Interview with Dr. Shereen Usdin

The Communication Initiative: What do you think are the most interesting communication trends in South Africa currently?

Shereen Usdin: What is very exciting for South Africa is that we have moved quickly from a highly state controlled media infrastructure to one that is far more of a tool for civil society within a vibrant democracy. In the transition period from apartheid South Africa to now, media activists engaged in long and hard debates about democratising and opening up the airwaves. We now have specifications around the degree of public broadcasting functions that broadcasters must fulfill in order to be licensed. Also, there are local content quotas, which must be met. This has been exciting for people working in development communication - it has certainly helped us at Soul City (SC). SC is a multi-media communications project, using "edutainment" to impact on health and development concerns and to promote social change. The fact that we provide local content programming of top prime time quality has allowed for a "win-win" situation for us, and our broadcasting partners.

With the opening of the airwaves, there has also been a rapid growth in community radio stations. This has been definitely one of the more exciting communication tools to become available for people involved in development. A number of organisations have taken up this challenge. For example, a group of rural women from a particularly marginalised part of South Africa created and control their own radio station which they have used to advance women in their community; and the Media Training Centre of the Progressive Primary Health Care Network is working on partnerships with community radio stations to increase health programming and to shift the focus of coverage towards health rights. Given the closeness of the stations to their communities, the content can be far more localised and relevant. Soul City has also been broadcast on a number of community radio stations.

CI: To what extent do you think that community radio is holding its own in this liberalisation of the airwaves?

SU: I'm no expert on community radio but I believe there are a number of challenges facing this sector. Over eighty community radio stations have been granted licenses but I'm not sure how many of them are still on air. The dictates of commercialism and the shifting of funding priorities globally has meant that some stations are struggling to stay on air. There is also the challenge of developing quality programming to compete with the more commercial stations on air.


CI: What do you think is the potential impact of the mushrooming of community radio in South Africa?

SU: I think what is very important in new democracies (well, ours is getting a bit older now!) is that civil society has a strong voice and I believe community radio is a very good forum for this. Community television as well, but it is less developed here because radio is a lot cheaper to produce, so it has taken off in a far greater way. I think the major role community radio has to play is in providing a platform for communities' voices to keep the spirit of a strong civil society alive.

CI: South Africa has one of the more developed communication infrastructures in Africa. How important do you think that is in terms of communication as a potential tool for development?

SU: We certainly have a well developed mass media infrastructure. Around 65% of South Africa has access to television and this is growing as more of the country receives electricity. Radio has over 98% penetration. With an educational system still emerging from the chaotic legacy of apartheid, and the low literacy level of our population, oftentimes, television and radio are the only sources for particular kinds of information a community receives.

If we can maintain the openness of our airwaves and ensure they function as a platform for lively debate and innovative programming, (rather than an opportunity to be inundated with North American content!), I think we have an excellent tool for development. Of course it is not a quick fix for development problems but if used appropriately, I believe its potential impact is very powerful.

CI: How did you get involved with Soul City?

SU: I got involved in the project at its earliest stages, when it was still very much an idea on paper. At that time it was just two of us, but now it's grown into a large team of highly talented and innovative people. I had qualified as a medical doctor some years before but being frustrated with patching up symptoms rather than dealing with root problems, I moved more into the field of public health. It was clear, particularly looking at the impact of apartheid, that fundamental social change was necessary to advance the health status of the country. I joined an editorial collective of a publication called Critical Health, which examined the socio- political economy of health. The publication served as an organising tool for progressive health activists during the apartheid area and I think helped stimulate and contribute to debate that formed the basis for health policy change during the transition to democracy in South Africa. I began to appreciate more and more, the function of media and communication as a tool for social change.

CI: What is the SC project?

SU: The Soul City project combines prime time television and radio drama with booklets serialised and then inserted in complete form in newspapers throughout the country. Each year, the series tackles different health and development issues. It also adapts the mass media material for use in youth and adult education settings and has a strong advocacy component.

CI: What is the idea behind Soul City?

SU: Despite the fact that South Africa is a middle income country we have a health profile that is more consistent with countries of the South. Soul City's motivation has always been to harness the power of our highly developed mass media infrastructure to advance health and development. This has been particularly urgent given the significant lack of access of many communities to information. The idea has been to capture the attention of prime time audiences to convey empowering information. We do this using edutainment, a methodology that weaves education and information for social change into an entertainment format that can access prime time and has the ability to inspire and motivate audiences. The idea has also been to create an ongoing vehicle so that we wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel each time we wanted to address an issue on the mass media. The popularity of the series has ensured this. It also means we have established and loyal audiences, who look forward to forthcoming series on air. So we begin each series with a massive audience, instead of having to establish an audience from scratch every time.

To a large extent what distinguishes Soul City is it's emphasis on community activism, which looks beyond a narrow focus on individual behaviour change to encouraging communities to take control over health issues.

CI: What form does that encouragement take?

SU: Well, when we dealt with tobacco we role modelled a community that took action around the sale of cigarettes to minors. In dealing with the issue of safe motherhood we took a "rights" perspective, showing worker activism on the factory floor to ensure decent maternity benefits and the right to attend ante natal classes during pregnancy. In our forthcoming series on violence against women, we look at a community response to domestic violence. The aim is to shift social norms towards a climate in which this issue is seen as a public matter rather than a private affair between two individuals. In addition to taking a strong community stand against the violence, the community also holds its police service accountable for its lack of action and ensures it delivers a more effective service. We are still in the script writing process but we are looking at ways of role modelling the community challenging its elected officials to deliver on their election promises on violence against women. We hope to coincide the broadcast of this series with our forthcoming national elections and to use the advocacy opportunities of the SC vehicle to link the series with the reality on the ground.

