Communication Campaign Aimed at the Public

The concrete example of a national campaign in Albania

“Rruga me Pisha”Pine Street Social Educative Radio

Soap Opera

• Format: campaign aimed at public. Communicating for development. Using radio as a tool for communicating social messages.

• The radio Format : Social educative and entertainment radio soap opera

• Language: Albanian• Subject/Messages: Human rights protection. Good governance.

Governance transparency. Democracy and rule of low. Local and central fair election process. Domestic violence. Land disputes and land propriety. Blood feuds. Public health (including HIV/AIDS). Corruption. Drug abuse. School frequentation. Ombudsman public role. Civic engagement. Combatting trafficking of human beings. Gender issues. Different sexual orientation, etc….

• Target Audience: All adult Albanians

• ACHIEVING THE POINT THROUGH CREATIVE RADIO FOR DEVELOPMENT. The working methodology is about breaking the tradition of top - down broadcasting. 'Top down' is where listeners are told what to do. The audience traditionally were not consulted about their needs, and programmes often failed because listeners felt they were irrelevant or patronizing. So our focus is the audience and the ground research, before producing a story.

The following presentation contains :

•How we developed the programme

•How we decided on the target audiences

•How we selected the messages

•Some of the key issues/challenges during the preparation process.

•The outcome / indicators.

How we developed the programme. •The foundation was based on the worldwide research about the effectiveness of using Radio for development, in order to effect social changes beneficial to a community, nation, or region. The programme was based on the best tradition and experience achieved by the founder of the Foundation “The BBC World Service Trust” in various developing countries, combined with the radio tradition in Albania. For doing so the Foundation approached a high level media professionals board of trustees .

THE POINT and the FOCUS •Using Media as a vehicle to drive change from the ground (rather than as a vehicle for publishing the work of NG0s, BROADCASTERS, MINISTRIES, FOUNDATIONS OR WHATEVER

Why Radio - The media tool / the channel for developing our public campaign. •High rate of audience but cheap to make it compared to TV and video•Taps in to oral traditions •Widely available : Radio can reach people isolated by language, geography, conflict, illiteracy and poverty including use of innovative latest communication tools such as social media, internet etc.. ( only 41 % of the population has access to the internet in Albania)•Radio can reach those denied access to public facilities because of cost, distance or social exclusion•Radio listening can be a group activity which encourages discussion of educational issues after broadcast. This is an important stage in the process of behavior change •Radio gives listeners the opportunity to make informed choices about decisions affecting them. It can give them greater self-determination.

The process before starting: - developing the right messagsAssessing the needs of the Albanian society. A media campaign will never have the necessary impact if you don’t take into consideration in the majority of your work the audience opinion. So the first step before undertaking our public campaign was to conduct a nationwide audience research in order to understand: •The lifestyle of the Albanian society•The economic situation of it•Life expectation, mostly the one of the new generation•The audience hope and incertitude for the future •The situation of the family and the house•The respect for human rights at all issues, tolerance and understanding within the society.•Expetations and needs of the audience from the local and central government •And finally – their cultural practices ( to check if radio was one of their option and if yes what would be for them the perfect broadcasting time)With what means: We contracted a high skilled special think tank researching team to do it.What methodology.Focus groups. Now this might be seen as a very limited of number of people involved. But if you would like to include the opinion of all the territory than at least in developing countries such as Albania this resulted to be according to the research dept of BBC WST the best tool

Transform the feedback from the audience research into educative and information entertatiment stories.

-All the data gather from the audience research made the starting point of the radio programme. Every aspect of life researched was taken into consideration. And every researched topic on the ground was combined with the desk research and discussion with stakeholders + approaching donors priority theme addressed

-The writing and the creative team, created the main characters of the soap to keep each or few of them a special issue to be addressed. Establish the broadcasting schedule

Developing the topics / Create and develop the storylines

It is a radio soap opera – an entertainment format, focusing on informing and educating thus, delivering the right educative messages is crucial.

Audi

ence

feed

back

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sear

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from

the

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Developing the messages through

the storylines / facts meet with

the creative team of writers, the

editorial guidelines and radio soap opera writing techniques

Write the storylines /

scripts

Donors priority theme

addressed. What the

donor needs

Find the same interests

Identify the main storylines and characters

of the soap opera.

-How to do it – based on the audience research ( ideate the main stories and its characters ) identify the main issues and develop the right messages through the audience opinion and stakeholders information, i.e. the population is facing a big issue with the corruption into the hospitals. Your stories need to tell the situation, but while telling what it is going on, you deliver the positive messages. You create a doctor character which is not corrupted, and denounce his colleagues that takes bribes from the patients. If you want you can continue the same story with what happen to the court ( judiciary system). Will they be fair or you will find again a corrupted judg. Go and ask your audience and stakeholders. And continue to develop the stories. -To run an effective information/educational storyline RMP needed to research the knowledge, attitude, practice and beliefs of its target audience -HINT. Our philosophy : Check if we are not bringing our own bias to the interpretation / identification.

