Your audience will determine your choices in the types of media your organisation will engage.
Mass media– Print (newspapers, magazines), TV, radio. Despite the sharp decline in newspaper readership globally, newspapers are still an important source of news in Africa. Politicians, policy makers and others still refer to newspapers for information and to gauge public opinion. However, the penetration of newspapers is still hampered by low literacy levels and poor distribution networks. Radio remains the most important source of information for both urban and rural communities. It also has immense capacity for wider coverage and ability to integrate a diverse range of programme forms.
Community media - Community media is important because of its ability to focus and cover issues within a particular community. For example, journalists who work for community radio stations are often from the community. However, community radio stations have limitations of geographical coverage, they are poorly resourced and their journalists and editors are not trained.
New media – This is an area of startling growth in Africa, which has seen people accessing and disseminating information in ways that were inconceivable a decade ago. People are using new media (internet, email, blogs, SMS platforms, etc.) to access and disseminate social, political and economic information. New media also offers new ways to develop partnership with telecommunication companies to disseminate critical issues from research that can change people’s lives.
Who is who in the media, what they do?
Knowing and understanding the different people who work in the media and the roles they play is critical in developing an effective media engagement strategy.
Journalists/ Reporter (specialist beat reporters, features) – Journalists are the ‘hunters and gatherers’ of news. They also make decisions about which stories to cover. It is critical to identify which journalists cover your type of issues and develop a relationship with them. Send them background information, keep them up-dated of developments in your organization and share your diary with them.
Sub-Editors - They are very important individuals because they determine ‘end product’. They edit stories for structure, factual correctness, length and ensure that story is written according to style guidelines. They also write headlines and captions for photographs. Because they often work on very strict deadlines, sometimes their decisions maybe detrimental to the stories they publish about your organisation. Target this group for training and work with them to produce tools to help them do their work better.
Editors – These are often designated based on the roles they play (Editor-in-Chief, Assignment, News, Features, Special Projects, Business, Financial, Obituaries, etc.). This group of people are also known as the gatekeeper's because they decide on what is published, what prominence it gets. They also guide journalist on the sources they would like to see in the story. Seek their audience and make your work known to them. They should be the target for media advocacy to ensure that they include on their agenda, coverage of your issues.
Media Managers – They formulate and implement policy and they are also responsible for administration and human resources management. Decisions on what the media organisation covers, how it will be done, by whom and with what resources are often done by media managers. For example, if your research shows that violence against women is escalating because of the lack of or stereotyped coverage, you should target this group to formulate policies that could help address this issue. Like other organisations, media organisations want to be seen as good role models on coverage of certain issues – consequently they are open to ideas.
Owners and Governance structures (Board of Directors) - They ensure that the organisation operates within the framework of its statues and mission but they are not involved in the day-to-day running of the organisation. They generally cannot influence the work of editorial staff. It is important for them to understand your issues to help them in making policy recommendations to managers.