Multimedia Campaigns in Africa
This issue of The Soul Beat takes a specific look at communication initiatives and communication strategies that utilise a combination of multiple media to address economic and social development needs in Africa.
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GUEST EDITORIAL
The apparent benefits of multimedia approaches to campaigns have to do with multiplying reach of campaign information through using additional channels of communication, as well as maximising impacts through greater likelihood of messages being acknowledged and accepted if they are repeatedly 'received'. Such ideas about multimedia communication work from assumptions that communication messages travel clearly and directly from sender to receiver. Additionally, mass media communication do not allow for audiences to respond. Often mass media campaigners talk about 'target audiences' as if communication can be aimed and passively received.
Multimedia approaches are often mobilised in health campaign work, and many programmes have creatively worked past the limitations of one-directional mass media communication. In this sense it is perhaps more pertinent to talk about multi-medium approaches, since many health campaigns operate beyond the limitations of traditional print, broadcast and outdoor mass media by using communication mediums that allow for feedback. Health campaigns are often interlinked with non-mass media approaches such as outreach activities, service delivery, and other interactive processes such as counselling and face-to-face education. Many of the programmes described in this edition of The Soul Beat have included such wider communication approaches, giving insight into the need to understand audiences as diverse, and to the importance of providing opportunities for audiences to 'talk back' and to engage with campaigns. Health communication is about empowering people to address individual, community and social level transformation, and communication campaigners utilising mass media need to reflect on how best to achieve this.
By Warren Parker
Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE)
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1. VISION - Nigeria
This was a 3-year project initiated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) which aimed to maximise the use of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH), HIV/AIDS and child survival services in Nigeria. The project aimed to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and increase the demand for and use of FP/RH services through behaviour change communication activities and community mobilisation. It used radio dramas, print material, radio discussion clubs and sports outreach programmes to achieve its aim.
Contact Beth Weinstein bweinstein@engenderhealth.org
2. Soul City 4 - South Africa
The Soul City 4 television series highlighted the issue of violence against women in Southern Africa. It was bolstered by a daily radio drama, full-colour booklets, an advertising/publicity campaign, and an advocacy and social mobilisation campaign, in an effort to shift knowledge, attitudes and practices around gender-based violence (GBV), and to encourage individuals and communities to take action to stop abuse.
Contact soulcity@soulcity.org.za
3. Heartlines - South Africa
Based on the premise that South Africans, irrespective of race, culture or creed share many of the same values, the Heartlines Media Project uses multi-media to create debate about and reinforce these values through television drama, radio talk shows, storybooks and printed materials. The initiative aims to tackle social issues through faith-based organisations as well as offer communication resources to address issues such as HIV/AIDS, abstinence, prejudice, parenting, poverty, rehabilitation of criminals, corruption, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Contact Val Pauquet val@heartlands.org.za
4. Trusted Partner Campaign - East and Southern Africa
Population Services International (PSI) launched this regional HIV prevention campaign in 11 East and Southern Africa countries. This mass media behaviour change communication campaign addresses young partners in love relationships and is intended to encourage them to engage in safe sex. The campaign uses television and radio and these are complemented by posters, billboards, flyers and discussion guides designed for use in interpersonal communication activities.
Contact Carlie Danielson info@psi.org
5. Take Control Campaign - Namibia
Implemented in accordance with Namibia's National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS, the Take Control Campaign is a large-scale communication campaign coordinated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting through a Task Force. Using the slogan "take control" and focussing on the rights of young people, the campaign uses posters, leaflets, information bulletins, metal red ribbons, stickers, T-shirts, and television and radio adverts.
Contact Rianne Selle rianne@mweb.com.na
6. Communication for Healthy Living (CHL) - Egypt
This is a health communication project that is a collaboration between the Egyptian government and non government organisations, the global Health Communication Partnership (HCP), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) and USAID. It is based on the notion that marriage is the foundation of family life - and that, by extension, the marriage event is the strategic entry point for family health information. The campaign used mass media activities - television and radio spots with entertainment-education and talk show formats as well as press inserts, media contests, and media coverage of special events. These are accompanied by publicity events and community outreach activities.
Contact Ron Hess rhess@jhuhcp-eg.org
7. Pakachere - Malawi
This is a Health and Development Communications project that Population Services International Malawi (PSI) is undertaking in collaboration with the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication, a South African NGO that specialises in health and development communication campaigns that aim to change people's behaviours. The project developed communications materials using three media - radio, television and print, based on Soul City's methodology of edutainment with a multimedia communications approach. The prime messages are on HIV/AIDS and other related health issues.
