WORKS IN PROGRESS

1. Reporting Civil War:
Communication media do “frame” how audiences think about issues. The focus of this study is how 6 different media in leading nations have covered the ongoing “ethnic cleansing” in Western Sudan that has claimed over 300,000 lives. The media under study are the New York Times, The People’s Daily (China), the British Broadcasting Corporation, Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt), Mail and Guardian (South Africa) and Al-Jazeera (Qatar). The research investigates the kind of attention that was given to the causes, conduct and remedies of the conflict in different media in different regions of the world: what formats (hard news stories, features, editorials, and graphics?), what explanations were used for the origins of this apparent ethnic cleansing e.g. race, religion, oil, regional politics, outside interference? Who was blamed as cause, e.g. the government of Sudan, Arab militias they arm and finance, rebels? Who got privileged coverage through direct quotes, emotional language and images, graphics and hyperlinks? The purpose of this research is to look for patterns in the variation of media output by media ownership, media organizational structure and national political interests.

2. New edition of 1991 book, Designing Development Communication (Sage).
The new edition will go beyond instructional design and media campaigns to address the need for also designing national policy, appropriate hardware, and organizational structures.

3. The Internet for People Living in Poverty:
The Internet has reduced the cost of international telecommunication and enabled the export and import of goods and IT services in developing and industrially advanced countries. My research will focus on the low penetration of the Internet for those who live in poverty. While 360 per 1,000 people are Internet users in high income countries that are home to less than a billion of the worlds population, there are only 10 users per 1,000 people in low-income countries home to 2.5 billion people. Till such time as Internet technology is imbedded in several stand-alone devices that are cheaply available, are within the range of telecommunication, and do not require electricity, the nature of extreme poverty in many parts of developing countries points to an unsustainably high cost and relatively low benefit of direct Internet service provision through tele-centers to the very poor. This research will focus on interim intermediary applications through radio, the medium of developing countries.