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Potential Programme ElementsEducators have a remarkable range of options open to them once they have determined the programme objectives and the general strategy that they intend to adopt. As information technology develops, there is a temptation to concentrate only on approaches that use electricity, computers, and television. But advances have also been made with respect to the application of low-tech options suitable for developing countries. The wind-up radio, for example, is only one of the more recent options available. The job of the educator is to use the most appropriate technologies to achieve the objectives in the most cost-effective and efficient way. This section of the topic area provides a range of programme elements and suggests ways in which these can be used, some of their limitations, and ways in which they can complement one another. The sections include the following:
There are programmes that start with the most obviously available materials or media. Educators should, though, be cautious in jumping to conclusions. It is essential that the initial programme assessment be done before selecting from amongst the programme elements that are available. Educators around the world are designing voter education programmes with increasing creativity, both with respect to the range of media being used and the manner in which they are being used, from paper balloons in Japan to large national civic education coalitions in central and south America The MediaIt is possible to use traditional and emerging media to convey advertizing and educational messages to large audiences. These media are primarily one-way communications, but changing technology, coupled with increasingly sophisticated survey techniques, is improving the ability to engage in two-way communication, where audience response has an impact on succeeding messages. While an argument can be made to consider all mechanisms of communication as media, this topic area uses the word in the generally accepted way. It is used to describe television, radio, and print media. These are covered in Government Media, which deals with ownership questions, National Impact Media, and Community Impact Media. The section also considers some similar techniques in the computer and Alternative Methods of Communicating Voter Education fields, as well as Use of Radio Adveritsing. Government MediaState ownership of the media imposes particular challenges on voter educators, especially those working in transitional situations. This section examines these challenges. Media ownership issues are also discussed in Structure of Media Ownership. State regulation of media is a two-edged sword: it can enhance or limit educational programmes. Ownership In some countries, some or all of the mass media are owned or controlled by the state. State ownership, and hence state control over the policy and content of the particular medium, is diminishing as the tendency toward privatization or at least commercialization or joint ownership increases. Nevertheless, there are many countries where television, radio, and/or national newspapers are state owned. When ownership diversifies, it seems that the print media are more likely to be in private hands. Control of the media can, of course, go much further. Legislation can prohibit or inhibit media diversity through a number of measures, from limiting access to resources, including broadcast channels, and heavy penalties for coverage of particular stories, to direct and gross censorship. Public Perception of the State For the voter educator, the problem is not necessarily state ownership or control of a particular medium that is required to spread the voter education message, unless educators find they cannot get access to these media at all. Rather, the problem lies in the perception that citizens have toward the media when governments have used their ownership or power to turn the media into their own mouthpiece. Governments have an interest in remaining in power. Television, radio, and the press provide them with an opportunity to communicate and manage the messages that might undermine their support amongst voters. All contestants in an election will make use of the media if they can, and when the election playing field is particularly uneven, there will be attempts to create fairness in media coverage. Governments can even control this negotiated access if they have the ability to set the fees for access. If voter educators are faced with a situation in which the majority of voters distrust messages seen on government-owned or controlled media, or one where the government does not allow the electoral authority to prepare messages that are perceived to weaken support for the existing regime, they have a problem. This was the situation in South Africa before the 1994 founding elections. In this situation, voter educators proposed and had accepted a consortium that prepared and ran all voter education messages on the national state-owned television and radio stations. Voters saw or heard a statement from this consortium that differentiated it from the various news and current affairs programmes prepared by the broadcaster itself. In other situations the electoral authorities develop communication identities, so that the level of trust in their messages can increase as voters understand the difference between these messages and those they might have come to distrust. Advantages of State-Owned Media At the same time, if negative public perceptions and censorship are not a concern, state-owned media may have certain advantages relative to commercial stations that the educator may want to consider. First, state-owned media may be required by law to provide free-airtime to the election authority and perhaps even civil soceity organizations to air voter education messages and related public service announcements. Depending upon the development of the country's media infrastructure, state-owned media may also have far greater reach, both in term or population and geography, than private broadcasters. And, they may be more likely to broadcast in areas where poorer strata of the population reside than commercially oriented media outlets. Working Outside an Election Period Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to establish this same differentiation in messages when conducting general civic education programmes. Given that these are designed to increase commitment to democracy and civic participation, messages have to be created and broadcast in an open environment. This does not always exist. When it does not exist, there is some evidence to suggest the messages will be tainted with the same brush as messages that are putting out the government's point of view. Regulation Governments can develop regulations that enhance election campaigns. They can limit private media monopolies, which can leave some political persuasions without a voice. Governments also can provide free airtime under controlled conditions in the private media or in state-owned media. This may be particularly important if election authorities or civil soceity organizations are not in a position to pay for broadcasting. In general, media regulation and the role of the state is a complicated and increasingly important area for those involved in elections. For more on this topic see Law or Regulations on Media During Elections National Impact MediaThe primary and most expensive media available for educational and information purposes are those that have a national impact. With changes in information technology and ownership, different media have to be considered in different ways by people placing information or developing strategies to communicate specialized messages. This section covers the following:
Television Television should be considered as a medium capable of conveying complex messages and emotions to large audiences. In the majority of countries, ownership of television sets has resulted in the individualization of audiences: at best, a family and friends may be together when a broadcast is made. Often people will be on their own. In some societies, there may be a culture of communal viewing, but this seems to diminish as personal incomes increase. As a result, producers and broadcasters have to make use of techniques to keep viewers watching, particularly if advertizements rather than programme content is being used. These techniques are taken on the whole from the experience of general television programming. Educators make use of advertisements, documentaries (especially personal stories and celebrity recommendations), soap operas or running serials, game shows, and so on. All of these are costly to produce and take a high degree of planning to maintain at the necessary standard. Because television is a hungry medium, there is also a substantial demand for new material on a regular basis. Finally, in relation to programme material, it is important to understand that the material will have to compete with commercially produced, and often international quality (of production, if not content) programmes. Television is unforgiving, and television watchers will turn off or may not even turn on the socially important but boring or amateurish. Educators also have to prepare material that, while authoritative, does not look lavish or extravagant because it is produced with taxpayers' money. Television viewership is regularly monitored by advertizers and by broadcasters. Ratings (or indices establishing viewership patterns and numbers) are used to determine when to place advertizements and the cost of these. In general, the cheapest time is that when smaller audiences or audiences with lower buying power are watching. These audiences can be important for education planners, who should analyse viewer patterns in more detail to discover whether, for example, women or the aged are watching. In some cases, broadcasters may provide free time for voter or civic education messages; in other cases, this may have to be purchased directly or sponsored by companies. When sponsorship is sought, care has to be taken that the relationship between the message and the sponsor is a congenial one. Company credibility over its treatment of workers, consumers or the environment can undermine the message. Moreoever, political activity or endorsements by the sponsor can also undermine the nonpartisan nature of the message and the educator. Educators will need to discuss their own commitment to nonpartisanship and the neutrality of the sponsor in advance. It is not only the reputation of a company sponsor that can undermine a message. The reliance on celebrity endorsements by pop performers, professional sports stars, and so on, can be undermined at considerable cost because of indiscreet behaviour by a single individual. Such behaviour may only be a sudden affiliation with one or other political parties; or that a stand on some issue is co-opted by a party platform. Whatever the case, the impact on a nonpartisan programme can be destructive. Amongst the most watched of all programmes are news broadcasts. Educators are extremely fortunate if they can create news or have the advantage of a large budget, free airtime, or a sponsor that enables them to place advertizements next to news broadcasts. Before making a large investment in television production in transitional societies, educators and even donors will want to consider how local resources and infrastructure, or the lack thereof, may affect the impact of televised messages. In countries experiening routine power failures due to inadequate energy supply, educators would be better advised to invest in radio (which can be