Interpretation

Search for what is the perceived reality, and the language used to express it. If you are

seeking to change behavior and attitude, you need to find from the formative research what is seen by your target audience as the positive

pay-off (s) to this behavior and attitude

IDENTIFICATION

Identify the gaps in knowledge.Identify cultural and traditional influences.Identify barriers that may prevent certain

behaviors: barriers caused by perhaps gender,Tradition, education, geography, economics, or

culture

Identify the main storylines and characters of the soap opera. Develop

each story and the messages

WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR LISTENERSHIP for developing our topics and messages. Our case is a continuing process.

1) Who is our audience? Our orientation END WHAT WE WANTED TO LEARN FROM THEM ABOUT 2) Are our stories and characters relevant to the audience and to the issues of their lives? Are we reflecting the reality of their daily lives? And if not, what we are Missing? We needed to find out from our audience what we needed to feed forward into our creative production cycle / stories and messages to be addressed

3) Information about listenership and the media. What are the people of Albania listening to/watching? And when? And who listens to us ? Where do they hear it? (When).

HINT: raising awareness of need to know. We need to create an awareness of need in the audience, before trying to meet the needs themselves through information provision

HINT In all research, and in all contact with listeners or potential listeners we tried to collect information that will shape the content and construction of the drama.HINT: We were careful not to make assumptions about people's needs. The effectiveness of our programme dependrf on how relevant they are to the target audience. Such public campaign can only be relevant if you have found the ways to be in touch with your audience. Research is the key

GOLDEN RULEListeners must identify with the situation and empathize with the characters

STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION - No programme or campaign should be undertaken without consulting other organisations concerned with the same issues. Many of them could be potential partners and they will certainly be sources of useful information at first hand, or via secondary sources. 'Secondary sources.‘ - Collecting, reviewing, analyzing written, visual, audio and audio-visual materials already available,. Often NG0s, the UN, research institutions or government bodies have produced useful reports on specific issues related to the development of the country. HINT: So that you are not overwhelmed by information, draw up a list of questions or issues you are trying to address before critically reviewing secondary sources. Ask Stakeholders to recommend credible sources and crosscheck information whenever possible. Remember to acknowledge your sources when referring to the information they provide. (As appropriate).

Quantitative Methods - Survey (Knowledge, Attitude, Practice “KAP” - and Beliefs)Can be used pre and post a new storyline to ensure that the storyline is in touch and relevant, that it is targeted and focused. With a post KAP survey (if appropriate) you can evaluate specific effectiveness of education / information.

Qualitative Methods Partly due to disadvantages of Quantitative methods, research often uses Qualitative methods to establish KAP (B). Qualitative research gathers information about feelings and impressions from a small sample of respondents who tend to be purposively rather than randomly selected. The main methods are a) participant or direct observation and b) semi -structured interviews, Case histories and oral testimonies

You should not tell people what to do, you should provide the listeners with sufficient information to make informed choices themselves How decide what the key messages are?Ask the people who knows. Ask the people you will be broadcasting to. (Assessing the needs

'The only reality is the perception of the people, so that's something you had better deal with.' (Richard Manhoff, the father of social marketing) PRETESTING A STORYLINE Pretesting means trying out ideas and pilot programmes on a representative sample of the target audience before the programme are in a completed format. We did it with several sensitive sotrylines i.e the trafficking of human beings or child right protection. Why do it? To test if our educational story is relevant and in touch and targeted properlyIt helps identify and resolve problems. And it helped us in our construction of future storylines/ and future proposlas. The social effect : It helps local people feel more involved in the programme making processCan have effect of 'publicizing' the programme

How do it?Depends on your resourcesCould be a pilot episode; or parts of an episodeCould be a live performance (road show style) a storyline you want to run; to include new charactersFocus group style discussion can explore responses to characters and ideas.

WHO DOES IT? You, if you have the time/resources. Or you can train students; and/or teachers WHERE? Depends; in addition to the road shows you might approach schools or market places. The local village bar. Or the any other paces that people frequent in free time.

HOW ANALYSE THE DATAAs a general rule over 50% of respondents should understand and like your pilot programme otherwise you should seriously reconsider your ideas. Results of pretests should be tabulated and interpreted by the evaluators who should then share them with the relevant members of the production team; and with the writers Script improvements can then be made. Revise your programme/ideas based on comments made during the pretest.

Scheduling the broadcasting time Why is scheduling important?

The first rule of broadcasting is to make sure your target audience can hear your programme

NOTE ABOUT CAMPAIGNS The golden rule for every campaign is that there must be a positive message. People need to feel that they are able to take action and by taking action they can improve their lives and the lives of their families. Invite important public figures in the stories, go out of the recording studio and meet with people / the audience Making radio InteractiveParticipatory research. Audience feedback and feed forward: at pre -testing and monitoring stagesCompetitionsphone-insroad showsworkshopslisteners clubsand others you will discover/invent Roadshows. They take the programme out of the studio to focus on the issues which a community finds important; if the community is typical, then the issues will be seen as relevant by many by radio listeners living with similar circumstances. Establishing a dialogue with listeners is the key to the success of road shows.

