A Process of Many Stages (from Is it Possible to Tell People About Child Sexual Abuse in One Minute?)

As with all the creative material for the Child Rights Campaign, the development of the Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Television Commercial (TVC) from concept to completion went through a series of systematic, predefined stages based on scientific and tried and tested principles of social communication. These stages involved a complex mix of primary and secondary research, feedback, planning and design sessions, briefings to a wide variety of players (including artists, creative writers, researchers, and film production crews), obtainment of approvals from Government of Bangladesh and UNICEF colleagues, incorporating feedback based changes in design, and of course the final stage of producing the TVC wherein all the strands of inputs and efforts came together. (Also see Figure 1.)

1. Understanding the Issue

We referred to a number of published, unpublished and web-based sources to come to grips with the issue of CSA. We adopted the definition according to which CSA, "… is any act which exposes a child to, or involves a child in, sexual processes beyond his or her understanding or contrary to accepted community standards" (Angus & Woodward, 1995). This definition we felt neatly encapsulated the width and seriousness of the phenomenon with which we were dealing.

We knew that it would not be possible in a one-minute spot to deal with the many kinds of sexual abuse to which children are subjected, and decided to focus on child sexual abuse that occurs within the "safe haven" of the home. Such abuse, according to our readings, was very widespread and cut across all social classes; at the same time, this was the sort of abuse about which there was the least acknowledgement and the greatest silence. Needless to say, while doing our desk research we paid special attention to material from the sub-continent, and particularly Bangladesh. Especially useful sources of information included a series of case studies conducted by the Dhaka-based NGO Breaking the Silence, a research publication of the Bangladesh Sociology Association (Shamin & Chowdhury, 1993) and a research report of the Ain O Salish Kendra (Marium, 1999). Insights gained from reading were carefully documented and discussed by the planning team[3]. Some of our key findings based on the literature review were as follows:

• We learnt that CSA is universal, occurs among all social groups and spans an entire range of offensive acts against children such as exposing a child to sexually explicit material, involving the child in touching, fondling and masturbation, and at the most violent extreme, child rape.
• While both girls and boys can be victims of sexual abuse, almost three out of four victims are girls. According to RAHI, an NGO in Delhi (1999), over 76% of adult female respondents reported that they were abused between the ages of 2 and 22 by males close to them - family members, friends and domestic help.
• Perpetrators are predominantly older men who are members of the child's family, family friends or other trusted adults in positions of authority; they use either, or both, bribes and threats to exploit children sexually.
• Victims of CSA suffer from a variety of psychological and psychosomatic conditions.
• Most often victims do not have the space, opportunity or courage to complain; if they do complain (which is rare) they are not believed or are blamed; they may even be stigmatised. For example, in Bangladeshi society a girl victim may be labeled nashto meye (literally, "ruined girl") this not only has serious personal consequences for the child (damage to the very foundations of the adult-child relationship, guilt, dysfunctional inter-personal relationships in adulthood and so on) but can affect her future prospects, particularly marriage - including wifehood and motherhood (which are considered to be the desired social destinations for every young woman);
• Society normally turns a blind eye to CSA, especially when it occurs in the safe haven of the home. Even in Western societies, coping with the concept of "stranger danger" is easier than the threatening fact of CSA by known persons.
• In countries such as Bangladesh, deep-seated concerns about family honor, inadequate legislation and the absence of support agencies and public dialogue on the subject, result in fear and shame being associated with CSA and almost universal denial of its occurrence.

With regard to prevention of CSA, we found that the literature (including that from Bangladesh) dwelt mainly upon how important it was to encourage society as a whole to acknowledge the problem and to educate them about it. In Western countries the significant increase in the number of cases reported to child protection services was attributed to greater recognition of the problem of CSA. Increasing parental awareness and their ability to protect children was emphasised repeatedly. According to several Western sources, not only parents, but school-age children should also be addressed. It was reported that, protective behavior and personal safety programmes had resulted in children's heightened knowledge of sexual abuse, increased child disclosures of abuse and an improvement in parental awareness and ability to protect their children. Wurtele and Miller-Perrin (1993) maintain that media presentations of CSA have helped to "demystify and reduce the secrecy" surrounding CSA.