battery operated) and print advertizing. Radio Next to television, radio provides the largest audience. In the majority of countries, and amongst poorer people in most countries, radio has a greater reach than television. Radio has an advantage because it is considerably cheaper to produce and broadcast programmes and it is possible to replicate programmes in a variety of languages at low cost. Of the options open to educators, radio poses some constraints. Serials, documentaries and magazine programmes similar to those on television are possible, and these often develop loyal audiences. But many radio stations have adopted programme schedules that are highly specialized and these have to be taken into consideration. The most frequently used formats are talk radio and music and news. Talk radio makes use of a host and telephone in audience participation format. In this format, all programming provided by educators must either be through advertizement or by the provision of guests for interview and answering of listener calls. This is a vital and educational format, but guests have to be well briefed and may be called upon to give information and make comment on a broad range of topics. Fortunately, radio is an ephemeral medium and the occasional slipup by an ill-prepared educator or election authority staff member may be tolerated, but it is not advisable. Music and news programmes are much harder to deal with. There is almost no way to break into this formula other than through the airing of advertizements, or good use of news releases. Segmentation of Audiences Both radio and television are becoming segmented. They may have a national or international reach through cable and satellite broadcast systems. Even broadcasters without access to satellite may have a footprint or reach that falls across national borders. But with specialized programming, and with changes in media ownership, it is increasingly possible to send different programmes to different audiences (typically through regional breakaways from national programmes or vice versa) or to ensure that the programming attracts only particular audiences. Because of this, television and radio have to be considered within a general portfolio of media, and each channel or station needs to be assessed according to its audience profile. Getting a message broadcast on a national television or radio channel may seem a major achievement for a voter educator. But the actual impact of that message may not be as great as it would be if different strategies were adopted. This is particularly important if the costs of the educational programme are considered. National prime time (the highest viewership period) television will certainly produce a tremendous impact, but unless the coverage has been obtained cheaply (through news coverage or by supplying a guest on a highly rated programme for example) the cost can also be high. Education can be spread through a large range of people, making them resources for their own communities. But educators also should weigh the impact of a highly centralised strategy (television and radio programmes and advertizing spots can be organized by a small professional team) against a more complex but decentralized face-to-face strategy. If the choice is made in favour of a centralized strategy, educators should obtain good advice from media agencies about the best mix. They should also concentrate on ensuring good news coverage of the election itself, and may use their advertizing budget to encourage attention to their programme. Newspapers National newspapers fall into two categories: dailies, which have very tight production schedules and deadlines; and weeklies or monthlies, which tend to carry more in-depth articles and background to the news. Both will also carry special supplements of an educational nature or will run ongoing stories and coverage. During election periods, newspapers often devote large amounts of space to coverage of candidates and contestants, and to the election process itself. In some cases, newspapers may have a track record of support for a particular party or faction, or they may choose to endorse a particular party or person in an election. The advantage of using newspapers as a major part of an educational strategy is the durability of the product. Not only is a newspaper read by the purchaser, there will inevitably be adequate statistics on the number of other readers for that particular purchase. And, while most people recycle or discard newspapers daily, educational supplements and special features are often kept longer. Indeed, because of the low cost of printing an overrun (additional copies of a newspaper or section of a newspaper) it is possible to negotiate to use a newspaper to produce and distribute the necessary educational materials for a widely dispersed team of local educators. There are disadvantages to newspapers as well. Newspaper readership, especially of national general publications, appears to be falling even in highly literate societies. In many transitional settings, newspaper readership may be limited to more urban, educated and financially secure strata of society. Also, in societies with high levels of illiteracy, newspaper readership is associated with literacy; and, although a number of newspapers may publish special supplements for non-literate or semi-literate readers, they rely on mediators to make sure these are passed on. Also, in transitional settings and closed societies, actual or artificial shortages of paper and ink, confiscation of newspapers, revocation of printing licenses, and even seizure of printing facilities and equipment can present real problems. Educators will need to assess the risk factors in such settings before proceeding with advertizements or articles in newspapers. National patterns of readership should be considered before decisions are made on how national newspapers can contribute, whether through advertizement, opinion and interest pieces, interviews with journalists, press releases, or special supplements. When the intention is to make newspapers a major part of the strategy, the use of journalists who understand the demands of newsrooms is essential, as these are quite peculiar and often impenetrable and mystifying to the general educator. Educators should concentrate on briefing reporters and editors about their plans, and should continue to provide good information that will enhance the coverage they give the elections. Personal and regular contact is essential, and can go a long way to ensuring the media report accurately and informatively about the work of election authorities and the issues that educators consider important. Magazines There are a tremendous number and variety of magazines. They are produced quarterly, monthly, weekly, in regional and international editions, in syndicated titles, and for highly specialized audiences. Some magazines aspire to the quality of technical and specialized journals. As the technology of layout and production becomes more widely dispersed and more acceptable, some technical and specialized journals aspire to the accessibility of magazines. For each of these magazines, there is a different editorial policy and a specialized audience. When educators can gain access to these magazines there are many payoffs: popular readerships, longevity of access to the material, and attractive layout. On the other side, the audience may be too specialized and the article may become outdated quickly (most monthly magazines have a three-month production schedule). Educators who can produce standard articles and have them placed in general and well-read magazines over the period of their campaign have a substantial aid in their general programme strategy. At the very least, magazines can be used to encourage voters to contact the election authorities and get information. Because of the slow lead times and high costs of magazine advertizing, there are few examples of these having been used. Media Synergy Media ownership patterns in the market economy that influences almost all countries have resulted in an increasing attempt to create synergy between different media. This same synergy has often been sought by educational campaigns. So, radio programmes are supplemented by magazine-like publications; newspaper reports on television debates; and television anchors reading and commenting on the day's newspaper headlines and interviewing journalists, rather than the primary sources for news coverage. This increasing combination of media can produce some deadening public effects in civil and political life. But when factored into an educational programme, these combinations can also produce remarkable cost savings and increase coverage and impact of a particular learning programme. Community Impact MediaIn Mali, there is a radio station that regularly broadcasts a musical party. What makes it different is that the party-goers are not dispersed throughout the country. They are dancing outside the studio, and can even come in to talk on the radio. Outside Johannesburg, a studio guest can look out the window of the radio station and, with luck, catch sight of the person telephoning in to ask a question. In Washington, DC, cable television provides the daily schedule of the mayor, and also lists civic events, only one flick of the tuning button away from a CNN broadcast from the Middle East. In Australia, both commercial and community radio stations regularly take outside broadcast vans to shopping centres and community events, where they broadcast from the middle of a crowd, making radio more accessible to people both as listeners and participants. High-technology communication options have become cheaper, more accessible, and more able to reach into niche markets than ever before. Educators often set their sights on national impact: but it is possible to use community impact to reach precisely those special groups, high-impact individuals and groups that lead to a successful programme. When the merit of such media has been recognised by commercial interests, it is possible to work through agencies or directories to gain access to them. But even these agencies and directories cannot always keep up with the pace of change in the marketplace. In societies where there are attempts at centralized control of media, or where particular groups of people distrust the mainstream, it is more difficult to identify what is available. What follows is a set of clues and places to look rather than a full listing:
