"We report on an experiment that used podcast audio-drama as a medium to generate impact from academic outputs in a creative, inclusive and collaborative way. Tobias and Syd was a serialized podcast audio-drama published in January 2023 based on ideas contained in the book Anthropology of Tobacco an
...
d personal narratives from the Wellcome Trust funded ‘Letter to the Breath’ project. The series aimed to generate conversations and discussions, rather than conclusions, about the role of tobacco in society today. It was a collaborative project involving contributions from diverse stakeholders. In addition to developing, producing and promoting the play, the educational value and dialogic space of the podcast was enhanced through four recorded webinar events based on key themes in the drama. Podcast audio-drama has the potential to open up new perspectives on contentious public health issues like tobacco use and abuse. We reflect on some of the processes involved and the challenges encountered in this case." (Abstract)
more
"This case study describes a successful nutrition social marketing program in Afghanistan. By building up the domestic soy industry and supply chain, while creating consumer demand for high-protein soy products to combat malnutrition, the Nosh-e-Jaan campaign rebalanced the market dynamics for this
...
relatively unknown locally grown crop. The campaign included technical assistance to the soy industry and retailers, a consumer media campaign, and community outreach via influencers, government agencies, and events. Outcomes included increases in awareness of soy, purchase of soy products, and knowledge about protein. This project provides critical lessons for those planning social marketing programs in similar settings." (Abstract)
more
"We provide a scoping review of Digital Health Interventions (DHIs) that mitigate COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation seeding and spread. Materials and Methods: We applied our search protocol to PubMed, PsychINFO, and Web of Science to screen 1666 articles. The 17 articles included in this pa
...
per are experimental and interventional studies that developed and tested public consumer-facing DHIs. We examined these DHIs to understand digital features, incorporation of theory, the role of healthcare professionals, end-user experience, and implementation issues. Results: The majority of studies (n=11) used social media in DHIs, but there was a lack of platform-agnostic generalizability. Only half of the studies (n=9) specified a theory, framework, or model to guide DHIs. Nine studies involve healthcare professionals as design or implementation contributors. Only one DHI was evaluated for user perceptions and acceptance. Discussion: The translation of advances in online social computing to interventions is sparse. The limited application of behavioral theory and cognitive models of reasoning has resulted in suboptimal targeting of psychosocial variables and individual factors that may drive resistance to misinformation. This affects large-scale implementation and community outreach efforts. DHIs optimized through community-engaged participatory methods that enable understanding of unique needs of vulnerable communities are urgently needed. Conclusions: We recommend community engagement and theory-guided engineering of equitable DHIs. It is important to consider the problem of misinformation and disinformation through a multilevel lens that illuminates personal, clinical, cultural, and social pathways to mitigate the negative consequences of misinformation and disinformation on human health and wellness." (Abstract)
more
"Background: Large-scale social and behavioral change communication (SBCC) approaches can be beneficial to achieve improvements in knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP). Addressing Stunting in Tanzania Early (ASTUTE) included a significant SBCC component and targeted precursors to stunting inclu
...
ding KAP related to maternal and child health, antenatal care, WASH, childhood development, and male involvement. METHODS: Baseline, midline, and endline surveys were conducted for a total of 14,996 female caregivers and 6726 male heads of household in the Lake Zone region of Tanzania. Regression analyses were used to estimate differences in KAP from baseline to midline and endline. Results: Women’s knowledge of handwashing and infant/child feeding practices, and attitudes related to male involvement, consistently improved from baseline to midline and baseline to endline. Women’s practices related to antenatal care, breastfeeding, and early child development improved from baseline to midline and baseline to endline. Improvements in KAP among male heads of household were varied across indicators with consistent improvement in practices related to child feeding practices from baseline to midline and baseline to endline. Conclusion: Many changes in KAP were observed from baseline to midline and baseline to endline and corresponded with SBCC programming in the region. These results provide support for the value of large SBCC interventions. Public health efforts in settings such as Tanzania may benefit from adopting these approaches." (Abstract)
more
"Radio-based entertainment education (EE) programs have long been a way to communicate health-related information, particularly in developing countries. To explore the effectiveness of these campaigns, we used meta-analysis to examine the results of 20 published studies on the effectiveness of healt
...
