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Masters in Education Sam Coley 2008

“The Hardest Sell”

“What are the practices and staff justifications behind the creation of public service announcements produced by the BBC World Service Trust’s sexual

health and reproduction project in Ethiopia, 2006 – 2007?”

Hypothesis

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AIM: “To increase young people’s knowledge on key sexual and

reproductive health issues and to empower them with the life skills

they need to make positive decisions about their

sexual health”

FUNDED BY: EUROPEAN COMMISSION

AND H.A.P.C.O.

BBC World Service Trust in partnership with Radio Ethiopia

A two year radio programme to promote sexual health among

Ethiopian youth

Aims

• To undertake a research project which aims to investigate the practices behind the creation of health related radio messages in developing countries. This will be underpinned by closely examining the training/production/scripting methods relating to the BBC World Service Trust’s radio programme in Ethiopia. The project will follow a path of “critical research” and will examine the relationship between first world radio advertising techniques and their application in the context of third world health campaigns.

Theoretical perspectives• Theories relating to culture and communication

• Issues surrounding the effects of institutionalisation will be closely examined. These will cover examples such as the conservative influence of the Ethiopian Church , the Ethiopian Government’s tight control of the media, and the hierarchical structure of the BBC WST

• Theories relating to recall and memory will also be assessed. These will draw from the field of psychology.

• Industry accepted radio and radio advertising principles will be questioned. This will examine which scripting/production techniques ensure the most effective recall of educational messages delivered by radio. This research tests the presupposition that entertaining, highly produced “commercial” approaches achieve higher recall.

• International Health initiatives

• Research strategies;

• Interviews (qualitative)

• Participation Observation

• Ethnography

Literature review

• Previous academic investigations relating to the delivery of health related messages in developing countries

• Advertising literature• Publications, journals etc. relating to radio in

developing countries• Case studies from the advertising research.• Specific research from the project will also be

incorporated into the project, such as BBC WST Training reports

Literature

Review

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• Addis Zena, Sept. 19, 2005: “The people of Ethiopia have clearly been robbed of their voices. A party or a government that conspired to rob the voice of its own people should never be given legitimacy. Even if it wants to stay in power, the people would only chant 'Thief! Thief!’ and would not let it happen. And because the electoral board has been the main organizer and accomplice of such robbery, it should be denounced and should lose its credibility.”

• “Opposition parties must provide wise leadership in recovering the voice of the people from the party that has stolen it in order to stay in power.”

• AL Ries and Jack Trout. Advertising consultants with over 50 years of shared experience in the advertising industry.

• Wrote “The 22 immutable Laws Of Marketing” (AL Ries and Jack Trout, Harper Collins Business London 1993)

• Ries and Trout defend the existence of common advertising “laws” by commenting “there are laws of nature, so why shouldn’t there be laws of marketing?”.

• “All truth is relative” / “They have a sense of personal infallibility. Most people assume their own perceptions are more accurate than those of their neighbours or friends.”

• “A perception that exists in the mind is often interpreted as a universal truth. People are seldom, if ever, wrong. At least in their own minds.”

The 22 immutable Laws Of Marketing / AL Ries and Jack Trout

Harper Collins Business London 1993

• Nigel Foster: “Bluff Your Way In Advertising” (Ravette Books, 1988)

Foster comments; “advertising is essentially to do with human behaviour, it can only be an inexact science at best, and usually something of a gamble.”

Interviews

Doctor Negussie TefferaPopulation Media Centre

• “The Population Media Centre is not here to entertain the Ethiopian public. Really, the main purpose is to put the message across to the targeted audience - in entertainment fashion. So in that regard we always make a balance. That the educational aspect is not undermined… or the entertainment aspect of it is not undermined. But we always keep focus that there must always be a message.”

Soloman AmareResearcher BBC WST

• “I think this is a global issue. Where-ever you go in the whole of Africa or Asia young people are exhibiting a shift to embracing western culture – western music. But there is a difference between city and rural areas. In city areas most young people tend to like western music – but in the rural areas where 85% of the population live - they will still tend to like their own music.”

Kaylois Henry : Former Project Manager Of World Service Trust

Project, Addis Ababa

• “For a long time the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia has been very hands off when it came to making any kind of changes – or doing anything that involved trying to help communities basically turn that corner when it came to dealing with traditional practices. Usually harmful traditional practices.”

Other Research…

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According to the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey in 2000, only 20.7% of households owned a radio: 61.3% of urban households and

12.8% of rural ones (CSA, 2000). A more recent survey found that around half (48.3%) of the population own a radio set (InterMedia, 2005).