Cable and Community Television Cable television starts from a presumption that people will pay for a service either on a regular basis, or increasingly on a pay-per-view basis. In order to achieve that, companies must install the necessary cable. Once this is in place, it may be a condition of the licence of those using the cable that they have a certain amount of public service broadcasting, or they may choose to allow small operations, or cheaper options, to fill air time that they would otherwise not use. So, there often is spare capacity on these channels that can be used to send even static images or text into houses that subscribe. Such access allows very cheap productions to take up odd times of the day and night. But the ready availability of television and the voracious appetite for material means that, in addition to the specialized channels, there are increasing numbers of regional stations that broadcast community (or citywide) programming in between prime time programming provided by the larger national stations. Even in countries with a very limited number of broadcast channels using the airwaves as opposed to cable or satellite, there is an increasing tendency to establish regional breakaway magazine programmes that might broadcast in a different language for a certain period of the day. Such programmes might not appear to have the same reach as a national prime time advertizement, but they are likely to be cheaper and therefore possible to air for longer periods. It is also likely that it is possible to prepare a much more focussed message because the likely viewers are better known. Community Radio Small radio stations are always looking for programming material and are willing and able to place advertizing spots at low cost. What is more, they have loyal although small audiences with well-known characteristics. In some countries, such stations may be trusted more and may be able to provide more detailed political information and debate. These factors should be considered when preparing material. The correct language and dialect should be used when possible, the issues should be those of the listeners, and the style should match that expected. Material that is well prepared according to the appropriate specifications is likely to be used as is. Community radio stations may broadcast on a specific frequency throughout a country, so that a listener who is travelling can leapfrog from one station to another without touching the dial. When this is possible, national advertizing can enable people to keep posted on the elections or some other campaign while they are moving around, an ideal situation for educators and administrators. Other stations may be willing to give up time during an election, an ideal situation for distance education programmes. An education programme can give prominence to a local spokesperson, perhaps someone who has undergone training or has been appointed as an information officer. Community stations may be able to interview such people at short notice and without major cost. There are some constraints. Educators should not rely solely on community stations. Such stations can have very small audiences. They are also often disorganized: placing an advertizement is no guarantee that it will air or that there will be a record of its airing. Programmes are most successful if they make personal contact with the local people. Community Newspapers Community newspapers can be large-circulation city papers for which people pay. Access to these is similar to that of those newspapers described in National Impact Media. They are, however, more likely to be free papers supported by local advertizing. These newspapers can be distributed free to households or can be left at community sites such as libraries and shops for people to collect. In the first case, the distribution figure can be more reliable, as is the ability to determine the geographic spread of the information. In the second case, some observation is needed to determine whether the paper does reach its intended audience. These papers provide important community services: local news, commemoration of civic events, advertizing of local events and services, and often a vigourous correspondence page where people fight out local politics. They may not be well laid out or professionally produced - often they are a labour of love and highly idiosyncratic. But they are read, if only for the classified advertizements, and normally for much more than that. And their editors know what is happening in their local communities. So, they are an ideal means for promoting events, obtaining information, or establishing what might form part of a civic education programme or political campaign. Election educators can use papers for communicating local information such as where to vote, where to register, and so on. Material that is prepared in discussion with editors and is done in a suitable format is more likely to be used as is. Many community newspapers do not consider themselves part of the free distribution family. They have a mission and come with backing from a community-based organization or set of associations with a political goal. Such newspapers can have a hard core of readers, and the more successful have broken into the broader community. Educators should analyse readerships and distribution patterns carefully so as not to romanticize their reach and influence. Religious or Denominational Newspapers Many religious organizations have newspapers. These may have substantial readerships across an entire country. Others may have smaller, more specialized readerships. Not all religious organizations are favourably disposed to political activity or to democracy promotion. And some of their publications zealously guard access to their readers. But it is possible to engage the editors and governors of such publications in order to discover whether there are particular messages that might be placed in their publication, and how best to do so. Some editors can draw a distinction between partisan information and nonpartisan voter education. Or they may wish to have the material written by their own writers: education programmes will merely provide background information and model articles. It is possible to direct the editors toward personalities involved in the campaign who are significant members of their religious faith or community. And it may be possible to encourage the leaders of these religious faiths and communities to join coalitions in civil society supporting the programme. Self-Published Magazines ('Zines) The spread of low-cost printing, reproduction and photocopying facilities, together with access to computers and other home design tools, has resulted in a spread of specialized, self-published magazines ('zines). Such 'zines, to use a label applied by many of their producers which differentiates them from more formal journals and popular magazines, are designed and distributed to extremely specific niche markets - normally those associated with youth culture, music, and art. The spread of cheap compact disc (CD) technology has meant an increase in the use of the CD to supplement the 'zine, and the Internet also has a number of such journals. 'Zines suffer from, and glory in, the copycat nature of their emergence. They come and go, often have a radical approach to society, if not to their particular group, and display an irreverence and street wisdom that more-restrained and mainline journals often attempt to appropriate. As a result of their immediacy, such 'zines are ideal for communicating a particular point of view or for advertizing specific events that take place within a short time of the appearance of the publication. Because of the targeted readership, they offer an opportunity to reach specific audiences. Information Kiosks Many countries have tourist bureaus that provide general information about themselves. Some have citizen information desks that offer access to municipal and state information. In countries with advanced computer networks, these staffed kiosks have been replaced by varying levels of interactive touch screen computers offering access to a range of online information. In South Africa, these computer kiosks were developed together with support from UNESCO to provide voter information from the electoral commission and information about all contestants prepared by themselves. This information is housed in a national museum, and has been placed in a range of stand-alone computer terminals. In the United Kingdom, a national network system is being put in place that provides travel and community information. Australia is increasingly using such kiosks to carry information about government services, as are some states in the United States of America. The availability of these kiosks is going to increase, and, once in place, access to information is easy to achieve. Even when computerization is not available, countries with public information kiosks have a system for distributing information and a range of staff who could receive training especially in the provision of election information. Community Bulletin Boards Growth in commercial activity and the number and prevalence of shopping malls in place of town squares has meant that community gathering places must now be sought in a range of places. At these gathering places, many community bulletin boards have been placed which can advertize jobs and act as exchange systems for bartering of goods and services. As a result, there is a section of the population that will consult these and other similar notice boards in government offices, shopping centres, and so on. While it may be beyond the capacity of a centralized education programme to use such diversified systems of communication, careful preparation of material suitable for display and motivation of local volunteers can result in the spread of information quite rapidly across these community boards. A number of other communication methods are discussed further in Alternative Methods of Communicating Voter Education . Use of Radio AdvertisingIn the Zimbabwean elections of 2005, various international donors distributed solar powered and wind-up radios through domestic organizations, together with radio station information cards. These radio stations were broadcasting into Zimbabwe from other countries, carrying news and educational information, as well as giving voice to opposition parties which could not access the national state owned broadcaster. After some years of limited take up, widespread availability of digital satellite radio receivers have been given a boost by a consumer market in the United States of America, and programming is starting to emerge. Distributors of satellite television have also been making available radio stations. And those with broad band Internet access are streaming live and recorded radio material to their computers. This ability to make use of relatively cheaply prepared and broadcast audio material, using technology which is highly mobile and unobtrusive, has meant that documentary and reality radio, news and talk are all available to the educator under increasingly flexible conditions, even where there is control of state broadcasters or commercially owned and inflexible formats such as news and music. Educators will want to consider the following opportunities: Talk radio Talk radio formats have a bad name in certain societies, where they have become colonized by highly reactionary and eccentric presenters and niche audiences. In other countries, talk radio has provided a service which includes community services, public education and mobilization, and access to political leaders by ordinary citizens with access to a telephone. Educators can assist such stations, whether they are the larger more commercial stations or smaller community stations, by providing them with studio guests, suggesting topics for public debate, and offering briefings for presenters and producers. Magazine shows There is some overlap between the talk format and the magazine format stations, but the latter tend to rely on more pre-packaged materials and interviews, short documentaries, and occasionally more extensive public education or public interest shows. Educators can either work with such stations to develop programmes – such as a series introducing the constitution or bill of rights - or to showcase particular issues or political processes; or may develop their own programmes in house and distribute these to the various stations through a web portal or by digital disk. Such production should be based on pre-production conversations with the stations to ensure that they are of the right broadcast quality, of the appropriate format and timing, and that space will be made in the broadcast schedule. News Media communications and the development of events and media opportunities to promote educational objectives, or to obtain support for such objectives, requires planning and media awareness. This is covered in a separate file National Impact Media. Advertising For further information on the use of advertising, including radio, see: Commercial Advertising. Alternative Methods of Communicating Voter EducationVoter educators often turn to the most obvious forms of communication: radio, television, newspapers, and printed materials. But even in countries where these are readily available, there are other, sometimes more potent opportunities for mass communication. Educators should consider media that directly reach people, for the following reasons:
