Beyond Strategic Interventions: Development Communication and the Reality of Market-Driven Media Culture

• In Event: The New Development Communication

Abstract

1. Beyond Strategic Interventions: Development Communication and the Reality of Market-driven Media Culture

Dr. Wendy Willems,
Department of Media and Communications,
London School of Economics and Political Science
London, United Kingdom

The analytical focus of existing research in development communication, and the subfield of ICT4D, on technological, NGO-driven, strategic interventions could be seen as a consequence of the ‘embedded’ nature of much research on digital media in Global South contexts. Not too infrequently, research agendas and networks are linked to funding evaluations of particular NGO projects. This does not only potentially overestimate the importance of these interventions but more importantly, it can also end up masking the agency of ordinary people and their use or non-use of technology. Furthermore, the focus on NGO-driven interventions runs the risk of overlooking the growing power of global, corporate social media platforms in many parts of the Global South. Drawing on empirical research on social media and politics in Zambia, this paper argues for the need for a more critical research agenda in development communication that tackles the challenges posed by market-driven media culture.

Author

• Wendy Willems, London School of Economics and Political Science