Use of Mass Media in Community Development

The goal of this course, which took place in November and December 1995, was to analyze community problems and techniques used in community development, with emphasis on the use of media as a strategy for governmental and non-governmental organizations in creating social change. Participants included 29 media people and community development workers from 19 countries of Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Oceania.

The course was held in cooperation with the Rutenberg Institute in Haifa which holds training sessions for youth from all over the world. "Our goal," says Director General Michael J. Hanan, "is to provide the participants with practical tools they can take home and immediately translate into action in their countries." In the radio studio at the Rutenberg Institute, the participants recorded jingles, in the television studio they filmed and edited videos, and in the computer room they created colourful brochures and posters, using graphics and word processing software. In the computer laboratory at MCTC, students were familiarized with word processing, graphics, spreadsheet and multimedia software.

Study Visit

A study visit was made to Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan (pop. 800), northeast of Haifa, where journalist David Davidovich runs a closed circuit cable community television channel. He showed the participants around the studio and described the various programs broadcast to members of the kibbutz. Meetings are broadcast, for the benefit of those who can't attend, and there is an educational game show where the children compete, answering questions on subjects such as religious holidays and famous authors. Holiday celebrations are also filmed and members are interviewed regarding current issues. In addition, whenever significant changes are to be made in the kibbutz way of life, there are televised debates. During the primaries for the upcoming Israeli elections, visits of political figures were broadcast.

Media as Partner in Social Process

By working as a partner in the process of social change, the media can bring about positive results in society. Dr. Hanita Zimrin, Chairperson of the Israel Association for Child Protection, gave a lecture on this theme, sharing her research on the way child abuse has been depicted in the Israeli media. From a state of almost total denial until 1979, when there were only four articles on this subject, over the years the Israeli media began to shed light on this problem, warning the public what signs to watch for and notifying the abused where they could turn for help. In 1993 there were 1,956 articles on child abuse. "At that time, a lot of creativity went into the headlines," said Dr. Zimrin. "For example 'The house with closed shutters.' But due to intense competition, newspapers began vying for our attention, producing headlines aimed at increasing our adrenaline level, such as 'Fifteen- year- old girl: Daddy abused me sexually.' Due to overexposure, the coverage lost its effectiveness and, by 1995, the number of articles on this subject had fallen to 840.

Participants were also provided with a sound basis on the subject of advertising by Dr. Jackson, who uses a "customer-oriented" approach, defining social marketing as "the design, implementation and control of programs seeking to increase the acceptability of a social idea, cause or practice in a target group." Community development, he says, can be promoted by passing laws, developing appropriate technology, making undesirable behaviour very costly or providing relevant information. Social marketing attempts to encourage desired attitudes and behaviour through a comprehensive, integrated marketing communication and selling campaign.

"Advertising," he continues, "first consists of defining the target audience, its reasons for buying or using a specific product, how to overcome customer resistance, and the identification of specific customer groups in which purchasing motivations, consumer behaviour and media habits are similar. A marketing mix can then be developed, which matches the needs of the specific target audience. "The social marketing planning process consists of defining the objectives of the social change, identifying all possible target audiences, identifying available mass media, considering alternative marketing approaches, developing a marketing plan, obtaining funding and backing, then building an appropriate marketing organization to implement this plan, and finally evaluating the results."

Final Projects

The class was divided into groups, each choosing a subject for its advertising and public relations campaign, to be presented to the class at the end of the course.

"The Elimination of Stereotypes of Women in the Mass Media" was the subject chosen by three women from Eastern Europe - Irina Lushina, a journalist from Kazakhstan, Iveta Hankova, a journalist from Slovakia, and Liliana Pagu, president of a Romanian Women's Association. Their project focused on the planning of an international women's conference to be held in Bucharest in May, 1996. "The goal of this proposed conference," says Liliana Pagu, "is to fight for women's rights. In the post-Beijing conference area, we have to transform words into action. Our aim is the elimination of stereotypes of women in the mass media. This is a problem for women all over the world, but especially so in Eastern and Central Europe since the revolution, where women are depicted as housewives and as sex objects. In addition to our conference, we are planning a multi-media exhibition as well as a European Feminist Book Fair, where the central theme will be Women as Producers, Transmitters and Consumers of Culture."

An AIDS campaign produced by Vincent Seutloali of Lesotho, Richard Wafula of Kenya and Keziah Elizabeth Nash of St. Vincent, the aim of which was to prevent the transmission of HIV through health education, used the slogan "STOP AIDS - ACT NOW!" with condoms in the Os. The group utilized radio jingles and proposed a weekly radio drama called "Death is Knocking at the Door," a traveling theatre group and musical performances. They produced informational brochures and fact sheets on AIDS, to be supplemented by public meetings in village communities, in cooperation with the Planned Parenthood Association.

Another group (Georgios Damianos of Cyprus, Jocelyn Villacorte and May de Guzman both of the Philippines, Worapot Phuamgsuwon of Thailand and Vernon Worrell of Barbados) planned a campaign to promote the management of household garbage in low-income, urban communities. Its main target audience was families, in the belief that in low-income communities in developing countries, people's view of life is very temporal and thus they tend to be indifferent to their environment. The goals of the campaign included creating awareness of proper methods of disposal of household garbage and educating the target audience about recycling. Ways of reaching these goals included a "Cleanest Street in the Block" contest. Their posters were humorous and their radio commercials stressed the group's slogan: "CLEAN UP! Reduce, re-use and recycle your garbage." A five-minute video was produced, in order to educate community members about the amount of garbage to be disposed of and the importance of community support in the project. Upon her return home, May de Guzman, a public relations officer, plans to propose this same media campaign to her employer, the Philippines Department of Health.

Says Vernon P. Worrell, a community social worker from Barbados: "I was the one who suggested including children as part of the target audience in the garbage disposal campaign, in order to get them involved in cleaning up the community during the summer holidays. This would provide them with meaningful activity and, at the same time, they could assist and influence their parents. In order to prevent future problems, it is best to start with young children and have them integrated into the community and taking responsibility for their actions from an early age. We chose this topic because garbage disposal is a universal problem which applies to every city in every country."

Worapot Phuangsuwon, a media producer from Thailand, explained, "At home, we generally use the public relations approach to community development, that is, we let people know that something is good and that they should try it. Here in this course I learned about the advertising approach, which is new to me. We try to create a demand, so people will want to use a certain product.

"One highly successful example we were shown was a public service advertisement from Israeli television. Children in Israel must wear helmets when riding bicycles, but this is not always the case. In order to show a child what can happen to him if he falls off a bicycle, the ad begins with a watermelon falling and breaking, splat! in half. It then shows a second watermelon, with a helmet strapped onto it, which falls, rolls over and remains intact. Thus, with no use of force, this simple, direct ad has influenced a lot of Israeli children to use helmets when riding bicycles."

Dr. Jackson was delighted with the presentations. "Not only have the students integrated everything they were taught, but their creative touches show how much can be done in a media program, even with a modest budget. The presentations showed a high level of creativity and professionalism."

Course Director Ms. Hava Karrie points out that the unique aspect of this course was that media people, community social workers and heads of women's organizations had the opportunity to learn about each other's perspectives. "Media people got a close look at various social services," she says, "and by understanding their complexity discovered how they could contribute to increasing awareness about social problems. Those working in the helping professions understood how they can 'use' the media for raising social issues in the general public." MCTC intends to repeat this course in 1997.