Addressing malnutrition through effective communication: The case of Totonicapán, Guatemala

This research has been done in order to contribute to the Social Sciences from Communication for Development. Communication for Development is a participatory approach of communication as process of dialogue. It is also a response to the Western way of doing communication, since its beginnings date back from the decades of the 70s and from Latin American countries. There has been an ongoing debate amongst the practitioners of communication as mass media and the practitioners of Communication for Development. The first ones have believed that what the products that they produce are the result of communication. The latter, have claim the true meaning of doing communication and also take it as a citizens’ right. Therefore, the efforts are always prepared in the best interest of the people that the development project intends to help. Throughout the research three approaches to communication have been ana-lyzed, from the literature and from experiences, in order to assess which is the adequate to address a particular social issue: malnutrition in Totonicapán, Guatemala. Worldwide experiences have been included from the three ap-proaches; an overview of the approaches has been made based on the litera-ture. The case of Totonicapán, Guatemala has been chosen since it has been an example of a participatory project from the perspective of Communication for Development. The views and experiences from people of the area have also been included to give relevance and importance to the local knowledge of the area of interest.