‘Better safe than sorry’: examining trauma as an obstacle to empowerment and social change in a U.S. intimate partner violence intervention

Communication for social change (CSC) research often addresses ‘empowerment.’ This paper argues that CSC must better incorporate trauma healing into the concept of empowerment, and thus into a revised model of social change. Data from a U.S. intimate partner violence intervention are used to provide evidence for the validity of, and usefulness of, such a revised model. Three broad theoretical arguments are offered regarding trauma within CSC: (1) trauma is rarely addressed outside peacebuilding interventions, but is relevant to other marginalized populations; (2) storytelling work has mostly focused on its politically empowering effects, and insufficiently on its healing effects related to trauma as a precursor to political empowerment; and (3) storytelling work almost always assumes an audience, but there is also value in internal communication – e.g. telling a story to oneself or journaling – when trauma has limited one’s opportunities for communication.Klein College of Media and CommunicationMedia Studies and Productio

Assessing Impact, Evaluating Adaptability: A Decade of Radio La Benevolencija in Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC

For the past decade, Radio La Benevolencija (RLB) has worked in Rwanda, Burundi, and the DRC to provide citizens with tools for recognizing and resisting manipulation to violence and healing trauma. Until now, however, its numerous programs, projects, and contributions had not been synthesized, and its findings had not been evaluated as whole. The Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania conducted an evaluation of RLB’s past ten years of work in the Great Lakes Region. In addition to understanding the aggregate impact of RLB’s programs, this meta-evaluation seeks to investigate what RLB’s work offers to others engaged in this field. We therefore seek to understand the adaptability of RLB’s methodology to other countries and contexts and how the RLB model might be used a prototype for future interventions.Klein College of Media and CommunicationMedia Studies and Productio

For Celebrity Communication about Development to do Good

In recent years, there has been an uptick in the practice of celebrities engaging in global development efforts at the political level. This chapter discusses the mass media appearances of two celebrities – Angelina Jolie and George Clooney – and what said appearances might suggest to media audiences about the state of distant sufferers and of global development in general. A critical discourse analysis of Jolie’s and Clooney’s television interviews between 2001 and 2017 reveals that their speech reinforces particular stereotypes that place the US, and by extension the Global North, as the unquestionable “heroes” of development work, and development beneficiaries as the less capable and less comprehensible civilisations forever in need of rescuing. The analysis serves as the basis for developing a framework for more ethical celebrity communication about development. The key principle of this proposed framework emphasizes treating both media audiences and distant sufferers as citizens capable of political thought and action, rather than simply regarding media audiences as emotional fans, or distant sufferers as eternally dependent upon the Global North.Klein College of Media and CommunicationMedia Studies and Productio

Testing a Media Intervention in Kenya: Vioja Mahakamani, Dangerous Speech, and the Benesch Guidelines

Susan Benesch, human rights scholar, genocide prevention fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, has, over the last several years, developed an analytical framework for identifying ‘dangerous speech’ that catalyzes violence (Benesch, 2008; 2013). According to Benesch, “hate speech” is a vague term that encompasses many forms of speech, only some of which may catalyze violence under certain circumstances. By creating a set of guidelines “for monitoring speech and evaluating its dangerousness, i.e., the capacity to catalyze violence by one group against another,” Benesch aims to inform policies that reduce incitement to violence through speech while protecting free speech (Benesch, 2013). Among questions about these ambitious guidelines were how they could be used to make audiences more skeptical of incitement and therefore less likely to succumb to it. In the summer of 2012, Benesch teamed up with Media Focus on Africa (MFA) and the cast and crew of a Kenyan television comedy drama series, Vioja Mahakamani (referred to as Vioja throughout this report). The collaboration aimed to “inoculate” audiences against inciting speech, and make them more skeptical of it, by increasing understanding of what constitutes incitement to violence, the psychology behind incitement that helps prepare groups of people to condone or even take part in violence, and its consequences. This was accomplished through two avenues: 1) by applying her ideas through a medium that would entertain and educate the Kenyan public, and 2) by training the cast of the show so that they could become local agents of change, circulating this information outside the context of the television program. This evaluation was partially tasked with examining whether audiences did indeed become more skeptical of inciting speech. As a real-world test of skepticism (i.e., exposing audiences to inciting speech and observing behaviors) was not a feasible or desirable evaluation method, “skepticism” as a concept was investigated by breaking down the concept into its component elements – those which are likely to lead to skepticism. Namely: Did viewers better understand the origins and motivations behind inciting speech? Did viewers better understand the consequences of inciting speech? Were viewers more likely to accept personal responsibility for violent actions arising from dangerous speech? Were viewers more likely to take non-violent actions in response to future perceived injustices (using a hypothetical scenario)? Were viewers more likely to promote love and forgiveness in response to the 2007-2008 post-election violence? Through an evaluation of each of these components, we were able to draw a fuller picture of how the program influenced audiences, and how these influences might affect future behaviors. This report summarizes the findings of that evaluation, led by Dr. Lauren Kogen of the Center for Global Communication Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.Klein College of Media and CommunicationMedia Studies and Productio

