Naren Chitty's Blog

Paris - March 2009

2009-03-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

I have been in Paris since March 1, 2009, staying at

La Cité Internationale Universitaire de PARIS

at the very southern end of Paris.

The building you see above is the central one, that houses a library, cafeterias and offices. I am staying in one of the halls of residence, Maison de l'Italie.

CIUP is a residential campus for students attending universities throughout Paris. It is conveniently located. Fontaine Saint Michel is about 10 minutes away by RER train.

I am spending two month as a Visiting Professor at University of Paris III -La Sorbonne as part of my Outside Studies Program.

The picture above shows the entrance to the ancient La Sorbonne building near the Pantheon, which is shared by Paris III and IV for their respective presidential secretariats. The Paris III campus is closeby at Censier-Daubenton.

I have six 'conferences' (seminars) to deliver. Three have already been delivered - on the following topics:

1. Intercultural Projects - Former Metropolitan Powers and Their Former Colonies;
2. Frames for Doctoral Research;
3. Culture, Media Technology and Development.

My colleague at Paris III is Professor Fayçal Najab of L'Unité de Formation et de Recherche Communication.

Professor Najab is a psychologist and linguist by training.

He was a keynote speaker at the International Graduate Conference at Macquarie University in 2008.

The conferences are very lively as French students are strong participants.

Several conferences have been rescheduled
because of the on-going off-an-on 'blocage'
of the campus by students in support of the
cause of university staff.

The 'blocage' relates to new
arrangements proposed by the French
Administration that will affect the university
sector

One of the many delights about working in Paris is that when the conferences and research have been put to rest for the day, there are so many beautiful locations to visit.

I try to visit places I have read about but have not visited before.

I knew that there was a replica of the Statue of Liberty somewhere along the Seine. So yesterday I set about visiting it.

It was located near Pont Granelle, south of Trocadero.

You may be able to identify the statue in the picture at the left, just above the rear end of the car.

I am standing near a street memorialising Bleriot, the first man to fly across the English Channel.

Development Communication

2008-10-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

Answering Zaheril's question sent in response to my last post, it was a great honour to introduce Professor Quebral, a great believer in the holistic approach to development. I share the holistic approach and draw your attention to:

Chitty, N. 1992. "Development is Communication". Telematics and Informatics. 9,1. Tarrytown: Pergammon.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=110347.110340&coll=GUIDE&dl=

I would say that the broadest term is ‘communication and development’. This term refers to a sub-field of international communication and has included, traditionally, economic, political and social development. My view is one that recognises the development goals of the first and second sectors as well as those of the individual. The third sector plays a part in communicating the needs of communities of individuals to the first sector. Again, in my view, self actualisation for the individual should be among a hierarchy of development values.

There are other terms that could be used in this category by replacing ‘development’ (in ‘communication and development’). These include ‘communication and modernisation’ and ‘communication and social change’. This construction tends to refer to discourses that are philosophical as well as policy relevant. Modernisation and development are entangled with European modernisation and some of the discourses within this tradition are rejections of Europeanisation and what is seen as Euro-American hegemony. ‘Social change’ is more neutral as it can refer, theoretically, to any kind of social change.

A broad discussion of this is to be found in the following article:

Chitty, N. 2005. "International Communication: Continuing into the 21st Century as an Academic 'Common'" in International Communication Gazette 67: 555-559.

The word communication is viewed in some quarters as being associated with Habermasian strategic communication. There are within ‘communication and development’ operational approaches that promote dialogic communication, within the sub-field of participatory communication as well as in ‘development communication’.

Development communication has often been identified with national level, nation building projects. Development support communication addresses communication at
Project level. For a long while communication was used to support economic projects. In ‘Development is Communication’, I argue that the process of communication itself is development. I expand on the notion of the creation of new hybridities through exchanging information and knowledge between ‘transactional venues’ in the following chapter:

Chitty, Naren. 2009. “Frames for Internationalizing Media Research”. In Daya Thussu (ed.) Internationalizing Media Research. London: Routledge (under publication).

‘Communication for development’ would ordinarily include ‘development journalism’,‘development support communication’, ‘participatory communication’ and ‘development communication’.

It is important to recognise that different authors may use these terms differently, so you need to identify and discuss their definitions and explain your own point of view.

Conferences in July

2008-08-09T04:28:00.001-07:00

I've had an intellectually invigorating antipodal winter break this past July.

~ First, I spoke at the Fourth AMIC Distinguished Forum on “Changing Media, Changing Societies: Media and the Millennium Development Goals”, delivering a paper on "Media, Millennium Goals and the Ultimate Digital Divide" in Manila in July 2008. My paper was an alarum call for media and social scientists to engage with the potential dangers and opportunities that may be presented to humanity by artilects - super-intelligent quantum computers - in the near future.

~ On this occasion I also chaired the First Everett Rogers Memorial Lecture, delivered by Professor Nora Quebral, the founder of the field of Development Communication.

~ The next stop was Stockholm, where I presented a paper, at the IAMCR Conference, that looked at representations of soft power in ancient and modern texts (writing, architecture and web) emanating from Beijing. Also attending the conference were Usha Harris, Lecturer in International Communication and three PhD candidates, viz. Viola, Noparat and Duc. Viola presented a joint paper with me as a poster presentation. Dr Weerapong Polningnit, who received his PhD in International Communication from Macquarie University and now heads a Department at Suranaree University in Thailand, was also at the conference.

~On my way back to Sydney I had a meeting with Dean Yubol Benjarongkij, Dean of the Faculty of Communication Arts of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, about the next phase of our fruitful 14 year collaboration.