A highly debated topic of the last few decades has centred on the idea of communication as a means for poverty reduction. With two-thirds of the world's population living in poverty, there is a dire need to understand why global poverty and inequality continue to increase, and what role communication can, and is playing in the fight against poverty. This study therefore seeks to understand how three aid and development agencies in New Zealand, New Zealand Aid (NZAID), Oxfam New Zealand (NZ), and Christian World Service (CWS), construct poverty in the context of international development. Additionally it seeks to establish how these three organisations view relationships between communication and poverty. Eleven semi-structured, in-depth interviews with key informants were conducted, transcribed, and analysed in order to extract information surrounding the issues of poverty and international development. From this analysis, it is evident that these three organisations recognise official and unofficial definitions of poverty. It is also apparent that these definitions of poverty affect the ways in which these organisations view the causes of poverty, as well as their outlook on international development. Furthermore, three topics emerged when examining relationships between communication and poverty: communication with local people and local organisations, communication about local people and local organisations, and dealing with communication issues through accountability, transparency, and legitimacy. Implications on communication and development theory as well as theory on the discursive constructions of poverty are addressed. Finally, this study addresses practical implications for aid and development agency practice, and offers recommendations for further study in the area development communication.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/242615 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Campbell, Michelle |
| Publisher | The University of Waikato |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.waikato.ac.nz/copyright.shtml |
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