Assessing Impact, Evaluating Adaptability: A Decade of Radio La Benevolencija in Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC

For the past decade, Radio La Benevolencija (RLB) has worked in Rwanda, Burundi, and the DRC to provide citizens with tools for recognizing and resisting manipulation to violence and healing trauma. Until now, however, its numerous programs, projects, and contributions had not been synthesized, and its findings had not been evaluated as whole. The Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania conducted an evaluation of RLB’s past ten years of work in the Great Lakes Region. In addition to understanding the aggregate impact of RLB’s programs, this meta-evaluation seeks to investigate what RLB’s work offers to others engaged in this field. We therefore seek to understand the adaptability of RLB’s methodology to other countries and contexts and how the RLB model might be used a prototype for future interventions.https://repository.upenn.edu/cgcs_monitoringandeval_videos/1000/thumbnail.jp

Savage deregulation in Thailand: expanding Hallin and Mancini’s European model

In Comparing Media Systems (2004), now a key text within global communication studies, Daniel hallin and Paolo mancini explore the evolution of media systems in Europe, and argue that the historical development of social systems in Western Europe helps explain modern-day differences in the region’s media systems. Their study divides Western Europe into three groups, roughly divided by region, and ultimately argues that the countries of Southern Europe – specifically Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy – have the least advanced media systems with respect to public service requirements, information distribution, and diversity of voice and culture, due to socio-historical factors surrounding the development of the media sector in this region. One of the regulatory hurdles that hallin and mancini place on the path to modernization for the Southern European countries, and which will be discussed here, is a set of circumstances which allowed for a ‘savage deregulation’ of the commercial media sector, in which governments ‘introduced commercial broadcasting in an uncontrolled way, without imposing significant public-service obligations’ (2004: 124) and which led to a ‘deluge’ of commercial broadcasters. this article argues, however, that hallin and mancini’s description of savage deregulation is inaccurate and obscures the root causes of deregulation in that region. the authors’ description of the ‘deluge’ of broadcasters that occurred in Italy and Greece (their key examples of the phenomenon) equates the two histories, when savage deregulation in fact took quite distinct forms in each case, the results of which have important present-day ramifications for the cultural and human rights characteristics of the media environment in the two countries as well as, I argue, in countries with similar histories, such as Thailand.Klein College of Media and CommunicationMedia Studies and Productio

Deflecting the CNN effect: public opinion polling and Livingstonian outcomes

Can the analysis and dissemination of public opinion polling be organized in such a way as to shift public debate and help reframe an issue that has been strongly influenced by CNN-like mediated activities? Drawing upon polling experience in Darfur, the authors examine this question in the highly disputed context of international conflicts, an area where CNN effects are manifest. They argue that government-sponsored polls can become part of official reactions to the CNN effect in three primary ways: first, deflecting the CNN effect by re-framing narratives and policy options; second, trumping the CNN effect by returning to a form of evidence-based policy making in which research, rather than media pressure, dictates decision making; and third, circumventing the CNN effect by engaging in improved approaches to conflict resolution.Klein College of Media and CommunicationMedia Studies and Productio

Testing a Media Intervention in Kenya: \u3cem\u3eVioja Mahakamani\u3c/em\u3e, Dangerous Speech, and the Benesch Guidelines