Some of the means described here have been tested in other public information campaigns but have received more limited use in voter education. Others are means that require further testing. But as they are considerably cheaper and more flexible than others, they are worth using even as a backdrop and complement to more formal public information campaigns. This section deals with the following communications options:
Outdoor Advertising Space There is a range of outdoor spaces available for advertising and for communicating short, memorable messages. Large billboards adjacent to national freeways or train lines are already used by commercial advertising, and they are likely to fill up with political party advertising during election campaigns. There are also likely to be advertizing spaces, some of them enclosed in glass and even lit at night, along shopping and pedestrian streets and at bus and tram stops and metro stations. But there are other smaller and more diverse places, limited only by the imagination. In India, the national highways are fringed by farms whose barns and houses have been appropriated for commercial advertising. Sports stadiums, the sides of buses and trains, and just about anywhere else where people will gather or the television camera will focus can be used. Perhaps the most ubiquitous use of outdoor space is the production of stickers for vehicles and walls. More information can be found at Stickers When these spaces have been identified for commercial use, the best form of access is through an advertising agency, and costs will depend on the prominence of the space. Graffiti During election campaigns, political parties make use of billboards and painted signs. With the popularity of graffiti amongst young people, it is possible to make use of the design idiom and the guerilla tactics of the graffiti writers to spread simple motivational messages quite widely at low cost. In a number of cities in South Africa, local authorities have established graffiti walls and actively encourage artists to paint social messages on these walls. What are some of the characteristics of graffiti? Messages Appear on Walls Along Commuter Routes. These are often in relatively inaccessible places where nevertheless large numbers of people can see them. Anyone looking for sites would need to travel the commuter routes, especially those taken by young and poor people. In addition, the sites chosen by graffiti artists also use surprise or bravado to enhance the message: people will wonder: "How could that have been written there?" Messages are Ephemeral. Graffiti artists expect that the signs will not last or will be altered in some way. However, city dwellers will know that many of these signs do last. What enhances their attractiveness is the ability to add messages to the original core message over time. The same rules apply to any outdoor campaign: if it is left unaltered long enough it will become part of the background and lose its impact. The Graffiti Artist Uses Street Design. The messages are raw, the colours bold, the language that of their peers, and the symbols meaningful to the in-group. Graffiti can be used in two ways: as a gimmick that decorates a wall but actually appeals only to those who put it there, or as a real message aimed at a particular market. To achieve the second, voter educators contact graffiti artists themselves and consider using them to do the productions. In this case, there is the added benefit of establishing another group of people with voter education information. The caveat, which applies to all of these alternative methods, is that the voter educator will have to negotiate a way to have the messages appear while at the same time not stepping outside the regulatory and legal frameworks. For example, there may be restrictions on "defacing" public property that may involve steep fines if violated. In some societies, this may be more difficult than in others. Recorded Tape Freedom of the press once meant that everyone was free to own a printing press. But in many societies involved in freedom struggles, other tools are more important. Amongst these are video cassette recorders (VCRs), tape recorders and fax machines. Video and audio tapes can be produced relatively cheaply. In the case of audio tape, even quality studio production is inexpensive; and reproduction of tapes is limited to the cost of the tape cassette itself. In the case of video, professional production is more costly, but reproduction is cheap. Once reproduced, recorded tape can be used in a variety of settings. Audio tapes have been made available to middle class commuters, those taking communal taxis, those congregating outside clinics, indeed anywhere people have to sit still and are willing to be entertained for ten to twenty minutes. Audio tape can also be used as a teaching tool for an unskilled trainer; and, together with a wind-up tape recorder, messages can be carried beyond the electricity grid. Video too can be used as a teaching tool, but the technical requirements for this are greater. In a number of contexts, roving teams have been able to carry the necessary equipment and set up camp at rural localities and informal settlements to offer a show to the local voters. But this requires substantial logistical support and capital investment. Getting the video through to schools, community halls, companies with training rooms, and even into churches and private homes provides a faster and cheaper distribution network. Video can require in-person narrators to talk through the concepts over visuals. This means that it is a powerful adjunct to attitude change where Face To Face Interaction is required. There have been some experiments using video face to face, the way audio is used on commuter buses. This raises the question of what is shown or what is heard. So far, and there is only limited data available, it appears that what works best is the creation of a typical TV or radio programme, similar to the in-flight entertainment packages offered on international airlines. A little bit of news, a snatch of music and entertainment, a bit of local gossip can be interspersed with voter education messages. People on buses cannot concentrate for long periods of time and there is a lot of disturbance, unlike a more controlled setting at a theatre or workshop. While video and audio are the most widely used recording methods, there has been some indication that records or compact discs (CDs) might also have their place. Both are cheap to reproduce if there is access to the expensive production process, and, once again, voters and other institutions have the equipment to broadcast the messages. See Digital and Recorded Materials for further information. Blackboards and Bulletin Boards Outside the barrios in Mocambique during the 1980s stood painted blackboards. The paint is cheap and it can go on any smooth wall. Local news and announcements were written on these boards in chalk, also cheap. A similar mechanism for communication was used in the Philippines by the church. Here it was combined with newsboys, children who could read and could take the messages off the boards and into the barrios directly. During elections, many institutions can provide such temporary news and bulletin boards. All that is required is a system for preparing the messages and getting them written up on a regular basis. Imagination Applied To Distribution The assumption behind all these alternative methods is that voter educators must be creative in the production, display, and distribution of messages. Where these can be popularized and decentralized, other dynamics come into play. Suddenly, it is possible for one taxi driver to become excited about a tape and pass it on to his peers. A family with a record of hospitality has a tool that goes into the VCR whenever there are guests. A local church becomes a voter education agent. The local school starts using the board outside, where parents can see it, and want to see it because it has information also about the progress of their children. A gang of youngsters discovers that they can also vote. There are drawbacks. To do this well, voter educators have to be linked to community networks, and they have to plan with people who might not be used to doing this in the way an advertizing agency or radio executive might be. But the rewards are considerable, and the ownership of the election and of the voter education enterprise is immediately expanded as these alternative media are used. Printed MaterialsVoter education programmes rely heavily on printed materials. Printing provides a fast and cheap way of preparing large volumes of material. Most countries have printing facilities and various qualities of paper available, although some transitional settings may find both paper and ink to be in short supply. This section of the topic area provides information on different ways in which printed material can be prepared and used. It also provides basic information on an aspect of materials production that is ignored too frequently by those who produce it, especially those in civil society, ie. legal, copyright, and identification issues. There are legal, copyright, and identification issues that will ensure that materials can be reproduced, stored, researched, and evaluated better. Many of the sample materials available cannot be traced to a particular election and political moment. Because of this, there are three sections dealing with this topic, which can be skipped by those who want to look at specific educational issues covered in the further sections. Reproduction, storage, research, evaluation, and law are discussed in the following: Environmental issues – which are frequently overlooked when publishing – are discussed in Publication is discussed in the following: Legal ConsiderationsThere will be laws, bylaws, and local ordinances affecting printing and publication. When this is handled by a publisher who has been in the field and knows what laws apply, the educator's job is made easier. But publishers often do not deal with material conveying political messages. And they may not have a good understanding of local ordinances in places where they do not usually distribute. In transitional settings, legislation may be in flux with national laws and local ordinances sometimes at odds. So, it is best to have at least a working knowledge of the current laws and how these may affect printing and distribution. There is nothing more disheartening, costly and time wasting than having to reprint a batch of materials because something was left off, placed incorrectly or worded improperly. It is bad enough if it is an error of substance, most frustrating if it turns out to be merely a small legal requirement making no difference to the substance of the publication. Laws related to printed materials can affect such concerns as identifying information, content, technical requirements, distribution methods and commercial restrictions. Content Restrictions It is possible for an election or a civic education programme