Roundtable Sessions: "Sender and Receiver
Issues"
Does Green Always Mean Go?
This session, chaired by Thomas Tufte (Denmark), grappled with
issues of encoding and decoding in EE messages. Participants discussed
how to ensure that audiences receive intended meanings. Pre-testing
of messages, inclusion of relevant materials, and message modification
were raised as potential ways to overcome the problem.
The
Color Green
Red means stop and green means go... or does it? Panelist Sara
Zaker (Bangladesh) pointed out that in her country green could
also symbolize jealousy. "We can't afford to send out messages
that will not be received in the right spirit," said Zaker. During
a campaign to minimize human consumption of water containing unsafe
levels of arsenic in rural Bangladesh, there was debate about
whether labeling water sources as red and green would transmit
the intended message. Zaker related another example, explaining
how Bangladeshis started killing black cats after a safer-sex
campaign used a black cat as a symbol of AIDS.
Encoding and Decoding
When considering encoding and decoding issues, we should consider
"sending the right message at the right time to the right people
and through the right channel" said participant Sophia Chaudhury
(Bangladesh). One cannot predict how an audience will interpret
messages sent. Session participants agreed that Chaudhury's guideline
could be one way of minimizing misinterpretation in the decoding
process.
Complex campaigns could also raise issues of encoding and decoding.
Panelist Margarita Gurdian (Nicaragua) talked about a multi-channel
water and sanitation communication project implemented nationally,
regionally, and locally in the country after the devastation caused
by Hurricane Mitch. People had lost their will to live after the
death of loved ones, and because of that were very sensitive to
any kind of messages referring to that dreadful event. So positive
framing and interpretation of messages was crucial. The message
was "hope," and emotional as well as rational appeals were used
to support such routine behaviors as hand washing and using latrines.
Including Relevant and Current Material
Panelist Ana Laura Escobedo (Mexico) explained that inclusion of
relevant and current materials is crucial to a project's effectiveness.
In one telenovela broadcast by her network, politics was used
as a backdrop. "Sometimes yesterday's top news is in today's program,"
said Escobedo. In a country with a tense political situation and
a historically "untouchable" president, this particular telenovela
introduced the innovative concept of creating a character, Mr.
X, to depict and criticize the expresident's activities.
Pre-testing
Participant Garth Japhet (South Africa) listed pre-testing as another
key to the reduction of unintended messages. This process is the
key to identifying the difference between entertainment and EE,
noted Japhet, referring to his opinion that intended EE programs
that are not guided by proper research, cannot be called EE, but
are no more than mere entertainment programs.
Unintended Consequences Not Necessarily Negative
While there is concern about how messages are interpreted, and
about unintended consequences that arise as a result of hidden
messages, the latter may not necessarily be negative. Participant
Minou Fuglesang (Sweden) pointed out that "we're drifting to simplification"
when we say that globalization is cultural imperialism. In her
study of how Kenyan women in the town of Lamu interpret Indian
soap operas, she demonstrated that outside programming could lead
to constructive messages about life in different parts of the
world. The results of this study, said Fuglesang, demonstrate
that "women can be empowered by romantic telenovelas."
Key: Keep Modifying Messages
Participant Daniel Kabira (USA) summarized the essence of sender-receiver
issues to the group: "We're dealing with complex and changing
societies, and the key is to modify our messages as society changes.
We invest so much time on the design of a message with little
attention given to feedback. We need more investment in formative
research, monitoring and evaluation impact."
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