CI: When you talk about the advocacy elements of SC, what are they?

SU: The popularity of our programmes translates into extensive media coverage, including print, around our broadcast period. We use this coverage to put the issues we are dealing with in the series, on the public agenda. With our forthcoming series, we have formed a partnership with the National Network on Violence Against Women (NNVAW). As South Africa's largest coalition working in this field, the Network brings together many outstanding activists and we are hoping to use the SC vehicle to gain access to the news media in a way that can shift policy on violence against women. This is particularly exciting given that we will be on air around the forthcoming elections. So there is an excellent window of opportunity to put these issues on the national agenda.

CI: How successful do you think SC has been as a development tool?

SU: Independent evaluations show it has been highly successful in informing and shaping debate in communities. We have been able to reach millions of South Africans with information they may not have been able to access any other way. According to the evaluations, the series has motivated people take to decisions for change. How to measure its impact on social norms and in terms of social change, rather than on individual behaviour change alone, is a challenge communicators are grappling with globally. The evaluation of our next series will try to do this.

We have also set a trend in development communication locally, with other organisations and government departments using the Soul City methodology to convey information and stimulate debate.

CI: How important is the multi-media synergy?

SU: We spend a lot of time debating this. Our evaluations definitely show that if you access more than one medium, the knowledge, attitude and reported behaviour change shifts are far greater. So the synergy is an important aspect of the project. Aside from each media reinforcing the other, it also ensures we reach more diverse audiences, especially rural areas in the case of radio. But for us the synergy is not only about impacting on audiences. It is also very much part of how we generate partner support. Because each medium advertises the other, it means greater coverage for our media and funding partners.

CI: What are the major lessons that have come out of SC?

SU: I think the most important lessons have been the value of partnerships and the importance of really rigorous research in developing our material. A lot of health communication can go horribly wrong if people don't stick to some basic planning rules and a good understanding of who you are trying to reach. We do a lot of formative research to ensure we deal with things appropriate ways that are meaningful to and resonate with the public. It confirms that we are conveying empowering information and not creating unintended, harmful messages.

CI: Could you say a bit more about these partnerships?

SU: We have partnerships with funders, the media we access and with the stakeholder community within government and civil society who are working on the topics we deal with. Our approach with partners is always on the basis of a mutually beneficial scenario. For example, our partnership with our two big commercial sponsors (Old Mutual and BP) is based on the fact that they will benefit from the extensive publicity attached to our series. We haven't asked them to participate as part of their "social responsibility" function although this is also a drawcard for them. Their own evaluations have shown that their involvement in SC has increased their profile and served as an important marketing tool for them. We are funded also by the EU, Kagiso Trust, the Open Society Foundation and the Department of Health.** We also have important partnerships with government departments depending on which issue we are dealing with. Our most consistent government partner is the Department of Health. However, in all our series, we develop our media in close partnership with key stakeholders working in the areas we are tackling on the series, both in government and civil society.

Our partnerships with the media are also important. We have 11 newspaper partners who are helping to distribute our material and we have worked hard on our relationships with our TV and radio partners. With radio, we have spent a lot of time working with the station managers and producers so that there is a shared understanding of what the project is all about.

CI: Can you say a little bit more about the support activities to the programme?

SU: This is a key area of partnership development for us, for example our relationship with NNVAW. The Network will ensure that our audiences have access through a helpline to support services on the ground. They will also develop support activities throughout the country at the time of SC's broadcast to maximise on this period of heightened awareness. So the debate that is sparked by the SC media will be taken up at a community level and mediated by very strong voices on the ground. Then there is also the whole advocacy area that we will be working on together as I mentioned before.

CI: You've mentioned printed materials. What are some of the networks you use for distributing them?

SU: We distribute millions of copies through our newspaper partners. Of course we also have other distribution channels but the newspapers form the backbone. With our next series the NNVAW will help distribute our booklets through their own community based organisations and government departments that they engage with. Other distribution channels include the government departments we work with. For example, the Department of Health printed an extra two million copies of our AIDS booklet and distributed it through clinics and hospitals throughout the country. Our booklet on Land and Housing was also distributed by the Department of Land Affairs. BP, one of our commercial sponsors, has distributed our booklets through their service stations which has been particularly important in areas where our newspapers don't reach.

CI: Do you have any links with schools?

SU: We adapt our mass media materials for use in youth and adult education settings. We take the youth story of the television series and make it into a comic. This is accompanied by activity books which generate activities encouraging youth to engage with these issues in an exciting and innovative way. Our lifeskills material for youth has gone out to all secondary schools in South Africa.

CI: What about the future for SC?

SU: We are in fact about to embark on a big adventure into the world of children's broadcasting. It is going to use the same SC methodology that has made our adult series so successful - the multi-media combination of television, radio and print. It will be aimed at 8-12 year olds, because although this age group watch our adult series, we wanted to take very particular youth issues and deal with them in a more targeted way. There are currently no programmes addressing the issues of this age group specifically. So for us this represents very exciting new terrain. Also, with our forthcoming series the growth areas are particularly around the advocacy elements of the vehicle and that promises to be an exciting challenge.

[** UNICEF has given Soul City it's support from it's inception.]