Chapter 1 Flashcards
(115 cards)
1
Q
What is the most apparent role for media in development?
A
A channel for delivering information to the public.
2
Q
How can media act as an important of information for individuals?
A
Whether through posters, television advertisements or SMS, for individuals regarding all manner of development-related issues, such as family planning, nutrition and HIV/AIDS prevention.
3
Q
What is the definition of M4D?
A
Strategic use of the media as a tool for delivering positive change in individuals’ knowledge, attitude and practice in order to achieve development results.
4
Q
What is the aim of M4D projects?
A
Design the most appropriate message, targeted at the most relevant audience, delivered through the most suitable media channel in order to promote desirable change in a particular behaviour.
5
Q
What is Development Media International?
A
DMI is a UK-based social enterprise, which describes itself as « delivering mass media campaigns to change behaviours and save lives in developing countries ». Its focus primarily on changing behaviours related to reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, largely in Africa and Asia.
6
Q
Why is critical perspective crucial?
A
M4D is often presented entirely unproblematically, particularly in relation to new information and communication technologies.
7
Q
How is M4D represented in academic articles?
A
Rather than disappear from the literature, it seems there has been a resurgence of the use of this paradigm, either explicit or implicit, as fully 37.7 % of the articles made use of this frame for their research.
8
Q
What is the conclusion of Christine Ogan?
A
Perhaps the introduction of ICTs into the discourse of development has caused some scholars to forget that technology cannot provide a magic multiplier effect for the poorest of the poor. Only 20% of all articles were critical of any of the communication paradigms used to frame development
9
Q
What is the central argument of the M4D approach?
A
While the M4D approach certainly has the capacity to promote a particular kind of development (associated with individual behaviour change), under certain conditions, as with any intervention, there are inevitable limitations, assumptions and blind spots that need to be recognized. The M4D approach can also be accused of helping to reinforce the agenda of large corporations involved in international development, particularly when applied to ICTs.
10
Q
How is the M4D approach in practice?
A
In practice, media-related development projects can look very different to the ideal form of M4D discussed and critiqued here. It therefore outlines two particular hybrid forms of M4D that, to varying degrees, incorporate the strategies and objectives of other approaches.
11
Q
What are the features of the M4D approach?
A
Information provision, cultivating appropriate attitudes, assumptions about communication, audiences and behaviour change. Change is planned, controlled, targeted, measurable, predictable and managed by external change agents and an instrumental view of participation.
12
Q
What is information prevision?
A
It’s the central feature of the M4D approach that information acquisition by individuals is understood to be a vital part of the development process.
13
Q
What is the essential problem of information prevision?
A
Lack of (appropriate or accurate) information regarding particular issue, such as being unaware of free healthcare services or the necessity for climate change adaptation.
14
Q
What is the solution of the essential problem of information prevision?
A
To combat such (apparent) ignorance by providing individuals with relevant information, which, it is predicted, will result in desirable behaviour change.
15
Q
Why are mass media usually seen as the most effective mechanism for delivering the relevant information?
A
Unlike conventional, classroom-based, education, the mass media can reach relatively very large numbers of people very quickly, repetitively and inexpensively.
16
Q
What medium is particularly effective?
A
Radio in particular is often cited as being especially effective in many contexts, not least because radio audiences are not required to be literate. More recently, mobile phones are increasingly being used as the mechanism for delivering information.
17
Q
Why cultivating appropriate attitudes?
A
The M4D approach also commonly includes a focus on the importance of developing suitable attitudes. This emphasis on attitudes stems from the work of Max Wever and Daniel Lemer who both argued that the development of a society depends upon the predominance of a modern rather than a traditional mental outlook; characterized by being rational, calculating and forward thinking. Belief that culture and individuals attitudes are a key determinant of development remains – in the global North as well as the South.
18
Q
What is the function of media in an individual’s attitude is taken as a key driver of (or obstacle to) development?
A
Challenge traditional norms and values and instead develop a modern or more appropriate outlook. Culture is often understood as a barrier to development, and not as an ally of development or part of a way of life, as in alternative approaches to media and development.
19
Q
What is the two step flow model?
A
Suggests that information and ideas are transferred from media to the general public in two stages – first, from media to opinion leaders or local elites (who have the resources to access and respond to the information), and secondly, from such opinion leaders to the masses – through interpersonal communication.