As far as methods are concerned, in the West, inter-personal communication techniques have been used extensively in awareness raising programmes e.g. community education and support groups. Other media in the form of pamphlets and booklets have also been used widely to lead and support communication efforts; these include, training manuals, inventories or listings, handbooks, resource packages, guidelines or protocols, information booklets, fact sheets, newsletters/updates or research documentation as well as videos. A tremendous amount of web-based information on CSA is readily available.

With regard to audio-visual materials, there was some information in the literature on public service announcements (PSAs) on generic parenting skills as well as on videos exploring the origins, impact and consequences of CSA and the healing process for children who have been sexually abused. But we were unsuccessful in our search for any documentation on CSA TVCs. For our planned TVC we gained a few pointers from the work of researchers Wurtele and Miller-Perrin (ibid.), who suggested that media should be better used, and targeted to perpetrators, victims, and parents with more detailed information about seeking help and where to obtain assistance. They also suggested the use of actors to role-play realistic scenarios on television. Elsewhere it was recommended that hard-hitting advertisements showing explicit portrayals would be useful to combat CSA (Tomison, 1995).

2. Settling on Our Approach

We were firmly against presenting any explicit portrayals. We had three main reasons: first, depicting unacceptable behavior was not in tune with our overall communication strategy; second, we did not wish to outrage our viewers; and third, such presentations would be violative of the rights of the child actors involved. Throughout the Child Rights Campaign we had taken great pains to protect the rights of children involved in the creation of communication material - both in the process of developing the material as well as in children's portrayal in the final communication products. An additional important concern was that a realistic portrayal would be limited to one kind of abuse, letting off the hook those perpetrators who are involved in other kinds of abuse that are equally unacceptable and equally damaging to the child involved.In fact, our reading and our understanding of the socio-cultural context, led us to move our attention from damning the perpetrator (who we assumed operates in a moral vacuum) to protecting the child. The onus of this protection being primarily on the parents, and given the gender distribution of CSA offences, particularly on the mother. We did not wish to recommend continuous policing of the child as this would interfere with his or her normal social relationships. So we decided that our strategic hypothesis should hinge on two key premises: one, that creating acknowledgement will alert parents (particularly mothers) to situations in which CSA can occur, and two, that the potentially damaging consequences of CSA can be diminished if the parent is "there" for the child i.e. alert to changes in the child's behavior (which may signal victimisation), keeping lines of communication open (since children do not have the tools to comprehend what is happening to them or to communicate their trauma), and providing support rather than rejection.

3. The Creative Stage

We decided to develop three "creative routes" which were conceived through the consensus of the planning and creative teams[4]. These routes would be tested subsequently with potential viewers and a single one selected. We thought that this process of selection would help corroborate our assumptions as well as the validity of our approach. The three diverse routes and associated reasoning behind them were:

Abstract: In this "projective" route, CSA was represented through an ambiguous visual stimulus (reminiscent of a Rorschach inkblot), which metamorphosed with the accompanying audio-commentary, and finally disappeared. The commentary was objective and clinical; it provided factual information and was meant to serve the purpose of creating awareness that CSA is widespread and that it violates a child's fundamental right to protection. The concluding voice-over recommended appropriate parental responses in the event of CSA.

Reasoning: Given the complex and threatening nature of the issue, an abstract, "news reportage" approach would be appropriate especially since this was the first time that it was being presented on a national broadcast medium.

Realistic: A short drama was developed. No faces were to be seen - only hands. A mother in her kitchen calls to her daughter to go and serve a guest. He appears to be well known to the family because of the kinship term the mother uses to refer to him. The girl goes into the room where he is (all we see is hands). The man reaches out to take something from the child. The next thing we see is a sugar pot falling and spilling its contents (symbolising a violation). The pay off voice over makes an oblique reference to CSA and what parents must do to protect children.