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A recent comparative study between 2003 and 2004/5 undertaken by InterMedia found radio

listening had increased nationally from 59.5% to 74.7% of the population during that period.

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Study Methodology and Profile of Respondents

• Focus Group Discussion (FGD) as main technique of data collection

• Information obtained through FGDs were also supplemented by key informant interviews held in the same sites and review of literature and archival documents.

• 80 discussants grouped in 8 FGDs (4 in each site) participated. Among these, female participants aged 15 –18 were 11 and 10 in Fogera and Bahirdar, respectively, while the number of males in the same age category was 22, (11 in each site). Female discussants in the age group 19-24, were 8 and 10 in respectively and male participants in the same age Fogera and Bahirdar category were 9 and 10 in Fogera and Bahirdar respectively.

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Research Objectives• To identify the appeal of radio spots

addressing SRH and HIV/AIDS

• To make sure that the message is clearly communicated

• To make sure that the spots are sound in terms of values, beliefs and culture of the society in general and the target group in particular.

• To learn about how young people perceive and understand health related spots

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BASED ON THE RESPONSE FOR THE FIRST QUESTION ASK

1 Why do you like it? OR Why do you dislike it?

FIRST IMPRESSION,

APPEAL/OFF-PUTTING

BASED ON THE RESPONSE FOR THE SECOND QUESTION ASK

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Is the message clear? What gave you that idea? Are there any words you did not understand?

CLARITY, COMPREHENSION

3 What kind of image does this voice/s communicate to you?

VOICES

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Do you find this spot convincing? Does it motivate you do anything? What? Do you think you would do it? Why?

CREDIBILITY, CALL-TO-ACTION

5 Is this message/spot relevant to you? Why? Why not? Do you think the radio spot is meant for people like yourself, or is it for other people? Why?Is there anything that you heard that might offend or make you (some people) feel uncomfortable? What?

APPROPRIATENESS

6 What do you think can be done to make this a better radio spot?

IMPROVEMENT

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PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS1.Do you like the spot? YES NO

2.What is the message? Please write __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MODERATOR: NOW DISTRIBUTE THE SECOND SET OF CARDS WHICH WILL BE FILLED BY PARTICIPANTS. GIVE THEM TWO MINUTES AND

COLLECT BACK.

1.Which two spot do you like most? _______________________________

______________________________________________________

1.Which two spots do you like least? _______________________________

__________________________________________________

ASSISTANT MODERATOR: SUMMARIZE THE RESPONSES FOR THE FIRST SET OF QUESTIONS AND PROVIDE IT TO

THE MODERATOR.

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“This group of discussants, on the one hand seemed to be highly politicized probably due to the fact that in the recent political turmoil of the country, youth in general and out of school (unemployed) youth in particular have been targeted as potentially dangerous and trouble makers by the law enforcement bodies, and that they are victims of a multitude of socio- economic problems.”

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Radio Listening

All most all respondents were found to have access to radio.

Their preferred channels included:

• Voice of America (VOA) • German voice• Radio Amhara • Bahirdar Fm• Radio Ethiopia

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Popular Programmes on Radio Ethiopia

• Yeken Kignet (popular serial drama produced by PMC)

• Yibekal (HIV/AIDS related program)

• Music

• Folklore Narration (Tireka)

• International news

• Sport news

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• “We are tired of lies and malice of Radio Ethiopia. Although German voice is not as aggressive in finding current realities, at least it never lied to us. VOA is always telling us the truth. We want to be continuously informed of what is happening in our country, but could not get it from the Ethiopian sources. That is why we were compelled to look for reliable sources and shifted to listening to VOA”

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• One boy said responding what his view was regarding BBC WST intending to broadcast youth-focused programs through Radio Ethiopia…

• “How could an innocent and trustworthy businessman think to have clients and make profits while people knew that he has associated with robbers and socially unaccepted group of people? The success of such a businessman is very unlikely”

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• “Once, soon after the 2005 election, students in Woreta Agricultural College were locked in their campus and being tortured by the Federal Police protesting against the alleged election fraud. That very day I listened to Radio Ethiopia announcing that youths and college students in Woreta Agricultural College supported the process and outcome of the 2005 election.

It was a lie and this only one example”.

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• “What comes to my mind is dirty politics”

• “What comes to mind is Election 2005”

• “The massacre in Addis Ababa and other major towns of Ethiopia”

• “I simply feel frustrated and hopeless”

• “I to think how to get rid of this channel”

• “I feel petty to the journalists who work for Radio Ethiopia how could they dare live among us?”

• “Propaganda and only foolish, dirty propaganda”, etc.