Digital Media

Ethnographic Action Research: Trainers Handbook

Jo Tacchi, Joann Fildes, Kirsty Martin, Kiran Mulenahalli, Emma Baulch and Andrew Skuse

CD ROM and website. Delhi. UNESCO. 2007.

This EAR Handbook is designed to be used in a workshop situation, or by individuals. It can be used for beginners at a workshop, or by those who already have skills or some experience of EAR. We have included some trainer's notes to give some guidance on how the workshops might be run. Ethnographic Action Research is a methodology that combines research with project development. It has been designed for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiatives. Ethnographic Action Research is built into an initiative so that it becomes an important tool for understanding and further developing the initiative in its local context. This handbook is designed to train EAR researchers to continually develop and deepen their understandings of communication in local contexts. A well trained EAR researcher will share this knowledge with colleagues to develop the ICT initiative's programme accordingly. A well trained EAR researcher will ensure that there are high levels of participation in both research activities and the programmes of the ICT initiative.

Narratives for the future: digital stories about the Millennium Development Goals

UNESCO Office New Delhi

DVD. Delhi. UNESCO. 2007.

This DVD was produced following an initial content creation workshop in India in early 2006. It contains a selection of digital stories produced at, or as a result of the workshop.

Book Chapters

Finding a voice : digital storytelling as participatory development in Southeast Asia

Jo Tacchi. 2009.

In Hartley, John & McWilliam, Kelly (Eds.) Story circle : digital storytelling around the world. Wiley-Blackwell.

This chapter is about the use of digital storytelling in a research project called "Finding a Voice", a multi-sited ethnographic study of - and experiment in - local participatory content creation. The project is made up of a research network of fifteen pre-existing local media and ICT initiatives in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The goal of Finding a Voice is to increase understanding of how ICT can be both effective and empowering in each local context, to investigate the most effective ways of articulating information and communication networks (both social and technological) to empower poor people to communicate their "voices" within and beyond marginalised communities. We are researching opportunities and constraints for local content created by and for specific local communities, for the development and communication of ideas, information and perspectives appropriate to those communities.

Finding a voice : themes and discussions

1. Introduction

Jo Tacchi and MS Kiran, March 2008 in Finding a voice : themes and discussions. pp. 1-25.

This chapter introduces Finding a Voice and sets out the purpose of this book. It touches on our approach to poverty and thoughts about the importance of locally appropriate communication for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It presents profiles of the 15 ICT and media initiatives that were a part of the Finding a Voice network.

2. Finding a voice in context

Jo Tacchi and MS Kiran, March 2008 in Finding a voice : themes and discussions. pp. 25-46.

This chapter positions Finding a Voice in the field of development communication, laying stress on the importance of context. It discusses the definitions of 'voice' that emerge from the research, and describes the key components of the research project: ethnographic action research, communicative ecologies and participatory content creation.

3. Participation: social inclusion, motivations and voice.

Kirsty Martin and Jo Tacchi, March 2008 in Finding a voice : themes and discussions. pp. 47-68.

This chapter explores the many dimensions of 'participation' and presents ways in which it has proved meaningful across the research sites. The chapter shows how achieving widespread participation in an ICT or media initiative is extremely challenging. Different interpretations of participation across the research network have led to different discussions and a range of activities.

4. Gendered behaviours and ICT initiatives in local communities.

Kirsty Martin, March 2008 in Finding a voice : themes and discussions. pp. 69-92.

This chapter examines the ways in which gender emerged across the research sites, and how the research and content creation activities responded. While research and content creation activities cannot on their own provide solutions to social dilemmas and inequalities, they can provide opportunities to engage with locally identified issues and begin to tackle entrenched gendered behaviours and social traditions in the community.

5. Sustainability.

Emma Baulch, March 2008 in Finding a voice : themes and discussions. pp. 93-108.

This chapter discusses the importance of social, technical and financial sustainability. It shows how local researchers feel that building an initiative that local people feel they need and are keen to sustain is an urgent and complex proposition for their ICT and media initiatives. The chapter highlights the complex character of issues pertaining to sustainability, and shows how often each step towards sustainability seems to yield yet more problems.

6. Take Home Messages.

Jo Tacchi and Seema B. Nair, March 2008 in Finding a voice : themes and discussions. pp. 109-116.

In this final chapter we present some 'take home messages'. We set out what we believe are some of the most important learnings to have emerged to date from Finding a Voice, and some of their implications.

Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices

1. Introduction: what is participatory content creation?

Jerry Watkins and Jo Tacchi, February 2008 in Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices. pp. 1-12.

Defines participatory content creation and recommends that creative engagement with ICT should be an important element of ICT for development strategies.

2. Finding a Voice through content creation

Jerry Watkins and Jo Tacchi, February 2008 in Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices. pp. 13-20.