h messages embedded in radio-based EE programs. The results suggest that these messages had small but significant effects in changing health related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. We also found that research methods, health issues, and exposure levels were significant moderators of these effects. These results have both theoretical and practical implications." (Abstract)
more
"This article cross-pollinates environmental media studies with socialist China’s anti-snail fever campaign media, including two 1965 science education films, a 1961 song book, all entitled ‘Song wensheng’ (‘Sending away god of plague’), and a 1970 'Chijiao yisheng shouce' (‘The handbook
...
for barefoot doctors’). Through studying popular audio-visual and print media produced to support the socialist state-sponsored campaign against snail fever – the longest anti-zoonotic campaign in China – I adopt a cross-media approach to campaign media. Unpacking the environmental unconscious in campaign media, I advance the concept of compost media to intervene in environmental media studies by going beyond critiquing the Capitaloscene, and revealing socialist campaign media as quintessential to environmental media." (Abstract)
more
"Social media platforms have a wide and influential reach, and as such provide anopportunity to increase vaccine uptake. To date, there is no large-scale, robust evidence on the offline effects of online messaging campaigns. We aimed to test whether pre-tested, persuasive messaging campaigns from UN
...
ICEF, disseminated on Facebook, influenced COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Ukraine, India, and Pakistan. In Ukraine, we deployed a stepped-wedge randomized controlled trial (RCT). Half of the 24 oblasts (provinces) received five weeks of the intervention, the other half ten weeks of the intervention. In India, an RCT with an augmented synthetic control was conducted in five states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan), whereby 40 out of 174 districts were randomized to receive six weeks of intervention. In Pakistan we deployed a pre-post design, whereby 25 city districts received six weeks of the intervention. Weekly COVID-19 vaccination data was sourced through government databases. Using Poisson regression models, the association between the intervention and vaccine uptake was estimated. In Ukraine we conducted a survey among Facebook users at three time points during the RCT, to ascertain vaccination intentions and trust in vaccines. The campaigns reached more than 110 million Facebook users and garnered 2.9 million clicks. In Ukraine, we found that the intervention did not affect oblast-level vaccination coverage (Relative Risk (RR): 0.93, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.86-1.01). Similarly, in India and Pakistan we found no effect of our intervention (India: RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.70-1.04; Pakistan: RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.01-29.9). The survey among Facebook users in Ukraine showed that trust in vaccines and information sources was an important predictor of vaccination status and intention to get vaccinated. Our campaigns on Facebook had a wide reach, which did not translate in shifting behaviours. Timing and external events may have limited the effectiveness of our interventions." (Abstract)
more
"To understand how communication action is conceived and practiced, we conducted a scoping review with a focus on two diseases currently targeted for elimination: lymphatic filariasis (LF) and Chagas disease (CD). We examined 43 studies published between 2012 and 2020 to identify communication pract
...
ices, theoretical frameworks informing communication action and levels of intended influence. Community participation was the goal most commonly pursued through communication action, both in LF and CD strategies; important attempts at expanding the scope and reach of this practice were identified. However, our results indicate that while the field of health communication has gained complexity in the understanding of the nature of communication ecologies in public health interventions, neglected tropical diseases (NTD) research has maintained a superficial involvement with health communication theory and science. This article is a call to action to consider the resources offered by the health communication field when researching, designing, or implementing NTD interventions to enhance the possibilities of communication action in implementation settings." (Author summary)
more
"BBC Media Action’s innovative sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) project - Ma Shet Ne (Don’t be shy!) – was designed to support young people living in Yangon to access quality information and realise their rights. Research findings show that young people are highly engaged with the
...
digital content. They reported learning and becoming more open-minded and confident to talk about SHRH topics." (Page 1)
more
"The book answers two interrelated questions: how media and communication reality changed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how media and communication were effectively studied during this time. The book presents changes in media and communication in three areas: media production,
...