20
Q
What is the key emphasis in the two step flow model?
A
Importance of targeting opinion leaders and of combining communication through media with interpersonal communication
21
Q
What has replaced the widely discredited hypodermic needle model of communication?
A
Emphasis on the importance of talk in behaviour change and the disaggregation of different target audiences has replaced the widely discredited hypodermic needle model of communication, which asserts that mass media have direct and powerful effect on passive audiences.
22
Q
What is the assumption in M4D?
A
Communication is a largely linear, unidirectional process in which information is sent from senders to receivers through particular channels.
23
Q
What is the theory of innovation by Rogers?
A
New innovations spread throughout society in a relatively predictable pattern, with the early adopters of new innovations having a tendency to be elites. After an innovation has subsequently spread among the majority of the population the last members of society to adopt will be the laggards, characterized by Rogers as having a focus on traditions.
24
Q
What are the five stages that characterizes the adoption of innovations as an individual decision-making process?
A
awareness, knowledge and interest, decision, trial and adoption/rejection. Whereas media are taken to be central to the first stage of the process. Rogers saw personal sources as most important during the later stages of the adoption process. This model of diffusion also emphasizes the vital role of both interpersonal communication and the differences between groups in society, just as in the two step flow model.
25
How theories from social psychology are used in the theory of innovation?
Theories from social psychology are used to help explain how individuals learn and adopt new behaviours, such as condom use or hand washing, based on the experience of media consumption. Some of the most widely cited theories in this context include Social Learning Theory, the Stages of change Model and the Health Belief Model.
26
What is the Stages of change Model?
Seeks to describe the sequence of stages through which an individual passes in the adoption of a positive behaviour. In this model the stages consist of: pre-contemplation, contemplation of the reasons to change a behaviour, preparation to change behaviour, action, and, finally, maintenance of that action.
27
What is the role of communication in the Stages of change model?
Targeted at the stage being addressed, so, for example, to help move an individual from pre-contemplation to contemplation, the role of media might be to raise awareness of the issue and to demonstrate the positive reasons to adopt that behaviour.
28
What characterized theories of behaviour change and theory of diffusion?
They assume that behaviour change is a product of individual psychology (rather than group norms and processes) and that decision-making is a rational (rather than emotional) process.
29
What are the assumptions shared by all M4D interventions?
M4D interventions do all share a set of common assumptions about the nature of communication (as a linear, one-to-many, process), audiences (as relatively passive) and behaviour change (as based on individual, rational, decision-making).
30
What are external change agents (ECA)?
Change is planned, controlled, targeted, measurable, predictable and managed by external agents: requires external change agents (usually foreign consultants) to play a central role in managing the process of change.
31
Why are the ECA important?
The experts are communicating something of which they are in possession, to people who are ignorant of theses insights, implicit in this description is the idea that local people are not only ignorant but are also somewhat passive and predictable in the process of development. If the change agent was not there to identify the missing information, design the intervention and ensure it was delivered effectively, change would not otherwise occur.
32
How is the change drive in the M4D approach?
From outside the community, but the change agent is also pursuing a particular kind of change.
33
How does M4D interventions seek to achieve change?
They seek to achieve change that is planned in advance, targeted at particular audiences, limited in scope and aimed to achieve certain predetermined outcomes, limited to specific changes in individual behaviours, and that these outcomes can be both accurately measured and attributed to the M4D campaign.
34
What is the instrumental view of participation?
Although projects adopting M4D approach may be managed by external change agents and characterized by a sender-receiver model of communication, they are not necessarily imposed on recipient communities without any consultation. If media are to be used effectively as channels for delivering information to audiences with the intention of promoting behaviour change, then it is vital for the messages to be relevant to the particular contexts in which they will be received.
35
How these interventions are more likely to be effective?
Such interventions are much more likely to be effective if they are based on an understanding of what particular beliefs currently prevent individuals from engaging in particular behaviours, for example.
36
How the target population can could be reach more efficiently?
Knowledge of the media consumption habits of the target population will enable them to be reached more effectively.
37
How to achieve this level of understanding of audiences?
At least some level of participation from the local community is required and this must inevitably involve some degree of two-way and horizontal communication.
38
What characterized the M4D approach?
The nature and extent of this participation. Participation of the local community in this approach is fundamentally a means to achieving more effective use of media. Rather than an end in itself.