Reasoning: Given the low television viewing literacy in the country, a direct approach, which told a story, would get the message across most comprehensively and forcefully.

Personal testimonial: An adult woman, who is a wife and a mother, recalls how she was abused as a child by someone well known to her family. The precise nature of the abuse is deliberately left unspecified. She speaks of her isolation and fear. She declares that her children will never have to suffer what she did, because she will always be there for them.

Reasoning: Given the extremely high proportion of adult women in the viewing public who are estimated to have been abused as children and who are mothers now, this approach would solicit immediate identification. It also recommended a specific role for the mother (who is least often the abuser) and was solution oriented. Because it was an account of a "personal experience" it would have greater credibility.

Each of the three routes was developed into a concrete "story". Indicative illustrations were sketched by specially briefed commercial artists. Written stories and picture cards formed the tools for formative research that was conducted in the next stage.

4. Formative Research and Concept Testing

Two objectives were to be met in the stage of formative research:

• gathering qualitative primary data through interviews from representatives of our communication "end-recipients" on the CSA issue;
• obtaining feedback from them on the various creative concepts and routes that had been developed within the confines of the proverbial ivory tower.

This was probably the most intensive and challenging stage. We were prepared that at the end of this stage we might have to abandon our creative concepts and go back to the drawing board. The Child Rights Team from Thompson Social[5] traveled to Dhaka to interact with a variety of stakeholders[6].

A detailed presentation on inter alia key findings from the literature review, the nature of the communication challenge, the role of communication, the mind set of end recipients, and possible communication routes, was prepared[7]. The team presented this to members of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, GOB, and of UNICEF-Bangladesh to gain their concurrence and approval on various issues as well as their inputs. The preliminary creative concepts and material were also presented to them for feedback.

In Dhaka city, five families were selected with the help of our Bangladeshi counterpart agency (Asiatic Social). Of these, three families consented to talk to us. All our interviewees were parents and the team met each couple separately and in their homes. Based on a pre-developed discussion guide, the lead interviewer took respondents through a series of questions. As can be imagined, given the nature of the subject a great deal of time had to be spent breaking the ice and creating a relaxed atmosphere so interviewees would be willing to express their perceptions with candor and without embarrassment or anxiety. Discussions and associated probing in each family meeting lasted on average for three hours.

Once we had discussed the issue of CSA at some length and understood parental perceptions and solutions, the creative material - stories and illustrations - was also presented to the families to assess their reactions. (In one case, these were even used as a discussion catalyst.) Detailed questions were asked and responses and feedback were noted.

As part of the formative research phase, we also held discussions with and presented the creative material to an eminent social activist and a practicing psychologist. The activist is closely associated with the NGO Breaking the Silence, which has been working on the subject of CSA within the family for several years. The psychologist has counseled numerous adolescents and adults who were abused as children[8]. These two experts assisted us greatly to further clarify and deepen our thinking.

Findings from the formative research, which were mostly impressionistic and qualitative in nature, confirmed our assumptions and enriched our approach. In general, the parents we met denied the existence of CSA. But this was only at first. Once they were convinced of the purpose and ingenuousness of our enterprise they opened up and began to speak of incidents of which they had "heard" and which had taken place in the homes of "others." In only one instance did a mother speak of an incident that had happened to someone in her family. The professionals we spoke to confirmed that CSA was widespread, almost always suppressed, and that family honor and a girl's "purity" were overriding concerns.

As regards the creative material, among all groups, the personal testimonial route scored highest in terms of cogency, tone, appeal, comprehension and perceived validity. The abstract route, while liked, was considered to be too remote. The realistic route was rejected as it contained an element of sensationalism and respondents felt that it dealt with the issue too superficially.

At the conclusion of the formative research stage, findings were shared and discussed with GOB and UNICEF.