to be conducted in a country that has censorship laws. These may be widespread or may come and go during the election process as governments invoke or revoke national and local states of emergency or martial law. There may be laws that apply during election periods only. For example, newspaper opinion pieces and headlines (and by extension other publications of a newspaper type) may have to have an identifiable author whose name and street address are published during declared election times in order to enforce accountability. There will inevitably be general laws governing public expression. Some countries have a very free regime for publishing; others have restrictions regarding the use of the national flag, symbols, pictures of political leaders, language and slogan restrictions, and so on. Technical Restrictions A second set of restrictions are those revolving around technical issues. Newspapers may be defined in a certain way and require registration, as may publications looking like comics, journals, magazines or pamphlets. The regulations can include requirements on what information is given on the ownership of the publication, its staff, its place of business, the printing works from which it originates, and so on. There might also be a legal requirement to lodge copies with one or more copyright repositories or libraries before or after publication. In the case of ephemeral articles such as posters, fliers, and small handouts, there may be requirements that details about the distributor and publisher and possibly the printer, as well as information on the print run be included on the item. There are good reasons why much of this information should be on a publication in any event (see How Copyright Affects Voter Education Programmes) and there is always the possibility that the material may have to be recalled or may be confiscated if it does not comply with local laws. Distribution Restrictions and Opportunities Often local municipalities have strict laws governing the displaying of posters, the handing out of materials at public places, and the leaving of materials for the public to pick up. These laws are normally a part of a general environmental control and can make compliance easy. There may be more general laws governing the distribution of materials in countries that are less open. These also have to be taken into account because they can affect not only the producer of the material but the user as well. Some countries have made allowance for easy and cost-effective distribution of printed material through the post. There are ways of identifying and packaging newspapers, special mail, low-priority communications, and so on, which then ensures that they obtain cheaper distribution rates. Educators working on limited budgets should explore such opportunities, which are not always widely publicized. Commercial Restrictions There is invariably commercial protection of copyrights, images, and logos, which small printers and publishers often use to create attractive materials. It is not possible to use photographs or images without checking to see that they are available in the public domain. [1] The restrictions mentioned above come about for a variety of reasons. In some cases, the motivation is entirely constructive. But even environmental bylaws have been used by some regimes to restrict the free flow of information. While some election authorities may have carte blanche in countries that otherwise restrict information, others may have to argue strongly to get their information exempt from restrictions that limit their ability to convey the necessary messages. These same authorities should be vigilant not only for themselves but also for the nonstatutory organisations and associations that are providing electoral support. They may also want, if they intend to develop a strategy of including civil society organisations in the educational programme, to provide guidance for smaller organizations that may have difficulty navigating their way through the shoals of the law. Notes: [1] For images which can be used and a discussion of public domain materials, see Where There Is No Artist. How Copyright Affects Voter Education ProgrammesCopyright discussions are important in ensuring that people get recognised for their work and that there is a well organized and displayed ownership, partly for recognition and partly to ensure accountability. While much of the information in this section is fairly technical, it is worth remembering the values that underpin voter education and the implications of these as far as copyright issues are concerned. If one of the major aims of electoral and civic education is to build democracy through the development of civic values and citizen responsibility, it seems reasonable to expect that organizations and government agencies involved in this work should promote open and honest dealings with each other's materials by paying due respect to copyright. The section covers the following:
What is Copyright? Freedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of a democracy. This fundamental human right is generally understood to grant freedom of speech to citizens and, in particular, to the media. It should also be remembered that it grants creative freedom to writers, musicians, painters, and the like: people who pursue the original expression of ideas through research or art. Another basic human right is the right to own property, where property is understood not to be limited to land. People are not permitted to rob others of something they own. This can apply as much to a person's original expression of certain ideas as it does to physical property. The product of someone's own intellectual efforts is called intellectual property: it belongs to that person in the same way that physical property does. Copyright, though traditionally not considered one of the fundamental human rights, can be seen as an extension of the two basic rights mentioned previously. Copyright laws prevent anyone from copying or appropriating the intellectual property of another person. Copyright laws provide protection for anyone who does creative work, on condition that their work fulfils two basic requirements. First, it must be presented in material (or physical) form: in writing, in a sound recording, in a painting or sculpture. There is no copyright on ideas, but only on the material expression of ideas. Second, a work is eligible for copyright only if it is original. This does not mean that it has to be highly innovative and present ideas that have never been mentioned before. It simply means that the work has not been copied, but is the product of its author's own efforts. How Do Copyright Matters Affect Voter Education? Voter education materials are produced for a very specific purpose and often under fairly pressurised conditions. There are two types of agencies that generally get involved in producing these materials:
In both instances, the development of voter education materials is motivated by a desire to see elections succeed. Because such large numbers of people require information and insight into electoral processes at the time of an election, voter education agencies are always interested in the distribution of materials on the widest possible scale. Combining these imperatives with the fact that voter education has to happen under enormous time and financial constraints, it is tempting to use ready-made resources rather than to design new materials from scratch each time. NGOs, particularly those that define themselves as public-interest organizations, are inclined to be remarkably unpossessive about materials that they produce. Their main concern is to see the materials are used, and if this means that users end up photocopying the materials in large quantities, this is often cause for delight rather than dismay. In certain instances, copying is even actively encouraged, as in this caption from the front page of a civic education trainer's manual: "This material may be freely copied by trainers for use in workshops, with acknowledgement of source." While the good intentions behind this kind of statement are easy to understand, there are drawbacks to dealing with original materials in this way. Not only are NGOs often willing to allow their materials to be photocopied liberally in the interests of wider dissemination of information, but they are also inclined to be somewhat careless about even identifying materials as theirs. Many voter education materials are ephemeral in nature: pamphlets, posters, broadsheets, and comic strips. Perhaps because they are produced at great speed, or because they pass through many hands during the production process, such materials are often distributed without the name and contact details of the organization from whence they originated, let alone the names of contributing authors and illustrators. It is important to remember that all such original work, even in the area of voter education, is protected by copyright law. And this, after all, is not a bad thing. Consider a scenario where an NGO in a country preparing for elections develops an information booklet for voters. The booklet is reproduced in-house in fairly large numbers (through a simple photocopying and stapling process) for distribution in the area of the country where the NGO is based. Close to the time of the elections, the electoral commission of that country, having seen a copy of the booklet, decides to reproduce it for distribution nationwide. The name of the NGO that produced the booklet does not appear anywhere, and the electoral commission assumes that the organization, in the interest of successful elections, would support mass distribution of the booklet anyway. Funds are duly voted to this project and the booklet is printed for distribution with the logo and contact details of the electoral commission on the front page. People respectful of copyright will react to this scenario with some alarm. It is but one example of how voter education material produced by one agency can be appropriated by another. Situations also arise where the mass media, and newspapers in particular, reproduce voter education materials assumed to be in the public domain. And, of course, NGOs have been known to copy each other's work too, without giving credit where it is due. Not only is this an internal problem in countries running elections, but it has become increasingly easy for voter education agencies to gain access to materials from beyond their borders. A number of international agencies facilitate voter education across the globe. When copying materials from foreign sources, the same rules should apply. In the final analysis, it is simply not worth being coy about copyright matters. It does not take much to acknowledge the original work of the writers and illustrators who create voter education materials, and to respect the procedures that copyright laws impose. It should not be forgotten that the development of materials requires fairly considerable financial input. In the case of NGOs, this money often is received from donor agencies. If the materials are then reproduced by others without any acknowledgement of the time, skill, and money invested in the process of origination, this does an injustice to all involved. In instances where it is possible, some sort of financial agreement should be reached to allow for the copying of materials. In a country like the United States, the right to financial reward for one's intellectual efforts forms the basis of copyright law. Throughout the world, the NGO sector is constantly struggling with financial problems. Buying the right to reproduce voter education materials can make a small