Abstract
Media for social change refers to strategic media projects designed to advance causes for the public good. Those projects are rooted in development communication, health communication, environmental communication, social movement theories and other approaches to public communication campaigns. This emphasis is increasingly recognized as interdisciplinary, through the work of research scholars in communications, sociology and other fields, and of professionals in project implementation and evaluation. Although there has been widespread enthusiasm for the integration of participatory approaches within these comprehensive strategies, the diversity of conceptual and operational definitions of participation suggests that consideration of its complexity has not yet been exhausted. To this end, we propose considering participation as a structural consideration within the production of media strategies. Building on a critical approach to research on communication campaigns (Rakow, 1989), this work interrogates underlying ideological assumptions as well as the organizational and structural conditions of production. In order to articulate the dynamics of power within the production of these strategic interventions, we begin with the assumption that social problems are not given, but selected and constructed by groups, communities, and organizations (Salmon, 1989). How these problems become characterized constrains possible types of solutions. Framing world population, for example, as a bomb, implies that subsequent intervention should be immediate in order to diffuse the situation; if, rather, the problem of population is framed as one of overcrowding on a boat, then perhaps redistribution of people might be an appropriate response. Framing a problem as a "war" on poverty, or on drugs, implies that there are heroes and enemies, and that a battle must be won despite the cost.