|
Participatory Model
One of the criticisms of the social marketing/entertainment-education
strategies is that these are top down approaches formulated by outsiders,
without corroboration from the local community. Critics claim that
in these approaches the receivers of the messages are passive recipients
of information, with the underlying concept that local people are
badly informed or misunderstand a particular subject (Servaes, 1989).
Communities do not feel responsible for the interventions, since
they are dictated to by outsiders, usually bringing the voice of
the government or agencies. Consequently, communities feel that
if anything goes wrong with the innovation, the government is the
one to solve it. The lack of opportunities for rejecting or modifying
an intervention, also contributed to this feeling of disempowerment
(Waisbord, 2000). According to Dragon (2001) the concept of establishing
dialogue with the beneficiaries is based on these two perceived
criticisms. The involvement of the beneficiaries in the intervention
is important to foster a sense of “ownership” in the
community. This would be helpful in terms of continuity of the project
once the external input ceases. This sense of ownership can not
be built without input from the recipients and their participation
in the decision making process even before the start of the project.
Another important focus for participatory theorists is the attention
to cultural diversity and the specific contexts, which they claim,
are overlooked by persuasion theorists (Waisbord, 2001). According
to the subscribers of the participatory model modernization projects
overlook the importance of local traditions and knowledge, and the
contradictions between local and foreign cultures. In explaining
the failure of some agricultural projects, McKee (1992) cites that
it is difficult to convince people to start using pipe water, since
they dislike the taste. They use the water mostly for washing, rather
than cooking or drinking.
For the participatory model communication means a process of creating
and stimulating understanding as the foundation for development,
rather than information transmission (Agungal, 1997). Differing
from the dominant paradigm, the channels of communication are horizontal
and not vertical. The process of knowledge acquisition is contributory
and interactive, rather than unilateral.
The central ideas of the participatory approach are dialogue and
community empowerment championed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire
(1970). The alternative offered by Freire is the concept of liberating
education, the combination of education as a dialogue, participation,
and critical thinking, namely “dialogical pedagogy.”
Education in dialogical pedagogy is not the transmission of information
from those who have knowledge to those who lack it, or from the
powerful to the powerless, but it is a mutual discovery of the world
(Freire, 1970). Therefore, this model argues that the objective
of development is to empower people to have greater control over
decisions that affect their lives, hence fostering social equalization
and democratic practices (Morris, 2003). The core of the participatory
model is to work with the community to determine their needs, rather
than imposing an intervention. Describing the view of participatory
scholars, Waisbord (2000), states:
Communication is the articulation of social relations among
people. People should not be forced to adopt new practices no matter
how beneficial they seem in the eyes of agencies and governments.
Instead, people needed to be encouraged to participate rather than
adopt new practices based on information
Attesting to this concept, Freire criticizes developmental agencies
mainly in northeastern Brazil arguing that development programs
introduce foreign concepts, to enforce Westerns ideas and practices
without asking how these match the existing culture. He contends
that the programs failed to educate small farmers because it tried
to persuade them about the benefits of adopting certain innovations.
This went directly against the real meaning of communication, which
is translated into community interaction and education (Waisbord,
2000).
Even though some participatory projects are criticized for not fully
applying this concept, genuine participatory projects are considered
to be those in which there is grassroots control over key program
decisions (Servaes, 1996).
In a report to the Rockfeller Foundation, “Making waves: stories
of participatory communication for social change” Gumucio
Dragon (2001) relates the efforts of participatory communication
for development around the world. Kothhmale Community Radio one
of the projects converging the Internet and radio. The Kothhmale
Radio is created in 1989 to help families relocated for Sri Lanka’s
largest damming project. The local authority set up the radio mainly
to inform people about self-employment and health issues. In 1998
UNESCO (United Nations Education Social Cultural Organization) made
a financial contribution to start the implementation of the Internet
aspect of the project. Listeners of the station ask questions to
the radio station about a specific subject, in turn, trained volunteers
research the web for appropriate information and return the information
to the audience in their language. It also provides two free of
charge Internet access points to community libraries. Another component
of this program is the creation of a computer database from the
information researched on the Internet.
|
