Thursday, April 13, 2006

Gender Issues : Ways And Means To Address Communication Breakdowns - Part -V



Similarly people may find themselves unable to act upon the messages. This inability is mainly attributed by various intrinsic and extrinsic factors which controls and draw boundaries of limitations. Because of these factors it is very much obvious that people will not act upon the message in the way they were supposed to.
These factors control or limit the orientation of the message to such an extent that for people it is irrelevant if they have received the message and understood it in true spirits. These factors are completely out of the control of people. For instance “Poverty” is one of those limitations which always puts barricades in the way of implementation of the communication plan. People may find themselves helpless in such a situation.
Another instance is the unavailability and /or non existence of basic services. Many a times the basic infrastructure is not available and it is also possible that many a times the infrastructures are owfully managed and a complete lack of proper service administration .
In cases where a “Demand and Supply Technique” is applied as an implementation strategy with a message and a mass media campaign is designed by the communicators, the service delivery depends a lot on the degree of expensiveness and the extent of availabilty of the articles. The designers must be very carefull about these factors and ensure that the products which are a part of the mass media campaigns never get in scarcity and must be available with the best ease possible. These products must not be expensive and the money spending capacity of the targetted community is taken well care of. During the mass media campaigns and Drives it is a possibility that the demand of certain product is increase many fold. At this punctum the communicators and the designers must be well aware of the future prospective need based planning strategy involved with the original implementation plan so that the product is always available in the shortest possible notice. Any failure in this implementation strategy will cause huge wastage of seed money and time. Communicators taking care of such factors will be successfully implementing the plans.
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Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Sunday, April 09, 2006

India News: Women Empowerment In Bihar

women EmpowermentSaumya Kerbart Shivakumar writes an eye-opening  Article in The Times Of India on Women Empowerment in Bihar
Excerpts.......
With panchayat elections in
Bihar around the corner, a dramatic turnaround has occurred. A brand new Bihar Panchayat Raj Ordinance 2006 has just been passed in the Bihar assembly.....

It is imperative at this juncture to go beyond political manoeuvres and legal battles to revisit basic tenets under-pinning gender reservation....


 Here are some indisputable facts in the context of Bihar and let them speak for themselves......


The research was carried out by the writer between February and December 2005 on behalf of an NGO working for women empowerment at the grass roots.


Thus, these findings unequivocally highlight the improbability of ordinary women winning elections in the absence of reservation. Finally, the cliche of the 'proxy' or 'puppet' may have been borne out in a few cases, but the average level of awareness displayed defied this widely portrayed image........

A clincher: Nearly all the women interviewed stated they supported women's reservation for chairpersons' posts, although they themselves had come to power on an unreserved basis.......

Reservation to them was an antidote to unequal participation of women in society, caused by years of suppression. When the court sits for hearing, they might want to remember these realities, reflecting the voices of women in
Bihar.........


I recommend this Article to be read in toto......


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Friday, April 07, 2006

Gender Issues: Ways And Means To Address Communication Breakdowns- Part-IV



People all around the world belong to different kinds of societal set ups. Their lives are woven around different attitudes and beliefs. The communicator and the people who design the message need to understand this aspect with utmost care. Just by receiving the message in proper way and to understand it completely does not complete the process in itself. Infact it is only the half way up. The whole excercise will go waste if the message communicated with utmost care is not acted upon in the way it was desired. The communicators and designers must understand that the attitudinal and belif backgrounds of the targeted mass plays the vital role in action. People may not act upon the message if it is in conflict with their attitudes and beliefs.Traditional practices, religeous beliefs ,other social ,cultural and anthropological concepts always tend to override the communication even if it is hiighly scientific and people's benefit oriented.
Many a times myths also affect the reach of communication in anticipated manner.Therefore the communicator and the message designers should prepare the messages in such a way that it dispel all these negative attributes, conceptions, beliefs, myths, traditions etc.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Connecting To Old References......

