The Drum Beat Issue 597 – Winning Bloggers on Development Policy
October 3 2011
From The Communication Initiative Network – where communication and media are central to social and economic development.
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Access this issue online at http://www.comminit.com/en/drum_beat_597.html
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This issue of The Drum Beat shares with you recent blogs from winners of the Blogging on Development Policy contest, which solicited persuasive critiques and discussion on the relationship between media, communication, and international development policy for posting to the collaborative blog Communication, Media, and Development Policy: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs The contest, run collaboratively by The Communication Initiative (The CI) and the BBC World Service Trust, a CI Partner, closed in March of 2011.
BBC World Service Trust and The CI chose winning bloggers from among the CI Network member-bloggers who posted blogs on a variety of topics. Those selected as winners of the competition subsequently sent a series of blogs that provided a diversity of perspective, voice, and style for the past three months’ reading on policy related to communication and media, ranging, for example:
* from the power of tweeting in India to a Trinidadian take on how the digital divide sequesters knowledge;
* from a critique of media election reporting in Nigeria to questions on the influence of media ownership in Kenya and Zambia; and
* from the reporting of transgender activism in Pakistan to the potential of citizen journalism in Zimbabwe.
Congratulations to the winners, who supplied The Communication Initiative with the riches of the written word! Below find excerpts from, and links to, the blogs of these winners who have further honed their skills and professionalised their blogging. Visit and comment at Communication, Media, and Development Policy: http://www.comminit.com/en/development_policy
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The «Top Eight Outstanding Bloggers» are, in alphabetical order:
1. Adetokunbo Abiola: «African Citizen Journalism Coalition»
«Many historians will tell you truth is the first casualty in times of political upheaval or war. With the turmoil in Libya and Zimbabwe, and then the conflicts in Ivory Coast and Somalia, they have been proved right. A politically vulnerable President Robert Mugabe and his administration have unleashed the harshest news media crackdown in their notoriously repressive tenure in Zimbabwe. Elsewhere, particularly in places like Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Togo, armed groups attacked journalists as a special target group. Truth is a casualty in these and other places. I think one of the solutions is the development of citizen journalism. Along with foreign radio stations and television, citizen journalism has encouraged and supported the overhaul of oppressive leaders in the Middle East and a few African countries. It helped relay information from volatile rural areas in Zimbabwe, where pro-government militants cracked down on the news media and opposition in its last election…»
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/african-citizen-journalism-coalition
See links to all of Adetokunbo Abiola’s blogs: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/blog/27917
2. Ambika Samarthya: «This is Not a Religious Conflict»
«During the recent Nigerian elections, which the international voting watchdogs deemed fairly run, the Southern candidate, current President Goodluck Jonathan, received more votes than the Northern candidate, former dictator General Buhari. ….[O]nce the results came out, it seemed like the only difference anyone, including media outlets in and outside the country, wanted to talk about was religion. Buhari, representing the North, is Muslim; Jonathan is Christian….»
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/not-religious-conflict
See links to all of Ambika’s blogs: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/blogs/ambika-samarthya
3. Bhumika Ghimire: «Online Activism and the Real World: Where Do We Meet?»
«….While there are some whose real world work relates to online activism, and, thus, they contribute both virtually and also in ‘reality’, some of us -like myself – have our activism limited to the cyberspace. Columnist Malcom Gladwell famously asserted that online activism and ‘Facebooking’ demands for reform will not bring a revolution to successful conclusion – while the Arab spring was in full swing. He quickly became the bitter old generation for those who looked at events in the Middle East and invested a lot of faith and hope in the power of social networking and cyber activism….»
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/online-activism-and-real-world-where-do-we-meet
See links to all of Bhumika Ghimire’s blogs: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/blog/27431
4. Charles Mafa: «Politicians not Journalists»
«Many people on the street and callers to local radio stations in Zambia have expressed their disgust at the way news and current affairs is reported ahead of the 2011 general elections. We have a situation where the public media is carrying stories of perceived development programmes taking place in the country while the private and independent media puts the government under the microscope. The private media is scrutinizing every deal or move that the government makes. This has not gone down well with the sympathizers of the ruling party and other consumers of information. They want a media that will give them a clear picture of the country in order to make right decision when voting… While the public have a right to complain about the kind of information they receive, the challenges facing the media go beyond the journalists themselves….»
