Remediating modernity: youth, role models and behaviour change in ‘new Nepal’

Abstract

Communication for development (C4D) theorising, program design and practice, to a significant extent, remain driven by notions that communication inspires liberal-minded role models or ‘change agents’ operating at the local level. These individuals are typically described in terms of their willingness to pursue social change. In looking at the links between national pro-social change broadcasting and local practices of remediation and interpretation, this paper assesses the work of a large international NGO working to promote life skills, health awareness and civic responsibility amongst young people in Nepal. Such work charges young people to be agents of their own social change through the development of localised C4D initiatives that link with national media outputs and agendas. Inevitably, there is a degree of slippage in both meaning and message as local remediation of broader development issues occurs. Analysis reveals remediation of such issues to be a tangled practice in which key messages are reworked, made more conservative, and localised or mis-communicated.