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Picturing Development: Visualizing International Agricultural Development and Communication
Abstract
International development has been established programming for decades. However, there was no governmental agency charged with foreign development until the passing of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. President John F. Kennedy established the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in response to the Foreign Assistance Act. Since that establishment, the field of international development has changed with the needs of countries, and communication between stakeholders adapts as technology improves. These changes allowed an increase in the use of digital storytelling and mobile phones for development communication. While planning programs for USAID, the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is used as a guide. USAID recognized the importance of communication in development, but communication is not a considered variable of success in the LFA. With this research, I sought to understand more about the communication patterns from a variety of stakeholders in development projects. This understanding will build a knowledge base for necessary additions of communication components to the LFA. The purpose of this study is to identify images used as representations of international agricultural development programs, explain practitioners’ perceptions of images used for representation, identify desired traits of photographs expressed by practitioners, and address potential knowledge gaps between practitioners and stakeholders that impact communication of international agricultural development projects and success. I used a content analysis to evaluate and select images (n=10) currently used for international development programs. I used the selected images as stimuli for photo elicitation interviews with implementors of the international agricultural development program, Farmer-to-Farmer. Twenty-one participants contributed statements for photo elicitation interviews from four countries: Bangladesh, Nepal, Egypt, and Lebanon. Emergent themes from each country sample were identified and described. These themes developed four overarching elements determined essential for visual international agricultural development representation: contextual element, compositional element, humanizing element, and an engaging element. Results from this study provide a deeper look into the perceptions of international agricultural representation held by implementors. These perceptions build a platform of knowledge to begin confirming a conceptual, operational model of international agricultural development communication.
Citation
Roberts, Lacey Nicole (2020). Picturing Development: Visualizing International Agricultural Development and Communication. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /192429.