media content and media usage contexts. It then describes the theoretical and practical, methodological, technical, organizational, and ethical challenges in conducting research in circumstances of sudden change in research conditions, emergency situations and developing crises. Drawing on various theoretical studies and empirical research, the volume illustrates the principles and results of applying diverse research methods to the changing role of media in a pandemic and offers good practices and guidance to address the problems in implementing research projects in a time of sudden difficulties and challenges." (Publisher description)
more
"Internews in South Sudan has now been on the ground for 7 months, providing lifesaving information about the COVID-19 pandemic to at risk and affected populations, including to refugees, IDPs and those living in PoCs. With the publication of our 10th Lugara newsletter we would like to first say tha
...
nk you for reading our bulletins! Even though our project is coming to an end, Internews will continue to mainstream COVID-19 in to existing programs and interventions as part of the national COVID-19 response transition plan. We are eager to hear from you on how any future Internews newsletters could best serve communities and partners – please send us your feedback on what you gained from Lugara and other topics of interest we could consider. Through the publication of the Lugara COVID-19 Media bulletins (you can find an overview of all our published resources below), we have sought to strengthen the quality of communications around COVID-19 and response mechanisms. We have collaborated with local media by building their capacity to gather, analyze, assess, and report accurate and timely COVID-19 related information." (Page 1)
more
"This report presents the findings from the evaluation of the ASTUTE media campaign. Three cross-sectional surveys were conducted before, during, and at the end of the campaign, with questions targeted to female caregivers and male heads of households when they were available. The impact of the camp
...
aign is estimated by looking at change in key indicators over time (an uncontrolled before-and-after analysis) as well as the association of indicators with reported campaign exposure (cross-sectional analysis at endline). Primary and secondary outcomes were pre-specified for each of the message themes prior to analysis. Over 21,000 men and women with children under two were surveyed across the three timepoints, and the majority of participants reported exposure to the campaign. At endline, 60% of female caregivers and 70% of men had heard or seen spots on the radio or TV. While exposure was even higher among regular radio listeners, the campaign still reached over 40% of individuals who did not report listening regularly. This high level of campaign exposure translated to large impacts across several of the programme themes. The strongest, most consistent evidence for impact was observed for engagement in early childhood development-related activities (for both men and women), for outcomes relating to maternal health and nutrition (including antenatal care attendance) and for WASH indicators. Exclusive breastfeeding indicators also improved over the time period of the campaign, and by the end of the campaign the prevalence of positive outcomes for the majority of breastfeeding indicators had reached a high level (>90%) such that the campaign may have had limited ability to achieve further improvements. Complementary feeding indicators also improved over the time span of the campaign. However the proportions of children receiving the target minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet by the end of the campaign remained low with limited evidence that exposure to the campaign had had a substantial impact on these indicators." (Executive summary)
more
"There has been exponential growth in the numbers of ‘digital development’ programmes seeking to leverage technology to solve systemic challenges. However, despite promising results and a shift from pilots to scale-ups, many have failed to realise their full potential. This paper reflects on les
...
sons learnt from scaling and transitioning one of the largest mobile health programmes in the world to the Indian government. The complementary suite of services was designed by BBC Media Action to strengthen families’ reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health behaviours. Mobile Academy was a training course to refresh frontline health workers’ (FLHWs) knowledge and improve their interpersonal communication skills. Mobile Kunji was a job aid to support FLHWs’ interactions with families. Kilkari delivered weekly audio information to families’ phones to reinforce FLHWs’ counselling. As of April 2019, when Mobile Academy and Kilkari were transitioned to the government, 206 000 FLHWs had graduated and Kilkari had reached 10 million subscribers. Lessons learnt include the following: (1) private sector business models are challenging in low-resource settings; (2) you may pilot ‘apples’ but scale ‘oranges’; (3) trade-offs are required between ideal solution design and affordability; (4) programme components should be reassessed before scaling; (5) operational viability at scale is a prerequisite for sustainability; (6) consider the true cost of open-source software; (7) taking informed consent in low-resource settings is challenging; (8) big data offer promise, but social norms and SIM change constrain use; (9) successful government engagements require significant capacity; (10) define governance structures and roadmaps up front." (Abstract)
more
"On June 25, 2020, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo declared the end of the Ebola outbreak in Eastern DRC – the 10th in the country’s history and the second largest after the West Africa Ebola outbreak. The outbreak recorded over 3,000 Ebola cases and left over 2,000 deaths1. W
...