Contact Simon Sikwese sikwese@malawi.net
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CHECK THE SOUL BEAT AFRICA HOMEPAGE EVERY FRIDAY TO FIND OUT WHATS NEW ON THE WEBSITE
We are continually posting new project descriptions, evaluations, strategic thinking documents, trainings and events on communication for development in Africa on the Soul Beat Africa website. Go to the homepage every Friday where a selection of the latest information posted that week can be seen.
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8. Knowledge of HIV/AIDS Among Secondary School Adolescents in Calabar - Nigeria
By A. E. Oyo-Ita, B. M. Ikpeme, A. J. Etokidem, J. B. Offor, E. O. Okokon and S. J. Etuk
Awareness about HIV/AIDS in Nigeria has been created through the media, workshops, peer education and printed materials. The aim of this study is to establish the impact of these awareness programmes on students. The study shows that although awareness about HIV/AIDS is high among Secondary School adolescents in Calabar, the knowledge of the disease is still poor. The report states that the reason for this is that mass media as a source of information does not allow in-depth knowledge of the disease. Parents, teachers, as well as health workers should be more involved in educating the youth on this disease.
9. Impact Data - HEART Campaign - Zambia
Finding for Youth Surveys 1999 and 2000
The Helping Each other Act Responsibly Together (HEART) Campaign, designed specifically for youth and by youth, informs young people about HIV/AIDS, and promotes abstinence and condom use through television and radio. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the impact of phase one of the campaign on young people in Zambia. The evaluation for example found that television is an effective way to reach young people - both men and women, urban and rural. It found that comprehension of the messages was good and that there was an increase in male as well as female viewers' discussion on abstinence or safer sex.
10. Millions Saved - Case 7: Preventing Diarrhoeal Deaths in Egypt
By Ruth Levine et al.
This chapter from the book Millions Saved details the diarrhoeal control programme implemented in Egypt during the 1970s and 1980s. The programme's goal was to promote and distribute locally manufactured oral rehydration salts, along with information about the appropriate treatment of children with diarrhoea. Television became the primary media outlet of the campaign and provided a vehicle to spread the programme's core messages and to reach even rural, illiterate households that would have been inaccessible through print media. More than 63 television spots were aired between 1984 and 1990, and billboards, magazine ads, and posters were used to supplement the television messages. The document offers a historical overview of the national campaign and its key components of social marketing and mass media.
11. Assessing Effects of a Media Campaign on HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention in Nigeria
Results From the VISION Project
By Joseph Keating, Dominique Meekers and Alfred Adewuyi
The purpose of this 25-page paper is to identify determinants of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programme exposure and to assess the effect of a FP/RH mass media campaign on HIV/AIDS awareness and condom use in the VISION Project target areas. The paper tests whether exposure to VISION-related mass media programmes (television, radio and printed advertisements) had an effect on individual level willingness to discuss HIV/AIDS, whether programmes had an effect on individual level perception about condom use for reducing the risk of HIV infection, and whether exposure to mass media programmes translates into increased condom use. Results showed that those with high programme exposure were almost one and a half times more likely than those with no exposure to have discussed HIV/AIDS with a partner. Those with high programme exposure were also over twice as likely to know that condom use can reduce risk of HIV infection.
Contact jkeating@tulane.edu OR dmeekers@tulane.edu OR alfredadewuyi@yahoo.com
12. Making Motherhood Safer in Egypt
By Karima Khalil and Farzaneh Roudi-Fahimi
Published by the Population Reference Bureau in March 2004, this 8-page policy brief describes Egypt's efforts to reduce maternal deaths. Included in this policy brief is an overall history of maternal mortality in Egypt, a description of common models of service delivery in safe motherhood care, and a list of "Lessons Learned". The Ministry conducted targeted mass media campaigns to encourage families to seek medical care and to increase knowledge of danger signs during pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum period. The paper showed that the success of information, education, and communication (IEC) campaigns relied on the intensive use of mass media along with interpersonal communication and community mobilisation activities.
