Locating disaster communication in changing communicative ecologies across the Pacific

The Pacific Island region is geographically and culturally diverse, with a significant range of communication infrastructures and challenges. Access and use of mobile phones has risen exponentially over the past five years. According to ITU statistics, around 60 percent of Pacific Islanders had access to a mobile in 2012, compared to just 10 percent in 2006. In many Pacific countries mobile phones are, therefore, emerging as a key element of the local communication systems, and are being built into disaster management and communication plans. For these plans to be effective, however, we argue that access to, and affordability of, technologies represent only one dimension of what needs to be considered in effective disaster communication plans. They also need to consider appropriate technologies, local communicative ecologies, systems for the ownership and maintenance of infrastructures, and local knowledge and belief systems. With a focus on mobile and other telecommunications technologies, this paper provides an overview of disaster communication systems and infrastructures, practices and challenges in the region

IDEAS Guide: A guide for media and communication projects

The IDEAS Guide is for organisations and people who are doing small media and communication projects. It is designed to cater for a range of different skill levels in evaluation. It is ideal for project managers and team members responsible for reporting and evaluation, as well as any other participants who are interested in evaluation. The IDEAS Guide leads you through the process of designing a project, and thinking about the project’s evaluation. The guide is focused on how to do useful evaluation for learning and continual project improvement. To achieve this, it is important to think about the evaluation of the project as you design it, and to learn from evaluation during the implementation of the project. Focusing on what you can learn by carrying out a project is especially important when the project idea is new and innovative.</div

PACMAS: state of media and communication report: regional

The Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) is an AusAID-funded regional media program that supports better governance in the Pacific through the development of a diverse, independent and professional media, promoting informed and meaningful public discourse region-wide. The program is managed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and is based in Vanuatu. The PACMAS State of Media and Communication Study was undertaken through a partnership between RMIT University (Australia), the University of Goroka (UoG, Papua New Guinea) and UNITEC (New Zealand). The study was commissioned as a baseline study to inform PACMAS activities across 14 countries. The study was developed and undertaken between June 2012 and April 2013, and included visits to each country to conduct a total of 212 individual interviews, and the establishment of a Panel of Expertise for verificatio