Abstract
SDG18 Communication for All, Volume 2: Regional Perspectives and Special Cases is the second volume in the multidisciplinary subseries addressing the United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The volume features ten chapters with comprehensive research from 18 contributors. In the introductory chapter, ‘Sustainable Competitiveness in a Digital Age’, editors Jan Servaes and Muhammad Jameel Usha’u provide a brief overview of Volume 1 and introduce new ways of assessing impacts of SDGs. In chapter 2, ‘Communication for All in Africa: The Complexities of Development and Communication’, Charles C. Okigbo and Jude N. Ogbodo highlight the missing ‘recognition that communication is the catalyst and engine that drives positive socio-economic changes locally, regionally, and globally’ (pp. 19–20) in the African development context. Edgardo Luis Carniglia in Chapter 3, ‘Communication for All in the Twenty-First Century. Inequalities as Dilemmas in Latin America’, addresses ‘the problem of systematic, deep, and persistent inequalities in Latin America’ (p. 51). Chapter 4, ‘Public Service Media and Sustainability? A Critical Debate of the Value of Public Service Media in Supporting the SDG18 (Communication for All)’ by Paul Clement Murschetz, Franzisca Weder, Eduard Frants, and Timo Meynhardt studies the role of Public Service Media (PSM) in support of SDG18 and highlights the problems of PSM output and services. Their study provides a critical examination of the public value concept and performance measurement acting in support of PSM's role in SDG18. In Chapter 5, Holly Randell-Moon explores First Nations’ voices in Australian Media and calls for the necessity of SDG-18 Communication for All to support First Nations and their sustainability, with the acknowledgment that ‘Australian news reporting has been harmful to First Nations’ (p. 107). Chapter 6, ‘Tracking the Diffusion of Disinformation of the SDGs Across Social Media Platforms’, by Bashir Sa’ad Abdullahi and Habeeb Idris Pindiga compares traditional mass media to social media platforms and the damaging effects disinformation has on the SDGs, with recommendations on how to repair this damage. There is particular focus on the COVID-19 pandemic SDG3 (Health) and SDG13 (Climate action). In Chapter 7, ‘SDG18: Communication for ALL – Including People with A Communication Disability, Children, and People Who DO Not Speak Dominant Languages’, Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, and Kathryn Crowe call for SDG18 to hear, advocate for, and support marginalized voices, with particular focus on ‘(1) people with communication disabilities, (2) children, and (3) people who do not speak/understand/read/write the dominant language of their community’ (p. 176). Chapter 8, by Satarupa Dasgupta, ‘COVID-19, Intimate Partner Violence, and Immigrant Women: SDG 18 and Overcoming Communication Barriers to Attain Goal 5’, focuses on how SDG 18 can play an important role in overcoming barriers, including the COVID19 pandemic, in achieving the fifth goal of the SDG 17: gender equality. Dasgupta focuses particularly on immigrant women in the US and the issues of displacement, marginalization and intimate partner violence during and after the pandemic. In Chapter 9, ‘The Importance of Sustainable Communication in the Covid-19 Period: The Case of Turkey’, Nurcan Törenli and Zafer Kıyan analyse the crisis communication model adopted by the Turkish Ministry of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic. They argue there was not an effective communication strategy and outline how SGD 18 could provide an effective model for crisis communication. In Chapter 10, editors Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u and Jan Servaes provide a conclusion for Volume 2 and call for the United Nations to review the SGDs and ‘include SDG18-Communication for all-if the SDGs are to achieve the desired results’ (p. 247). All in all, this is a very informative and well-argued volume.