisis se representa en mapas y redes de palabras, donde se identifican los grupos de palabras y las relaciones existentes entre ellas. Las preguntas de investigación de este trabajo son las siguientes: ¿cuáles son los textos de la muestra, a partir de la cual realizar el análisis bibliométrico indicado?; ¿qué palabras-clave sirven para llevar a cabo el análisis de co-ocurrencia y la representación gráfica de este dominio científico?; a la vista de las tendencias identificadas, ¿estamos ante un campo emergente o ante un campo en proceso de implosión? Las conclusiones apuntan hacia el segundo término de esta disyuntiva. Asistimos a una destrucción poco creativa del campo, en la medida en que han sido demolidos los frágiles cimientos teóricos a partir de los cuales se empezaba a levantar este campo incipiente en la investigación española en comunicación.