hitch-hikers’ (rough) guide to the media...media-based communication… • necessary but not...
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Hitch-hikers’ (Rough) Guide to
the Media
.…..TVE Asia Pacific......
CommunicationMany methods, processes, strategies,
channels & technologies
Mass Media
Print: text-based
Radio: audio-basedTV/Video: audio-visual
New media
Convergent media
Media is a plural!
Media is contested space
• No assured coverage for anyone
• No ‘quotas’ for any sector
• Marketplace of ideas, arguments
• Responsibility to audiences
• Legal & regulatory framework
Media-based
communication…
• Necessary but not sufficient
• This alone may not lead to policy or social change
• But very useful to:– Trigger discussion/debate
– Create ‘ripples’ in society
– Inspire chain reactions
• Not an end by itself, but a beginning
Situation analysis
• Research to communicate
• Defined audiences to reach
• Believe it’s socially important to communicate
• Don’t have enough money to buy media space/time
• Help!
All ready – but no vehicle?
• We know where to go…
• Cargo to carry…
• Need to get there fast…
• No vehicle of our own…
• Can afford bus fare…but
• Buses don’t go everywhere!
Travel options
• Own a vehicle…
• Charter a vehicle…
• Go by bus/train, get off & walk
the rest of distance…
• Hitch a ride…
• Just walk…
Using mass media: options
• Own a media company
• Buy entire issues/editions/time slots
• Insert short, strategic adverts
• Work with media for free, quality coverage = hitching a ride
• Ignore the media entirely…walk on your own
Engaging media: hazards!
• Media prone to manipulation, distortion, commercial pressures, sensationalism, etc.
• Media’s constituency & mandate may vary from our own interests
• It’s an industry, not a charity!
• Has its own particular needs, preferences, operational methods
Our choice…
• On the whole, risks of working with media worth the many benefits
• Cautious engagement needed
• Match media’s interests with ours
• Identify common ground (synergy)
• Respect their rules & wishes…try to negotiate space/time for your need
To continue our analogy…
• We don’t get on just any bus
• Look for like-mindedness
• Make friends with driver!
• Share journey with other fellow passengers
• Enrich the journey
• Have fun doing it!
Money, money, money…
• Should we pay media for coverage?
• Do we pay for hitchhiking?
Paying corrupts media!
• Cheque-book journalism: when media pays a source for exclusive use of a story
• Check-book development: when development or humanitarian agencies pay media outlets for carrying their public interest content
• Both wrong!
3 ways to engage mediawithout paying…
1. Offer ready-made items/material to media (supply model)
2. Create media material with the media (co-pro model)
3. Give info & allow full access for media to make their own material (raw-mat model)
Can work for print, radio, TV
Imperfect solution…
• Media relations not a one-off
• An incremental relationship
• Two-way street
• Friends in media help, but…
• don’t get locked into exclusivity
• Honesty, openness, being accessible
• Media: fickle & transient – live with it!
When you hitch-hike…
• Know when & where to get off
Can moving images
really move people?
.…..TVE Asia Pacific......
Can moving images
really move people?
• ‘Being moved’ involves:– Finding out about something
– Understanding causes/effects/impacts
– Relating it to our own lives/lifestyles
– Knowing how/where we can intervene
– Being motivated to take action
– Then actually doing it!
• Moving images can trigger, inspire or initiate…but cannot complete task on its own
TVEAP experience shows...
Moving images can move people
But only when:
- used in the right context
- broadcast+narrowcast combination
- part of a bigger effort/campaign
- a/v strengths are maximised
- a/v limitations are recognised
Audio-visual spheres
BroadcastNarrowcast
Use airwaves, cable or web
Accessible to many at once
Point-to-multipoint
Use small group situations
Engage a few people but more interactively
One location at a time
Which mode?
• Broadcast:
– Hit or miss: no control possible
– Like throwing food into a river
• Narrowcast:
– More control possible
– Like throwing food into a fish pond
• Webcast:
– Fully controlled and monitored
– Like your home aquarium
Three choices…
1. Totally broadcast: happy with inherent limitations; agree to all demands by media gatekeepers
2. Totally narrowcast: ignore TV industry completely; focus on small group use of video
3. Hybrid: Find how we can mix both + web, in ways that will enhance outreach & impact
TVEAP Learning 1
• Use broadcasts as starting point, not as an end by itself.
• Highlights on broadcast: quick, short, interesting to mass audience
• Detailed engagement done using narrowcast video + other media (online, radio, print)
• Cross-media promotion: create a buzz online, in newspapers, radio, etc.
Other a/v choices…
1. What is the main audience?
2. Which a/v formats to use?
3. Is a/v part of a wider campaign?
4. What distribution methods?
5. One-off use…or long shelf-life?
Needed: A clear strategy for
production AND distribution!
