New Book: Media and Glocal Change: Rethinking Communication for Development

The word “glocal” is hype in social sciences literature; it attempts to include the contradictory and at the same time the symbiotic between “local” and “global” in the context of globalisation that does not recognise cultural borders and has changed our perception of those spaces where human activity takes place. In fact, if we applied a criteria of proximity, we wouldn’t know for certain if what is physically closer to us, the “local”, is truly nearer than what technology so overbearingly brings by: the “global”. The term “glocal” thus encapsulates the tw! o sides of the coin.

From the perspective of media and communication, globalisation has introduced new challenges and complexities that alter the approaches and perceptions we had a few years back. The virtual relationships that are now built at the global level, including for those locally based media outlets, bring in new forms of participation and information dissemination, thus affecting the traditional ways of analysing the public space.

Oscar Hemer
Precisely, about globalisation, culture and communication is what this important book is about: “Media & Glocal Change” edited by Oscar Hemer and Thomass Tufte, from Malmo University in Sweden and Roskilde University in Denmark, respectively. Both are members of the University Network facilitated by the Communication for Social Change Consortium since 2005.

Separated by a long bridge that links Copenhagen and Malmo, Thomas and Oscar have been united through many years of joint work and projects such as this one that has prompted them to gather in 494 pages 38 authors from Europe, Latin America, North America, Africa and Asia.

Thomas Tufte
The book is structured in three parts: the first one covers globalisation, media and culture; the second attempts to draw the map of this field of study, and the third compiles ten case studies on concrete experiences in Bolivia, Namibia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Bangladesh and several African countries.

The first part -perhaps the most innovative- analyses the paradigms and models of communication for development and social change under the light of globalisation. Chapters by Oscar and Thomas, and other colleagues such as Silvio Waisbord, Cel Cadiz, Jan Servaes, or Nancy Morris, are contributions complemented by the views of James Deane, Karin Wilkins among other authors that have participated in seminars organized by the Consortium

Celebration for Communication Anthology

Jose Antonio Quiroga, Director of Plural, with Thomas Tufte and Luis Ramiro Beltran

The second launching –after Mexico last October- of the Communication for Social Change Anthology took place in La Paz (Bolivia) as part of the International Seminar on Local Radio in Latin America: Policies and Legislation, on November 2oth 2008, at Plural Editores bookstore. The presenters were former President of Bolivia Carlos D. Mesa, who also wrote the foreword, and Luis Ramiro Beltrán, one of the early pioneers of communication for development in Latin America. Both Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron and Thomas Tufte, the co-editors, were in attendance, as well as several authors such as Erick Torrico (Bolivia), Rosa María Alfaro (Peru) and Cicilia Peruzzo (Brazil).

Carlos D. Mesa mentioned that the title of the book was limited, since its content covers a much wider effort: “We could say that this is a universal anthology of communication, because it contains much more than what is specific to communication for development… This is a book of global features, the most complete, exhaustive and above all the most rigorous, as it gathers and interprets the views on communication for development since the criteria itself originated in the 1950s, until today”.
Luis Ramiro Beltran and Alfonso Gumucio at the launching in La Paz

During his intervention Luis Ramiro Beltrán said: “The way texts are arranged, first those considered of historical value and then those of the contemporary debate, makes the reading very easy and helps to understand the evolution of the discipline as well as to absorb both the pioneering ideas and the current thinking. We can at the same time compare the contributions from various continents and within our own region… Can we ask for more? Think about the advantage that this brings to professors and students of the field, as well as researchers and historians”.
To purchase a copy go to http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/publications-order.php