Co-design of youth wellbeing indicators for ICT intervention in an underserved community in South Africa

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019The challenges faced by members of underserved communities in South Africa have frequently been reported in literature. To ameliorate these challenges, different interventions have been introduced both locally and internationally to improve the wellbeing of the members of these communities. One such intervention is the introduction of information and communication technology ICT as a means to close the digital divide and meeting the socio-economic needs of the community. Youth living in these communities are expected to derive more benefit from ICT interventions as they have been reported to be more technology savvy and dependent on technology than the older adults are. However, the failures of ICT interventions deployed by donors have also been reported in literature. Authors have identified several reasons for the failure of ICT interventions, but a lack of consultation with the beneficiaries of this type of intervention is common to many findings. The exclusion of the youth as major beneficiaries of ICT interventions causes a lack of alignment between the interventions deployed for their use and the actual wellbeing needs of the youth in underserved communities. The failure of ICT interventions increases the digital divide and frustrates the good intentions of local and national government as well as international donors to improve the wellbeing of the youth in underserved communities. By using the concept of wellbeing, the study aimed to explore how youth wellbeing indicators can be used to facilitate effective ICT interventions for youth empowerment and development in underserved communities in South Africa. Furthermore, the study aimed todesign an ICT-based artefact to prioritise youth wellbeing indicators in underserved communities in South Africa. The study was implemented through a qualitative research method using a service design strategy that allowed for a participatory research approach and co-design instrument for data collection from the youth living in Grabouw anunderserved community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Data was collected from 40 youth aged between 15 and 30 at two workshops. Content analysis technique was used to analyse data. Findings from the research show that given the opportunity, the youth are able to determine their social-economic needs. A comprehensive set of wellbeing indicators was developed. Thirteen wellbeing indicators symbolising the issues in the community were prioritised, which are:unemployment, self-image, reaching full potential, family support,access to water, sanitation and electricity,meaning and purpose of life,being healthy,religious practice,educational level,future expectations,freedom of expression,skills to get a job, and access to skills and training. Overall, nine categories of wellbeing indicators were identified; of these, seven are similar to theGlobal Youth Wellbeing Index(GYWI) categories. Three new categories – aspiration, social support, and infrastructure and services – were realised. The three factors are an indication that the Grabouw youth may have special needs different from the global perspective as specified by the GYWI categories. Moreover, the priorities of the wellbeing indicators when compared to the GYWI rating for South Africa differ significantly, which may indicate that the needs of the youth living in underserved communities may vary largelyfrom other youth in the country. Furthermore, an artefact that can be used to prioritise wellbeing indicators was designed. It is important for stakeholders of ICT interventions to embrace participation of the beneficiaries as a means of aligning interventions to their needs. These stakeholders need to seek ways of developing artefacts that address the needs, not limited to health, so that the youth can take advantage of technology to improve their wellbeing on a continuous basis

Optics in Our Time

Optics, Lasers, Photonics, Optical Devices; Quantum Optics; Popular Science in Physics; History and Philosophical Foundations of Physic

Volume 22, Summer 1995 Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Complete digitized volume (volume 22, Summer 1995) of Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Under the Radar

Western democracy is currently under attack by a resurgent Russia, weaponizing new technologies and social media. How to respond? During the Cold War, the West fought off similar Soviet propaganda assaults with shortwave radio broadcasts. Founded in 1949, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast uncensored information to the Soviet republics in their own languages. About one-third of Soviet urban adults listened to Western radio. The broadcasts played a key role in ending the Cold War and eroding the communist empire. R. Eugene Parta was for many years the director of Soviet Area Audience Research at RFE/RL, charged among others with gathering listener feedback. In this book he relates a remarkable Cold War operation to assess the impact of Western radio broadcasts on Soviet listeners by using a novel survey research approach. Given the impossibility of interviewing Soviet citizens in their own country, it pioneered audacious interview methods in order to fly under the radar and talk to Soviets traveling abroad, ultimately creating a database of 51,000 interviews which offered unparalleled insights into the media habits and mindset of the Soviet public. By recounting how the “impossible” mission was carried out, Under the Radar also shows how the lessons of the past can help counter the threat from a once and current adversary

A handbook for business education in Iowa / a joint publication of the Iowa Business Education Association and the State Department of Public Instruction, 1972.

This handbook offers guidance by offering general information as well as specific ideas about all areas of business education from grades seven through twelve and at the post-secondary level

Interception: law, media, and techniques

In 2013, Edward Snowden provided journalists with copies of classified documents detailing the operations of the National Security Agency of the United States and its allies; in particular, the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters. Snowden explained that he hoped to set the conditions for a new technical literacy that would alter understandings of the relationship between digital communications and law. This thesis asks whether or not law is capable of repaying Snowden’s faith. To that end, it offers a media-theoretical genealogy of the interception of communication in the UK. Interception is presented as an effect of different sets of technical operations, mediated and processed by communication devices and networks. The thesis traces interception techniques: from their beginnings in the General Post Office; in their evolution through the operations of technical media; to their reappearance in the operations of digital media that constitute the internet. The authorisation of interception, meanwhile, has always depended upon legal techniques mediated by interception warrants. A genealogy of the interception warrant is presented through an archival study of the distinctly different practices of document production that manufactured and programmed warrants in different media epochs; from the medieval Chancery and paper bureaucracies of state institutions to the graphical user interface, which mediates between interception techniques and law today. Finally, the thesis addresses the function of legislation as it in turn addresses warrants and interception techniques. Law and legislation, it is argued, are incapable of constraining technical operations of interception because, like interception, law is already an effect of media-technical operations. The law operates not by controlling interception, but by processing it, assigning meaning to it, and protecting the secrecy of ongoing interception operations