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.
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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 messags
Assessing 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:
Transform the feedback from the
audience research into educative
and information entertatiment
stories.
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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
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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
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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
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.
Donors
priority
theme
addressed.
What the
donor
needs
Audience feedback
and desk research
from the
stakeholders
Find the same
interests
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
Identify the main
storylines and characters
of the soap opera.
Identify the main storylines and
characters of the soap opera. Develop
each story and the messages
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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
IDENTIFICATION
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
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
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 RULE
Listeners 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 properly
It 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 process
Can have effect of 'publicizing' the programme
How do it?
Depends on your resources
Could be a pilot episode; or parts of an episode
Could be a live performance (road show style) a storyline you want to run; to include new characters
Focus 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 DATA
As 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 Interactive
Participatory research. Audience feedback and feed forward:
at pre -testing and monitoring stages
Competitions
phone-ins
road shows
workshops
listeners clubs
and 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
Now you establish
the production
schedule
How often you will
produce – how
many episodes a
month?
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.
The best would be
You tested
the storyline
You established the
broadcasting
schedule
8 new episodes a
month / 2 new
episodes a week with
an omnibus on
weekend
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 case
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
http://www.creativeassociatesinternational.com/wpcontent/uploads/Print/CreativeTimesSpring06.pdf
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 case
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
http://www.creativeassociatesinternational.com/wpcontent/uploads/Print/CreativeTimesSpring06.pdf
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 being
trafficking issues
Frequency
Valid
Missing
Total
Worthy for preventing
this phenomena
The given information
helps those that can
be victims
The given information
helps the victims of
trafficking
Total
System
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative
Percent
542
26.5
35.1
35.1
646
31.5
41.8
76.8
358
17.5
23.2
100.0
1546
503
2049
75.5
24.5
100.0
100.0
Data figures / social impact
Has ever Soap Opera encouraged you to carry on concrete actions against
trafficking of human beings phenomena?
Valid
Mis sing
Total
Yes
No
Total
System
Frequency
705
861
1566
483
2049
Percent
34.4
42.0
76.4
23.6
100.0
Valid Percent
45.0
55.0
100.0
Cumulative
Percent
45.0
100.0