The Drum Beat 266 - Television

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This issue of the Drum Beat highlights just some of the different perspectives on the role television can play in fostering - or impeding - social change in communities around the world.

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EXPERIENCES

1. Educational Television Project - Uzbekistan
The British Council in Tashkent is working with the Thomson Foundation to help Uzbekistan's small, independent regional TV stations flourish. Participating stations produced 20- to 30-minute educational programmes and then shared them to make national coverage possible. The shows, which focus on English language, geography and the environment, adolescent issues, and vocation, are scheduled to begin airing in late autumn 2004.
Contact John Prescott Thomas [email protected] OR Aziza Shoismoilova [email protected]

2. Once TV (TV Eleven) - Mexico
This Instituto Politécnico Nacional TV channel works to satisfy Mexico's information and entertainment needs by exploring diverse aspects of the country's history, culture, and natural environment. It aims to cover national and international events respectfully and accurately - and to foster constructive debate. Once TV also opens spaces for talented people to contribute their creativity to TV, and promotes free access on the part of all Mexicans to public service television.
Contact [email protected] OR Alfredo Marrón [email protected]

3. Hands On - Global
A collaboration between Television Trust for the Environment, Intermediate Technology Development Group, DfID, and BBC World TV, Hands On uses television to inspire global environmental action. The strategy involves sharing examples of individuals, communities, and businesses that have developed technologies and practices to reduce poverty by protecting and enhancing the environment. Five-minute features and half-hour thematic programmes fronted by celebrities such as Prince Charles are available.
Contact [email protected]

4. TV To Africa - Africa
Voice Of America uses a broad satellite network to enable Africans and others to access television about Africa, for Africa - no matter where they live. Programmes include: 1) "Healthy Living": health news and information affecting Africans 2) "Special Report Africa": in-studio analysis and on-the-road documentaries 3) "Straight Talk Africa": a live, 1-hour call-in programme 4) "Africa Journal": expert analysis, studio discussion, news, and viewer comments 5) "Washington Forum": produced entirely in the French language, this live, half-hour weekly show analyses the latest events in Africa, the USA, and internationally.
Contact Diane Butts [email protected]

5. Same Language Subtitling [SLS] - India
SLS provides subtitles for the lyrics of music television videos and Bollywood film songs on TV. Synchronisation of audio and text is created through colour changes that strengthen grapheme-phoneme associations, which are weak in early literate people. Doordarshan India and the Indian Institute of Management began using SLS in 2002; an early project, the 30-minute Hindi programme Chitrahaar, featured 5 songs and a contest.
Contact Brij Kothari [email protected]

6. YATV Africa - Africa
In 2003, the Worldview International Foundation launched YATV Africa to address and involve Africans between the ages of 18 and 25, inviting them to tell their own stories on their own terms. The 26-minute programmes look at the realities facing young people who are infected and who care for people with HIV/AIDS. They also provide insight into traditional sex education teachings and explore how these teachings have changed over time. The goal is to provide information while avoiding moralistic or judgmental messages that could alienate the viewer. Participants are encouraged to speak their own home languages.
Contact Firdoze Bubulia [email protected]

7. Hollywood, Health & Society - United States
The Norman Lear Center aims to provide entertainment industry professionals with timely information for health storylines through briefings, seminars, consultation, and a website. An annual award recognises daytime dramas (TV soap operas) and prime time dramas and comedies that inform, educate, and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives.
Contact Vicki Beck [email protected] OR [email protected]

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Fourth International Entertainment Education Conference (EE4)

From September 26th to 30th 2004 delegates from around the world - social scientists, researchers, health communication experts, educators, marketing professionals, artists, advertising/entertainment media producers/distributors and representatives from government and international funding organisations - will come together in Cape Town, South Africa for the EE4. Discussions will focus on recent developments in entertainment-education programmes around the world, sharing experiences in EE, opportunities and challenges, and developing a consensus towards further enhancing the Entertainment-Education methodology and field practice. The conference aims to explore varied forms of communication including story telling, songs and drama, mass communication approaches, and related theories and research.