contribution toward the sustainability of the NGOs that developed them. When it is not possible to pay for permission to reproduce voter education materials, or in cases where voter education agencies decide to waive such costs, it is important (at the very least) to apply for permission through the proper channels and formally to acknowledge the source of such materials. The creative skills of people working in NGOs are often not sufficiently appreciated, and they can be as self-effacing as their organizations are in their commitment to the interests of society at large. Nevertheless, NGOs are well known for their capacity to be responsive to community needs, to experiment with innovative methodologies and to be a step ahead of bigger, less-flexible educational institutions, particularly in the state, which by their very nature cannot move as fast. NGOs and their staff deserve better recognition of their work in the area of voter education, and respecting their copyright is a good place to start. What are the Legal Frameworks for Copyright? There are two international copyright conventions, and most countries in the world are signatories to either one or both of these. The Berne Convention stipulates that a work does not need to be formally registered in order to enjoy copyright protection. Copyright is understood to be inherent and automatic, whether a formal notice of copyright appears in a work or not. The Berne Convention also lays down the principle that copyright on a particular work should be respected throughout the life of the authors and for a fixed number of years after their death (in most countries the cut-off point is fifty years). When copyright on a work expires, it falls into the public domain. The United Copyright Convention (UCC) does not specify the duration of copyright. Its most important provision is that in countries where authors are required to register their work for copyright purposes (although the UCC does not demand this), such formalities can be complied with by simply placing a copyright notice in the work, together with the name of the copyright holder and the date of first publication. The registration procedure is as straightforward as that: it does not involve making formal application to official bodies, filling in lengthy forms, or standing in interminable queues. Authors of published works (as opposed to unique works of art) may be required to deposit a copy (or copies) of their work with an official body, such as their country's state library. These international conventions do not preclude the need for signatory countries to have copyright legislation of their own. Rather, the conventions provide guidelines for the drafting and application of such laws. Importantly, under the international conventions, countries undertake to provide the same copyright protection to writers and artists from outside their borders as they offer to those within. Like any legislation, copyright laws can be fairly complex, and it is not possible to cover every aspect of copyright here. It is also difficult to make generalizations that apply in every country of the world. Broadly speaking, however, copyright is owned by the author of a work, that is, the creator of a material expression of an idea. This person may or may not be the person who had the idea originally. When the author is employed (for example in an NGO) and the work is created as part of that job, then copyright belongs to the employer. When a work is produced in the employ and under the direction of the state, then the state owns copyright. In the case of commissioned work, copyright rests with the author, unless it is formally signed over. If an organisation develops a voter education manual, for example, and commissions a set of illustrations to form part of the manual, then copyright on the illustrations belongs to the artist, unless this is formally ceded to the organization. Much depends on the nature of the contract that is signed for commissioned work. A contract with an illustrator could specify, for instance, that the organization commissioning the work has the right to reuse the illustrations a certain number of times or for certain purposes. Questions of copyright ownership become more complex in the case of collective works. Often in NGOs, voter education materials are the combined work of several authors. If the contributions of the various authors are indistinguishable from one another, then the authors own copyright jointly. Where the authors are in the employ of the organization, then in most cases the organization holds copyright. When a work is composed of separate, identifiable contributions by different authors (for example different chapters of a book), then the authors own copyright in their individual contributions, while the editor owns copyright on the compilation as a whole (known as compilation rights). Finally, copyright can actually change owners, just as is the case with physical property. However, it cannot simply be given away. In order to change hands, copyright must be formally assigned. In such cases, authors or illustrators come to a formal agreement with publishers, commissioning agencies, or any other parties to assign all copyright in a particular work to them. An assignment of copyright must also guarantee that copyright in a work has not been granted to any other party. How is Permission Obtained to use Copyright Material? Though copyright is clearly intended to protect the interests of people who produce original work, copyright laws are mindful of the interests of broader society too. For example, copyright legislation generally permits writers to quote from other works, provided the source is acknowledged and the quotation is not excessively long. In educational institutions, photocopying is permitted, with certain limitations, for the individual use of students. In such cases where limited copying is allowed, the exact limits are difficult to define. Copyright laws require that people apply the principle of "fair use" or "fair dealing" to determine whether something can be copied without obtaining formal permission from the author. It is almost impossible to quantify what this means, and the principle can be qualitative too. In the case of material that is sold on the commercial market, an obvious consideration is that copying should not jeopardise sales. Out of respect for the creators of original work, and bearing in mind that sufficient respect often is not paid to the work of NGOs, it is recommended that formal permission be obtained to copy any work if the copying is not being done exclusively for personal use. Permission should be applied for in writing, and should clearly specify the intended use of the copyrighted material. With works published by recognised publishing houses, it is often the case that authors hold copyright while the publishers hold quotation rights. Again, in such cases, the nature of the contract between the publisher and the author is all important. Contracts can specify such things as territorial rights (the territorial extent of copyright), translation rights, and a range of other restrictions. Generally, this is all linked to the financial interests of the author and the publisher. For this reason, permission to copy is often granted at a price. In the area of voter education, it is unusual for people to be motivated by the desire to make a profit, although organizations involved in voter education obviously have to cover their costs. If one organization applies to another for permission to copy voter education material and clearly explains the context in which this will be used, it is reasonable to expect that such permission will be granted for free or at a very low cost. Having obtained permission to copy materials, it is important to be meticulous about acknowledging the source. As a courtesy, it is also recommended that a copy of the new materials be sent to the organization that granted permission for their work to be copied. If an organization is approached for permission to copy voter education materials that they have produced, then as much information as possible should be obtained about the intended use: target audience, proposed print run, area of distribution, and anticipated price (if the material will be offered for sale). Such details will facilitate the decision about whether it is necessary or fair to charge a fee. As far as fees are concerned, there are no hard-and-fast rules and requests generally have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. In granting permission, a letter should be written stating any particular terms and conditions that may apply. A copy of the new materials can also be requested. Finally, the question arises about what should be done if copyright is violated. While the offended party understandably feels outraged when this occurs, unfortunately there is not much to be gained by taking copyright cases to court. In fact, such cases seldom reach the courts, unless there is very big money involved. If an organization discovers that its voter education materials have been copied without permission, a formal apology could be demanded and, if necessary, a fee imposed retrospectively. Indexing and DatingResearchers and librarians will become the custodians of the materials being produced for educators and citizens. These educators and citizens require information about the provenance of a publication. But often, this is not available, because materials used for educational purposes in this enterprise are ephemeral or grey materials. In addition, little thought is given to the durability of the materials, so packages are prepared in which a manual might have all the suggested information that follows, but its component parts may not. The following basic information should be provided on all printed material:
This needs to be done for two reasons. First, users must be able to evaluate the material according to a range of criteria (especially if the material is produced during an election when bias is obviously an issue), one of which is the credibility of the publishing organisation. Second, those collecting or assessing the material activities that ensure ongoing use of the experience contained in the material or through its use need the information in order to catalogue and to obtain further copies or further information.
In election periods, dates may need to be more specific because of information changes. One edition of a pamphlet may be more up to date and authoritative than another; newspaper supplements may have detail that is only current on the day of production. But printed materials hang around, most notably in reception areas of offices but surprisingly also on public shelves and free distribution stands. Inaccurate material cannot be discarded if it is not dated. So, in addition to the year, ephemeral material can require the month and even the day of publication. Specialised publications such as lists of voting stations, amendments to regulations, and frequently asked questions for educators, can even have a time of printing on them to ensure that the most current version is always in use.
Because materials get separated from one another, a decision should be made as to how to ensure that there is a full record of the set of materials. It may not be possible to put full information on small pamphlets or artifacts. But these should have some identifying mark or logo and the primary document (often a manual or package cover) should have full and explicit details of the full set of materials. If possible, the primary document should mention not only titles but give some descriptive information particularly about posters and other art work.