39
What is the aim of consulting with target audience, or of employing some local staff?
To maximize the effectiveness and delivery of predetermined messages, rather than to involve communities in determining the problems and the most appropriate courses of action themselves.
40
Why evaluating M4D interventions are useful?
Not only help to reveal a number of the key dimensions of this approach but also play a role in legitimizing it.
41
How these evaluations are conducted?
Such evaluations are commonly conducted in one of two ways: either the levels of knowledge, attitude and practice of audiences are measured before the intervention begins and compared to those after the intervention or reported changes in the knowledge, attitude and practice of those who have not been exposed to the relevant media output compared to those who have not.
42
Why are these measures not complete?
Unless all other possible intervening variables are controlled for, such as age, gender, education level and employment, then we cannot be sure a single element in the media is the determining factor. Thus, while these measures help us to get closer to isolating the impact of an intervention and are often the best measures available, they are not complete or absolute proof of impact.
43
How to ameliorate the problems associated with providing evidence of the effects of M4D campaigns?
Multiple regression analysis can be used to control for the influence of other variables and the use of control areas, which are not exposed to the intervention, can also help to isolate the role of media. Being able to compare control and intervention, can also help to isolate the role of media. Being able to compare control and intervention areas means that differences in behaviour change can be attributed to the intervention, rather than other variables.
44
How quantitative measurements and linear cause-effect models can be very valuable?
In an increasingly competitive and accountability-based donor environment, such quantitative measurements and linear cause-effect models can be very valuable.
45
What are the problems of quantitative measurements?
A narrow focus on individuals behaviour change and a quantitative measurement-oriented, approach to evaluation can mean that the complexity of culture and the context of development initiatives is not taken into account.
46
What are the thought of Lenne and Tacchi?
Social change is not linear, not predictable, and is always contextual. While quantitative models mays go some way towards isolating the effect of media messages on individual behaviours in the short term, they say little about the longer-term consequences of communication campaigns overall for social change more broadly.
47
What are the critiques of the M4D approach?
The role of social structures and the M4D and modernization.
48
What is one of the major appeals of the M4D approach?
It suggests that governments, NGOs, corporate donors and multilateral institutions can design and deliver communication-based interventions which make a difference in a controlled and measurable way, but which don’t provoke social unrest or radical critique (perhaps even of their own interventions). In this scenario, the major questions left to be resolved are simply whom to target and how. But while the appearance of being apolitical may make the M4D approach attractive as we shall see, it is also the source of several key limitation.
49
What are the key limitations of the M4D approach?
The M4D approach is limited by, and fails to address, social structures, the M4D approach can harm local media industries and exacerbate inequalities.
50
How is the M4D approach limited by, and fails to address, social structure?
The outcomes of M4D-bsed interventions are severely constrained by the fact that individual behaviour change is limited, not just by a lack of information or traditional attitudes, but by more deep-rooted political, social, institutional and economic constraints. Individuals may know and even be positively predisposed towards having a smaller family size or sending their children to school, for example, but if the society they live in has no social security or they cannot afford to pay the schools’ fees, they may be unlikely to change their behaviour. Media may be able to deliver information to individuals, but information is rarely enough by itself to allow for changes in individual behaviour, without a broader transformation of the many complex social and political processes which determine individuals’ lives.
51
How the M4D approach fails to address the broader structural drivers of poverty and inequality?
Targeting only a narrow range of apparent informative or psychological barriers. Dissemination of information, on its own is not sufficient to alter the marginalized position of excluded communities.
52
How the definition of development is characterized in the M4D approach?
By a very narrow definition of development – associated with individual behaviour change – rather than broader social change involving tackling social structures and the roots causes of poverty and inequality.
53
What is the tension with the definition of development and the M4D approach?
Between the choices to pursue relatively small-scale, discrete, but nevertheless very important, changes in individual behaviour – or to contribute to a much broader vision of development, associated with empowerment, equality and democracy.
54
What is the point of view of Luis Ramiro?
An overall change of the social structure is the fundamental pre-requisite for the attainment of genuinely human and democratic development.
55
What is the point of view of Manyozo?
Mobilising communities to uptake and adopt new knowledge and technology does not make sense if the communication interventions do not deal with fundamental causes of inequality that have put communities in such position.
56
Why some believe it is inefficient to devote limited resources?