hile the end of the outbreak marked an important milestone, it underscores the important role of partners including those of government and ordinary people in contributing to the end of the epidemic. In the mix of this, Internews was an integral member of the response effort. Over the course of project implementation, Internews produced over 1,300 radio programs which were aired more than 200,000 times on Internews 46 partner radio stations in North Kivu and Ituri – providing a platform for engaging audiences and affected population with accurate, life-saving, and relevant information.
A KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) survey conducted in December 2020 highlighted the important role and impact of Internews programming on audiences. The survey shows 68.8% of respondents reported to have heard about or listened to Internews radio program, KomaEbola (Stop Ebola). Of those who listened to the program, 93.9% reportedly found it useful and 90.5% credited the radio program for improving their knowledge about Ebola. Also, 91% of respondents attributed change in “certain practices or behaviors about Ebola” to the radio program. The survey also shows that listeners to KomaEbola radio program are 9.6% more likely to take preventive measures to protect their families and 2.8% more likely to name Ebola symptoms correctly as compared to those who did not listen to the program – indicative of the impact of the radio program in improving knowledge, influencing behavior change and promoting positive health-seeking behavior and practices in the fight against Ebola." (Executive Summary)
more
"BBC Media Action is helping to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus in Somalia by using a media campaign ‘hello hope: bye bye COVID’ to encourage uptake of preventative behaviours. Informed by research we are challenging attitudes and beliefs around coronavirus transmission and encouragin
...
g behaviour change through presenting preventative behaviours as: Being a responsible member of your community; showing you care and respect others; the right thing to do as a Somali. The campaign features: Ten audio PSAs broadcast on national and local radio featuring a witty character called Captain Suleiman, a radio disc jockey who encourages uptake of preventative behaviours while responding to listeners troubles in an ‘agony aunt’ style format. Eight stand-alone video PSAs distributed on TV and social media, produced in a variety of styles and featuring different characters including a caring grandson, a poet, an imam and a visually challenged TV anchor [...] PSAs have reached approximately 4.8 million adults (57% of the Somali adult population), 46% directly and 11% indirectly (see more information on the following pages). Audiences reported that the PSAs had improved their knowledge around COVID-19 preventative measures, with 65% of the PSAs audience reported to have learned ‘a lot’ after watching/ listening to the PSAs. 58% reported to have learned something about ‘handwashing/ hands hygiene’, and 44% reported to have learned something about the importance of wearing a mask. 61% of the audience reported to have discussed the PSAs with other people. This is also a very positive outcome, since discussion within the family/ community is a key driver of behaviour change." (Page 1)
more
"BBC Media Action is helping to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus in Afghanistan by using a media campaign to encourage uptake of preventive behaviours. Informed by research the project’s media outputs aim to help reduce the transmission of the coronavirus by encouraging take up of the fo
...
llowing behaviours: Handwashing with soap and water more frequently; Disinfecting high touch surfaces; Catching coughs and sneezes; Maintaining a physical distance from people that you don’t live with. The campaign features: Seventeen (17) video and 18 audio PSAs distributed on TV, social media and radio featuring a little girl and her family who urges everyone to follow preventive behaviours to reduce the chance of getting the Coronavirus and escape the fate of losing loved ones, like she had, losing her father. Six different PSAs produced in Dari, Pashto and Uzbek languages, and distributed across national and local radio and TV stations as well as on Facebook. Forty (40) five minute episodes of a fast fiction radio drama targeting the nomadic Kuchi population were also produced and distributed on radio, interactive voice response (IVR) and Facebook.
