Professor Shakuntala Banaji

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Media, Communication and Development. This course is not available as an outside option.

The content of the course addresses the history of and tensions between 'media for development' and 'communication for development', while challenging mainstream development perspectives on aid, modernisation, and the role of ICTs and 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 structures and the empowerment of individuals, as well as among collective groupings within their local and regional contexts. In particular, paying attention to issues of history, colonisation, race and gender, this course questions who constructs knowledge and how knowledge is constructed in modernisation approaches to Media, Communication and Development. It explores the ways in which the concepts of ideology, discourse, orientalism, reflexivity and power can enable a critical understanding of social life, participation and change in the global south. The course also offers a sharp critique of scholarly and policy oriented literature that regards the media, information, and communication strategies, and information and communication technology applications, as obvious direct means of alleviating poverty, improving health outcomes and fostering democracy and 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 injustice, poverty and unequal power relations influence the capacities of individuals to make changes in their lives and communities.

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the AT.

This course includes one compulsory film screening and discussion in the AT, which lasts 3 hours.

There will be a 1 hour revision lecture in the ST, ahead of the summative assessment.

This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of term.

All students are expected to complete advance reading, participate in case studies and discussions on Moodle forums, prepare seminar presentations, organise and attend practitioner seminars and film/documentary viewings and submit one case study of 500 to 1000 words.

• Abrahamson, R. (2000) Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and Good Governance in Africa. London, Zed Books.
• Banaji, S. (2016). Children and Media in India: Narratives of Class, Agency and Social Change. London and New York: Routledge.
• Enghel, F. and Noske-Turner, J. (2018) Communication for International Development: Doing Good or Looking Good? London & New York: Routledge.
• 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.
• Galeano, E. (1973). Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. New York and London: Monthly Review Press.
• Grewal, I. and Kaplan, C. (eds) (1994) Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and transnational feminist practices. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Hall, S (ed.) (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications.
• Hartman, S. V. (1997) Scenes of Subjection: Terror, slavery and self-making in nineteenth century America. Oxford: OUP.
• Hayter, T. (1971). Aid as Imperialism. London: Pelican.
• Hemer, O. and Tufte, T. (eds) (2005) Media and Global Change: Rethinking Communication for Development, Clacso and Nordicom.
• Hill Collins, P & Bilge, S. (2020, 2nd Edition) Intersectionality. Cambridge and Medford MA: Polity.
• 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, I. (2008) The Postcolonial Politics of Development, London and New York: Routledge.
• Mama, A. (1995) Beyond the Masks: Race, Gender and Subjectivity. London and New York: Routledge.
• Manyozo, L. (2012) Media, Communication and Development: Three Approaches, New Delhi, India SAGE Publications.
• 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.
• Nishime, L. & Hester Williams, K. D. (Eds) (2018) Racial Ecologies.Washington: University of Washington Press.
• Noble, S. (2018) Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: New York University Press.
• Quebral, N. (1988) Development Communication, Laguna: UPLB College of Agriculture.
• Rodriguez, C. (2011) Citizens media against armed conflict. Minnesota: Minnesota University Press.
• Scott, M. (2014) Media and Development. London: Zed Books.
• Said, E. (1979) Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
• 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.

Take-home assessment (100%) in the ST.

This is a seen examination with questions made available to students seven days prior to submission.