From a different perspective, one might argue that it is inefficient to devote limited resources to pursuing broad, complex and unpredictable development-related objectives, when the M4D approach claims to be able to produce targeted, measurable and cost-efficient change. At stake here are questions regarding the importance of accountability and cost-effectiveness in aid spending and what development actually means.
57
How the M4D approach can harm local media industries and exacerbate inequalities?
There is an assumption in the M4D approach that the media are an independent variable, or a politically neutral tool which acts upon society but it not influenced by it. There are many examples of M4D projects which have been accused (either individual or en masse) of actively harming the local media capacity of the countries they work in – either by reinforcing unequal patterns of media ownership or by distorting the local market.
58
What is the point of view of Beltran?
Communication itself is so subdued to the influence of the prevailing organisational arrangements of society that it can hardly be expected to act independently as a main contributor to profound and widespread social transformations.
59
What is Sarah Cramer and Mustaf Babak point of view?
Large amounts of investment from Western donors in M4D-based interventions in the Afghan media sector in recent years have, alongside Afghanistan’s open licensing regulation, contributed to powerful political and religious figures managing to gain control of many of the outlets. As a consequence, they describe the Afghan media sector as having grown along historic tension lines, reinforcing differences rather than bridging them.
60
How the M4D approach may actively contribute to the exacerbation of existing inequalities among populations?
This understanding of the media as a politically neutral tool is also associated with the claim that the M4D approach may actively contribute to the exacerbation of existing inequalities among populations. In most developing countries, access to different media is sharply divided according to gender, ethnicity, rural/urban setting, socio-economic status and many other variables. As a result, any M4D campaigns broadcast on television, for example, are inevitably more likely to be watched by particular members of society than other.
61
What is the point of view of Paul Hartmann?
Information tends not to trickle through society randomly but flow along established channels defined by the social structure. The consequence is that those who are already marginalized in society are also the ones least likely to benefit from such interventions.
62
Why M4D campaigns are inevitably less effective in countries where audiences are fragmented?
M4D campaigns, as an approach to achieving behaviour change, are inevitably less effective in countries where audiences are fragmented, as is increasingly the case, or where media penetration rates are relatively low. Unless concrete steps are taken to address existing inequalities of access, inequalities in health outcomes may expand
63
How the apparent compounding of inequalities may be further exacerbated?
By the fact that some members of society are not only less likely to have access to technology, but are also less likely to be able to act on information they receive. Even if all members of society were informed, through media, about the benefits of a particular technological innovation, it will likely be those with great power who are better able to adopt and benefit from it.
64
What is Sparks point of view?
Development can be a precondition for the acceptance of development messages, rather than the other way around.
65
Why the influence of social structures is unavoidable?
While the M4D campaign may appear to produce change without getting involved in the messy business of politics and social relations, the influence of social structures is unavoidable. M4D campaigns not only fail to target social structures but their effects are limited by them and they can end up harming local media industries and exacerbating inequalities because of them.
66
What is M4D and modernization?
The second major set of critiques of the M4D approach stem from its origins in the modernization paradigm of development. Beginning after the Second World War and for several decades afterwards, modernization was the dominant way in which development was conceived.
67
What is the basic idea of the theory of modernization?
Underdeveloped societies should aim to replicate political, economic and cultural characteristics of modern developed Western societies. This evolution of society referred primarily to processes of industrialization, urbanization, democratization and the use of advanced technologies. These processes were also perceived to rely upon a simultaneous transition from traditional attitudes and values to more modern ones.
68
How were the mass media perceived at the time?
The mass media were understood to be able to act as magic multipliers – or key drivers of changes in knowledge and attitude. Grand claims were made about the capacity of the mass media to transform societies.
69
Why this view of development has been criticized?
This view of development as modernization has been relentlessly and substantially critiqued and undermined, particularly since the 1970s, not least for having a patronizing, one-size-fits-all, and ultimately self-serving view of development. Advocates of another development accuse the modernization paradigm of failing to recognize the agency and distinctiveness of local population and that every society must pursue its own unique path to development.
70
What is the perspective of the dependency theory?
Modernization was criticized for actively promoting an oppressive world system in which poorer countries will continue to pursue closer integration into the world market. As a consequence of these and many other critiques, the dominance of the modernization paradigm of development has been replaced by multiple competing narratives about what development is and how it can be achieved.
71
How is the modernization discourse today?
