Media Development is an international quarterly journal dedicated to the theory and practice of communication around the world. Many contributors write from the perspective of the South, highlighting social, cultural, and spiritual values. Media Development offers: - informed and critical opinions on a broad range of topics related to a quarterly main theme
- publishes other relevant documents and materials
- reports of events and conferences
- a section on cinema
- book reviews
It articulates shared concerns in the search for equality, justice and human dignity in mass and community communications. Media Development is available by subscription and is provided free to Personal and Corporate Members of WACC (two copies to Corporate Members). For more information about subscribing to Media Development, becoming a Member of WACC, or obtaining back issues of the journal, please click here. For the first three months after publication, articles from the current issue of Media Development are available for download by WACC members only. After that three month period, articles from all issues are freely available.
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2012/1 Mediating Freedom of Religion |
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In matters of freedom of religion or belief, communicators have a duty to present fair and balanced coverage. However, that is not always what happens. There may be a need for some kind of global media observatory for news coverage and media representations of religion and religious affairs. Writers in this issue contribute to the debate from a wide range of perspectives. |
Advancing freedom of religion or belief: Agendas for change, by Malcolm Evans
Democracy, freedom of religion, and the media, by Ian Linden
Faith and belief in "The Land of the Holy Spirit", by John Harrison
Faith, belief, and the advancement of women's human rights, by Navanethem Pillay
A disconnected civil society - where does faith fit in?, by Andrew Firmin and Olga Kononykhina
La liberté de culte et de croyance, parent pauvre de l'information en France? par Blandine Chelini-Pont
Entre la libertad religiosa y el tutelaje de la moral pública, por Rolando Pérez
Changing paradigms of ecumenical communication, by Stephen Brown
Mass media and freedom of religion or belief in Fiji, by Akuila Yabaki
Christian communication in Sri Lanka, by Avanka Fernando
Radio Namaskar: Catalyst of change in Orissa, by Daniela Bandelli
The great Georgian/Russian media war, by Jörg Becker
Prophetic witness in the news and as news, by Florian Höhne
Members may access electronic versions of articles HERE |
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2011/4 Tackling HIV and AIDS |
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Mass and community media can unthinkingly reinforce stigmatisation and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS. Beyond the important question of language and image, there are those of care, respect, support, and human dignity. As one writer in this issue comments, "HIV and AIDS is not about 'us' and 'them'. It is about speaking out for community, inclusion, sufficiency, tolerance and justice." Plus+ two articles on communicating climate change, evaluating news coverage of Darfur, and inclusive communication in Latin America. |
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2011/3 Dialogue on Communication and Theology |
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WACC can lay claim to being a pioneer in a process that led to greater emphasis being given to the study of communication in theological seminaries and in the context of church and religion. This issue explores how theology evalutes communication and how communication elucidates theology. |
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2011/2 Peace Journalism |
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Peace journalism falls squarely within the right to communicate - strengthening the ability of people and communities to make known their economic, political, social, and cultural aspirations in order to resolve tensions and reach peaceful solutions to conflict. |
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2011/1 Social Media Challenge Communication |
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| All new technologies of communication bring advantages and disadvantages. All such technologies have democratic potential. With new social media, as the arrticles in this issue show, there remain significant questions of accountability, affordable access, digital divides, surveillance, privacy, exploitation, and cultural transformation.
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2010/4 Breaking Old Ground in New Ways |
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Articles on vital communication topics written by some of the Editorial Consultants of Media Development to challenge, provoke interest and be agenda-setting. An opportunity to benefit from the insights of communication professionals working in a variety of different communication fields. |
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2010/3 Communication for Ecumenism |
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How can communication contribute to greater understanding in a world of diversity? This issue seeks to explore how communication for ecumenism can become a dynamic co-pilgrimage towards living in real community by deepening understanding, taking risks, listening, and celebrating difference.
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2010/2 The Right To Memory |
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| The right to memory is a matter of justice. In all communities and societies, the choice of what is recorded in the public memory and the way it is represented is not neutral but happens in accord with predetermined perceptions and policies. This politics of remembering or forgetting essentially constitutes a struggle for power. Wherever justice is absent, wherever a politics of enforced amnesia reigns, it falls to civil society organisations to be the spokespersons of history and public memory, even if that means being in conflict with the particularities of deep trauma. In such cases, the right to memory is in symbiosis with the right to justice. |
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2010/1 Rethinking Media and Gender-Justice |
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| | The Beijing+15 Review in March 2010 includes a focus on Section J: Women and Media of the Platform for Action. What are today's communication pluses and minuses related to women and gender justice? Many believe that radical institutional transformation in the media is imperative if they are to promote it meaningfully and that there are four crucial areas of work: 1. Strengthening media monitoring to build media literacy. 2. Producing gender and social justice content with high production values. 3. Linking media with action and solutions. 4. Building partnerships: Neither women, nor men, nor faith-based groups, nor even states can do it alone.
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2009/4 - Reimagining Borders |
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| Today's many borders - physical and psychological, political and social, cultural and ideological - are no longer fixed or impermeable. Overcoming them is mainly about overcoming the socially constructed limitations of belonging to a certain place and going beyond what is apparently sure and secure. Borderlands are places of negotiation that need communication if there is to be safe passage. |
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2009/3 - Copyright and Development |
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Equitable access to information and knowledge is a key principle of communication rights and participatory development. At stake is the kind of enabling environment that offers adequate and relevant resources aimed at strengthening people’s capacities to determine their own futures. In other words, there is a range of information and knowledge that should be available to all people and which enables them to act in order to safeguard their lives, livelihoods, cultures and traditions. If access to such resources is unreasonably denied or estricted, people’s rights are infringed. |
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2009/2 - Environmental Communication |
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Climate change, caused by human activity, is threatening the lives and livelihoods of billions of people and the existence of millions of species. Tackling climate change is a matter of social justice requiring urgent and radical action. This issue contains resources and articles intended to communicate environmental concerns, share knowledge, and advocate action in the run up to the United Nations Climate Conference that takes place in Copenhagen, 6-18 December 2009. |
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2009/1 - Reforming the Media |
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 Media reform scenarios vary according to current political and economic contexts. In many countries civil society faces an uphill task in the struggle for democratisation, a struggle ignored by the mainstream media. Independent media offer alternatives, although ‘dissident voices’ are constantly threatened by censorship or worse. Afghanistan is no exception to this trend. As a modest contribution to reforming attitudes to this ancient land, this issue includes four articles offering perspectives on Afghanistan’s people, culture and media.
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2008/4 - The Promise of Peace |
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WACC's Congress 2008 on the theme 'Communication is peace: Building viable communities' took place in Cape Town, South Africa, 6-10 October. Attended by some 300 people from all over the world, the Congress keynote presentations and related materials are published here in English. |
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2008/3 - Communicating Science |
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Media coverage of scientific research and discovery, including questions of ownership and control, can promote democratic and ethical accountability. Five simple questions need to be addressed: Who needs it? Who will benefit from it? Who will pay the costs? What happens when it goes wrong? Who will regulate it, how, and on whose behalf? Articles explore science coverage in the media, technological fundamentalism, the relationship between communicating science and participatory education, and between scientific knowledge and empowerment. |
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