The International Programme for the Development of Communication: A decade of infancy
The IPDC, which at inception promised practical assistance to developing nations unencumbered by the conflicting ideologies of the First and Third Worlds, quickly fell short of expectations and has been largely ignored since the mid-1980s. Despite administrative and budget problems, the Programme remains an acceptable, if small, effort to address communications imbalances. Most projects approved for funding in the past decade have dealt with media training and research, radio and television broadcasting, and the creation or improvement of regional news agencies. In support of the 1991 Declaration of Windhoek, future projects will be funded not only according to need, but also based on their contributions to press freedom and the principles of independence, pluralism and diversity of the media.
Unesco’s Road Toward Knowledge Societies
Abstract Though traditionally perceived as a more liberal international organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is part and parcel of the “development machine”. Inspired by post-structural thinking in development studies and Jessop’s (2004) cultural political economy approach, we examine the organisation’s 2005 World Report Towards Knowledge Societies as a text of development construing and constructing particular discourses. First, we introduce the knowledge-based economy discourse and the information society discourse. Then we situate UNESCO’s report as an attempt to provide an alternative to the die-hard information society discourse. Next, we argue that through its allegiance to knowledge-based economy reasoning (concerning education and learning; globalisation and development), UNESCO in this report actually endorses and helps to construct the discourse on the information society. The convergence of information society, knowledge-based economy and neo-liberal thinking has very real material consequences because it provides the ideal discursive context for the ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) paradigm, the newest development craze which may belittle more than a reissue of the old modernisation paradigm.
Cultural constraints on the delivery of HIV/AIDS prevention in Ireland.
HIV appeared in Ireland following an opiate epidemic in the early 1980s. Initially, however, the gay community mounted the only response to the spread of the virus while the implementation of early actions by the government was hampered by the constructions of the disease within Irish society. This paper considers the influence of the religious hierarchy in both the development of AIDS policy and in the shaping of public perceptions of the disease and those affected. A qualitative methodology is used to examine the role of such cultural constraints in an evaluation of the social context within which the prevention of HIV infection occurs. Three key issues pertinent to the policy context in Ireland are explored in depth. These are the role of the Catholic Church, the influences on health education programmes, particularly information giving, and the development of services and other interventions. These findings are discussed within the social and political contexts in which health policy is formulated.