Despite its relative, though, the modernization discourse of progress still remains highly influential and is implicit in many development policies and intervention today – including the M4D approach.
72
How the M4D approach can promote a Western vision of modernity?
While contemporary campaigns would not make the same claims about the direct and large-scale transformative capacity of media for all society, they do remain committed to some dimensions of the modernization paradigm – especially a belief in the superiority of modern over traditional ideas.
73
What is the assumption about communication associated with modern medicine?
Communication of information and norms associated with modern scientific medicine and health practices that this assumption appears most valid. Few would object to the principle of promoting many health behaviours that are rooted in knowledge generated by modern scientific medicine, such as child immunization or nutritional advice. Similarly, cultural beliefs that maintain the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting are often cited as examples of traditional ideas that are universally unacceptable and should be eliminated.
74
What is the broader question in the modernization paradigm?
While it may be difficult to disagree with the general premise of using media to promote specific attitudes related to health and to challenge certain others, the broader question of whether modern ideas are superiors to local or traditional ones, in all context is much more problematic.
75
What is Wasbrod point of view?
Who has the right to determine which cultural practices are desirable and need to be preserved? When is universalism defensible? Does relativism always trump universalistic principles? What if communities invoke cultural sovereignty to defend practices that are widely contrary to other people’s (particularly Northern) norms?
76
What is the effect of supply-led interventions?
If interventions are supply-led rather than demand-driven, as M4D projects often are, they may fail to recognize that what is appropriate in one society may not be so appropriate in another, or that the most pressing development needs of the population may actually be very different from the ones identified by external change agents. Moreover, given that it is almost exclusively ideas produced and accepted within the West which are disseminated by (largely Western-based) M4D campaigns, it is possible to understand how some M4D campaigns might still be accused of promoting modernization, or a Western model of development.
77
What is Claude Alvares point of view?
Knowledge is power, but power is also knowledge. Power decides what is knowledge and what is not knowledge.
78
What is the second critique of the M4D approach?
A second critique of the M4D approach, linked to its foundations in the modernization paradigm, concerns its implicit assumptions about the audience. The model of behaviour change which the M4D approach relies upon generally imply a passive and ignorant audience, which, as long as the message is suitably designed, will respond predictably and positively to a campaign.
79
What is the point of view of Gareth Locksley?
Belief in the media’s ability to influence behaviour is evidenced by the amounts spent on global advertising – totalling about 400 billion $ in 2005. This large sum is targeted at influencing behaviour so it is safe to assume that the behavioural influence is valid.
80
What is the storyline of Gareth Locksley?
The storyline is simple: the media can contribute to development by bringing about beneficial changes in the behaviour of individuals, groups, and organizations. Whether the media bring about change depends on its content, tailoring to target audiences, and, to some degree, its interactivity.
81
Why is the storyline of media effects anything but simple?
Large amounts of spending on advertising are evidence only that media are assumed to play some role in public consumption habits – not that media necessarily have powerful and direct effects on what all audiences do. It is not difficult to appreciate that the effects that media have on audiences depend on far more than how well designed and targeted the content is. Audience research in media studies consistently makes clear that audience active in the negotiation of the meaning of media content.
82
On what depend how each individual will respond to M4D campaign?
Within any group of audience members, each individual will respond differently to a M4D campaign (or any media text), depending on the context in which they consume it and their own personal background, beliefs, education and experiences. As a result, they may ignore it, laugh at it, misunderstand it, talk over it or interpret and respond to it in any number of alternative ways. Similarly, as active audiences, their future behaviour in relation to the subject matter of the campaign will be a function not only of their active response to the content, but also of their willingness and ability to negotiate the social, cultural, economic and political conditions in the society in which they live.
83
What is the point of view of Waisbord?
The path from information to attitude to practice does not run straight.
84
What are the reasons public may change their behaviour?
Not to argue that M4D campaigns may not have some effect on the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of individuals. Rather, it is suggested that he reasons why publics may change their behaviours, and the role that media play in those changes, are considerably more complex, contingent and unpredictable than is often claimed. Put another way, it may indeed be the case that a certain percentage of a population has adopted a changed behaviour during the time that a M4D campaign has run. But to suggest that thus is a direct consequence of audiences passively and predictably absorbing the messages sent to them, and rationally deciding to change their behaviours n response, would be to deny those individuals their very real agency in making up their own minds, and the complexities and contingencies of their decision-making. It is the suggestion that audiences in the global South are, at least some extent, passive and predictable which links contemporary M4D campaigns to the modernization paradigm. There is little room for self-determination in a M4D approach.
