Published by Comunica, Diversifying Participation in Network Development is the final report of  the World Dialogue on Regulation (WDR) 3rd research cycle. Edited by Amy Mahan and William H. Melody, this most recent collection of the network’s research and case studies elaborates on inclusive and propoor strategies for extending network development.

Diversifying Participation in Network Development: Case studies and research from WDR Research Cycle 3
Edited by A.K. Mahan and W.H. Melody
Published by Fundación Comunica, 2007

Edited by Bruce Girard and Seán Ó Siochrú

On the occasion of the first World Summit on the Information Society (WISIS), which is also the first UN-sponsored world summit to specifically seek the formal participation of civil society, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) decided to emphasize the importance of societal perspectives on information society debates. It invited Bruce Girard and Seán Ó Siochrú of Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS), a civil society coalition active in the WISIS process, to select and edit a collection of essays on what they saw as core issues.

The contribution in this book cast a spotlight into dark, often neglected, corners of the “information society” as articulated in the World Summit on the Information Society. Several very different layers are illuminated, from the philosophical underpinnings of the role of information in society, to the context and manner in which the concept has recently emerged into global consciousness, to how it can be deployed in practice to maximize benefits to society. An edited volume is well suited to covering these diverse ways of thinking about the topic as it offers the opportunity to bring together authors with different backgrounds and approaches.

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The Internet and other new ICTs are changing radio in the developing world. But far from making it less relevant, they are opening up hitherto unimagined possibilities:

• Broadcasters who used to have to travel for hours or even days to find a public library to research a programme, now have instant access to the Internet;

• National, regional and global radio news agencies are making world news and alternative perspectives available to even the most remote communities;

• The radio/telecommunications combination is helping to keep communities together, despite the distances imposed by migration.

The cases presented in this book are among the first examples of the convergence of radio and new ICTs for development, and the book underscores the significant potential of the combination. In this convergence, radio promises to take on even greater significance and value. For this reason, we believe that radio is the one to watch.

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This book is about media and communication governance at a global level and its key influencing forces, organizations and elements. Questions addressed here include: Why do we regulate the media? What are the major forms of global regulation, and how do they work? Who participates in, and who benefits from, media governance structures? What are the trends?

By Seán Ó Siochrú, Bruce Girard and Amy Mahan
Published by Rowman and Littlefield 2002

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