In addition, researchers attempting to understand how the materials were prepared and used so that lessons can be drawn from their use may be made more generally available will also want information that often is not given. Publishers should convey, in a preface, forward, introductory statement, or boxed highlight, a brief sense of the context within which the materials were produced and the purpose for which they were produced. This is especially important in electoral education because there are such divergences between various elections. Voter education material suitable for a founding election in which the electorate have never before voted will be very different from those prepared for a highly literate and election habituated community where elections are compulsory. Environmental Considerations of Voter EducationEducators are no different from the majority of people in assuming that their work has no environmental impact. However, mass campaigns involving large scale productions of printed materials, distribution along road or air networks, on the spot distribution of ephemeral materials including pamphlets, newspapers, plastic carrier bags and so on all have their environmental consequences. These impacts can be mitigated through a more conscious consideration at the planning stages. Production methods which take account of water and waste management; acquisition and replacement of raw materials; and frugal consideration of the size and number of the publications required can all reduce impact. In a number of cases, those involved in production will want to consider the decentralization of printing in order to reduce distribution impacts. This has been made much more feasible by the Internet, which enables print ready proofs to be distributed electronically to the point of use. Of course, good forward planning can allow even more traditional means of distribution such as postal services. During pre-election campaigns, last minute production of materials inevitably results in use of the most wasteful means of distribution – such as large scale air or road courier services - adding costs and driving up environmental impacts. At the point of contact between educators and the public, more care is likely to be taken to ensure that good citizenship is practiced in relation to litter, noise control, crowd management at mass events or interactions with the local authorities and with neighbours. Traditional Print ItemsThis file takes a closer look at some traditional print materials that have been used in voter and civic education programmes. These include:
The educational value of these materials and a variety of substantive, design, production, distribution, and cost and time considerations are discussed. The manner in which these items fit into the broader programme and complement other products and activities is also considered. There are a variety of other printed items, including posters and banners, bookmarks, coasters, stickers, clothing, product packaging, and calendars that are discussed separately in Specialty Print Items. This section discusses two separate matters:
This will be of use particularly to educators setting up programmes for the first time. Educational Advantages of Using Books The printing and distribution of books in people's home language changed the world. They remain the most powerful medium of communicating complex messages and have the advantage of being relatively easy to produce in quantity, low in unit cost, simple to store, and totally unreliant on electricity, telephone lines or computer terminals once they have been printed. And, unlike computers, they are not subject to the dangers of magnetic interference or virus corruption. Even in situations of illiteracy, it requires only a single literate person willing to read aloud to convey the contained message, and that person requires only the skill of reading rather than mastery of the content of the book. Surprisingly, there are few simple books containing information about elections and democracy available in many countries. Publishers of religious texts inevitably rely not only on market forces to determine their production and distribution but go out of their way to place such books in the hands of people who they believe will benefit from their ownership. In South Africa, the government made a similar attempt, using low-cost printing methods and the national postal network, to place copies of their new constitution in 7 million hands. In Mexico, the election commission produced a set of books on various aspects of democracy. Disadvantages of Books There are disadvantages to the use of books for individual or group education:
With radio, television, magazines and newspapers being the preferred means for popular communication, books have come to be associated with expert audiences or with particular niche markets. While there is a plethora of popular novels and self-help books being published, there is surprisingly little civic education material being published in book form at the same level. What is there seems directed at formal schooling at secondary or tertiary level in the form of texts which will be interpreted by a teacher or lecturer. Booklets Linked to the book, and perhaps more used by educators, is the booklet. A booklet can be written more rapidly, printed in larger quantities, and because it normally has a limited number of pages, it is less likely to receive the unnecessary deification that a book might receive. Yet booklets of this nature can be very influential and can serve a large number of readers per unit. Complementary Programmes This section has suggested that books and booklets be considered in their own right as an educational intervention. But they are also a tool to assist other educational interventions and, as such, provide particularly appropriate supplementary materials for face-to-face programmes. For more on comic style booklets, see Comics and Pictorials. Whether a source of reference to be consulted during a workshop, as material to be handed out for further reading, or as a gift to leave with a single person or family after a house visit, publications ensure that knowledge is not fleeting and that learning continues after the initial interaction. One of the advantages of making substantial materials available following a face-to-face interaction is that the book becomes a locally available resource. And in situations where such resources are scarce, it is likely to be well used by a range of people. Such usage goes beyond the individualistic perception of a book and the reason it is considered a relatively high-cost option. Originally, books were used in community settings, and there is no reason why this use should not be exploited educationally. A further complementary usage is as a supplement to radio, which suffers from its ephemeral nature. Texts are used in distance education programmes, and a cheap booklet may be made available before or after a particular radio broadcast. In the case of the second, radio becomes one option in the book publishing distribution strategy. Publishing a Book The preparation of a book, whether small or large, for a limited audience or mass distribution, goes through a similar process. The Initial Idea: Unless an author has submitted a text to a publisher, it is likely that the publisher will have the initial idea, including a set of explicit or implicit educational goals, about what is required. Publishers who are experienced and know their audience well are likely to have concrete ideas. Or, the concept may be less well formed at this stage. The Audience: The concept has to firm up rather quickly, especially if there is an entirely commercial means of publishing. When a publisher has the money to underwrite the publication, it remains essential to ask critical questions about the size and context of the audience. These are questions that educators will already have posed. In addition, educators should consider whether the publication of a book or booklet will be a more effective way of achieving their goals than any other. And they should establish a set of guidelines for the remainder of the project that will establish the audience, the quality of the publication, its level of language, and any other principles necessary to guide the writers and those who will produce the book. The Text: Production of a text should be considered the responsibility of one or more writers, working either independently of one another or together on an outline established by the publisher. There are occasions when the production of a text initiates a book. Proceedings of conferences and reports from monitoring teams are often of such quality that there is a temptation to turn these into books. Writers also submit manuscripts that a commercial publisher may venture to publish. But those involved in civic education should begin with a concept and a set of educational objectives before developing a text. Editing of the Text: Writers write. Editors edit. There should be a division between these two tasks. Very few manuscripts are published unedited, and the editor's task is considered either the refining of the manuscript, or in some celebrated occasions, the recovery of a book from a thicket of text. The editing task is one that is likely to be iterative, and it is possible that at the end of this process, the book that was intended may still not be available. Editors need to maintain close contact with writers and in some cases, there may be an ongoing collaborative exercize from the start of the project. Design of the Book: In addition to the writer and the editor, there will be a person who takes on the responsibility for designing the book. When only text is envisaged, such a person will take responsibility for designing the page layout (including page numbering, margins, headings, and highlights), selecting the type of lettering to be used, working out the best way to separate the book into sections and chapters, and establishing a contents page and all the ancillary pages. A good designer knows about and can suggest cost-cutting measures to manage paper. There are standard paper sizes that have implications for how the page is made up, how many pages a book should have, how pages are folded and cut, and whether a nonstandard page is required for the particular publication. Designers also understand the quality of paper and the impact of text on the colour and texture of different available papers. When the book is more elaborate and is intended to have diagrams, pictures, and photographs or decorative text, or where a special paper is to be used, designers will play a hand in preparing this as well. They may also be called upon to make some suggestions about binding. Many books published today start with a design, and when an elaborate book is planned, writers, designers, and editors may be required to work hand in hand from the start of the project. On the other hand, simple computer software is available that can assist anyone with basic design skills or experience to develop a book design. The software does not yet take the place of a person with a flair for design but it certainly makes such a person's job easier; and it makes it possible for educators to view and review the design of the book earlier than might otherwise be possible. The Cover Design: Whatever the inside of a book might look like, it is the cover that counts when it comes to initial impressions. And those designing covers must have a good understanding of what initial impression is required. The discussion of the outside impression of the book requires not only a decision about the title, the text that will appear (including the introduction to the book) and the manner in which both will be presented with illustration to provide a pick-me-up look. People publishing books and booklets in support of education programmes must also consider more practical matters such as the likely placement of the book when it reaches the first distribution point, the manner in which the book will be stored, and the distribution mechanism. Such considerations will determine matters such as size and likely binding. Small books can get lost on a shelf, especially if they are staple bound and therefore have no discernable spine. Large coffee table size books may be too heavy to be posted without expensive packing, or they may not fit on a standard shelf in a little community library. Thus, a decision to produce a good-looking cover can be insufficient to ensure that the book or booklet are friendly to the reader, the distributor, the library and the educator. The cover needs to be considered in conjunction with the weight of the entire publication. Marketing and Distribution