University of Zambia - Master of Communication for Development (MCD)

The programme goal is to train graduates who will help improve communication for development practices in social, economic, political, and other areas of human endeavour thereby closing the gap thought to be responsible for the lack of progress during the “lost decades” of development in Zambia and other countries. It is hoped that this will make development practices more participatory and sustainable.

By the end of the programme graduates are expected to:
(a) Explain the main theories of communication for development;
(b) Apply the theories to real life situations in order to bring about more sustainable development;
(c) Undertake research in to address communication for development problems;
(d) Undergo attachment in an organisation requiring the use of communication strategies; and
(e) Write a report after the attachment, which critiques and documents the existing practices in the light of theory and best practices from around the world.

In the first year the MA offers the following courses :

• Communication Research Methods - The course seeks to give the student knowledge, attitudes, and skills in communication research so that they are capable of undertaking various types of pure and applied research work. It also equips them for conducting master’s degree research, and for writing dissertations and reports. 
• Communication Research Statistics and Qualitative Data Analysis - The course is required for masters students to acquaint themselves with the use and application of statistics and qualitative data analysis methods in research work for dissertations/ theses/ reports and in the world of employment.  It seeks to teach students the main research tools to identify communication problems and constraints and test strategies to solve and overcome them.   
• Development, Communication of Innovations and Change -  Innovations - new productivity increasing, health-promoting ideas and practices - are the building blocks of expanding people’s choices. This course focuses on change as an inevitable concomitant of enlarging people’s choices, the result of innovations impinging on social norms and individual attitudes and behaviours, and on diffusion of innovations through expanding people’s choices. 
• Human Communication and Persuasion and Skills - this course is designed to empower postgraduate students in the MCD programme to be able to deliver their messages effectively and efficiently, which will have an impact on people and trigger behaviour change - both in an institution set up, as well as in communities. It includes interpersonal communication, oral and written communication, and listening skills.
• Communication Policy and Planning in Developing Countries - This course is designed to impart knowledge and skills so that post graduate students are knowledgeable about the essence of communication policy and planning and how to craft it and why different sectors of society, and above all why countries in sub-Saharan countries, should strive to have national communication policies in place. Furthermore, this course is designed to depict a favourable framework within which communication systems and technologies can be developed and utilised in a coordinated, consistent and systematic manner so that it is a vehicle for the socio-economic, cultural and political climate of the society.     
• Communication Strategies and Community Mobilisation - This course looks at poverty in communities and how communication can be a tool or an instrument to marshal development by mobilising communities through a skilled way of communicating with the grassroots. This course can be consider the anchor of the MCD programme because it is here where students are trained how to develop communication strategies and communication skills needed to mobilise communities which can be utilised as a vehicle for the improvement of the socio-economic, cultural and political climate of the society.
• Media Production - The aim of the course is to develop knowledge, comprehension, as well as applied skills, in broadcast production and editing of radio and television, as well as in print editing and lay-out using desktop publishing techniques.  This is to ensure that graduates are not only good at theory, but also have some media production expertise before deployment in the field.  
• Media and Communication Theories - This course is designed to assist students in properly situating the media and journalism practice within the global theoretical debates that have taken place over time. The course introduces a number of theories established in various social science disciplines which try to explain the interlocking relationship between media in society, and how the media and communication processes operate; outlines the sources of those theories; the evolution of the theories; offers a glimpse of the background research that gave birth to the theories; and, how and what they interpreted. The course deepens the students’ theoretical contexts and ensures that students have the skills for interrogating media and communication practices from various angles. Emphasis is on the need for students to properly and adequately use some of these theories in their dissertation research projects.
• Issues in Development, Communication and Culture - The aim is to develop a thoughtful and reflexive understanding of the evolution of theories and current disputes in communication for social change in mostly, Africa, Latin America and Asia. This course outlines the main communication in social change theories and debates that, over the years, have been voiced in the global bid for meeting the challenges of development. It serves as the overarching framework drawing a link between African development and social change through different media of interpersonal and mass communication. The course indigenises theory and development paradigms in terms of local contexts, culture, and knowledge. Media and communication students need to acquire skills that would enable them to apply theoretical constructs that relate to their local realities to research projects.

Following the first year, the MA requires:

• An Attachment and Report Writing - The main benefit of the course is that it affords students a hands-on experience in the practical application of communication for development work, under the supervision of practitioners. The period also affords students a chance to undertake research related to their attachment in order to reinforce understanding of their chosen subject. 

The Master of Communication for Development programme takes one and half years to complete. The programme is comprised of a year of course-work, which includes media production, theories, research methods and statistics. The learning and delivery of the courses include a mixture of face-to-face lectures, seminars, and laboratory productions. This is accompanied by a three month practical attachment under the supervision of an academic advisor, plus a three-month period for the MCD report write-up.