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/politicians-not-journalists
See links to all of Charles Mafa’s blogs: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/blog/24219
5. ‘Erina’ Noelina Nabwire: «How Can Media Owned by Politicians Promote State Stability?»
«Media’s role in promoting state stability cannot be overemphasized. It should be noted that the media is a double edged sword. It can be an instrument of conflict resolution, uniting tribes and forging ahead tribal unity in divided societies such as Kenya. On the other hand, the media can be a frightful weapon of violence when media outlets opt to propagate messages of negative tribalism, intolerance, and disinformation, encourage annihilation of persons belonging to certain tribes, just as it happened in Kenya following the 2007 disputed presidential results…»
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/how-can-media-owned-politicians-promote-state-stability
See links to all of Noelina Nabwire’s blogs: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/blog/26912
6. Kris: «New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age»
«There is an emerging stream of discourse on the impact of new media on the civil society movement. It evokes cartoonistic images of an alliance of two powerful global forces for good – the media, and civil society – coming together, to defeat the evil of governments across the universe. The concept of a growing mass global movement of an entity called civil society, facilitated by new media, functioning as a virtual big brother watchdog over the misdemeanours of governments, businesses and others (who are these others?) is a notion I find to be increasingly problematic….»
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/cloistered-virtue
See links to all of Kris’s blogs: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/blogs/kris
7. Madeeha Ansari: «Men and Women and Merely Players»
«‘All the world’s a stage’ for the transgender community of Pakistan. The role is assigned by a cursory glance at a traffic light: ‘jester’, ‘oddball’, possibly «a morally degenerate sex worker». The general public looks no further and the flat character seen meandering through the traffic, vending prayers, accepts the shapelessness of the umbrella term, ‘hijra’. This holds until the general public encounters an individual such as Almas Bobby, President of the Pakistan Shemale Association. One of the pioneers of transgender activism, Almas has played a prominent role in bringing about the formal recognition of the «third gender» by the Supreme Court….»
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/men-and-women-and-merely-players
See links to all of Madeeha Ansari’s blogs: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/blogs/madeeha-ansari
8. Shweta: «Crisis Management vs. Crisis Creation: The Reason Why Sushma Swaraj and N Rao Are Tweeting Like a Bird»
«…Today an amazing number of people tweeting are the ones actually in a position to make a difference to policy and programs at local, national, or global levels. An equally amazing number of people are those whose voices would remain unheard, had it not been for the equalizing world of internet – let us call them the shakers and the fakers. The role Twitter plays continues to be the spread of information and information from a personal perspective, which I guess is a positive way to look at misinformation. Additionally, now you can get the judicious, genuine folks who read more than they write to weigh in on the slightly twisted world of people with sworn affiliations – let us call them the makers. Ultimately, these multi-perspectives, expressed in brevity out of necessity (as the tweeting word limit is 140 characters) are no less than an editorial by a seasoned journalist. In addition, it is probably more accurate, as in the true philosophical tradition, it gives you th!
e truth from multiple perspectives….»
http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/content/crisis-management-vs-crisis-creation-reason-why-sushma-swaraj-and-n-rao-are-tweeting-bir
See links to all of Shweta’s blogs: http://www.comminit.com/policy-blogs/blogs/shweta
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Please watch for, read, and comment on the blog posts that each of the above bloggers has contributed. Just visit the Communication, Media, and Development Policy blog: http://www.comminit.com/en/development_policy The bloggers appreciate your engagement!
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This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Julie Levy.
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The Drum Beat is the email and web network of The Communication Initiative Partnership – ANDI, BBC World Service Trust, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Calandria, CFSC Consortium, CIDA, DFID, FAO, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, Ford Foundation, Healthlink Worldwide, Inter-American Development Bank, International Institute for Communication and Development, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, MISA, PAHO, The Panos Institute, The Rockefeller Foundation, SAfAIDS, Sesame Workshop, Soul City, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, WHO, W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
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Executive Director: Warren Feek wfeek@comminit.com
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The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.
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