South–north conversations

This special issue of Critical Arts consists of a selection of papers accepted into the Health Communication and Change and the Communication and HIV/AIDS Working Groups at the conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) held in South Africa at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The conference brought together academics and practitioners from around the world to Durban, from 15-20 July 2012. The two IAMCR working groups aim to create a space for dialogue, reflection and critical analysis facing the areas of health communication, HIV/AIDS communication and social change. Participants in the working group represent academics, practitioners and students from around the world, who are engaged in critical thinking to understand and improve the engagement between health and communication. The theme of the conference, 'South-North Conversations', is at the heart of the articles published in this issue. The contributions in this special issue represent a cross-section of conversations taking place within the working group. They are geographically, thematically, methodologically and theoretically diverse, reflecting the diversity of perspectives present at the conference in Durban, and in the field of health communication, HIV/AIDS communication and social change communication as a whole. This issue would not have been possible without the support of Johns Hopkins Health and Education South Africa (JHESSA). Their support is deeply appreciated. The theme of the conference, and of this issue, holds at its core the concept of dialogue across power and information asymmetries. The theme recognises that relationships between countries--'developed' versus 'underdeveloped'--are changing and need to be further problematised. Similarly, the notion of 'core-periphery' relationships needs interrogating. Media and communication--from a variety of communication perspectives--are changing with these shifting relationships. Media --be they mass media or mediums of communication--are embedded within the social context in which they operate, and have different meanings within different histories, cultures, infrastructures and technological orientations. These meanings are also changing, influencing and being influenced by different systems of social differentiation. For instance, mobile telephony and its applications globally can be seen to alter socio-economic, cultural and technological relationships with the medium, as it has an impact on areas such as systems of communication, financial transactions and education systems. And yet, these changes are happening at such a pace that we may not yet fully appreciate the implications. What are the implications for spatial divides (e.g. rural-urban) or systems of social differentiation (e.g. gender, age, ability)? The theme also implies, however, that inequalities persist, and need to be evaluated in a process of dialogue which recognises the unequal power relations that provide the context for communication interactions. For the working groups, this means recognising that the greatest effects of health inequalities--and this is particularly true of the HIV/AIDS epidemic--are felt most dominantly by marginalised sectors of society in 'developed' and 'developing' countries. Processes of inequality are produced and reproduced across a range of health conditions, within the context of unequal information flows and histories that play a role in how communication is understood and used to address the 'problems' (indeed, influencing even how the 'problem' is constructed). These articles explore the resulting inequalities in knowledge, media constructions and interventions, between cores and peripheries and 'south-north'. Exploring the dynamics of power in health, Nicole Bulled looks at the positionality and challenges in the use of biomedical knowledge in HIV/AIDS interventions. Knowledge and the interpretation thereof are embedded in social structures, and have socio-political dimensions in terms of how knowledge is actioned

Communication studies · Diversity (politics · Health communication · Media studies · Political science · Power (physics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Theme (computing · Anthropology · Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods · Gender Studies · Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development · Social and Educational Sciences

• The Virgin Mary With a Mobile Phone

  Open Access•Cheryll Ruth Soriano, Sun Sun Lim et al.•Communication Culture and Critique•2014

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• A Dialectic Analysis of Views on Participation in HIV/Aids Communication of Selected South African People Living with HIV/Aids

  Musara Lubombo, Lauren Dyll et al.•Critical Arts•2018

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• It begins with you? An ubuntu -centred critique of a social marketing campaign on HIV and Aids

  Colin Chasi, Nadira Omarjee•Critical Arts•2014

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