13. South African National HIV Prevalence, HIV Incidence, Behaviour and Communication Survey 2005
This 200-page document shares the results from the follow-up South African national household survey on HIV prevalence, incidence, behaviour and communication. The report explores existing HIV/AIDS communication campaigns - Soul City, Soul Buddyz, Khomanani, Love Life, Gazlam, Tsha Tsha, and Takalani Sesame. The report stresses that these campaigns are "not the only sources of information about HIV/AIDS, nor the only stimulus to communication and behavioural response in relation to disease". Key sources for HIV/AIDS information also include political and social communication that includes talk shows, dramas, feature articles, and entertainment programmes. The report shows that people also learn about HIV/AIDS through forms of direct exposure, such as knowing someone with the disease or school programming: An overwhelming majority (91.2%) aged 12-14 years said that schools were a useful source of information.
14. Re-appraising Youth Prevention in South Africa: The Case of loveLife
By Warren Parker
LoveLife was launched in September 1999 as "the most comprehensive effort to positively influence adolescent lifestyle" in South Africa. Its core aim is to reduce "the incidence of HIV among 15-20 year-olds by 50% over the next three to five years". This was to be achieved through "a brand-driven, sustained multi-dimensional national programme focusing on making condom usage part of youth culture; establishing adolescent friendly reproductive health services as an integral part of public health services; education, community outreach and institutional support". The loveLife intervention involves a diverse range of activities centered around a national level communication campaign incorporating broadcast, print and outdoor media. Other components include: telephone helplines for youth and adults; event-based activities including 'love-tours', a 'love Train' and loveLife games.
15. Participatory Communication: A Key to Rural Learning Systems
By Gary Coldevin
This publication focuses on issues in the field of communication and education for development. It provides an overview of the tools and methodologies of participatory communication as well as some experiences of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Communication for Development Group. The document also looks at the advantages of a multimedia campaign which uses a mutually reinforcing multimedia mix backed up with interpersonal support at the village level.
16. Getting the Message Across: The Mass Media and the Response to AIDS
UNAIDS Best Practice Collection 2005
According to this document the mass media have unrivalled potential to inform and educate the general public. Yet in the response to AIDS only a tiny fraction of that potential has been tapped. In surveys around the world, radio and television are cited as key sources of information about AIDS by large numbers of people. This report discusses three South Africa multi-media campaigns which can be seen as examples of what can be achieved when the media are used creatively towards positive outcomes. The report offers lessons from experience that will be of value to people everywhere who are interested in harnessing the power of the mass media to help in the response to AIDS.
17. The Impact of the Madagascar TOP Reseau Social Marketing Program on Sexual Behavior & Use of Reproductive Health Services
A study of Population Services International's (PSI) TOP Réseau network of franchised youth clinics in Madagascar demonstrates that the programme contributed to removing barriers to condom use and motivated sexually experienced young people to use condoms. The communication campaign promoted the franchised clinics and motivated youth to adopt safer behaviour, including abstinence, correct and consistent condom use and the treatment of STIs. Mass media and interpersonal communication included peer educators, televised youth debates, mobile video unit shows and radio and television spots. The report found that since increased condom use was reported only by youth who had been exposed to more than one element of the campaign, future communication campaigns should target youth repeatedly with both interpersonal and mass media communication to promote behaviour change.
18. Changing Youth Behaviour Through Social Marketing: Program Experiences and Research Findings From Cameroon, Madagascar, and Rwanda
By Josselyn Newkom and Lori Asford
Published in 2003 by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), this 20-page publication describes three social marketing programmes that used "a creative mix of mass media and interpersonal approaches to motivate young people to take action to protect themselves". The projects described in this report communicated intensively and often with youth, providing motivational messages through television, radio, print media, and peer educators.
19. Advances in Behaviour Change Communication for HIV/AIDS (Jul 7 - Aug 4 2006) Nairobi, Kenya
The organisers state that this course is designed to equip programme managers working in Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) programmes with skills to design and implement effective behaviour change communication interventions for HIV/AIDS programmes.
20. Advocacy Skills Course (Oct 9-13 2006) Nairobi, Kenya
This course is aimed at senior and mid-level programme/projects managers, medical and health personnel and government officers. The main objective of this course is to empower the participants with advocacy and lobbying skills in order to advocate for health and health related issues.
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THE SOUL BEAT ARCHIVES
To view archived editions of The Soul Beat Newsletter see http://www.comminit.com/en/africa/soul-beat-archives.html
Some examples:
January 25, 2006 - Issue #55 "Entrepreneurship, Job Creation and Economic Development"
April 27, 2005 - Issue #38 "Health Radio"
February 9, 2005 - Issue #33 "Malaria Communication"
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The Soul Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
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