"Increased political participation is seen as central to building accountability between citizens and leaders. Through debate and other factual programmes BBC Media Action uses media and communication to foster participation by providing information, stimulating discussion and enabling people to int
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eract directly with decision-makers. Using quantitative data from seven countries (Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Myanmar, Tanzania and Sierra Leone), the report explores the links between watching and listening to governance programmes and political participation, as well as the key drivers of participation: political knowledge, discussion and efficacy. The findings are clear and consistent: BBC Media Action’s audiences participate more than people who do not listen or watch its programmes, even when taking other influencing factors – such as age, income and interest in politics – into account. There is also a strong, positive association between exposure to BBC Media Action programmes and political knowledge and discussion. Finally, the findings also suggest that exposure to governance programmes can have a “compensating effect” on the political participation of groups who have historically been less engaged in politics – those who are young, less educated and less interested in politics." (BBC Media Action website)
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"The report explores how discussion programmes – where a diverse audience, representing the whole of society, is engaged in fair and balanced debate – can stimulate both private/interpersonal discussion and public discussion in either a community setting or one hosted by local government. It the
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n goes on to examine whether discussion can, in turn, affect conflict-related attitudes at scale, whether attitudes towards other groups in society or attitudes towards violence. The basic idea is that regular engagement in the sort of media programmes our organisation seeks to provide can help to mitigate conflict in fragile settings by increasing understanding of the other, facilitating compromise and ultimately engendering less recourse to violence. Data collected by BBC Media Action in Kenya and Nigeria is used to test the hypothesis that media induced discussion is associated with attitudes that are related to conflict and fragility. The results reveal a rich but complicated picture. We find relatively consistent evidence in both countries that our discussion-oriented media programmes are strongly linked to private discussion among family, friends and others. Evidence from Kenya also suggests that exposure to debate-style programming is potentially linked to public political discussion, but that this relationship is likely to be mediated through other variables such as private political discussion. Finally, in both cases, both private and public discussion is strongly associated with individual attitudes towards conflict. However, the relationship is a complex one and bears further examination." (Executive summary)
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