85
Are there more valuable alternatives ways of making use of media to facilitate media?
If we accept that audiences are active, critical, imaginative and often resistant in their consumption of media texts, might there not be equally valuable, if not more valuable alternative ways of making use of media to facilitate development, rather than using these technologies only as channels for information delivery? It should be clear that we might take issue with the M4D approach on the grounds that it can be used to promote a Western vision of modernity that may not be appropriate in all contexts and that it fails to recognize or utilize the agency of audiences.
86
What is the importance of a critical perspective on M4D?
Recognizing the various criticisms discussed here is clearly important for understanding what a M4D approach can and cannot achieve and how such projects should be designed and implemented.
87
What is ICT4D?
Information and communication technologies for development. Concerned with the application of ICTs, including the internet and mobile phones, to development goals.
88
What is Ogan point of view?
The more recent attention of ICT has to do with the constant search for the magic solution to bringing information to people to transform their lives. Despite years of research that tells us that information is necessary but insufficient to bring about this change, ICTs have become the most recent iteration of the Holy Grail for development. Because of the appeal of the modernization paradigm, there is a tendency to forget that it might not work.
89
What says the ICT4D in the academic literature?
The articles which used ICT4D as the primary development strategy were far more likely to consider media as the prime mover of development, rather than as a complement to other factors or as having a minimal role.
90
How are the claims about the magical potential of high-tech innovations?
Claims about the magical potential of high-tech innovations to transform the lives of individuals and communities across the global South are also particularly evident in discourses produced by private companies whose philanthropic foundations are involved in international development.
91
What is the point of view of Anne Nelson in a review of private funding for media and development?
One enormous factor in the growth of media for development has been the emergence of a new generation of foundations grounded in new media. The Gates Foundation may not have intended media for development but in recent years it has undoubtedly helped to set the agenda.
92
How the M4D approach is can easily be justify private donors providing subsidized access to ICTs in the global South?
So that everyone can benefit from the resulting access to information. A focus on providing access to new technologies – or bridging the digital divide – can also be interpreted as a mechanism for allowing corporations to establish new channels of market penetration.
93
How does Gumucio-Dagron describes the ICTs?
The point of lance of the expanding wave of mercantilism. In the name of digital divide great business is being made.
94
How the M4D approach the structural forces?
The M4D approach the structural forces which shape inequality are obscured and underdevelopment is attributed instead to individual psychological deficiencies. As a result, the M4D approach can be used to draw attention away from consequences of global capitalism and neoliberalism and to place the responsibility for poverty firmly on the individual.
95
Are the government and multinational corporations at fault?
Government can no longer at fault for not providing adequate healthcare, for example, and multinational corporations are not to blame for the externalities of global capitalism. Instead, we are encouraged to rely upon the philanthropy and technical fixes of private companies as the most effective means of promoting development.
96
How can the corporations use impacts of M4D approach as evidence of their success?
Corporations can use the seemingly measurable and directly attributable impacts of a M4D approach as evidence of their successes in delivering a public good. This evidence can be used to offset criticisms of their other corporate practices – for not paying taxes or fair wages, for example.
97
How the M4D approach can advance the agenda of private global industry?
The seemingly neutral, apolitical, nature of the M4D approach and its conceptualization of change as direct and measurable may help to advance the agenda of private global industry in the service of the neoliberal project.
98
What is the point of view of Anita Curumurthy and Parminder Jeet Singh?
The principal ICTD opportunity is to deploy ICTs in order to universalize market fundamentalism in all facets of life.
99
Of what was accused the depoliticization of development in the 1970s?
Serving imperial ambitions and ideological purposes related to the Cold War, in the modern day the same depoliticization can instead be linked to the service of capitalism and a neoliberal point of view.
100
What are the M4D hybrids?
Many media-related projects that have a focus on behaviour change, and which we might be inclined to characterize as adopting an M4F approach, actually contain multiples objectives. Two of the most common hybrids of the M4D approach are those that incorporate objectives associated with either media development or media advocacy hybrids.
101
What are the M4D hybrids?
Media development hybrids and media advocacy hybrids.
102
What is the example of DMI in media development hybrids?
