Optimizing empowerment and equality in media-based practice: A Longwe framework of media communication

The WHO's framework of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) is applied in this paper—to conceptualize how empowerment can be optimized in existing media practices towards equity and development. Sara Hlupekile Longwe's concept of stepwise empowerment mobilized by the CSDH proposes basic livelihood; self-sufficiency; critical consciousness; participation and decision-making; and co-control of systems, structures, and institutions as five stages of empowerment. Key considerations for media studies as it relates to global development includes how: 1) media may be mobilized by marginalized individuals to meet financial needs; 2) media can simultaneously contribute to participant-education while demobilizing real-world self-sufficiency; 3) media is well-positioned for conscientization if information provides participants greater leverage to tangibly change inequalities; 4) media can potentially enhance participatory decision-making amidst risks of polarization; and how 5) media may consider outcomes aligning with the CSDH's call for redistribution of social resources to the disadvantaged.