Outlines the Finding a Voice project and introduces the concept of 'voice poverty'.

3. Social change through local content creation: case studies from Nepal.

Kirsty Martin, February 2008 in Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices. pp. 21-34.

Demonstrate how locally relevant content made by community participants can create forums for important social debates.

4. Literacy in the locale: content creation in Indonesia.

Emma Baulch and Jerry Watkins, February 2008 in Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices. pp. 35-44.

Illustrates some cultural attitudes to storytelling as a tool to relieve voice poverty, and stresses the importance of ongoing participation strategies to ensure project sustainability.

5. Reaching out to communities: creatively engaging the excluded.

Ben Grubb and Jo Tacchi, February 2008 in Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices. pp. 45-60.

Describes creative engagement with remote communities through inclusive content creation activities and an innovative mobile ICT platform.

6. Challenging an asymmetric power relation: media development for social change in Seelampur, India.

M.S. Kiran, February 2008 in Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices. pp. 61-74.

Proposes a gradualist approach for content creation and outreach initiatives which seek to challenge entrenched positions within a community.

7. Optimising ICT initiatives through content creation.

Jerry Watkins and Seema B. Nair, February 2008 in Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices. pp. 75-94.

Links participatory content creation systems to 'digital literacy' and invites a more human-centred approach to ICT implementation.

Information, communication, poverty and voice

Jo Tacchi. 2007.

In Servaes, Jan & Liu, Shuang (Eds.) Moving targets : mapping the paths between communication, technology and social change in communities. Southbound, Malaysia, Penang.

This chapter discusses the use of community-based media and information and communication technologies (ICTs) for poverty reduction, with a focus on issues of 'voice'. It explores and unpacks the notion of voice, considering the potential of such a concept to advance our thinking about the broader area of ICTs and poverty, particularly at the community level. Following an introduction which sets out the background to the discussion and interrogates voice as a useful concept for development, the author explores three aspects of ICTs and poverty from three different understandings of the potential role of voice: (1) local content creation and the implications for 'voice poverty' with respect to individual freedom, well-being and capabilities; (2) the significance of voice in terms of research methods, monitoring and evaluation, and impact assessment; and (3) issues of access and use, the benefits of mixing media, and the potential for advocacy, that is, having a voice and being heard.

Books

Action Research and New Media: Concepts, Methods and Cases

Gregory Hearn, Jo Tacchi, Marcus Foth & June Lennie, 2009

Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ.

Action research is now a well-documented and well-accepted research methodology. Moreover, it is especially appropriate in new media research, where innovation and change are continual, and where processes and outcomes are usually not predictable and often involve fuzzy and subjective human elements. This book offers a systematic, in-depth academic overview of the application of action research methods to the field of new media. In this space, it is the first publication of its kind in what is a new but rapidly growing field.

This book is divided into three sections. Introducing the two key concepts, namely, new media and action research, the first section describes the underlying principles, processes, questions, methods and tools that are relevant to an action research approach to new media inquiry. This is followed by a deeper exploration of three advanced, innovative approaches to action research and new media: ethnographic, network, and anticipatory action research. The third and final section presents four case studies and their individual applications of action research in different new media contexts.

Finding a Voice Themes and Discussions

Edited by Jo Tacchi and MS Kiran, March 2008

This book has a particular audience in mind: it is aimed primarily at program-side policy strategists and decision-makers. We hope that those who are implementing similar projects or work in the ICT and communication for development fields will find it useful. We believe this work should also be accessible to and prove to be of interest to donor organisations and other researchers interested in communication for development. We write this book in the hope that on the one hand it will reinforce the need for horizontal and participatory approaches to communication. On the other hand we hope it will help to explain just why this is at the same time important and challenging, through the glimpses the book gives of participatory development communication in action.

Participatory Content Creation for Development: Principles and Practices

Edited by Jerry Watkins and Jo Tacchi, February 2008

This book highlights the application of participatory methods to the design, implementation and evaluation of culturally appropriate systems for local content creation. The examples are based on fieldwork conducted in India, Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka between 2005-2008. Participatory Content Creation for Development is a non-technical publication aimed primarily at program-side policy strategists, decision makers and practitioners.

Forging Innovations: CMCs in Nepal

Karma Tshering and Kirsty Martin, 2007

A short book about community multimedia centres in Nepal published in 2007. You can download from the link below or pick up a copy from the UNESCO New Delhi office.

Local information networks: social and technological considerations

Seema Nair, Megan Jennaway andAndrew Skuse, 2006

This study was carried out in 2005 in collaboration with local EAR researchers and this report was published in 2006. It represents three case studies of communication initiatives in India. You can download it below or pick up a copy from UNESCO, New Delhi office.

