Participatory video for safer health: The Paikon Kore development communication project in perspective

Abstract

The twosome of communication technologies and theatre can serve as veritable tools of development in all aspects of life if properly harnessed. Therefore, this research explores how Participatory Video provides opportunity for community orientation, contextual interactions and possibilities for shift in control of the people themselves. Using the Paikon Kore community as a microcosm, it also examined how PV can transform people in the grass root from passive participants to active participants in their own health development. This research is descriptive and it is anchored on the Transformative learning theory. It looks closely at Participatory Video (PV) and its significant roles in development communication. This research is qualitative; thus, it used Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approach which is a Communication-Based Assessment tool that enables the researcher to select and use appropriate communication research methods and techniques, as well as how to engage people in grass root in the investigation of their realities. It revealed that PV can succeed where the popular media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio and the internet fail mainly due to its ability to communicate “in a multi-varied way and hence can maneuver the influence of the powerful few who control public opinion. Ultimately, the hallmark of PV is geared towards a conscientization process where the voices of the beneficiaries are heard, and their views respected through the bottom-up communication approach. Therefore, this research posits that even though there is no fixed way of conducting PV, which means that method varies according to the practitioner and the community response, practitioners must always accentuate the need for democratization of communication between outsiders and the community and amplification of the voices of marginalized community members. It concludes that communication revolution has opened new opportunities for participatory communication towards actualizing the social change potentials which is the destination of every development intervention. Hence, Development practitioners must jettison any form of top-down approach to development and relinquish intervention autonomy or ownership to targeted project beneficiaries.