Impact: A Reach and Engagement survey was conducted in February and March 2021 of a nationally representative sample with 2,729 men and women aged 18 years and above, from settled urban and rural areas of 16 provinces of all eight geographic regions. In addition, 273 interviews were conducted with Kuchis (nomads). The survey’s primary goals were to gauge how successful the PSAs were in terms of reaching their intended targets and what the impact of the PSAs were, in terms of audiences’ knowledge and take up of preventative measures. The survey has shown that approximately 7.6 million have listened to or watched at least one of the PSAs or drama episodes (46% of the Afghanistan’s adult population). About three quarters of the audience (74%) reported to have discussed the PSAs with other people." (Page 1)
more
"This guide should help practitioners to: develop an evidence-grounded understanding of misinformation in the context of vaccination, how it spreads and gets traction, what can be done to mitigate its impact; implement evidence-based approaches to address misinformation; develop a comprehensive and
...
tailored national strategy for misinformation management [with case studies on polio vaccination in Pakistan, dengue in the Philippines and HPV in Malawi]. The guide should support practitioners working in immunization programs, including immunization managers, C4D communication for development specialists, behaviour and social change specialists, external and digital communications and health teams." (Page 6)
more
"The book contains 85 chapters written by persons who have been on those frontlines of communication and development [...] A variety of case studies appear in the book. For example, Kriss Barker and Fatou Jah – in a chapter titled “Entertainment-Education in Radio: Three Case Studies from Africa
...
” – explore in detail projects in Nigeria, Burundi and Burkina Faso that used a communication intervention approach advanced by the Population Media Center. Other chapters in the Handbook take the reader to Spain, Kenya, South Africa, Kazakhstan, and beyond. Song Shi examines “ICTs and Modernization in China,” revealing that assumptions and theories of the modernization paradigm have significantly influenced the policies and projects on ICT4D in contemporary China. And, Song Shi writes, discussion on the potential of other approaches in ICT4D in China has also emerged among scholars. Hina Ayaz discusses the “Multiplicity Approach in Participatory Communication” in Pakistan – wherein the country adopted the Global Polio Eradication Initiative – only to run into negative perceptions and banning of polio vaccinations. However, a shift to a more successful approach, grounded in UNICEF’s social mobilization and communityinvolvement communication strategy, brought significant success. While many of the Handbook case studies incorporate participation as a significant development factor, they also address a wide range of social and political issues including, for example, civic engagement, sexual harassment, empowerment, and community voices. In addition to an abundance of case studies from around the world, the Handbook delves into various research methods that are being used to understand and design communication for development and social change interventions [...] Handbook editor Jan Servaes' own chapter (with Rico Lie), “Key Concepts, Disciplines, and Fields in Communication for Development and Social Change ” identifies five clusters of concepts and practices that are evident in the field today and which determine the activities and approaches in communication for sustainable development and social change interventions: The clusters are (1) a normative cluster of concepts; (2) a cluster of concepts that sets an important context for communication activities for development; (3) a cluster of strategic and methodological concepts; (4) a cluster of concepts that relate to methods, techniques, and tools; and (5) a cluster of concepts that addresses the practices of advocacy, (participatory) monitoring and evaluation, and impact assessment. The authors extend their discussion into three subdivisions: (1) health communication, (2) agricultural extension and rural communication, and (3) environmental communication (including climate change communication). This leads the reader into issues related to (1) right to communicate; (2) education and learning; (3) innovation, science, and technology; (4) natural resource management; (5) food security; (6) poverty reduction; (7) peace and conflict; (8) children and youth, women, and senior citizens; and (9) tourism. Some of the forerunners of development communication have not been forgotten. In “Daniel Lerner and the Origins of Development Communication”, Hemant Shah links Lerner’s 1958 book Passing of Traditional Society to today’s modernization and faith in technology to solve social problems. Also contributing to the foundation of this field is Paulo Freire who contributed much to idea that participation should be a vital part of the development dialogue. Ana Fernández-Aballí Altamirano’s chapter on "The Importance of Paulo Freire to Communication for Development and Social Change" highlights his main work Pedagogy of the Oppressed as a "before-and-after" in the fields of education, research, and communication, initially in Latin America and later in both North and South. Particularly in the case of development communication and communication for social change, the author stresses, Freire’s work had a definitive impact ..." (Review by Royal Donald Colle, Journal of Development Communication, vol. 30 (2), page 92-94)
more