Engaging media in communicating research on sexual and reproductive health and rights in sub-Saharan Africa: experiences and lessons learned

Abstract

BackgroundThe mass media have excellent potential to promote good sexual and reproductive health outcomes, but around the world, media often fail to prioritize sexual and reproductive health and rights issues or report them in an accurate manner. In sub-Saharan Africa media coverage of reproductive health issues is poor due to the weak capacity and motivation for reporting these issues by media practitioners. This paper describes the experiences of the African Population and Health Research Center and its partners in cultivating the interest and building the capacity of the media in evidence-based reporting of reproductive health issues in sub-Saharan Africa.MethodsThe paper utilizes a case study approach based primarily on the personal experiences and reflections of the authors (who played a central role in developing and implementing the Center’s communication and policy engagement strategies), a survey that the Center carried out with science journalists in Kenya, and literature review.ResultsThe African Population and Health Research Center’s media strategy evolved over the years, moving beyond conventional ways of communicating research through the media via news releases and newspaper stories, to varying approaches that sought to inspire and build the capacity of journalists to do evidence-based reporting of reproductive health issues. Specifically, the approach included 1) enhancing journalists’ interest in and motivation for reporting on reproductive health issues through training and competitive grants for outstanding reporting ; 2) building the capacity of journalists to report reproductive health research and the capacity of reproductive health researchers to communicate their research to media through training for both parties and providing technical assistance to journalists in obtaining and interpreting evidence; and 3) establishing and maintaining trust and mutual relationships between journalists and researchers through regular informal meetings between journalists and researchers, organizing field visits for journalists, and building formal partnerships with professional media associations and individual journalists.ConclusionOur experiences and reflections, and the experiences of others reviewed in this paper, indicate that a sustained mix of strategies that motivate, strengthen capacity of, and build relationships between journalists and researchers can be effective in enhancing quality and quantity of media coverage of research.

Health Policy and Systems Research in Twelve Eastern Mediterranean Countries: a stocktaking of production and gaps (2000-2008)

“…We assessed the retrieved articles for applicability using a coding sheet adapted from Law et al, 2011 [10]. The selected coding framework utilizes a thoroughly developed taxonomy for health system topics [[10], Lavis et al unpublished manuscript].…”

“…The selected coding framework utilizes a thoroughly developed taxonomy for health system topics [[10], Lavis et al unpublished manuscript]. It is used to code health systems evidence on McMaster Health Forum, which is a continuously updated repository of syntheses of research evidence about governance, financial and delivery arrangements within health systems, and about implementation strategies that can support change in health systems [32].…”

“…A recent print media analysis in 44 Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), which included several countries from the EMR, showed that the region is among the lowest in terms of the articles that describe or use health research evidence [9]. Moreover, there is a deficiency in the production of systematic reviews from the EMR [[8,10], El-Jardali et al Use of Health Systems Evidence by Policymakers in Eastern Mediterranean Countries: Views, Practices, and Contextual Influences under review, El-Jardali et al Increasing the Use of Health Systems and Policy Research Evidence in the Health Policymaking in Eastern Mediterranean Countries: Views and Practices of Researchers, under review]. Profiling the production of systematic reviews in the region revealed that only seven of 384 identified reviews addressed health systems topics [10,11].…”

“…Moreover, there is a deficiency in the production of systematic reviews from the EMR [[8,10], El-Jardali et al Use of Health Systems Evidence by Policymakers in Eastern Mediterranean Countries: Views, Practices, and Contextual Influences under review, El-Jardali et al Increasing the Use of Health Systems and Policy Research Evidence in the Health Policymaking in Eastern Mediterranean Countries: Views and Practices of Researchers, under review]. Profiling the production of systematic reviews in the region revealed that only seven of 384 identified reviews addressed health systems topics [10,11]. A study of research output in the EMR showed that health has been de-politicized in much of the published research [12].…”

“…The analysis of research production from the region is mainly focused on biomedical research [17,19-23]; whereas none profiled the production of HPSR. Methods used for conducting stocktaking exercises include the use of validated search strategies to identify systematic reviews in Medline and EMBASE and Web of Science [24-26], media analysis by searching LexisNexis Academic [9,27,28], search strategies to identify public health research in Grey literature [29], as well as surveys of research producers [30]. …”