Susan Benesch, human rights scholar, genocide prevention fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, has, over the last several years, developed an analytical framework for identifying ‘dangerous speech’ that catalyzes violence (Benesch, 2008; 2013). According to Benesch, “hate speech” is a vague term that encompasses many forms of speech, only some of which may catalyze violence under certain circumstances. By creating a set of guidelines “for monitoring speech and evaluating its dangerousness, i.e., the capacity to catalyze violence by one group against another,” Benesch aims to inform policies that reduce incitement to violence through speech while protecting free speech (Benesch, 2013). Among questions about these ambitious guidelines were how they could be used to make audiences more skeptical of incitement and therefore less likely to succumb to it. In the summer of 2012, Benesch teamed up with Media Focus on Africa (MFA) and the cast and crew of a Kenyan television comedy drama series, Vioja Mahakamani (referred to as Vioja throughout this report). The collaboration aimed to “inoculate” audiences against inciting speech, and make them more skeptical of it, by increasing understanding of what constitutes incitement to violence, the psychology behind incitement that helps prepare groups of people to condone or even take part in violence, and its consequences. This was accomplished through two avenues: 1) by applying her ideas through a medium that would entertain and educate the Kenyan public, and 2) by training the cast of the show so that they could become local agents of change, circulating this information outside the context of the television program. This evaluation was partially tasked with examining whether audiences did indeed become more skeptical of inciting speech. As a real-world test of skepticism (i.e., exposing audiences to inciting speech and observing behaviors) was not a feasible or desirable evaluation method, “skepticism” as a concept was investigated by breaking down the concept into its component elements – those which are likely to lead to skepticism. Namely: Did viewers better understand the origins and motivations behind inciting speech? Did viewers better understand the consequences of inciting speech? Were viewers more likely to accept personal responsibility for violent actions arising from dangerous speech? Were viewers more likely to take non-violent actions in response to future perceived injustices (using a hypothetical scenario)? Were viewers more likely to promote love and forgiveness in response to the 2007-2008 post-election violence? Through an evaluation of each of these components, we were able to draw a fuller picture of how the program influenced audiences, and how these influences might affect future behaviors. This report summarizes the findings of that evaluation, led by Dr. Lauren Kogen of the Center for Global Communication Studies at the University of Pennsylvania

Half the Sky Movement Global Engagement Initiative: Final Monitoring and Evaluation Report

The Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) monitored and evaluated the Half the Sky Movement (HTSM)/USAID project “Half the Sky Movement Global Engagement Initiative”from January 2014 to January 2016. This report summarizes the findings from this work. The evaluation sought to 1) assess the impact of the HTSM media interventions and 2) improve and inform future efforts to use media in developing and conflict-affected regions. The evaluation also investigated whether HTSM’s media tools can be packaged as a ‘toolkit’ that can be scaled up and / or used by other NGOs working on issues pertaining to women’s empowerment in developing regions. To implement the evaluation, CGCS relied on two in-country M&E Officers, Kamakshi Khazanchi in India and Benard Moseti in Kenya, who coordinated directly with the NGOs on the ground. In Kenya, CGCS employed research firm Research Solutions Africa (RSA) to carry out in-depth-interviews as well as pre, post, and three-month follow-up test surveys for discussion group beneficiaries at YWLI. India M&E Officer Kamakshi Khazanchi coordinated all beneficiary in-depth-interviews and pre, post, and three-month follow-up test surveys for the Tonk NGOs. Dr. Maureen Taylor, Professor and Director in the School of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Tennessee, assisted with the development of the project’s Milestone Index for NGO capacity measurement, as well as completed all final evaluation interviews with Kenyan and Indian NGO coordinators and staff members

The Use of IVR to Support Monitoring and Evaluation of Media Interventions: A Case Study of the VOTO System in Rwanda

Information communication technologies (ICTs), and in particular mobile phones, hold great potential to improve interventions in Africa and elsewhere that seek to provide information to the public. They offer the possibility of amplifying the public’s access to information, strengthening citizen voices, and promoting greater political engagement by the public, all with important implications for peacebuilding. Ushahidi, for example, has received widespread attention for allowing citizens to send reports of incidents during disasters via the Internet or SMS (see, for example, Gao et al 2011); others have seen social accountability efforts, such as monitoring the actions of leaders, facilitated by ICTs (see, for example, Grossman and Hanlon 2014). However, despite much excitement about ICTs, the practical evidence of their effectiveness is lacking, particularly for organizations trying to use ICTs to facilitate governance and peacebuilding outcomes (Gagliardone et al. 2015; Koltzow 2013). There are few evaluations of ICT endeavors in the public sphere that can help other practitioners and scholars understand the best ways to make use of ICTs to promote development outcomes. Many media organizations in the development field are interested in using ICTs, but lack the information they need to do so, including which ICT platforms would be the most appropriate for their projects (Kogen et al. 2012). One ICT platform that is receiving increasing attention is Interactive Voice Response (IVR). IVR automates interaction with mobile phone users using a wide array of pre-recorded material. Computers detect voice and touch tones during a phone call, and respond with pre-recorded or dynamically generated audio (“IVR” 2013). Such a system offers opportunities both for distributing media content and for collecting feedback and other monitoring and evaluation (M&E) data from media consumers. The aim of this project was primarily to add to the knowledge base on how organizations can use IVR to support M&E efforts, though we also address our observations on using IVR as a distribution tool.Klein College of Media and CommunicationMedia Studies and Productio