Campaigns to End Violence against Women and Girls - Virtual ...

Think carefully of the essential points of your message that you must get across, and
make sure you practice saying them.
� Avoid being long-winded since airtime is always likely to be very short, a few minutes
at the most. Instead, speak in ‘sound-bites’, which are succinct phrases that are easy
to understand, and get your point across quickly and effectively.
� If you participate in a call-in show, mobilize campaign members to call and support
your point. Where possible, ask the radio or TV station to provide you with a
recording of the interview – this can be a helpful reference when you are monitoring
and evaluating your campaign.
WHEN DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO USE AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA?
� If the target audience frequently listens to radio and watches TV.
� If the purpose is to raise awareness, enhance the listeners’ or viewers’ knowledge,
provoke critical thought or discussions, or prompt a highly specific action (e.g. calling
a certain number).
� Radio can be an excellent channel to transmit messages to areas that are difficult to
reach by other media, since battery- or solar-powered radios function independently
from any electricity grid. However, rural households in developing countries tend to
own a single radio or TV set only, which is more commonly used and controlled by
male members of the household. As a result, messages targeted at women are less
likely to reach their audience, unless additional radios are provided that can be used
without batteries (e.g. solar-powered or wind-up). (UNIFEM, 2007: Women Building
Peace and Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict-affected Contexts). The timing of
broadcasts is also important for the same reason – women may be better able to
listen to radio messages when men are not at home, so broadcasts in the afternoon
could be more effective than in the evening or early morning.
� If the necessary resources are available or can be mobilized, e.g. funding for or probono
air time on TV and radio, and specialized audio-visual media production
expertise.
� Less onerous alternatives are community radio, which can work well with simple
formats and reach audiences that do not have access to TV, and digital video on the
internet (see e-campaigning for more information).
Audio-visual campaigning is not sufficient or appropriate if…
� It reaches only an unimportant (for campaign purposes) fraction of the target
audiences. In that case, resources may be better used on different communication
channels.
� Specialized media for marginalized groups – e.g. people with disabilities or people
who do not speak the language used in national media – does not exist. Communitylevel
activities (including community radio), and events in local languages or with
tailored audio-visual aids (e.g. materials in Braille or sign-language translation) may
be more effective to engage them.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS (PSA)
PSAs are a form of “advertisement” for the campaign message, specially produced for
the campaign and disseminated via radio and TV. PSAs can be especially useful in
large-scale/mass public awareness or behaviour-change campaigns. Experienced
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Campaigns December 2011