The media can be a great ally in engaging the community and gaining support for your programme. Besides traditional media, such as television, radio, and print; new types of media, such as social media and other internet platforms, are providing organisations and girls themselves fast and easy ways to interact with the community and its multiple stakeholders.
Traditional Media
Building relationships with traditional media outlets that will help to promote your programme can create a positive influence over other stakeholders in the community. For example, inviting radio stations or local television stations to broadcast live at events will raise awareness within the community and will also mean that more people will know about the event and be more likely to attend.
Common Barriers
- Media outlets often give attention to men’s and boys’ sport and not women’s or girls’ sport.
- The media may not understand the goals and the importance of your programme.
- Media outlets may lack of access to resources for sending reporters or media representatives to visit the programme.
- Girls’ issues do not receive much media attention.
- Some media personnel expect to be paid for covering your programme.
Incentives or Motivations for Engagement
- Media seen as promoting important initiative for girls
- Girls’ sport may be a new topic and one that has never been covered.
- Build visibility of their radio station or television station if they attend an event and are seen there by the community
- Gaining original stories about local leadership that may not be accessible to them in other places
Strategies for Engagement
- Invite media to all events that you host.
- Ask media contacts to feature stories about your participants, and ask participants if they want to learn more about media.
- Inform the media early and thoroughly about your programme.
- Radio stations, newspapers, local television, etc.
- Feature media publications about your programme on your website, or at your office.
- Follow up and thank media contacts whenever they publish something about your programme.
- Ask media to support your project by donating shirts or equipment and offer to put up a poster or banner advertising them.
- Prepare as much content and material as you can, as some media personnel may not have an interest in your programme; so the easier you make it for them to do an article, the higher your chances of publication.
- Invite media as participants in your meetings and planning of events in order to contribute to their understanding of girls’ sport programmes in general, not just events.
- Ask media personnel to give talks and presentations at events and in the programme activities.
Social Media
Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, are free tools that organisations can use to keep in touch with stakeholders and community members directly. Social media gives organisations the opportunity to share whatever they want and when they want, rather than waiting for traditional media to pick up a story or attend an event. They have complete control over how the event or information is portrayed and what to share. In addition, the girls themselves are usually knowledgeable about social media and the internet and can be great assets in helping organisations engage the community. Girls who are in positions of leadership within a programme can tell their stories about the positive influence of sport on their lives (for example through Digital Storytelling), which can then be distributed through the internet and will demonstrate to the community the benefits for girls who play sport.
Common Barriers
- Organisations may not have anyone internet-savvy or who knows how to effectively use social media.
- The internet connection may be unreliable, and this makes it hard to post or upload social media content.
- There may not be enough time and enough staff to update social media content.
- The community may have little access to internet, and, therefore, it is hard to engage the community through social media.
Incentives or Motivations for Engagement
- Free tool that is easy to use
- Complete control over content and how/when it is shared
- Organisations can portray themselves and their programmes as they want.
- Large reach if the community has access to internet
- Potential to engage international partners that would have otherwise not known about your programme or organisation
Strategies for Engagement
- Enlist the help of the girls themselves, as they are often proficient in using social media and already have networks to which they are connected.
- Share digital stories or any other stories of empowerment online.
- Use social media sites (Facebook, Twitter) and blogs to engage with local and international partners and stakeholders.
- Stay active on social media; large lulls in activity might cause you to lose supporters online.
- Try creating a posting schedule and delegate posting duties to one or two people.
How It Works
Bolivia
Gregoria Apaza is an organisation that addresses gender-based violence amongst indigenous girls and women of El Alto. In addition to running life skills, employability, and sport programmes for girls and women, GA runs their own radio station. Named ‘Panchamama Radio’, the station features continuous coverage of issues critical to addressing gender in Bolivia. Several of the programmes are directed and emceed by youth and give girls the opportunity to share their voices with the community.
Kenya
Sadili Oval has built a relationship with a local and a national sport radio station. Once a year they host a football tournament to raise awareness about safe space and HIV/AIDS. The radio stations produce a programme about the tournament and interview some of the girls of Sadili, which raises the status of the programme and raises awareness throughout Kenya.
Horn of Africa Development Initiative uses social media, specifically Facebook, to re-engage graduates of their programme as well as peers of the girls who participate in their programme. They encourage graduates to remain involved in some capacity, even if they no longer attend sessions. They also use Facebook as an effective tool to engage and report to donors.