DMI provide training and build the capacity of the Ministry of Health and local media organizations in exchange for free or heavily subsidized airtime for their campaigns. This not only means that costs of their campaigns are kept low, but that additional costs of conducting further campaigns are kept low, but that additional costs of conducting further campaigns on other issues are minimal. It also means that broadcasters can continue to produce their own materials in the long term when the intervention from DMI ends.
103
How can capacity-building approaches may enhance the sustainability of M4D-based projects?
To be clear, their focus is on enhancing the media’s capacity to deliver more of the same kind of interventions. The fundamental aim – to use media only as a vehicle for individual behaviour change – remains. There are, however, many examples of projects which seek to combine effective behaviour change communication with broader contribution to media development.
104
Where the outcomes of M4D projects can extend to?
Other sectors of the media, it is also important to recognize that their contribution to media development skills takes a particular, limited, form. Supporting the development of an enabling legal environment in order to sustain press freedom, for example, would require long-term, coordinated and strategic investment involving multiple stake-holders which is usually beyond capacity of organizations focused largely on using media to design and deliver development messages.
105
What is media advocacy hybrids?
Many media-related development projects take seriously the idea that information alone is not enough to change behaviours, they seek to combine an information-based approach with an approach aimed at creating a more favourable social, political and economic environment for behaviour change. Facilitating the creation of such an enabling environment generally involves the strategic use of media to put pressure on policy-makers – an approach referred to as media advocacy. Such pressure can come either from using media to mobilize community groups or by attempting to influence news coverage of particular issues.
106
What is the duel aim of contributing in media advocacy hybrid?
Duel aim of contributing to both individual behaviour change and to broader societal change is implied in many contemporary models of development communication, to varying degrees.
107
What is the Adam Smith International?
Having the objectives of not only providing information and changing behaviour, but also of building coalitions. It defines development communication as the art and science of making people aware of the benefits of change and of facilitating that change through raising awareness, understanding, and dialogue among stakeholders. Its focus on information and behaviour change reveals its adherence to a conventional M4D approach, while its additional focus on dialogue with stakeholders and building coalitions signals its broader intention to engage with wider structural processes.
108
What are the three spheres of influence in the Adam Smith International model?
Information, community and family.
109
What is the meaning of the three spheres in the Adam Smith International?
The recognition that behaviour change requires more than information being delivered to individuals is also implied with their model by the reference to three spheres of influence – the information, community and family spheres. The very idea that their approach to development communication can be summarized and formulated in a technical model involving three objectives, three spheres of influences and seven steps is characteristic of pre-structured, expert-led, approach.
110
What does their seven steps implies?
A one-time, linear model of project implementation that can be made applicable to any context. Despite references to dialogue, reform and building coalitions, we might conclude that Adam Smith International’s model appears still to be tied very closely to a conventional M4D approach.
111
What is the Soul City approach?
Combining excellent social marketing strategies with additional components that promote dialogue, challenge power structures and promote community based action.
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Does the M4D approach still has its place today?
M4D approach has its place in the arsenal of strategies linking media to development, particularly in the case of health communication. Indeed, the M4D approach continues to be regularly used in the global North in public health information campaigns to address issues such as road safety and smoking. It is also very appealing approach because it presents itself as logical, apolitical and based on persuasive quantitative evaluations of impact and cost-effectiveness.
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What are the problems of the M4D approach?
This approach to media and development, whether applied to television and radio or mobile phones and posters carries a number of significant problems. In particular, it is limited in the breadth of its ambition – being focused only on promoting individual behaviour change, rather than addressing the deep-rooted social, economic and political structures which shape behaviours. Indeed, its neglect of social structures not only severely limits the impact it can have on most behaviours but may also result in M4D interventions contributing to the advancement of inequalities.
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What are the assumptions we might take issue with?
About the passive nature of audiences, the superiority of modern ideas over traditional ones, or the top-down and one-to-many view of communications. The existence of M4D hybrids may ameliorate some of these issues, it should be clear that M4D approach does not provide a panacea for development.
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How those ICTs for development affects the M4D approach?
Such debates about the value and limitations of the M4D approach have recently taken on a greater importance as the use of ICTs for development gathers pace and frequently adopts this approach (event if this is not made explicit). What is at stake in debates over the M4D approach is not just the effectiveness of one form of intervention over another, but the whole idea of what development is, who pursues it and why.