I found my Diary today and recovered some old references and collections. These may be a bit old but are really important and might have some meaning to somebody........
Where the Girls Aren'tOne camp says that girls see computers as a communications tool, and the best way to engage them is to exploit that and offer classes that stress using programs -- say, designing Web sites or online magazines -- over creating them. The other side says that such preferences exist only because no one has tried to expand girls' technological horizons.
Gettin’ Jiggly Wit ItBut this is more than tits and giggles — it’s serious business. Digital breasts that move like real ones were previously impossible to achieve. An enormous amount of modeling, programming, math, and physics underlie these new, um, developments. “I never imagined that I’d be using my expertise in this manner and consider myself very, very lucky,” says XXX programmer Nick Torkos. “Hopefully this will convince others to study math.”
Strategies of INclusion: Gender and the Information SocietyA European research project studing the change patterns of women use, access and creation of ICTs, focusing on public and private effort to educate, create products, and develop service relevent to women
Researchers address gender gap in computingMargolis and Allan Fisher, co-authors of a new book titled Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing,'' will speak in Palo Alto tonight about their research on why women are sometimes reluctant to pursue computing careers, and what can be done to change this.`The men were motivated primarily by their interest in and enjoyment of technology; the women tended to be motivated by what it was good for, how it could be used to help people.''
Gadget makers target womenCompanies like Panasonic have found that style is the number one priority for women, whereas men are more concerned with brand and what the thing does. "A lot of women want permission to buy the cute version of something," said Ms France. "It is something we have seen a lot in the teen market. If something is cool and it's a great colour, you're going to get it."
IT: The Industry Without WomenMore than 90 percent of the engineers who make Internet systems work are men. In the next four years, women will continue to be massively underrepresented in the networking field, despite a major shortage of skilled engineers in Europe that threatens to hamper the industry.
Boy, You Fight Like a GirlOnline gamers seek escape in personas of the opposite sex but often encounter stereotypes.
He-Mails, She-Mails: Where Sender Meets GenderCommunication researchers who study the e-mail behavior of men and women say they are finding real differences. In general, they say, women tend to use the electronic medium as an extension of the way they talk — lavishly and intimately, to connect with people and build rapport. Men, in both speech and text, incline toward a briefer, more utilitarian style, the researchers say — a style they variously term instrumental, functional or transactional.
Can the media help turn geek into chic?To join the two ideas in the public's mind, all-out media blitzes have begun in at least four countries, using Hollywood-style recruitment tactics to attract women in particular toward careers in technology. By revamping technology stereotypes, these groups hope to curb labor shortages that are in danger of crimping their countries' future business success.
NOW Provides Shelter From ScornThe National Organization for Women will offer Internet service provider accounts through its website. The site will only be accessible to people who sign up through the ISP. NOW is moving its message boards and chat rooms to the protected NOWworld site. (The ISP) came out of a desire to create a new space that was safe and welcoming, but also informative and inspiring.
Game-Player's Life As a WomanStill, I'd noticed people just plain react differently to female characters, even if they don't know who's on the other end.
Women such as Lara Croft in videogamesBombshells worthy of "Playboy" have been multiplying in videogames ever since the birth of the buxom Lara Croft. As Enes Memic reports, it's highly unlikely game makers will reverse this trend anytime soon
See the Banned Fear Effect 2 AdFear Effect 2: Retro Helix for the PlayStation is all set to ruffle a few feathers, disturb a couple senators and send concerned parents into conniptions. One of the game's central themes is the, uh, relationship between the two main female protagonists, Rain and Hana, who like to romp around in skintight outfits with cleavage hanging out, change clothes at a prodigious pace, shoot stuff and occasionally find themselves in not-so-compromising positions.
Who are you calling "sister"?To break through the glass ceiling, women's online communities -- like Webgrrls and Digital Eve -- need to work together.
History of Purple Moon, a company devoted to making interactive media for little girls
Research on Women and Men GamersSysters - oldest electronic network for women