Spots - Roll Back Malaria

STEP 3: ADAPT OR DEVELOP EFFECTIVE SPOTSBEYOND SPOTS: OTHER RADIO FORMATS52 Spot On Malaria: GuideDepending on your funding, you can complement your radio spots with other radioformats. Or, conversely, your spots can complement other radio formats that you orthe national malaria program develop. One particularly effective approach is to airthe spots immediately before, during or immediately after other programs related tomalaria. Other formats include:• Interviews: A one-on-one discussion with a person who is knowledgeable aboutor has personal experience with the subject. You could interview people whoperform the behaviors you are promoting. For example, if your objective is toincrease the use of insecticide-treated nets in rural areas, you could interviewheads of household who bought nets for the entire family. You could also interviewrole models such as athletes, entertainers, religious or community leaders whocould validate this behavior and encourage everyone to practice it.• Drama/serial: A one-time program or ongoing series in which a plot developsaround a central person or group of people and their relationships. This format isparticularly effective at modeling both positive and negative behavior andconsequences.• Documentary: A program that describes or documents the lives or activities ofpeople. For example, if your objective is to increase the use of community drugdistributors or community health workers for malaria medication, you coulddevelop a documentary about a typical day in his or her life. This could includeshowing people coming to the distributor with questions about fever, thedistributor showing the medication and explaining how to take it, and meetingwith the facility health worker, as well as interviews with the distributor, the healthworker and a client or two.• News: Journalists can play an important role in informing about and promotingpositive malaria behaviors. However, you will need to help them become effectiveeducators on what people should do about malaria prevention and treatment.Once you have done so, providing the media with regular (weekly or monthly)press releases can be a cost-effective way of reinforcing your radio messages.• Audience participation/interactive program: In this program, listeners call theradio station and ask questions or give their opinions about a subject. Frequentlythe program will feature an expert on the topic as the studio guest. In countrieswhere your audience has access to telephones, this can be an effective way ofusing radio to create a dialogue.• Quiz show: This game-show format features a knowledgeable host who reinforcesaccurate, credible, factual answers and contestants in the studio or on the phone(call-in) who compete for prizes by answering questions about a subject.• Panel discussion: This type of program involves several participants withexperience or expertise but different perspectives on an issue. For example, if yourobjective is to motivate parents to treat infants within the first 24 hours ofdeveloping symptoms, you could have a panel of two or three parents talkingabout their experiences.