Establish the production Cycle / storyline development conditioned by the concept of funded storylines.

Now you found the audience needs

You created the storylines based on

the needs of the audience and the

stakeholders support

You have the entire knowledge of the

situation

You tested the storyline

You established the broadcasting

schedule

Now you establish the production

schedule

How often you will produce – how

many episodes a month?

The best would be 8 new episodes a

month / 2 new episodes a week with

an omnibus on weekend

And you have the production cycle and the broadcasting schedule,

once 8 new episodes are being broadcast in a month other 8 new

episodes are written.

But you need money to produce

and broadcast - The main challenges

Establish the production Cycle / storyline development conditioned by the concept of funded storylines.

USAID funded storyline casehttp://www.creativeassociatesinternational.com/wp-content/

uploads/Print/CreativeTimesSpring06.pdf

USAID had a large programme to combat trafficking in persons in

Albania, inside the programme a media campaign was needed

We went to the donor with a proposal including :

-Audience ( quantitative and qualitative data)

-Our storylines and methodology of creating them – including the way we transform real facts into fiction through educative and informative messages

-our country reputation

Dreaming of a life far from the Albanian countryside, 18-year-old Marta’s dream is suddenly within her grasp. Her new boyfriend, Roni, has proposed marriage and a life in Italy where he has a job offer. The opportunity of a lifetime awaits the couple, or so it seems. “Having this job, Marta, means a lot to me. I’ll have a lot of money, and you don’t need to work. We’ll also have the opportunity to pay for your studies,” Roni says, as he convinces Marta. “All you are telling me about Italy, seems to be a dream,” Marta responds. “I feel like I’m looking at a movie on television.” Without her parent’s knowledge, Marta leaves to join Roni in Italy. But soon, it becomes clear, there would be no living happily ever after. Marta has been unwittingly lured into a life of prostitution. We used Marta’s chilling story in order to raise public awareness of the manipulative tactics that traffickers use to lure unsuspecting girls and young women into a life of prostitution. While Marta’s story is fictional, it is too often a reality for girls and young women in Albania who are seeking better job opportunities, education or escape from troubled homes, following their “fiance” to foreign countries only to fall prey to being trafficked.

Establish the production Cycle / storyline development conditioned by the concept of funded storylines.

USAID funded storyline casehttp://www.creativeassociatesinternational.com/wp-content/

uploads/Print/CreativeTimesSpring06.pdf

USAID had a large programme to combat trafficking in persons in

Albania, inside the programme a media campaign was needed

We went to the donor with a proposal including :

-Audience ( quantitative and qualitative data)

-Our storylines and methodology of creating them – including the way we transform real facts into fiction through educative and informative messages

-our country reputation

While some of these young women escape, their return home is fraught with prejudice by their families and

society.

“One impact of the show is to create a national atmosphere which is supportive of trafficked victims—to build a climate of understanding among society and families of the victims that will contribute to victims’

reintegration,”

And we used the same format with all the donors, without introducing commercial

publicity since this will associate your messages with those of the business

For this, your fund raising team is crucial

Monitoring the impact

Audience feedback is the key

Quantitate and qualitative data

The main focus and structure of the questionnaire are to find : How useful your

messages were, and how efficient they were for the mass of audience

Remember : the audience research is the key element of this format. You have to do it before starting a storyline, periodically during the broadcasting of it, so you check if you are responding to the audience and to

the donor, and finally for measuring your final impact

Data figures / social impact

As said, the audience research is the key for the development of the stories, but it also the key for knowing it, so you can think for other stories. In addition it help for knowing the entire picture of your format, and were you are standing. So when commissioning an audience research, even if it is for a specific storyline, for yourseld of because donor has asked for it, you will include in it also the entire questions

-Who listen to you ( age groups, social profiles. Geography)-What do they think about your stories, what they will suggest.-When do they listen and where. Do they debate your stories and if yes how and with who.-And son on… in order to have your total picture.-Then you enter into more details about the specific story you have broacastsed. Below I take the example of the education storylines in combatting trafficking in person.

Data figures / social impact

How do you consider the information given by the Soap Opera regarding to human beingtrafficking issues

542 26.5 35.1 35.1

646 31.5 41.8 76.8

358 17.5 23.2 100.0

1546 75.5 100.0

503 24.5

2049 100.0

Worthy for preventingthis phenomena

The given informationhelps those that canbe victims

The given informationhelps the victims oftrafficking

Total

Valid

SystemMissing

Total

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent

Data figures / social impact

Has ever Soap Opera encouraged you to carry on concrete actions againsttrafficking of human beings phenomena?

705 34.4 45.0 45.0

861 42.0 55.0 100.0

1566 76.4 100.0

483 23.6

2049 100.0

Yes

No

Total

Valid

SystemMissing

Total

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent