EDITOR’S COLUMN: The new spectre –Mediatization

by Oscar Hemer

When trying to assess our contemporary predicament, the once controversial G-word may be about to be replaced by another elusive concept: Mediatization. The second or third phase of the digital revolution, with its explosion of so-called social media, has made it adamantly clear to us how all sectors of culture and society are saturated with, and increasingly influenced by, mediated communication. Not only politics and the public sphere, but our private lives and everyday experiences are today inseparably entangled with the media. This is not a “new” phenomenon. It can be traced back all the way to Aristotle’s Poetics, or

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In this issue (September 2011)

by Florencia Enghel

It’s hectic times for the web magazine. Activity is incessant, and the stakes are high. We are preparing to move to the Open Journal Systems (OJS), a journal management and publishing system that we believe will allow us to improve the quality and reach of Glocal Times. And we have a special issue in the works in collaboration with Nordicom Review, to be published in 2012. While we move forward with what’s to come, we are proud to present Issue # 16, fully devoted to contributions authored by recent graduates of Malmö University’s Master’s course in Communication for Development. The

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Mobile phones in Tanzania: tools for social change?

by Adela Rodrigo

As you drive into Dar Es Salaam from the international airport, the number of billboards advertising mobile phones and mobile phone contracts is overwhelming. Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 148 out of 168 on the 2010 UN Human Development Index (UN Human Development Report, 2010).However, it is clear that the mobile phone industry in the country is booming. Mobile phone companies such as Tigi, Zain, Zantel and Vodacom are fighting over the Tanzanian consumers. By offering affordable handsets and cheaper rates, those companies are making mobile phones accessible and affordable to many Tanzanians, for

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The field diary as a bridge between theory and practice

by Rosalind Yarde

Marginalised youth Fifty per cent of Tanzania’s population is under the age of 18 years but they are rarely given a voice in society. All too often they are marginalised and disregarded, particularly in the context of social and economic development. While government, civil society and non-governmental organisations may advocate for empowerment, community engagement and social change, actually translating these aspirations into something tangible remains elusive. My Master’s thesis in Communication for Development (Malmö University, Sweden) explored these ideas and how they might be promoted through a participatory media and communication framework.  My field work was conducted with a Non

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Using social media for conservation fundraising in Kenya: the case of WildlifeDirect

by Liz Mwambui

In 2004, internationally renowned paleontologist and conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey and others founded WildlifeDirect.  The term “WildlifeDirect” refers to the non-profit organization registered in Kenya and the USA, and to the website (www.wildlifedirect.org), a collection of blogs that enables anybody, anywhere to participate in conservation through online donations. Blogs -an abridgment of the term ‘web log’- are sites, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, and/or other material such as graphics or video. Some provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images,

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The International Tribunal on Climate Justice: cultural meanings and social change

by Carys Hughes

Introduction There is currently no international legal mechanism for sanctioning countries and corporations that are polluting the environment and contributing to climate change. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the only comprehensive international agreement designed to address climate change. However, it contains no mechanism for trying or sanctioning countries that fail to comply with the commitments they make. Many developed countries have violated key obligations under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, including a failure to mitigate green house gas emissions (UNFCCC, 2010). Meanwhile, it is estimated that 300,000 people a year die due to climate change

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Using participatory photography to stimulate critical thinking: collaborative action-research in Australia and Tanzania

by Cassandra Doyle and Karen Thulstrup

Introduction and methodology Do you see what I see? and At Risk? are the titles of the two Master’s in Communication for Development theses that resulted from two independent participatory photography projects with the same methodology in order to allow a comparison of the results. The initial idea was established in 2009 while Karen Marie Thulstrup was located in Usa River, Tanzania, and Cassandra Doyle was in Tennant Creek, Australia. Whilst situated in two geographically different locations, we quickly established that both countries shared a similar history of dispossession and oppression as a result of European colonization, and both locations

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Locating agency in film for change

by Søren Sønderstrup

Based on ethnographic field observations and a thesis completed at the Master program in Communication for Development at Malmö University (Sweden), this article suggests that mediatization in the age of Web 2.0 functions at the base of communication even for disadvantaged people in circumstances where Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are physically absent. Many-to-many communication and growing access for people to control representations of themselves in global media condition both the formats and the ideologies of communication practices, in a way that may be viewed as the social nature of technological design. Through analysis and field observations of a documentary

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