Nico Carpentier

Jan Servaes

The Information Society is one of the recurrent imaginaries to describe present-day structures, discourses and practices. Within its meaning is enshrined the promise of a better world, sometimes naively assuming a technological deus ex machina, in other cases hoping for the creation of policy tools that will overcome a diversity of societal divides. With the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the United Nations attempted to stimulate the development of such tools. Simultaneously, the WSIS is a large-scale experiment in multistakeholderism. The objective was to create a more balanced decision-making process that would allow the voices of civil society and business actors to be heard in international politics. This book aims to evaluate the potentialities of both the Information Society, and the WSIS in supporting and constructing more democratic, just and developed societies. It is the second book arising from the intellectual work of European Consortium for Communications Research members.

Deconstructing WSIS

Towards a Sustainable Information Society

The aim of this book is to shed new light on this theoretically and practically significant issue, and questions the role of technology and culture in social change. It challenges us to reconsider and rethink the impact of new information and communication technologies on civil society, participatory democracy and digital citizenship in theoretical and methodological contributions, through the analysis of specific cases in Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Colombia, Kenya, Netherlands and the United States. Access to information and communication technologies is a necessity, and the importance of access should not be trivialized, but a plea for digital literacy implies recognizing that access is the beginning of ICT policies and not the end of it. Digital literacy requires using the Internet and social media in socially and culturally useful ways aimed at the inclusion of everybody in the emerging information/knowledge society. Technology matters, but people matter more.

Communication in a Tech-Mad World

Technological Determinism and Social Change

Muhammad Jameel Yusha'u

The 2030 agenda for development, or what is known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is perhaps the most ambitious agenda collectively agreed upon by 193 countries in human history. Yet, the framers of the 2030 agenda for development forgot to dedicate one goal focused on the role of communication in achieving the SDGs. Such oversight has attracted the attention of media and communication scholars alike, journalists, and policymakers who understand that it is nearly impossible to achieve the SDGs without the articulation and embrace of the role of communication in development. Volume 2 provides in-depth and specific explorations into regional perspectives concerning communication and the SDGs, with research on a rich array of sources, including Latin America, Africa, Australia, as well as special cases relating to timely studies such as social media, COVID-19, marginalized voices, and women's equality.

Regional Perspectives and Special Cases

SDG18 Communication for All, Volume 2

The globalization of social, cultural and economic relations is facilitated, and at the same time conditioned by developments in the information and communications technologies (ICT) and infrastructure. Human knowledge brought mankind from an oral to a literate culture, thanks to the invention of print media. The development of the electronic media in the 20th century paved the way for the information age, in which spatial and temporal constraints are lifted. This work explores the consequences of this revolution in human communications, which are multidimensional in character, affecting economical, political and social life on national, international and local levels. The text is part of a series of volumes arising from the intellectual work of ECCR members.

A Reality Check

The European Information Society

At a time when sustainability is on everyone's lips, this volume is one of the first to offer an overview of sustainability and communication issues—including community mobilization, information technologies, gender and social norms, mass media, interpersonal communication, and integrated communication approaches—from a development and social change perspective. Drawing on contemporary theories of communication as well as real-world examples from development projects around the world, the contributors showcase the increasing richness and versatility of communication research and practice. Together, they make a case for adopting a more comprehensive perspective on communication in the areas of development and social change.

Theory and Praxis

Sustainability, Participation & Culture in Communication

Toks Oyedemi

Social Inequalities, Media, and Communication: Theory and Roots provides a global analysis of the intersection of social inequalities, media, and communication. This book contains chapter contributions written by scholars from around the world who engage in country- and region-specific case studies of social inequalities in media and communication. The volume is a theoretical exploration of the classical, structuralist, culturalist, postmodernist, and postcolonial theoretical approaches to inequality and how these theoretical discourses provide critical understanding of social inequalities in relation to narratives shaped by media and communication experiences. The contributors provide class and gender analyses of media and culture, engage theoretical discourses of inequalities and capitalism in relation to communication technologies, and explore the cyclical relationship of theory and praxis in studying inequalities, media, and communication.

Theory and Roots

Social Inequalities, Media, and Communication

This series consists of books arising from the intellectual work of ECCR members. The globalisation of social, cultural and economic relations is facilitated, and at the same time conditioned by developments in the information and communications technologies (ICT) and infrastructure. Human knowledge brought mankind from an oral to a literate culture, thanks to the invention of the print media. The development of the electronic media in the last century paved the path for the information age, in which spatial and temporal constraints are lifted. ''In every society, the production, distribution, and use of information play vital roles in the management of events... The development of these Information Societies has been characterized by the innovation and adoption of technologies, changes in mass media systems, and changing patterns and procedures for individual and group decision-making. Attention has shifted in these societies from the development and utilization of technologies to a concern for their impact upon each society'' (Edelstein, Bowes & Harsel, 1978: vii). The consequences of this revolution in human communications are multidimensional in character, affecting economical, political and social life on national, international and local levels.

A Reality Check 2003

At a time when sustainability is on everyone’s lips, this volume is one of the first to offer an overview of sustainability and communication issues – including community mobilization, information technologies, gender and social norms, mass media, interpersonal communication and integrated communication approaches – from a development and social change perspective. Drawing on contemporary theories of communication as well as real-world examples from development projects around the world, the contributors in this collection showcase the increasing richness and versatility of communication research and practice. Together, they make a case for adopting a more comprehensive perspective on communication in the areas of development and social change.

Sustainability, Participation and Culture in Communication

The Praxis of Social Inequality in Media: A Global Perspective provides a global analysis of the intersection of social inequalities, media, and communication. This volume contains chapters by an international array of scholars and provides case studies from various countries with critical empirical analysis of social inequalities and how they shape media narratives and experiences. The topics examined here include poverty in the media in Britain and Turkey, technology and inequality in Italy and Bangladesh, gender, inequality, and empowerment in India, Mexico, and Australia, and cross national analysis of rape culture, among others.

A Global Perspective

The Praxis of Social Inequality in Media

Georgette Wang

Anura Goonasekera

The innovative and rapid growth of communication satellites and computer mediated technologies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, combined with the deregulation of national broadcasting, led many media commentators to assume that the age of national media had been lost. But what has become clear is that, whilst there has been a limited growth in global media, there has been an emergence of a strong localised television and communications industry. Mapping the world media market, and using examples of programming from countries as diverse as Thailand, Hong Kong, Brazil, Taiwan, Spain and Britain, this volume explores theories of media globalization, examines the local culture of television programming and analyses the blurring of distinctions between the global and the local.

Demystifying Media Globalization

The New Communications Landscape

This volume is first and foremost about people and the processes needed to facilitate sharing of knowledge in order to effect positive developmental change. It is contextual and based on dialogue necessary to promote stakeholder’s participation, which is essential for the understanding of their perceptions, perspectives, values, attitudes and practices, so that these can be incorporated into the design and implementation of development initiatives. This volume follows the two-way horizontal model and increasingly makes use of many-to-many forms of communications to facilitate the understanding of people’s perceptions, priorities and knowledge with its use of a number of tools, techniques, media and methods. It aims to give voice to those most affected by the development issue(s) at stake, allowing them to participate directly in defining and implementing solutions and identifying development directions. Based on the assumption that authentic participation directly addresses power and its distribution in society, which often decreases the advantage of certain elite groups, the authors argue that structural and sustainable change necessitates the redistribution of power. This collection offers perceptive insights and vivid examples to prove that the field of communication for development and social change is indeed vibrant.

Jan Servaes

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