Dr Shakuntala Banaji STC.S103

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Media, Communication and Development. This course is available on the MSc in Inequalities and Social Science, MSc in Media and Communications, MSc in Media and Communications (Media and Communications Governance) and MSc in Media and Communications (Research). This course is not available as an outside option.

It is also available to other students from the Department of Media and Communications with the permission of the teacher. 

In order to accommodate academic staff research leave and sabbaticals, and in order to maintain smaller seminar group sizes, this course is capped, meaning that there is a limit to the number of students who can be accepted. Whist we do our best to accommodate all requests, we cannot guarantee you a place on this course.

The content of the course is framed to address the history of and tensions between 'media for development' and 'communication for development', while challenging mainstream development perspectives on the role of media and communication in low income countries and unequal social contexts. It achieves this aim by emphasising the conflictual relationships between economic and political power and the empowerment of individuals, as well as among collective groupings within their local and regional contexts. In particular, paying attention to issues of colonization, race and gender, it questions the epistemological basis of current approaches to Media, Communication and Development in the context of a historicised account of representations of development both in the West and the Global South. The course offers a critique of the scholarly and policy oriented literature that regards the media, information, and communication strategies, and information and communication technology applications, as obvious means of alleviating poverty and fostering democracy as well as human rights in low-income countries. It offers alternative theorisations of the contested way in which developments in these areas become embedded in the cultural and social fabric, especially where poverty and unequal power relations influence the capacities of individuals to make changes in their lives.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT. 1 hour of lectures in the ST.

Film viewing: 3 hours in MT.

All students are expected to complete advance reading, participate in moodle forums, prepare seminar presentations, organise and attend film/documentary viewings and submit one essay of 1,500 words.

Abrahamson, R. (2000) Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and Good Governance in Africa. London, Zed Books;

Escobar, A. (2011) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton USA: Princeton University Press;

Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum;

Hemer, O. and Tufte, T. (eds) (2005) Media and Global Change: Rethinking Communication for Development, Buenos Aires: CLACSO and NORDICOM;

International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems. (2004) One World: Communication and Society, Today and Tomorrow; Towards a New More Just and More Efficient World information and communication order, London, New York and Paris: UNESCO and Roman & Littlefield;

Katz, C. (2004) Growing Up Global: Economic Restructuring and Children's Everyday Lives. Mineapolis and London: University of Minessota Press; Kapoor, Ilan (2008) The Postcolonial Politics of Development (London and New York: Routledge);

Mansell, R. and Wehn, U. (Eds) (1998) Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development, Oxford: Oxford University Press;

Manyozo, L. (2012) Media, communication and development: three approaches, New Delhi, India SAGE Publications;

Manyozo, L. (2011) People's Radio: Communicating Change Across Africa. Penang, Malaysia: Southbound;

Melkote, S. and Steeves, H. L. (2001) Communication for Development in the Third World: Theory and practice for empowerment, New Delhi and Thousand Oaks CA: Sage;

Quebral, N. (1988) Development Communication, Laguna: UPLB College of Agriculture; Mayo, M and Craig, G., (Eds.) (1995) Community Empowerment: A Reader in Participation and Development, London and New Jersey: ZED Books; Scott, M. (2014) Media and Development. London: Zed books; 

Servaes, J (ed.) (2008) Communication for Development and Social Change. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, CA and Singapore: Sage. Singhal, A. and Rogers, E. (1999) Entertainment-Education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change. Malden, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.

This is a seen examination, made available to students up to seven days prior to the sitting.

Via questions about history, power, representation and knowledge, this course challenges modernisation perspectives on the use of media and communication for development in the global south. 

Students' comments 

"This brilliant and insightful course challenged me to think deeply about the connections between participation and modernisation approaches to improving living conditions in the global south."