Workshop - Communications
The meeting began with each person introducing themselves, what they could
offer to the meeting and what they would hope to gain from it.
The workshop included delegates from Colombia, Dominican Republic, Brazil,
Bulgaria, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, New Zealand, Tanzania, Japan, USA,
Australia, Greece, Uruguay, Senegal, Poland, and representatives of the
media, community and inter-community groups, policy organizations, business
and industrial ecology, environmental education, agricultural producers,
and specialists in the area of communications.
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A special invitation and appeal was made to remote participants to
participate positively in the meeting by receiving the information from the
meeting and giving their opinions back to the meeting.
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The document, Information in the dynamics of the Alliance, was outlined,
emphasizing the 4 main points: how to make the Alliance more visible; how
to promote exchange of information within the Alliance; how to structure
remote communication; and how to make information available to everyone
(democratization). New versions of the newsletter for Asia and for South
America were also mentioned.
One aspect highlighted by Ricardo Gomez as a topic for the meeting was the
need to make the Alliance more visible on a world scale.
Ashina from India (journalist) asked the delegates to share their positive
experiences.
Gamesh from India suggested corporate communication as a model for
organization. What is the image to project ? What is the target audience ?
What is the message?
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Daniel Pimenta, the workshop reporter for remote meetings, summarized a
contribution from Thierry Bresillon which underlined the weakness of the
alliance as regards communication, and the importance of this meeting.
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Dale Wiehof (USA) gave the opinion that the Alliance needs a press officer.
Walter (Brazil) requested information about participants in the meeting.
Sinar criticized the fact that there is too much emphasis on means of
communication, and not enough on the quality.
Thomas (India) also emphasized the importance of using means of mass
communication: radio, TV.
Baragilhame (Senegal), speaking for small farmers in Africa, emphasized the
value of concrete information which would help the farmers individually and
communally. The present communication structures tend to exclude the
underprivileged rural workers. He made a request for information in
recorded form for those who cannot read. The issues of concern of the
Alliance are important for the rural population, and the Alliance needs to
take into account that not all can read, much less access the Internet.
There is also need for information which addresses the issues of Africa, etc.
Ross Robertson (New Zealand, Parliamentarians for Global Action)
emphasized, from his experience, the importance of finding the most
appropriate cultural point of contact with the community in order to
communicate effectively. Communication is associated with effective
leadership.
Silvio Mosaroli (Uruguay) said that the current means, and especially via
the Internet, are good for internal communication, but also for
communicating with other, anonymous groups. However, there is a danger of
overemphasis on this at the expense of interpersonal communication and
involvement in the community. A comparison was made with the conference,
which is linked with the world by satellite but has no interaction with
local Brazilian communities.
Bishata (India) asked whether the Alliance is attentive to information from
rural areas.
Nara Swapadi (India) wondered what impact the last two days here have made
in the press. The Alliance has to become an opinion leader.
Daniel Pimenta regards lateral communication as being most important,
provided that it is not done in a manipulative way.
The is a question as to whether the route towards change is through
internal communication within the alliance or through external
communication of the alliance with the world. He believes that the former
is more important. E-mail is for internal communication. The most powerful
means of publicizing the alliance is its own transparency of action. This
being said, mixed means of communication are important.
Raimunda de Silva (Brazil) also emphasized the paramount importance of
personal group communication, and of education, in rural areas, because
other means are absent. It is also important to include in communication
information which will bring material welfare to the population.
Francois spoke of the problems of communicating over linguistic and
cultural differences of interpretation of ideas.
Kiran (Pakistan) asked how the alliance is communicating with illiterate
people.
Pyotr (Poland) spoke of the process of development of communication in
rural areas. Besides the traditional technical processes, personal contact
with other cultures is important for overcoming the barriers. The emphasis
of the press on international disaster rather than day-to-day life also
hinders communication.
Mishaka (India) emphasized the importance of the radio.
Johnathan Hartley (Australia), summed up the main issues of the meeting. He
mentioned that over 50% of the world population has never even made a phone
call. There is also the need for patience, change will be a gradual process.
Ricardo Gomez suggested forming 3 working groups to discuss the issues:
communicating with the allies; communicating with the media and the
authorities; communicating with the "excluded" people, and in particular
the illiterate. The formation of a fourth group on the quality of
information was also decided. The media representatives were asked to
survey delegates as to what they have gained from electronic and printed
communication media.
End of session