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Media development action with informed and engaged societies
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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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Communication for Social Change

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presented at the IDB Forum

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Summary

This presentation made the case that we now have many different models of communication for social change. It suggested that the battles between social marketing, participation, advocacy and social mobilization should give way to a more sophisticated analysis of the problem and the kind of tool - and often the combination of tools - needed to address it. Successes in oral rehydration, AIDS, family planning, seat belt use and SIDS were compared with failures such as obesity and exercise and disappointing results from two decades work on AIDS in Africa. Smith described the use of mass communication to incite conversation in communities; the use of computer models to influence policy change; as well as examples of e-government, school networking and sustaining Maya culture using the internet. Examples were tied together with brief overviews of social movement theory, risk communication and communication to support law enforcement. The basic take away message was - we need to stop pitting marketing against mobilization and participation against advocacy. It's a complicated world and we need to get smarter about all the alternatives for real social change.













Don't blame smokers...

Blame cigarette makers.


Big Success

Tobacco

Heart Disease

AIDS in the United States/Switzerland

Family Planning

Child Survival

Seat Belts

SIDS


Big Failures

AIDS in Africa

Obesity & Exercise in United States


New Starts

Civic Participation

E-Technology Networking

Building Social Capitol


Annenberg Study: In head to head spending those who spent the most got their policy passed.


The More Radio the More Treatment of Infant Diarrhea


Communication for Public Talk




Communication for Policy Change


Profiles:

Bangladesh

Ghana

Togo

Philippines

China

India

plus 16 more countries


Ecuador

Jamaica

Guatemala

Brazil

Chile


E-government

School Networking

Online Learning

Mayan Culture

NGO Sustainability


Communication to build Civil Society






Advocacy Communication




Communication for Enforcement Support




Risk Communication


Confirmation Bias:

  • New data - make it fit
  • Contrary data - filter out
  • Ambiguous data - simplify it
  • Consistent data - proof positive


NEW THEORY


Social Capital

Community Environment is a big predictor of Readiness to change




Definitions and Measures


Community Efficacy: Shared Expectation for Collective Action given a Problem.

Cohesion

Trust

Networks

Norms



Readiness Mapping




More Options - More Evidence - More Experience


Risk Communication

Advocacy Communication

Communication for Policy Change

Communication for Public Talk

Communication for Enforcement

Communication for Behavior Change

Communication to Build Civil Society



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