What do we mean when we say participatory communication? What are the practical implications of working with participatory communication strategies in development and social change processes? What experiences exists in practice that documents that participatory communication adds value to a development project or programme? The aim of this user guide on participatory communication is to provide answers to some of these questions. Many communication practitioners and development workers face obstacles and challenges in their practical work. A participatory communication strategy offers a very specific perspective on how to articulate social processes, decision-making processes and any change process for that matter. Participatory approaches are nothing new. However, what is new is the proliferation of institutions, especially governmental but also non-governmental, that seek participatory approaches in their development initiative. This guide seeks to provide perspectives, tools and experiences regarding how to go about it with participatory communication strategies. It is conceived as a guide that hopefully can be of relevance and utility for development workers in the field. It is targeted at both at government and their officials, World Bank staff and at civil society.

Provides advice to researchers, community members, and development practitioners on how to improve their ability to effectively reach policy makers and promote change. Covers their roles as a communication actors, how to plan a participatory development communication strategy, and the use of communication tools.

Participatory Development Communication: A West African agenda

This pioneering and thought-provoking volume explores the strengths, weaknesses, and complex nature of participation in many diverse settings while pinpointing important related concepts such as power and control, conscientization, and empowerment and self-reliance. Two central themes run throughout Participatory Communication: development communication must be dialogic and transactional; and development communicators must play a critical role in offering new philosophies, concepts, and models which facilitate participation at all stages of the development process. With its judicious blend of theoretical models and case studies and its refreshing ability to challenge received wisdom concerning participation, development, and communication processes, Participatory Communication will interest a wide range of academics and professionals as well as voluntary agencies. "This book comes close to being unrivalled for its scope . . . and reflects the sincerity and concern of the contributors for the toiling marginalised muted millions." -Economic and Political Weekly "As a professor of development communication myself, I intend to read the book again and again. It fulfills the voracious requirements of the duty to profess to students. It is a virtual encyclopedia on development communication, what with its 21 chapters dedicated to one or the other aspect of the philosophies, theories, models, practices, and history of that field, particularly the concept of participation . . . All in all, the book celebrates a philosophy that `has influenced a generation' of practitioners, students, and scholars of development and communication." -Media Asia

Participatory Media in Environmental Communication brings together stories of communities in the Pacific islands – a region that is severely affected by the impacts of climate change. Despite living on the margins of the digital revolution, these island communities have used media and communication to create awareness of and find solutions to environmental challenges. By telling their stories in their own way, ordinary people are able to communicate compelling accounts of how different, but interrelated, environmental, political, and economic issues converge and impact at a local level. This book fills a significant gap in our understanding of how participatory media is used as a dialogic tool to raise awareness and facilitate discussion of environmental issues that are now critical. It includes a section on pedagogy and practice – the undergirding principles, the tools, the methods. The book offers a framework for Participatory Environmental Communication that weaves three widely used concepts, diversity, network and agency, into a cohesive underlying system to bring scholars, practitioners and diverse communities together in a dialogue about pressing environmental issues. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and students in communication and media studies, environmental communication, cultural studies, and environmental sciences, as well as practitioners, policy makers and environmental activists.

This handbook has been prepared as a training and field guide for designing, implementing and managing effective communication strategies for field projects in a participatory manner, building on the results of the Participatory Rural Communication Appraisal (ISBN 9251052514). Issues dealt with include the principles and processes of communication planning, message development, multimedia material production and the implementation of communication activities in the field. This strategy design process has been tested in training workshops and applied to various development projects including those dealing with agriculture, health and education, water and sanitation.

This text identifies and explores the relevance of development communication theory. The chapters address community participation, communication and culture from specific contemporary perspectives, and raise for discussion a number of associated methodological and metatheoretical issues.

This text presents a case-study account of a community project designed to enhance the quality of public communication through assisting academics, public professionals, and communication practitioners in developing community-building programmes.

Participatory Health through Social Media explores how traditional models of healthcare can be delivered differently through social media and online games, and how these technologies are changing the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals, as well as their impact on health behavior change. The book also examines how the hospitals, public health authorities, and inspectorates are currently using social media to facilitate both information distribution and collection. Also looks into the opportunities and risks to record and analyze epidemiologically relevant data retrieved from the Internet, social media, sensor data, and other digital sources. The book encompasses topics such as patient empowerment, gamification and social games, and the relationships between social media, health behavior change, and health communication crisis during epidemics. Additionally, the book analyzes the possibilities of big data generated through social media. Authored by IMIA Social Media working group, this book is a valuable resource for healthcare researchers and professionals, as well as clinicians interested in using new media as part of their practice or research. - Presents a multidisciplinary point of view providing the readers with a broader perspective - Brings the latest case studies and technological advances in the area, supported by an active international community of members who actively work in this area - Endorsed by IMIA Social Media workgroup, guaranteeing trustable information from the most relevant experts on the subject - Examines how the hospitals, public health authorities, and inspectorates are currently using social media to facilitate both information distribution and collection

Basically a means by which a group of people can come together and share their experiences of a common set of events, this processing technique provides a mechanism that can be used for various purposes, including information sharing, informal assessment of ongoing projects, overcoming language problems, and staff development. Among those programs and settings in which the processing technique has been used successfully are a community action for rodent control in Troy, New York; an inservice training program for field workers in a nonformal educational program in Indonesia; a project to coordinate nonformal educational activities among seven provinces in Indonesia; and a series of weekly meetings of faculty and graduate students at the Center for International Education in Amherst, Massachusetts. Experience indicates that the sessions should be held on a regular basis. Furthermore, they should focus on a few simple questions. While the rules for processing sessions should be set by needs of the group, a few simple rules pertaining to the role of the group leader, limits on answer times, and the scope of discussions must be observed. (MN)