Texts, tweets and social change - how can communications contribute to development

Over the past decade, the world has witnessed a digital revolution and its impacts have not been limited to those living in wealthy countries. By 2014, it is predicted there will be more active mobile phones on the planet than people.

Increasingly, those in the aid sector are seeing the potential for these media and communication technologies to be harnessed for development.

But can these tools transform democracy, governance, transparency, accountability and humanitarian responses? Or does their power lie in generating hype rather than impact?

Drawing on their experience implementing programs and conducting research in Asia and the Pacific, panelists from ANU and Internews, an NGO working to strengthen information quality and access in developing countries, discussed and answered questions on the potential of new communications technologies and approaches.

Speakers at the panel were:

• Oren Murphy, Regional Director for Asia, Internews;
• Dr Nicholas Farrelly, Research Fellow, School of International, Political and Strategic Studies, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU;
• Matt Abud, Research Consultant for Indonesia, Internews; and
• Sarah Logan, PhD scholar, Department of International Relations, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU.

This forum was presented by the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.

Presentation slides are available from the Devpolicy events page: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/devpolicy/events

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