The following are some examples of required reading for the courses outlined above:

• Gerianne Merrigan, Carole L. Huston and Russell Johnston Communication Research Methods, Oxford University Press, 2012
• Wimmer, Roger and Dominick, Joseph.  Mass Media Research. Belmont: Wadsworth,
• Trochim, William, What is the Research Methods Knowledge Base? 2006-2017, Accessed 01.01.2017
• Berger, Arthur Asa   Media Research, Techniques.  London: Sage, 2011
• Wimmer, Roger and Dominick, Joseph, Mass Media Research. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2013
• Servaes J. (Ed) (2009): Communication for Development and Social Change. Sage Publications, Los Angeles.
• Rogers E. M. (2003) Diffusion of Innovations. The Free Press, New York.
• Valbuena, Victor (ed.) (1991) Modules in Public Education and Social marketing. Singapore: Asian Mass Communication Institute,
• Kotler, Philip and Roberto, Edwado L. (1996).  Social marketing. Strategies for Changing Public Behaviour.  New York: Free Press,
• Battista, A. Orlando, 1993, The power to influence people, Better yourself books, Bombay.
• Carnegie, Dale, 2010, How to win friends and influence people, New York, Ebury publishing.
• Cook, Scott, 2012, Speech writing and public speaking, Sage, New Delhi.
• Engleberg, N. Isa and Wynn, R. Dianna, 2011, Think communication, Allyn & Bacon, London. 
• Mohanty, K. P, Sharma, S. Mantha and Sivaramakrishna, M, 2006, Handbook on Communication skills, Centre for good governance, New Delhi.
• Kasoma, Francis P., 1990, Communication Policies in Zambia, University of Tampere, Tampere.
• Hancock, Alan, 1992, Communication Planning revisited, Unesco, Paris.
• Phiri, Isaac, 2010, Groping for a new national communication policy in Zambia, in African Communication Research:  National Communication Policy in Africa: Vol. 3, No. 1 (2010), pp. 185 – 204.
• Mefalopulos, Paolo, 2008, Development communication sourcebook: broadening the boundaries of communication, Washington DC, The World Bank.
• Mefalopulos, Paolo & Kamlongera, Chris, 2004, Participatory communication strategy design, FAO, Rome.
•  Melkote, R. Srinivas & Steeves, L. Leslie, 2001, Communication for development in the third world. Theory and practice for empowerment, sage, New Delhi.
• Covey, R. Stephen, 1999, The seven habits of highly effective people, Pocket books, Sydney.
• D’Souza, Anthony, 2003, Leadership: A trilogy on leadership and effective management, Pauline publications Africa, Nairobi.
• Ngambi, C. Hellicy, 2011, Rare total leadership: leading with the head, heart and hands, Juta, Claremont.
• Anderson, R. & Strate, L. 2006. [Eds]. Critical studies in media commercialism.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Baran, SJ, & Davis, DK. 2006. Mass communication theory: foundations, ferment, and future. Belmont, CA: Thomson.
• Boyd-Barrett, O. & Rantanen, T. 1998. [Ed] The globalisation of news. London: Sage. 
• Boyd-Barrett, O, & Newbold, C. 1995. Approaches to media – A Reader. London:  Arnold
• Calcutt, A, & Hammond, P. 2011. Journalism studies: a critical introduction. London: Routledge.
• Tufte, T. 2017. Communication and social change: a citizen perspective. New York: Wiley.
• Gumucio-Dagron, A. &T. Tufte (Eds). 2006. Communication for Social Change. South Change, NJ: Communication for Social Change Consortium
• Mefalopulos, P. 2008. Development communication sourcebook – broadening the boundaries of communication. New York: IBRD/Word Bank
• Wilkins, KG. 2000. Redeveloping communication for social change. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield
• Melkote, SR & Steeves, HL. 2001. Communication for development in the third world: theory and practice for empowerment.  New Delhi: Sage

Mr Kenny Makungu, Head, Media and Communications Department and Senior Lecturer
Mr Fidelis Muzyamba, Lecturer
Dr Elijah M.Bwalya, Lecturer
Dr Sam Phiri, Lecturer
Dr Basil Hamusokwe, Lecturer
Col Emmanuel Kunda, Lecturer
Sr Rose Nyondo, Lecturer
Mrs Elizabeth Chanda, Lecturer
Mr Gerald Mwale, Lecturer
Mrs Francisco Chibbonta-Phiri, Lecturer
Ms Juliet Tembo, Lecturer
Mr Elastus Mambwe, Lecturer
Mr Youngson  Ndawana, Lecturer
Mr MacPherson Mutale, Lecturer
Mr Masuzyo Nyasulu, Lecturer
Mr Mathews Mulenga, Lecturer
Mr Jack Kabangu, Lecturer