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STRATEGIC THINKING

8. Voice Out: An Entertainment-Education Approach?
by Liza Azia
The Entertainment-Education (EE) approach "is theory based, utilises a comprehensive evaluation process with formative evaluation being paramount, it is a highly consultative process, its design makes purposive use of an entertaining medium to enhance and facilitate behaviour change, and it employs impact evaluation of the intervention. In this study we have chosen to examine...Voice Out, which was broadcast on the free-to-air channel [in South Africa], SABC 1."

9. Maori Television Boosts Kiwi Culture and Language
by Althea Campbell
In April 2003, a TV channel was launched as part of a push to revive the Maori language. Although broadcasts are in both Maori and English, the style is mostly "kiwi", "the laid-back approach which is a typical aspect of New Zealand culture". Gauged through letters to local newspapers, the response has been quite positive. One viewer exclaimed, "At last! Television for Kiwis and programming with potential to nourish and educate our children."

TRENDS

10. Rural Broadcasting In Ghana
by S. Abbey-Mensah
This author states that rural broadcasting is important in Ghana because farmers constitute the majority of the population. Television effectively transmits public information to this group "because it combines picture and sound, making it more interesting and attractive. However, radio remains the most popular, as it is comparatively cheap and can operate easily on ordinary dry cell batteries; therefore, without electricity". There are about 219 radio receivers to 1000 people, versus 13 TV receivers; the latter are mostly found in urban areas.

11. Turn Off Your TV
by Tom Cowin
Mobilised by the belief that TV "turns people into passive consumers rather than active community members", 5 million people in the USA took part in a 2003 TV turn-off week. One study links "rapid increase" in television viewing to a "marked decrease" in the number of participants in community groups and activities since the 1950's. The author argues that the "growth of alternative, community based news websites such as indymedia and the huge surge in sign ups to the al-jazeera web service during the Iraq conflict" indicates "people's growing frustration with what they are being offered by conventional media".

12. Under-6s watch up to six hours of TV daily
by Colin Blackstock
86% of UK children younger than 6 watch up to 6 hours of TV every day. The chief inspector of schools complains that parents put their children in front of the TV instead of talking to them, playing with them, or disciplining them (leading to poor behaviour in school). One psychologist suggests that children whose parents watch TV with them and then discuss the meaning of what they have seen can benefit emotionally and mentally.

13. Doctor says kids should watch more TV
by Peter Nieman
"There is indeed such a thing as good television". Physician Peter Nieman cites a study of 600 high-school children: Those who had watched "Sesame Street" most often as 4- and 5-year-olds were doing better in English, math, and science. They also read books for leisure more often than their peers. But Dr. Nieman notes that TV can encourage sedentary lifestyles, contribute to poor nutrition and obesity, foster an unhealthy body image, encourage substance use and high-risk sexual behaviour, and lead to aggression and desensitisation to violence.

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Communication for Social Change 'Body of Knowledge'

Available to all, in one place, an online guide to publications, books, articles, brochures, pamphlets, position papers and other writings on communication for social change and development communication. This is a comprehensive, searchable body of knowledge about communication for social change and its principles of voice, dialogue, equity and participant-driven sustainable change - developed by the Communication for Social Change Consortium.

Click here for the Body of Knowledge

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MATERIALS

14. Fall Colors: Prime Time Diversity Report 2003-04
"40 percent of American youth ages 19 and under are children of color, yet few of the faces they see on television represent their race or cultural heritage. Similarly, though females slightly outnumber males in the real world, prime-time television continues to present a world that is overwhelmingly male. Therefore, television not only fails to accurately reflect the world in which young people live, but it also sends a message that some groups of people are more valued by society and worthy of attention than others."

15. Writing for Television
by Gerald Kelsey
Introduces readers to key television production methods and the particular requirements of script layout. Describes techniques for producing news scripts, and for managing the transition from writing for print media to TV. Provides sample scripts from recognised TV shows.

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PULSE POLL

If you are journalist then you are a development communicator.

[For context, please see The Drum Beat 265]

Do you agree or disagree?

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This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

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