Articles

Participatory Content Creation: Voice, Communication and Development

Jo Tacchi, Jerry Watkins and Kosala Keerthirathne

Development in Practice, Volume 19, No. 4 & 5, pages 573-584, 2009

This article uses the example of a mobile mixed media platform – a converted three-wheeled auto-rickshaw – in Sri Lanka in order to explore whether and how content-creation activities can enable marginalised communities to have a voice. It draws upon research into participatory content-creation activities conducted in 15 locations across India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The main findings are: the need to pay attention to context when thinking about what might be locally appropriate, relevant, and beneficial in terms of participatory content creation; the benefits that can be gained from creatively reaching out to and engaging marginalised groups and encouraging a diversity of voices; the usefulness of locally produced content for generating local debate around local issues; and the benefits of encouraging participation at all stages of content creation, so that content is locally meaningful and might lead to positive social change.

Action research practices and media for development

Jo Tacchi, Marcus Foth and Gregory Hearn

International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology, 5(2), 2009

This article uses the example of a mobile mixed media platform – a converted three-wheeled auto-rickshaw – in Sri Lanka in order to explore whether and how content-creation activities can enable marginalised communities to have a voice. It draws upon research into participatory content-creation activities conducted in 15 locations across India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The main findings are: the need to pay attention to context when thinking about what might be locally appropriate, relevant, and beneficial in terms of participatory content creation; the benefits that can be gained from creatively reaching out to and engaging marginalised groups and encouraging a diversity of voices; the usefulness of locally produced content for generating local debate around local issues; and the benefits of encouraging participation at all stages of content creation, so that content is locally meaningful and might lead to positive social change.

Voice and Poverty

Jo Tacchi

Media Development, 2008/1

There are at least two areas of work that can be considered to be attempting to bring issues of ‘voice’ to the fore in international development and development communications. On the one hand there is now an established body of work on participatory approaches to understanding poverty, which is concerned to let those who experience poverty tell those who do not what this experience is like, rather than have external ‘experts’ assess it from afar. On the other hand, in the fields of development communication and ICT for development there is growing attention being paid to the local production of content. The first is about the need to listen to the voices of the poor in order to both understand and tackle poverty. The second is concerned wi th promoting a diversity of voices through media and communications.

More than Books: A Study of Women’s Participation in Community Libraries in Rural Nepal

Kirsty Martin and Sita Adhikari

Journal of International Women's Studies, 9(3), 241-255. 2008

In Nepal there are clear gender roles and accompanying expectations about male and female behavior in social spaces. Based on these expectations and traditions there are key obstacles to local women’s opportunities to be active participants in social life. The creation of two community libraries in village Nepal in 1999 and 2001 has created opportunities for women’s involvement in community-based activities and programs. Through their involvement in library activities, women gain access to education, information and communication and the opportunity to learn about financial matters. This paper explores the impact that women’s involvement in the library has on their overall community participation. It also explores the potential of the library as a vehicle for important ‘grass-roots’ social change.

Poverty and Digital Inclusion: Preliminary Findings of Finding a Voice

Andrew Skuse, Joann Fildes, Jo Tacchi, Kirsty Martin, Emma Baulch

Delhi. UNESCO. October 2007

This paper presents preliminary findings from a multi-sited qualitative study of poverty and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in India, Indonesia Sri Lanka and Nepal. It draws upon data gathered by 12 ethnographic action researchers working across 15 community ICT initiatives. These local, 'embedded researchers' are part of a larger international project called Finding a Voice: Making Technological Change Socially Effective and Culturally Empowering, which includes UNESCO (South Asia) and UNDP (Indonesia), in partnership with Queensland University of Technology, the University of Adelaide and Australian Research Council, along with numerous local and regional organisations.

Finding the Local Community in Community Media: Some Stories from Nepal

Kirsty Martin, Deepak Koirala, Rupa Pandey, Sita Adhikari, Govinda Prasad Acharya and Kiran MS

Delhi. UNESCO. October 2007

This paper presents preliminary findings from a multi-sited qualitative study of poverty and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in India, Indonesia Sri Lanka and Nepal. It draws upon data gathered by 12 ethnographic action researchers working across 15 community ICT initiatives. These local, 'embedded researchers' are part of a larger international project called Finding a Voice: Making Technological Change Socially Effective and Culturally Empowering, which includes UNESCO (South Asia) and UNDP (Indonesia), in partnership with Queensland University of Technology, the University of Adelaide and Australian Research Council, along with numerous local and regional organisations.

Participatory Research and Creative Engagement with ICTs

Jo Tacchi and Jerry Watkins

This presentation reports preliminary findings from the Finding a Voice project, an ethnographic investigation into the development and consequences of participatory content creation programs in underserved communities in India, Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The project explores how information and communication technology can be used to enable both civic and cultural participation, and creative engagement within such communities. The research is informed by Ethnographic Action Research and Participatory Design methodologies, as well as observation of local communicative ecologies.