Media Development

A collection of articles examining the role of the press inside and outside Haiti in creating and maintaining the country current public image. Censorship and misinformation are discussed as well as journalists' self-censorship for economic or political reasons. Community radio and citizen's journalism are seen as two possibilities for greater transparency and rebuilding trust. This issue also includes pieces on Victor Jara, media reform, and media and social change in Venezuela.

There is no ‘general theory’ of terrorism, as there is of ‘relativity’. There is little consensus about how to define terrorism, although it is generally accepted that it is the intentional use of, or threat to use, violence against civilians for political aims.

Such a definition must logically apply as much to state-sponsored terror as it does to non-governmental groups or individuals. How do the mass media treat this topic?

What are the responsibilities of communicators when reporting 'terror'?

In the Middle East the impact of new information and communication technologies is leading towards what has been described as 'the death of media'. The Internet, web sites, digital cameras, podcasts, blogging, cell phones and low power radio stations are turning the traditional media scene on its head. Media activists are becoming citizen reporters, practising the Indymedia movement's mantra of 'being the media'. How might mass and community media in the Middle East and outside the Middle East break the mould of stereotypical categorizations and present a plurality of identities and a diversity of balanced opinion?

WACC and the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, recently organized a conference on 'Fundamentalism and the Media'. It was an opportunity for media professionals and academics to meet on common ground and to explore questions about the ways fundamentalisms use the media and whether fundamentalisms can exist without the media. This issue of Media Development publishes presentations from the conference and related material.

Increasing the capacity of poor and marginalised people to use communication in order to improve their lives is recognised by many NGOs as vital to a more just future for all. South and North, information and knowledge are essential for people to respond adequately and successfully to the opportunities of political, social, economic and cultural change. But to be useful, knowledge and information has to be available, accessible, and communicated effectively among people. This issue brings together a spectrum of thought on theory, practice and policy in the area of communication for development and empowerment.

Increasing the capacity of poor and marginalised people to use communication in order to improve their lives is recognised by many NGOs as vital to a more just future for all. South and North, information and knowledge are essential for people to respond adequately and successfully to the opportunities of political, social, economic and cultural change. But to be useful, knowledge and information has to be available, accessible, and communicated effectively among people. This issue brings together a spectrum of thought on theory, practice and policy in the area of communication for development and empowerment.

In the past, communication by signs and symbols converged with materials when language was first expressed in writing. Symbolic technologies converged with electronic technologies to launch the information society. Computing and communication technologies converged on the basis of digital information. And now, digital technologies are converging with the organic world, including the human body. As one writer in this issue points out, “Whatever position one may have in relation to converging technologies, there can be little doubt that humankind is in the process of developing new tools that have far-reaching implications for its future.” New technologies have enormous potential, but they also have the capacity to change us as human beings. For that reason alone, communicators and society must engage in a wide-ranging debate about the broad social and ethical issues raised by the convergence of digital technologies with other technologies.