Defining purpose
What are we trying to accomplish?
• Simple awareness raising?
• Deepening understanding
• Advocating policy/law change?
• Resisting something?
• Campaign?
• Call to action?
• Presenting evidence?
• Combination of above?
Defining audience
Who do we need to reach/engage?
• School teachers?
• Students (at which level?)
• Farmers or fishermen?
• Housewives?
• Policy-makers/decision-makers?
• Teen-agers?
• Researchers?
• Residents in a particular area?
TVEAP learning 2
• One video film can’t be all things to all people!
• No such thing as ‘general public’: many publics!
• Defining purpose & audiences/s is so very important
• Try out different formats…including ‘tabloid’ styles on TV
Choosing Formats
• Within a/v media, different approaches available
• Costs, work and impacts vary
• Decide which one/s work for you
• Need to research, think, innovate!
A/v Formats
• Documentaries: educational or informative (long/short docs)
• Drama: story enacted using actors & sets/locations; similar to feature film (a.k.a. soap operas)
• Docu-drama: partly-dramatised documentary; drama used to make info content more appealing
More a/v formats…
• Panels/studio debates: 4 – 5 persons engaged in a discussion, preferably with studio audience
• Interview: presenter engaged in a chat with one personality
• News: concise item capturing highlights of a newsworthy event or development
More a/v formats…
• Public Service Announcement (PSA): 1 min or less; similar to an
ad, but with public interest message
• Animation: cartoons + other types
of animations to communicate
message/s
• Music videos: Video clip of songs
to inspire behaviour change
• Reality TV formats
• Other: room for innovation!
Good story telling
• Communicate research through real life stories/case studies
• Real people responding to life’s many challenges
• Focus on people at the cutting edge of survival
• How research can solve their needs and problems
What makes a good story?
Simple test for mass appeal: NTI
• New?
• True?
• Interesting?
If NTI is high:
• media will pick it up
• People will like it more
• Message has better chance
What doesn’t make a story
• Detailed technicalities in laws, regulations, technology or diplomacy: BORING!
• Administrative/institutional details
• Repetitions of the same activity.
These maybe good for simple publicity, but don’t enhance awareness, or change behaviour.
Also watch out…
• Copyright position:
– Restricted: why?
– Fully unrestricted/open
– Creative Commons?
• Technology choices:
– Betacam/MiniDV/DVCam/HD?
– DVD regional coding (or free)?
– Online video platform: which one?
– Media file type: PC/Apple divide?
Our big challenge…
Our bigger challenge…
.…..TVE Asia Pacific......
A few examples from TVEAP productions
Screening of selected extracts from
TVEAP productions
Using new media…
• Decide if relevant to your country, issue & audience
• New media growing, spreading, consolidating…
• MSM/New media interplay?
• New rules for new media engagement…not all clear
• Range of options
Reference…
Development 2.0 to
catch up with web 2.0
by Nalaka Gunawardene
i4d Magazine
August 2008
http://www.i4donline.net/articles/current-article.asp?Title=Web-2.0&articleid=2122&typ=Features
Four challenges…
• Leave ‘comfort zone’ of paper
– Move from paper to digital media
– in info gathering, storage, analysis
and dissemination
– Paperless society delayed?
Four challenges…
• Letting go of ‘control’
– Interactive & participatory
– User-generated content (UGC)
– not always coherent or articulate
– Having a conversation, not
monologue
– Finally, two-way communication!
Four challenges…
• Less money, more time?
– Everybody can be a publisher
– Entry costs much less than before
– But engagement takes lots of time!
– Sustained efforts needed
• People have info needs & wants
– Human info environment complex
– Understand nuances & dynamics
– Relate to each audience accordingly
"I never know what works...
but I love trying."
- Brian Lam, Editor, Gizmodo
www.gizmodo.com
www.youtube.com/TVEAPfilms
www.tveap.orgwww.digits4change.net
www.childrenoftsunami.infowww.savingtheplanet.tv
.…..TVE Asia Pacific......
Assignment:
The art of the sound-bite
What are we talking about?
Two individuals proceeded towards the apex of a
natural geological protuberance, the purpose of
their expedition being the procurement of a sample
of fluid hybride of oxygen in a large vessel, the
exact size of which was unspecified.
One member of the team precipitously descended,
sustaining severe damage to the upper cranial
portion of his anatomical structure.
Subsequently, the second member of the team
performed a self rotational translation oriented in
the same direction taken by the first team member.
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after
Nalaka Gunawardene Manori Wijesekera
<[email protected]> <[email protected]>
http://movingimages.wordpress.com