It is "Professionalism"! let me explain.
Development Organisations, such as INGOs and
UN branches as well as government aid agencies, focus the efforts of public
relation on producing what they have termed success stories. This misses the
simple notion that you ought to build bridges of truthfulness and sincerity.
That dreaded term, the public relation, is quite often a way to allocate
resources for efforts that responds to expectations while the real object of
outreach is to build trustful relation with target audience based on honesty. I
am not arguing that we should set out to achieving objective honesty. far from
it I believe that is not achievable in development work without the
accountability that can only be assumed by democratic national government. I am arguing
for intentional honesty, the aim of which is to bridge the divide between
beneficiary expectation and development effort. There is overwhelming evidence
that shows people are more likely to engage in efforts in the community when
the effort speaks to them and when it faces similar obstacles and problems as
they do.
We have all heard so many times that we have
to approach this issue formally and in a professional manner. This disguise conceals lack of information and understanding but portrays someone who sounds knowledgeable. The most important element of “Public Relation” in my view is for
media professionals to understand the issue first before setting out on a media
campaign. The notion to summon a professional self is misguided and undermines
the most efficient mechanism they have at their disposal which is relating the
issue to their own experience and life. We understand the world through
personal experience and no pseudoscientific media campaign comes close enough
to a good substitute. I often wonder if professionals approach all issues in
this manner. Can you imagine these people going home and talking with their children
“children tonight for dinner and entertainment we are having a workshop, where
we intend to reinforce our family values, create an environment where our
sisters feel safe. The way we are going to do is by drawing. Lets draw pictures
of how we see our family. What’s that Ivan, do you want some milk, that is
great, go ahead and draw some milk. As a matter of fact lets all draw a supper
for us. Then we sit and think about how we would eat it. Did you all like your
supper?”
Much of the work about media outreach in the
development context is generated by expatriates who work and live in far and
wild places for a year or two where they live in a bubble inside which they enjoy
amenities not available to locals. This means they don’t get to have the
authentic experience of life but yet they are considered experts by fiat of
just in the geographical location. expatriate professional does not understand
the underpinnings and their experience is mostly literal. Much like my
experience the other day in the pub. I ordered a beer and the waitress said “do
you want anything else, love” and I said “oh! we're doing that, you look exquisite
and nice but I am married” she looked stunned and had no idea what I was talking
about, you can't even order a beer if you take people literally. I later found
out that love in British doesn’t mean what I thought it meant. It’s a way of
insulting people who are not doing as good as they think they are. I learned
this after I picked tennis for awhile, if its 30 love then it’s not good.
Development agencies are like corporations from the 80s they have not benefited at all from the
astonishing headways in the field of psychology that explains human behaviour
and creativity. A more effective way of engaging the populous through media
effort is by understanding how local staff relate to the organisation and how
the beneficiaries value development issues. With the invent of digital media
and recent advances in social media and telephony this is easier than ever
before.
