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This paper, on qualitative thematic analysis (QTA) in social change research, falls somewhere between a reflective piece and a how-to guide. Using two examples from my own previous research, I discuss why QTA in the field of social change or social justice, which often analyzes the words of vulnerable, marginalized, or underserved populations, is so fraught, so contested, and so often dismissed. Qualitative thematic analysis of interviews or focus groups is a common research tool used in the field, but the guidelines, scope, and practices of this tool are varied and ill-defined. I have witnessed in my students' papers and in peer reviewing for journals that there are a handful of assumptions and misconceptions that appear repeatedly, for example around intercoder reliability and frequency counting, that reduce the quality of analysis. This paper focuses on how to conduct QTAs that address social change: complex social problems faced by underserved populations, such as those dealing with poverty and inequality. By discussing the methods used in two of my own social change research projects, this paper offers a balanced method for both promoting rigor and understanding the limits and strengths of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two fundamental concerns about global communication for social change (CSC) research and practice that guide the present study. The first is whether CSC researchers are collecting evidence regarding whether interventions work, the second is whether the sub-field is building theory about how CSC interventions work to promote community-led change. Based on a scoping review of peer-reviewed journal articles on international participatory development interventions, this analysis shows the field continues to lack a convincing explanation of the relationship between participation, communication, empowerment and social change. A model to elucidate this relationship is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important sub-discipline within the field of Communication and Social Change addresses how meaningful participation can be practically implemented. This article presents the case of an intervention developed by the NGO 'Half the Sky Movement' and reflects upon how participation took shape within a primarily top-down program model. The design of the project bridges traditional, outsider-led and participatory, bottom-up design. The project accomplishes this by focusing on small group discussion and short videos as catalysts for reflection. In addition, the data suggest that storytelling may be particularly helpful for promoting engaged discussion and critical reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how journalists covering international humanitarian crises make decisions regarding what types of information to include in stories. Specifically, the inclusion/exclusion of solutions-oriented information is addressed, since crises represent a key time during which the potential for international engagement is discussed in the mainstream media. Interviews with journalists covering hunger crises in Africa reveal an internal tension between maintaining a neutral, unbiased position and writing in a way that supports engagement and action. Ironically, perhaps, journalists find that including solutions-oriented information amounts to unethical and biased coverage, despite the fact that inclusion of solutions to social problems is an accepted and institutionalized aspect of the US news media's mandate to the public. Reasons for this seeming contradiction are discussed, and I argue that solutions-oriented information not only can be included without demonstrating bias, but that it ought to be included to support ethical coverage that properly informs citizens about potential paths for political engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, development donors in the West have touted a shift to rigorous evaluations and evidence-based policymaking in order to address global skepticism regarding the effectiveness of aid. In the accompanying rhetoric, “accountability” and “learning” have been held up as twin pillars that will ensure a more effective aid-making system. This contribution questions the ability of these concepts to improve aid in their current working forms. The contribution offers a revised conceptualization of learning in order to improve funding and funding policy. The revised definition supports two particular areas in which “learning” is sorely needed but which are eschewed in most current institutionalized evaluation rhetoric: developing theory undergirding social change (such as theories relating to gender-based violence) and evaluating project design and implementation processes (such as participatory designs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the U.S. news media construct the topic of hunger in Africa for U.S. audiences. Specifically, the article addresses how newspapers define and delimit the relationship between U.S. citizens and foreign sufferers. Through a framing analysis and critical discourse analysis of randomly sampled newspaper stories, the author finds that while news articles covering hunger in the United States usually frame the problem as pertinent to the public sphere, the victim as worthy of political action, and the reader as political agent, articles covering hunger in Africa frame the issue as irrelevant to the public sphere, the victim as removed from political action, and the reader as politically impotent. Interviews with journalists are used to understand why discrepancies occur. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Celebrities in recent years have taken on a more active role in communicating global humanitarian crises to the American public. This role at times shifts between journalist, advocate, philanthropist, and personal publicist. This article evaluates how three of the most well-known celebrities in this genre in the United States—Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, and Bono—differ in their method of speaking about these issues, focusing on how their public discourse adds to, or detracts from, citizens' abilities to understand, discuss, and respond to the issues presented in the public sphere. Through critical discourse analysis, similarities and differences are teased out and placed within the context of previous research on celebrity diplomacy and humanitarian crises, in order to evaluate the usefulness of such performances for the U.S. public as democratic citizens and for the victims of foreign suffering the celebrities purport to represent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What methodological, ethical or other issues arise in 'media development' projects that are collaborations between practitioners and scholars? This article uses as a case study a project led by Radio La Benevolencija (RLB) that sought to address inter-ethnic conflict in Rwanda through a radio drama programme - a Romeo and Juliet story of a forbidden love between members of two conflicting tribes. The intervention was unique in its attention to theories of communication and psychology in its design and implementation, and in its efforts to bring in academics throughout the course of the project to aid in design and evaluation. The authors, commissioned to conduct an evaluation of RLB's past ten years of work, analyse the intervention in the context of Rwanda's history and the organization's use of theory, research and evaluation in their programmes. The authors find that, based on the RLB experience as well as evidence provided by communication and media research, the RLB model for peacebuilding through the media can be usefully adapted to other contexts, given particular parameters. The article concludes by arguing that the collaboration provides evidence of the fruitful ground that can and should exist between practice, theory and research, while problematizing challenges involved in such collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terms ‘indices’ and ‘indicators’ may immediately cause eyelids to droop. How, then, might they serve to impassion publics and, ultimately, promote social change? This paper examines the extent to which indices and indicators can be considered communication tools for social movements and social change. The analysis is based on a 2018 evaluation of one index based in the United States – the Ranking Digital Rights Index, which assesses privacy and freedom of expression in the ICT space – and incorporates interviews with civil society stakeholders. Bringing theory from the fields of journalism and social movements together with the data from the evaluation, the findings suggest indices can serve as useful communication resources for social movements under certain circumstances. In particular, the analysis suggests three communication resources – legitimate information, newsworthy information, and flexible information – that human rights indices are most likely to provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is currently a need to re-analyse the notion of ethical obligation in an increasingly globalised world. This article addresses the issue of moral obligation towards a distant stranger in distress in the context of international crises, and the role of both journalists and media consumers in fulfilling that obligation. Despite an inherent assumption that one should always do 'good', it is quite difficult to define what this means in the face of millions of distant sufferers during a humanitarian crisis,for whom distance, time and resources pose significant barriers to aid. In order to highlight the tensions found in the arguments surrounding global ethical obligations, and the real-world obstacles to both reporting such events and performing moral acts, this article addresses the extreme case of genocide and mass killings in international conflict zones. The article explores this question in three parts. First, the key philosophical arguments regarding ethics and our relationship with a distant other are outlined. Roger Silverstone's (2007) concept of the mediapolis is used to incorporate the role of both the media and the media audience in recognising and acknowledging the distant other. These ideas are then expanded to the case of global humanitarian crises and distant others in distress. The second section narrows the topic, addressing obligation on an individual level, as a member of the media audience, and explores why we do not always perform in an ethical manner. This question is analysed by incorporating behaviour prediction models from the fields of economics and psychology into a discussion of ethical behaviour. Finally, returning to the production side of media, the article begins to outline a framework for print journalists covering international crises to present information in such a way that recognises how the media audience reads and internalises information, and thus promotes moral action from the public by altering the weighting of preferential action that would be predicted by rational choice theory and the theory of planned behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay on temporal simultaneity created as a result of the rise of the industrial society and increase in communication systems is presented. It discusses the recognition of two temporal spheres, the changes in conceptualization of time and simultaneity expressed in the work of artists, poets and writers, and a brief history of the concept of simultaneity and temporal fragmentation as expressed through the mass media.

Spain, like other countries of Western Europe, has struggled against Hollywood to maintain its national film industry. Most of the films that are produced lose money, and producers are increasingly reliant on state subsidies. This article outlines the potential benefits of digital technologies to Spanish cinema and recommends changes in government film policy to take advantage of these benefits. State subsidies, in Spain as well as elsewhere in Europe, have created a weak national film market. Most Spaniards view national cinema as low-grade, and consistently opt for foreign fare. This article argues that the government should decrease production subsidies in favour of an investment in digital theatre projectors, thus permitting all productions to take advantage of the cost-saving aspects of digital filmmaking. In the course of researching this article, interviews were conducted with among others Bigas Luna (director of Jamon, Jamon, 1992 and La Teta y la Luna, 1994); Tomás Pladevall (President of the Spanish Association of Cinematographers); José-María Aragonés (Artistic Director of Filmtel, the post-production arm of Filmax production company); Ricardo Gil (Marketing and PR Director of UCI/Cinesa theatres in Spain and Portugal); and J.M. Caparrós Lera (Director of the Center for Cinematic Research in Barcelona). All were interviewed about the audience appeal, artistic merit and technical advantages or disadvantages of the digital medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]