|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Local media
The local media have not always participated to the full possible extent in the participatory community development. Sometimes it was not smart to involve media
too early, especially in very segregated communities such as some communities with Roma, where media were sometimes seen as another discriminator due to negative Roma related articles,
often appearing in the media of our region.Still when such attitudes are overcame, the involvement of media had the great potential of supporting the inclusion of the excluded ones. It has been a strong instrument of changing the negative public opinion to various excluded groups in the society. Media have their own interests, in some cases contradicting (seeking for wide publicity of private misery or scandals), in other cases similar to ours (free information and democracy). However the question of publicity in PCD has been very delicate in very vulnerable, segregated communities or those with internal conflicts or power disbalances. So we had to involve media carefully not to harm the local people and even our Red Cross people. It is a very powerful stakeholder. Our best cases are when media workers have participated in an excellent way in the local PCD teams, practicing the basics of their job, this time for a different purpose - for assessing people's needs. They have supported very much the local teams with their questioning and analytical skills and by sharing their knowledge with the others. They are also there later on, to follow up if the local stakeholders stick to their committments in favor of the community. But the most important feature of the media involvement has always been their ability to create an atmoshpere of transparency, ability to prevent strong local actors from taking over the community process , and sometimes-the ability to ask those strong actors delicate questions, questions that we did not have the right, and the vulnerable people from communities - the courage to ask. |
Working with
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
