Development action with informed and engaged societies
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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The Drum Beat 300 - Connecting People and Ideas

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Issue #
300
Date

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Today marks the 300th issue of The Drum Beat, The Communication Initiative's weekly e-publication featuring initiatives, evaluations, ideas, trends, awards, events and publications from around the world related to communication for development.

For this special issue, we honour those of you within The Drum Beat network who have contributed by sharing your information on The CI website and through this e-publication. Your work and ideas on development issues across the globe inspires and impresses your peers. We thank you for allowing us to disseminate information about your endeavours and we hope to continue to be supportive of networking and connections between people and organisations in disparate parts of the world.

What follows are the some of the ten most viewed pages, listed by selected section, on The CI website from this past year.

So, some of the Top Ten Most Viewed Pages for 2004-2005 were...


A. EXPERIENCES


Includes a total of over 2,000 summaries of projects using communication for development from the Drum Beat network. Click here for more experiences.

1st. Smart Sex - USA
A health communication campaign to increase positive sexual behaviors through an in-depth exploration of sexual issues in a popular television programme. The objective of the programme was to give young people the tools needed to take the steps to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and STDs.

2nd. Kayapo Video - Brazil
Case Study from "Making Waves: Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change"

A video initiative of the indigenous Kayapo tribe in Brazil. Video was initially used to exchange messages between villages and document their own rituals and dances. The advantages of using video in this way soon led to the exchange and documentation of political speeches and protests against the Brazilian state.

3rd. Teens on Smart Sex - Thailand

4th. Games for HIV/AIDS Training - India & Nepal

5th. Non-formal Education Project - The Philippines

6th. Mass Media HIV/AIDS Prevention in Mumbai's Red Light District - India

7th. Anti-Drug Advertising - USA

8th. Voices of Arab Youth (VOAY) - Middle East & North Africa

9th. National Family Planning Communication Programme - Philippines

10th. PeachCare for Kids - Georgia, USA


B. EVALUATIONS


Includes a total of over 300 summaries of evaluation data from communication projects implemented by the Drum Beat network. Click here for more evaluations.

1st. Measuring and Evaluating Communication for Social Change
An initial paper from the Rockefeller Foundation Communication and Social Change Network exploring possible indicators for measuring social change.

2nd. Media and the Empowerment of Communities for Social Change: Chapter Five: Participatory and development communication in Zimbabwe

3rd. Towards Women's Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: Lessons from the participatory impact assessment of South Asian Poverty Alleviation programme in Andhra Pradesh, India

by Ranjani K. Murthy, K. Raju, and Amitha Kamath

4th. YIZO YIZO: Representations and Receptions of Violence & Gender Relations

by Rene Smith

5th. Behaviour and Communication Change in Reducing HIV: Is Uganda Unique?

by Daniel Low-Beer and Rand L. Stoneburner

6th. Local Voices: Preliminary Findings from Radio Content Analysis - Kenya

7th. Evaluating Communication, Development and Change Programmes

What's Up? Exploring the development of indicators derived from a social change and social movement perspective



C. IMPACT DATA


Includes a total of over 200 excerpts outlining the impact of communication projects implemented by the Drum Beat network. Click here for more impact data.

1st. Impact Data - Smart Sex - USA
Data related to the impact of this series of television programmes reflecting youth perspectives on safe sex issues.

2nd. Impact Data - Teens on Smart Sex - Bangkok, Thailand
Data related to the impact of a sexuality education curriculum consisting of 8 two-hour sessions conducted once a week for college-age students in Bangkok, Thailand.

3rd. Impact Data - BBC World Service Trust Leprosy Project - India

4th. Media and the Empowerment of Communities for Social Change: Chapter Five: Participatory and development communication in Zimbabwe

5th. Impact Data - Anti-Drug Advertising - USA

6th. Impact Data - Famili Blong Serah - A Radio Series - Vanuatu

7th. Impact Data - "Truth" Anti-Smoking Campaign - Florida, USA

8th. Media and the Empowerment of Communities for Social Change: Chapter Six: Discussion, Recommendations and Concluding Remarks (sections 6.0 - 6.4.12)

9th. Impact Data - National Family Planning Communication Campaign - Philippines

10th. Impact Data - Mass Media HIV/AIDS Prevention in Mumbai’s Red Light District - India


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PULSE Poll

Rather than getting back into the trenches of the 1990ies, the challenge today - in times of a strong treatment agenda - is to reassess our communication science, models and practice when putting HIV/AIDS prevention on the agenda.

[For context, please see The Drum Beat 297]

Do you agree or disagree?

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D. STRATEGIC THINKING


Includes a total of over 1,000 summaries of ideas, reflections, and commentary from the Drum Beat network. Click here for more strategic thinking.

1st. Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning
by Gary James
Addresses designing, developing and delivering web-based trainings and suggests weighing intended audience and content needs against the author's list of pros and cons.