5. Finalisation of Approach and Pre-testing the Storyboard

Based on the formative research, the strategy was fine-tuned and the script and storyboard for the TVC was given final form by the creative team in close consultation with the planning team. Now came the acid test - pre-testing. This involved testing the script and visualisation of the TVC with randomly selected members of the end target audiences. We wanted to know whether a sample of the target audience would find the creative material comprehensible, acceptable, and linguistically appropriate. We wanted to know if they understood the central idea and whether it struck a chord. We also wanted their feedback with respect to which aspects of the TVC needed to be improved and how, and whether they thought that the envisioned one-minute film would "work."

To make the pre-testing process objective it was conducted by a third party. The Thompson Social team assisted UNICEF, in selecting and commissioning a registered local research agency in Dhaka, Research and Computing Services (RCS), to conduct the pre-test. The researchers were briefed on the overall communication strategy as well as the ideas and materials to be tested. The research methodology and reporting format were based on recommended guidelines (or pre-test brief) provided by the Thompson Social team. Specially developed research tools in the form of a flipbook of visuals (depicting key frames of the TVC) and a script were also provided to the researchers. The pre-test stage took about two weeks from the time of sharing the guidelines to the receipt of the report from the research agency.

RCS conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) with three groups (all male, all female and mixed) of 8-10 adults each. Research findings were positive and other than the substitution of a word or two and the recasting of a sentence, no major changes were required. In spite of the fact that the script never mentioned CSA in so many words, all respondents, in the words of RCS, "readily recognised the problem of sexual abuse illustrated in the TV spot." Interestingly, all the female and 60 per cent of the male respondents felt that CSA should be addressed on television; the remaining 40 per cent of men felt that CSA occurred only in Western countries and was inappropriate for Bangladeshi TV. The fact that the research had been conducted by an external agency who had no apparent vested interest in the success of the draft material, doubled our, as well as our clients', faith in the findings. Based on these the storyboard was finalised.

6. Production

Once we were confident that the story would "work" a film production team was brought on board. A Calcutta-based director, who has several Bangla films and film awards to his credit, was selected from a specially developed short list of socially sensitive filmmakers. The director and his team were briefed in detail with respect to the issue as well as the approach that we would be taking. He produced the TVC in close consultation with Thompson Social.

This entire process presented its own complexities. Once briefed and acquainted with the storyboard, the director came to the table with his own embellishments and visualisation of details; in his view these would "dramatise" the script and make the storyboard "filmic" and appealing and therefore capture the attention of viewers. As professionals who had by now developed a deep sensitivity to CSA, our concern was to maintain the quiet dignity of the protagonist. We were absolutely sure that at no point should the film ring shrill. We wanted to ensure that the survivor came through as someone who had coped successfully with her potentially damaging experience. This we thought would be best portrayed through simplicity, evenness of form and a limited use of symbolic visuals. At the same time we had no intention to stymie the director's creativity. Long hours were devoted to almost frame-by-frame and word-by-word negotiations between Thompson Social and the production team. The end result shows clearly that each party built on the strengths of the other. In fact both emerged the richer at the end of the negotiation process.

The TVC was filmed over two days in a Dhaka studio. The actress who was to play the protagonist was selected from a large pool of television performers through a consultative process based on screen tests. Together with the director, we briefed her about CSA, described to her what we expected from the end product and listened carefully to her responses. Like everything else, the set design and costumes were also decided upon together. The basic audio track was recorded in Dhaka. Post-production activity took place in one of Bombay's state-of-the-art studios.

Once recorded and finalised, broadcast quality master copies of the film were submitted to UNICEF in Dhaka together with a media implementation plan. This plan was founded on the National Media Survey (Bangladesh, 1998) which provides information related to the penetration, reach and viewership distribution and patterns with respect to television. The plan, which was developed with the assistance of media specialists[9] recommended the timing, frequency and periodicity for broadcasting the TVC.