Temple University - Master of Science in Globalization and Development Communication

The Master of Science in Globalization and Development Communication (GDC) is a compact programme delivered over the course of twelve months.  The aim is to make it accessible not only to young students newly graduated from college, but also to individuals who may have already launched a career in the development sector and who cannot perhaps afford to take more than a year off from work to get additional training.

Core courses provide an overview of theory and research in development communication, along with training in communication campaigns, project management, new technologies, and research methods. In addition, students choose three courses comprising a specialisation in their area of interest.

The GDC is a 30-credit programme including 18 credits of required core coursework, a 3-credit capstone field experience course, and 9 credits in an area of specialisation.

Core courses provide an overview of theory and research in development communication, along with training in communication campaigns, project management, new technologies, and research methods. These subjects are required and are as follows: 

• Seminar in Media, Communication and Development - This intensive, three-week seminar provides an introduction to the programme and an overview of the historical roots, political influences, institutional structures, and cultural considerations that have shaped and defined the field of development communication.

• Development Communication Project Design and Management- Development communication project design and management, monitoring and evaluation, decision-making tools and human resource management, and communication advocacy.

• Research Approaches in Communication and Social Change: This course provides a hands-on approach to learning a series of research methods and approaches to fieldwork in communication for social change and communication for development. The emphasis will be on research skills used in settings where communication and media technologies and processes are used to improve the quality of life of marginalised communities. Central issues include data gathering, data analysis, social problem diagnosis, report development, fieldwork in/with marginalised communities.

• #Ourmedia: Community, Activist, Radical Media - This course will take students on a journey around the world, exploring indigenous media in Australia, New Zealand and Canada; radical media in the Middle East; citizens’ media in Latin America; and immigrant media in Europe and the U.S. It considers what it means for communities to create new narratives about and for themselves, outside of dominant corporate media structures. Along the way, the course will introduce issues of production, funding, regulation, technology, and design relevant to community/alternative/citizens’ media.  

• Solutions Journalism: This course introduces students to the practice of solutions-oriented reporting, an outcomes-focused form of journalism, and assesses its impact on communities and issues. It is a mode of reporting that can also enhance skills in advocacy writing and program assessment.  Students will develop reporting projects on specific solutions-based themes.

• Public Information Campaigns - Exploration of techniques and issues used in information campaigns regarding health, energy conservation, environmental protection, and other topics, and the effects of campaigns on public knowledge and behaviour.

Capstone course
Field Experience:  This hybrid, capstone course takes the form of either an Internship, Special Project or Service Learning experience and is offered in the summer.

Areas of Specialisation
The GDC program has established partnerships with a number of departments across the university to allow students to deepen their program of study. Students choose three courses in their area of interest and design their own specialisation. Examples may include, but are not limited to, the following possibilities: conflict and peace, community development, media development and advocacy, globalization, and sustainability.

Click here for more information on each core course and for a list of areas of specialisation. 

An important pedagogical principle in the GDC is its practical orientation. While the programme covers theory and research methods, it focuses on providing knowledge and skills needed in development sector organisations. It aims to devote academic resources to the practical problems of social change, and hopefully to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The programme’s capstone course, which is a practicum, deliberately embodies this pedagogical principle.

Books
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, Herder and Herder.
Hemer, O. & Tufte, T. (Eds.) (2005). Media & glocal change: Rethinking communication for development. Buenos Aires, Argentina: CLACSO.
Lennie, J., & Tacchi, J. (2013). Evaluating communication for development: A framework for social change. New York: Routledge.
Lerner, D. (1958). The Passing of Traditional Society. New York: Free Press.
McAnany, E. (2012). Saving the World: A brief History of Communication for Development and Social Change (The History of Communication). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Melkote, S. & Steeves, L. (2001). Communication for development in the third world: Theory and practice for empowerment, (second edition). London: Sage.
Rogers, E. (1983). Diffusion of Innovations (Third Edition). New York: The Free Press.
Schramm, W. (1964). Mass media and national development: The role of information in the developing countries. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Servaes, J. (Ed.). (2008). Communication for development and social change. Paris: UNESCO.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Articles
Lie, R. & Servaes, J. (2015). Disciplines in the Field of Communication for Development and Social Change, Communication Theory, 25:244-258.
McKee, N. (1994). A Community-based Learning Approach: Beyond Social Marketing. In Shirley White (Ed.). Participatory Communication: Working for Change and Development (pp. 195-228). New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Waisbord, S. (2015). Three challenges for communication and global social change. Communication theory, 25:144-165. Doi:10.1111/comt.12068

Handbooks/Reports
Byrne, A. with Gray-Felder, D., Hunt, J., & Parks, W. (2005). Measuring Change. Report by the communication for social change consortium.
Figueroa, M.E., D.L. Kincaid, et al. (2002). Communication for Social Change: An Integrated Model for Measuring the Process and Its Outcomes.
Mefalopulos, P. (2008). Development Communication Sourcebook: Broadening the Boundaries of Communication. Washington DC: World Bank.
Myers, M. (2011). Voices from villages: Community radio in the developing world. A report to the Center for International Media Assistance. Unpublished report. Washington D.C.
United Nations Development Programme (2009). Handbook on planning, monitoring and evaluating for development results. New York, NY: United Nations Development Programme.
World Bank (2012). Information and communication for development: Maximizing mobile. Washington DC.
Odugbemi, S. & Jacobson, T. (2008). Governance Reform Under Real World Conditions: Citizens, Stakeholders, and Voice. Washington DC: The World Bank.

Videos
Hans Rosling - New Insights on Poverty
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism
Millennium Development Goals 2015
Communication at the Heart of Change, Panos
Africa - States of independence - The Scramble for Africa

To find out about publications by selected staff members, click here,  then select a staff member and scroll to the bottom of the page.  

Faculty members teaching in the GDC program include experts from a variety of relevant communication specializations such as: Journalism, Media Studies and Production, Advertising, and Strategic Organizational Communication. In addition, these faculty members hold positions in their doctoral program. They are active researchers/practitioners and their ongoing scholarship informs the GDC courses. In this way, GDC students benefit from the latest theory and research insights. Faculty research range across such areas as development theory, program evaluation, media making, environmental sustainability, and other areas.  Faculty members include:

• Deborah A. Cai - Senior Associate Dean in Globalization and Development Communication and Professor in the Department of Strategic Communication
• Fabienne Darling-Wolf - Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism
• R. Lance Holbert - Professor and Chair of the Department of Strategic Communication
• Thomas Jacobson - Professor of Communication in the Department of Media Studies and Production and Director of the SMC interdepartmental Master of Science in Globalization and Development Communication
• Lauren Kogen - Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production
• Magda Konieczna, Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism
• Matthew Lombard - Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production and Faculty member in Mass Media & Communication doctoral program
• Nancy Morris - Professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production and Faculty member in the Media & Communication doctoral program
• Patrick D. Murphy - Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the Klein College and Associate Professor of the Department of Media Studies and Production
• Wazhmah Osman - Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production
• Donnalyn Pompper - Associate Professor in the Department of Strategic Communication
• Cornelius Pratt - Professor in the Department of Strategic Communication
• Clemencia Rodriguez- Professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production
• Andrea Wenzel, Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism

Click here to find out more about each faculty member of the GDC programme.