Communication and citizen participation: theory and praxis for an urgent project in the current socio-communicative panorama

Abstract

Introduction: The new Cuban scenario is the result of the challenge of building a prosperous and sustainable socialism, it implies forming personal and group attitudes committed to the transformative requirements of society, where social communication plays a transcendental role due to its educational and relational capacity. as an expression of socialization patterns and other essential processes for social analysis. Objective: to demonstrate that communication, from its participatory approach, can contribute to the collective construction of knowledge, the development of processes and the articulation of actors from the strengthening of links between different actors and the creation of synergies. Methods: Based on the Community Self-Development Methodology, fostered and enriched for decades by the Center for Community Studies (CEC) of the Central University “Marta Abreu” of Las Villas, this research assumed, from the theory, the analysis of the practices daily activities of the Cuban communication system, based on its real potentialities and the gaps generated by a historically top-down model. Results and discussion: It was possible to develop the conceptual and methodological elements of common utility for doctoral students and researchers on the subject at the CEC, with practical applications in the media system and the communicational field. Conclusions: there is a trend towards the thematic versus the dynamic in the production processes, as well as the little use in the institutional framework of communication strategies based on participation from the interaction and learning between the different actors.