Film for Change, Communication Rights and Social Change in Tanzania

Abstract: The thesis presents a view of film for change set against the manifold approaches, practices or ideologies influencing it, and analysis it as a tool for the self-representation, self-determination and mediation of marginalised people in the face of globalization and the democratization of communication. It seeks to find an answer to the question of how film for change works as a method to empower the disadvantaged inhabitants of three villages in Tanzania, where fieldwork was carried out. The thesis tracks down core parameters that connect the visual communication experience to the social reality and bear the potential to change it. The use of visual communication technology, interactive and horizontal communication practices, fictionalizations and empowerment strategies enable processes among spectators and participants that permit them to reframe or reconsider representations that they witness. Film for change potentially reaches beyond the community and through convergence with Web 2.0 into the much larger public sphere, nationally as well as globally. The thesis suggests that film for change should be adapted to the present day media environment as citizens’ media, whereby media users also become media producers and start broadcasting self-communicated alternatives to the images and interpretations produced by established media corporations that dominate the global flows of information. In this way film for change connects to the right to communicate and becomes a tool for citizens to influence power relations and advocate social change.