BARMM holds strategic communications workshop
By ASA T. MADALE
May 25, 2019
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| OBYA head and BTA member Dr. Marjanie Mimbantas lectured the participants to the workshop on the Strategic communications Capacity Building held recently in Cotabato City. (Photo supplied by OBYA) |
ILIGAN CITY: The Office on Bangsamoro Youth Affairs of the Bangsamoro Autunomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (OBYA-BARMM) and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) in partnership with Institute of Peace and Development in Mindanao (IPDM), MSU Marawi, conducted a workshop on the Strategic communications Capacity Building (SCCB) Project to provide BTA networks with a practical understanding of how to use messaging to amplify governance, peacebuilding ,security and preventing violent extremism initiatives.
OBYA head and BTA member Dr. Marjanie Mimbantas said the event took place on April 13, 2019, at Pagana Kutawato, Manara Street, Cotabato City.
It is free of charge strategic communications training and supports to bring the latest research and best practice to assist local government and civil society actors achieve more stable, peaceful and productive societies, added Mimbantas.
Actions do not speak louder than words; you have to speak for your action, said Dr. Haroro Ingram, SCCB Project Coordinator.
Oftentimes we hear the opposite that actions speak louder than words. But after the lecture in Support Peace workshop, we have come to an understanding that more often than not actions were misunderstood and interpreted in different ways. Most of the time the message that actions or gestures intend to send do not reach the recipient as what the message meant.
Instead, it comes to the recipient in different meanings. This consequently defeats the purpose of communication process or correspondence altogether. Thus, speaking for your actions is better. And strategizing a way to get the message across is highly encouraged.
The workshop introduced different tools to device a way to send what one truly meant, such as priming, framing, and agenda setting.
Priming refers to enhancing the effects of the media by offering the audience a prior context – a context that will be used to interpret subsequent communication. The media serve to provide the audience with standards and frames of reference (University of Twente).
In fine, pre-messages were sent prior to the actual message to set precedence and boost their effect to the public. It is done to create in the mind of the public an image leading to a greater picture. It is like conditioning the mind of the public to influence their judgment or decision towards better understanding of the message.
Framing describes the process of organizing, defining, and structuring a story (Littlejohn and Foss 2009). ―To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text‖ (Robert Entman). This theory provides that the manner of how the story is told contributes to framing or shaping the perception of general public over an issue or event. Agenda-setting explains the relationship between the emphasis that the mass media places on the issue and the importance that media audiences attribute to those issues (McCombs and Shaw, 1972). The idea behind agenda-setting theory is that while the media do not tell people what attitudes or opinions they should have (what to think) and do not set out to deliberately or purposely engineer public opinion, but they do tell people which issues we should be focusing on (what to think about)—that is, which issues are most important and therefore most worthy of inclusion on mental agenda.
The media contributes in forming an individual’s opinion, perception, knowledge, and beliefs about the world. It describes the power of media to direct attention of audiences to a certain issue.
The above-mentioned were some of the cost-effective tools that were introduced and elaborated during the lecture prior to the workshop proper. The lecture, Dr. Haroro Ingram made series of examples on how these three can be used and discussed how effective these are in messaging, campaigns and promoting ideas and event.
Overall, the event was great. The information shared to the audience was enormous. We have learned a lot in a short time. Its organizers’ dedication in what they do in the said event manifest.
(ASA T. MDALE/RSP)
