“The things that are essentially news is what you don’t know that you want to know,” Buffett said. “You know what happened in national sports the moment it happened, and you can go watch a video of it and so on. You can go to ESPN and see what’s going on. You know what’s happening in politics. You know what’s happening in the stock market. What you didn’t know was what was going to appear in the ads.” Said Warren Buffet. He made the comments during an interview with Yahoo Finance and he called the newspaper industry ‘toast’. Do you think he is wrong or right?

That it is what communication officers working to improve sexual reproductive health and rights were trying to juggle out; traditional media or digital media, which is cheaper, which is cost effective, which one has the right audience and biggest reach? What makes one communication channel useful? While you can find out what’s going on in national or global politics by visiting major news sites, how easy is it to find that much information on sexual reproductive health on the news sites? How do we package health information in a way that it is more appealing to the target audience? So many questions, okay, here is where we are coming from.
Together with partners; Uganda Youth and Adolescents Health Forum in Partnership with Reach a Hand Uganda and the office of the Right Here Right Now (RHRN) National Coordinator commissioned a simple survey to understand the status of communication (digital, mainstream and internal), and documentation related issues for RHRN member organizations and this identified communication and documentation capacity gaps and generated discussion and learning topics for a capacity building training workshop in communication and documentation. Key gaps included lack of a communication strategy, lack of or understaffing of the communications department, under funding on communications, reporting writing, developing content, understanding an audience analyzing communication and feedback as well a d juggling traditional media vs digital media, among others.

Doreen, a communications officer from Reach A Hand Uganda gave made a deep dive on effective communication that was of great support to communication officers present as it ended with the development of communication strategies, this was buffed by seasoned blogger Ali Kaviri who reminded participants that so much can be done with little or no funds to be able to effectively communicate. He added that the most important is to be prompt and continuously share work so you keep the audience aware of what is happening least one gets forgotten so fast. “If you do not write it, it did not happen”, yes, he reminded us that one fact and take home for all the participants.

With the back and forth discussion about traditional media and digital media, especially on which is better, Patrick Mwesigye the team leader at Uganda Youth and Adolescents Health Forum took participants to a deeper understanding of digital media; the available platforms, pros and cons, and how they can be maximized. With the continuous penetration of internet in not only the developed countries but also in the world but also in Uganda, there is so much to tap in to give health communication a platform but paying attention to how the information is packaged. Just like developing a communication strategy, a successful social media strategy will need a clear goal, objectives, defined audience and messages with the right platform. He also shared the latest innovation, visual storytelling where a story may be told using still photography, illustration, or video, and can be enhanced with graphics, music, voice and other audio.
With the various advocacy agendas, we are best positioned as partners to improve sexual and reproductive health, if we can master the art of effective communication. And the simple truth is that our advocacy work will be easier if we communicate and even easier when we do it effectively. Many thanks to our partners from Right Here Right Now who made the workshop a success.
With the various advocacy agendas, we are best positioned as partners to improve sexual and reproductive health, if we can master the art of effective communication. And the simple truth is that our advocacy work will be easier if we communicate and even easier when we do it effectively. Many thanks to our partners from Right Here Right Now who made the workshop a success.