Aidnography

Hi all, Let’s wrap up another week with some food for reading, sharing, discussing and thinking! Did Saudi-Arabia bribe the UK for UN support with just 100K USD? More on SDGs, the UN system & the future of development; study confirms: white men disturb decision-making in Africa! Syrian refugees & the humanitarian caste system; tips on how to turn around an ailing nonprofit and how to make social movements more inclusive. Great new readings on ‘interrogating internships’. Digital lives on how the ‘bottom billions’ can engage with big data & how mindfulness and hacking culture have been coopted by the capitalist system. Finally, in Academia we are looking at the financial and reputational cost of predatory publishing beyond spam emails from India… Enjoy! New from aidnography Apply to our MA in Communication for Development & Advances in C4D course! Right now, applications are open for both our flagship online two-year, part-time MA in Communication for Development

Hi all, As most of you know, I have a fantastic 'day job' at Malmö University in Southern Sweden. Right now, applications are open for both our flagship online two-year, part-time MA in Communication for Development and our new, professional course Advances in Communication for Development: Social Action, Planning and Evaluation , both starting in January 2 016. There is plenty of information available on our official ComDev portal for both courses! Master in Communication for Development (part-time, 60 ECTS) The MA in Communication for Development (ComDev) is web-based programme running part-time over two years. During the first year, students receive a comprehensive overview of globalisation and an introduction to the field of Communication for Development. In the second year, students are introduced to the theory and practice of new media and ICT in a development context and receive a thorough introduction to research methodologies in order to prepare them for their thes

Hi all, Today is/was a first as I prepared the link review just before co-teaching a class in our New Media & ICT4D course so I can use it as ‘reflective practice’ and discuss link curation as a tool both from a technological and content perspective. Development news starts with a powerful speech on why Africa can’t entrepreneur itself out of poverty; it’s still difficult to track conflict minerals; aid effectiveness is also still difficult…there’s a special section on climate change and the mirage of consuming greener and better; the debate around sexual violence in aid work continue and there’s a very good long read on why the best war reporter quit his job. A new publication on men, masculinities & development is hot off the digital press . Digital lives on how the Harper government in Canada destroys data ; a great netnographic portrait of a digital prom queen; Wi-Fi in Africa and facebook’s dominance in digital publishing. In Academia , we look how academic

When Tom Esslemont and the team at Trust.org send out a survey on how charities involved in the Nepal earthquake relief have spent their money, he must have already have his ‘ EXCLUSIVE-Global charities accused of "misleading" public on Nepal quake aid ’ headline in mind. Because the responses he received from a range of global humanitarian organizations hardly justify a story with quite a misleading headline.  In short, charities reported that they have spent around 15% of the donations on ‘overheads’, work through local partners and have not spent all the money three months after the quake. But Tom Esslemont takes the opportunity for some general charity-bashing and mixes in some convenient UN-bashing as well: Sixteen of the world's largest disaster relief charities have revealed to the Thomson Reuters Foundation that they are spending up to a sixth of funds designated for Nepal on their overheads rather than in disaster-hit areas, when they are using local ch

Hi all, While our ComDev program is about to celebrate its 15th anniversary this week, there is also a lot of good food-for-reading available that deserves some of your attention: In Development we are looking at disaster recovery and exclusion, the UN’s struggle with whistle blowers, Greenpeace decision to hire investigative journalists, how Grindr and global aidworkers had a positive impact on the LGBT community in the Philippines, more tips on how to communicate complex issues, CSR as good PR, and concise critique of global volunteers in Cambodia. Digital lives on ‘quit lit’ and development opinion polling. And Academia looks at openness and copyright feat. Google books, EU copyright policy-making & ‘WikiGate’-the new Elsevier-Wkipedia partnership! Enjoy! New from aidnography The Frontman-Bono (in the name of power) (book review) Bono and celebrity humanitarianism are always a reflection of what we want such performances to be; they are a mirror for our hopes and wishes