2nd. Dependency Theory
from "Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies & Strategies in Development Communication: Convergences & Differences"
by Silvio Waisbord
This section of the larger paper outlines the historical context and content of the dependency theory of development, in which theorists argued that the problems of underdevelopment were political rather than the result of the lack of information.This theory posited that what kept Third World countries underdeveloped were social and economic factors, namely the dominated position that those countries had in the global order.

3rd. The Dominant Paradigm
from "Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies & Strategies in Development Communication: Convergences & Differences"
by Silvio Waisbord

4th. Use of Fear Appeals in Public Health Campaigns and in Patient/Provider Encounters
by Kim Witte

5th. Social Marketing
from "Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies & Strategies in Development Communication: Convergences & Differences"
by Silvio Waisbord

6th. Participatory Theories and Approaches
from "Family Tree of Theories, Methodologies & Strategies in Development Communication: Convergences & Differences"
by Silvio Waisbord

7th. Sex and Reproductive Health Education Project: India
by Susannah Ross

8th. Communication for Social Change: An Integrated Model for Measuring the Process and Its Outcomes

Communication for Social Change Working Paper Series

by Maria Elena Figueroa, D. Lawrence Kincaid, Manju Rani, and Gary Lewis

9th. The Digital Pulse: The Current and Future Applications of Information and Communication Technologies for Developmental Health Priorities
by Warren Feek


E. TRENDS


Includes a total of over 325 summaries of articles identifying communication trends reported by the Drum Beat network. Click here for more trends.

1st. Internet as a Tool for Communication, Information and Participation among Tertiary Students in Namibia: Communication for Development in Theoretical Context [2002]
by Helen Belcastro
From within a paper outlining the use of the internet among university students in Namibia, this page is a summary of the roles of communication through the theories of modernisation, dependency and alternative development, as well as a discusion of the role of Internet communication in the current "era" of alternative development.

2nd. Solar vs Wind up in Radio Power Contest [2002]

by Katie Mantell

3rd. Marketing Food to Children: The Global Regulatory Environment [2004]

by Corinna Hawkes

4th. Key Facts: Children and Video Games [2002]

5th. MSM, Sex, and Internet Chat Rooms: Epicenter of an Epidemic? [2004]

6th. Targeting Teens to Twenties [2003]

7th. Unhealthy Food, Figures Feature in TV for Blacks - Study [2003]

by Gabriel Packard

8th. Global Diffusion of ICT: A Progress Report [2003]

by Fiona Paua


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Looking for initiatives, events and resources specific to Africa?

Visit Soul Beat Africa

Para ver información en español sobre América Latina, consulte

La Iniciativa de Comunicación

***


F. PLANNING MODELS


Includes a total of over 100 summaries of diagrams and guiding principles for planning communication programmes. Click here for more planning models.

1st. Health Promotion: Ottawa Charter
A planning diagram from the Canadian Public Health Association.

2nd. Seven C's of Effective Communication
As outlined within "How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development: A Script Writer's Manual", seven guiding principles for entertainment-education.

3rd. Diffusion of Innovations

4th. Commercial Marketing Model

5th. Communication Programme Planning Work Sheet

6th. Ecosystemic Model of Culture

7th. Health Risk Communication Process Matrix

8th. A-Frame for Advocacy

9th. (CDP)

10th. Designing Communication Strategies: Guiding Principles


G. CHANGE THEORIES


Includes a total of over 50 summaries of the nature of change and how to influence individual and societal change. Click here for more change theories.

1st. Health Belief Model (Detailed)

A theory of change that attempts to explain and predict health behaviours by focusing on the attitudes and beliefs of individuals.
[[And Health Belief Model]]

2nd. Stages of Change Model
A theory of change originally developed to compare smokers in therapy and self-changers along a behaviour change continuum. The rationale behind "staging" people, as such, was to tailor therapy to a person's needs at his/her particular point in the change process.

3rd. Social Cognitive Theory

4th. Social Learning Theory - or - Social Cognitive Theory

5th. AIDS Risk Reduction Model (ARRM)

6th. Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire - An Analysis

7th. Theory of Planned Behaviour

8th. Exchange Theory

9th. Precede - Proceed

[[And Precede - Proceed as an organisational Framework]]

10th. Audiences along a Behavior Change Continuum: Possible Communication Strategies


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Please note: The selection above is based only on the most requested pages by your peers and colleagues and does not imply qualification or editorial selection on the part of The Communication Initiative or its Partners.

There are over 26,000 pages in the family of Communication Initiative websites (The CI, La Iniciativa de Comunicación, and Soul Beat Africa).

How does a web page become the "most viewed"? It is included within an issue of The Drum Beat, The Soul Beat or Son de Tambora. It is included within a DB Click e-announcement. It is highlighted in a newsletter or a listserv from a network organisation. It is mentioned within a discussion forum. It is forwarded from colleague to colleague. It is used within the curriculum of a university course on development or communication. It is found through a Google/Yahoo/Altavista/etc. search engine. "Most viewed" means that, for one reason or another, these are the web pages that the most people choose to see/read/click on in the past 12 months.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.


Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com


To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.


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