Plan: Whether the education programme has decided to produce a textbook, a booklet, or even a set of popular novels aimed at adolescents covering democratic themes, they need to develop a marketing and distribution plan during the early phases of the project. Such a plan will develop realism about the size of a print run, the likely income that will be available to offset the costs, the manner in which the publication will get to its intended audience, the date by which this must happen, and the effort that will have to be put into ensuring that the audience receives and reads the book. Publishing houses involved in regular commercial, academic, and popular publishing, have this expertise. But they may choose not to publish the book that the programme believes is essential. Often, education programmes make choices using criteria other than those of a publishing house. But it may be possible to obtain the guidance of such a publishing house in developing a plan. If this cannot be sought, educators should obtain the support and advice of other people in the book publishing world. Obtaining such advice will also publicise the publication, and could have the additional benefit of ensuring that any overlap is spotted early on rather than at the point of no return. A marketing and distribution plan should include advertizing, book launches, point of sale or free distribution discussions, sending of preliminary copies for book review and to potential groups of users, and decisions about the style of distribution. Some books have a long shelf life and after an initial spurt of sales may settle down to a regular order every so often for an extended period. Other books need to get out into the market in one fell swoop. General texts for democracy may not change much and could be considered in the first category. A special pre-election book needs to get out as it will be good only for pulping once the election is over. Typesetting and Layout: A range of technical options, including improved computer software and printers, sophisticated scanners and photocopiers makes the production of a book relatively simple. Indeed, those who have access to such equipment make the mistake of believing that it is all necessary and that a book cannot be done in any other way. However, there are countries that must still rely on manual typesetting machines, galley proofs, layout stripping and pasting up of proofs by hand. Such time-honoured methods remain viable, although they do require a different set of skills. In general, however, educators in countries operating in such a paradigm will work in collaboration with specialized printers or publishers rather than attempt to generate the major part of the publication in-house, as may be possible with computer assistance. Proofreading: Similarly, proofreading, or the checking of text for last-minute corrections, differs depending on whether the printing is done through a computer-based or manual system. In a computer-based system, there is temptation to do proofreading on the screen and to rely on the tools available (especially the Proofing is essential and should be done on a hard copy in the format in which it will appear on the final version, so all errors can be spotted. Such work should be done by someone other than the writer. Printing: Because printing appears to be one of the last tasks to be done, there is an inclination to leave its arrangement also to the last minute. However, printers operate under a number of constraints. Once it has been established that the printer can actually handle the job, the printer must ensure that the machines are available and are prepared for the print run required. Printers must have all the necessary consumables, especially the paper. In many developing countries, paper is in short supply and must be ordered well in advance and stored carefully for the job. When the job is complete, unless arrangements are made to take delivery immediately, the printer will be faced with a storage problem and may need to make arrangements in this regard as well. Distribution and Delivery: There are too many books and booklets sitting on floors in government offices, electoral institutions and NGOs to suggest that, having gone through all the obvious tasks of publishing, distribution and delivery will take care of themselves. A plan should be developed for ensuring that the publication gets from the printer to the reader in time. Leaflets, Brochures, and Fliers A well-designed leaflet can contain a great deal of information. This information can supplement messages featured on posters and banners or through television and radio. Leaflets can be distribed by hand or by post. In general, whether a leaflet, a slightly more bulky brochure or a simple one-page flier, the key element in the design is the creative use of headlines, text design, and paper. When a country has a standard paper and envelope size, there are likely to be a few standard pamphlet designs. By folding paper, the designer establishes the equivalent of separate or combined pages, each fold providing an imaginary break. In addition, folded paper enables the designer to establish a cover, or to lead the eye to a new piece of information. Complex information can be hidden until it is explained, and the reader can be guided sequentially through the necessary information. The standard A4 page is often folded in a U or a Z shape. A standard A3 page can be folded in half and then treated like an A4 sheet. These provide remarkable versatility, and other more complex folds can be attempted. The Adobe web site gives a range of folding options for small pamphlets. While creative folding can produce more interesting leaflets and even facilitate the flow of information, it does complicate the production process, requiring either special machinery or significant numbers of people. It will also increase the amount of time required for production before materials can be packaged and delivered. The educator will want to take these factors into consideration. The advantage of using a single sheet in this way is obvious: it is light to distribute, relatively cheap and quick to produce, and comfortable to hold and read. It does not need binding or collating and can easily be done in an office, on a photocopy machine for small runs. Fliers tend to be used to advertize events or places and are normally produced in large numbers; an A5 sheet may be appropriate and a simple offset printer can print two fliers on an A4 sheet. Purpose, Content, and Design: These forms of communication are normally used for mass distribution and a general audience. For this reason they contain simple language, a limited amount of information, and a very clear and logical flow. There is a tendency by educators to shortchange the design on a leaflet or flier for a mass audience, and to over-design brochures that have a more elite public. This is shortsighted, as good design will assist in making the leaflet easy to read and ensure a better impact. So, text should be as carefully considered as illustration. Costs of design are offset against the mass production and therefore work out at very little per unit. Distribution and Complementary Elements: A leaflet or brochure is a regular component of direct mail campaigns, but the same product can also be used during networking in support of the programme, in briefing of face to face educators, and in packages of distance education materials. Because many organizations conduct direct mail campaigns, it may be possible to persuade such organizations to include voter education material at no extra cost to their mailing list. In many cases, leaflets and fliers can also be inserted in newspapers and other publications. Fliers are used to drum up support for an event such as a mock election or rally, or to motivate people to register or vote. In general, bulk quantities are given to individuals and then taken door to door, handed out on street corners, or passed out at large events or community meeting places. In transitional settings, where nationwide distribution networks may not exist and where the quality of the transportation infrastructure may be relatively poor, educators may need to assemble ad hoc forces of distributors and allow more time for delivery of materials to their final destinations. Unintended Use: Becuase leaflets are produced in bulk and sent to someone in the post or handed to them at an event or on the street, it may be the only information that that person receives about the election. It is very likely that it will be stuck on a notice board or wall for others to read. If the design is a complicated one, this means that it is not read in the form intended. A Z-fold leaflet will be flattened out into a single page/poster. A more complicated fold may result in the leaflet being torn or cut and then flattened out, or covers may appear upside down because the other text is more important. Because the person only has one leaflet, he may photocopy one side, causing red colours to appear black, reverse text to disappear, and so on. Mailing two leaflets to a community group immediately makes it possible for a better display. Creating leaflets that fold out into a meaningful poster, or ensuring that the leaflet has some instructions for its display are obvious options. If it is decided to create a leaflet that doubles as a poster, the poster design also needs to be considered (see Posters and Banners). Those who produce the leaflets or brochures can either bemoan the ignorance of community groups or they can be motivated by the community spirit displayed by this use of resources and design leaflets that can be posted on community boards. Sponsors: The bulk distribution of leaflets and fliers makes them ideal vehicles for carrying advertizements. There are two approaches to this. The first is to approach a company involved in its own distribution of material and request that it carry voter information or education. The second is to approach a company, particularly a local company in the vicinity where the leaflet will be distributed, and request that it sponsor the production and receive credit for this. In other words, the name becomes associated with the product and with the voter education programme. If this is too close for comfort, a company may agree to place an advertizement on the leaflet. Local small and medium enterprises can find this useful because they tend not to have the budgets to advertize in more expensive media. Educators will, however, want to stress the nonpartisan nature of their undertaking and warn prospective sponsors that a high political profile on their part might be incompatible with the voter education programme. Specialty Print ItemsThis section takes a look at the increasingly creative application of printing methods to different surfaces, whether paper, fabric, or plastic products, as well as some variations on the more traditional book and booklet. In particular, the files in this section highlight the use in voter and civic education programmes of:
Comics and PictorialsIllustrated publications using the formats of the comic, cartoon or picture book can be used with good effect for particular audiences. When used for people with limited literacy, care has to be taken to use very simple formats for the text. Comics People who can read and who have some contact with film (through television or cinema) enjoy comic-illustrated stories which combine narrative, dialogue and illustrations. The format for comics determines that the stories are short, populated with easily recognizable characters with whom the reader can associate, and with concepts that are familiar but can be placed in strange contexts. There is a growth in popularity of the graphic novel, which is longer and may have an extended cast of characters and a more complex story line. Such a production may be an illustration of a standard story, but in most cases it is likely to be a combination of words and illustrations entirely of its own genre. Pictorials Pictorials, unlike comics, use photographs and words rather than cartoons or illustrations. These are considered very much the second cousin of the comic, but they remain very popular and have something of the feel of the romance and the soap opera to them. It is possible to use the format of comic, graphic novel or pictorial to convey messages about civic and voter education. Production These forms are often chosen because they appear to have limited text and can have diagrams and pictures of voting procedures and ballot papers. Local artists can draw simple cartoons or illustrations and these can then be used to create short books that can be simply and cheaply produced. Some have used the format to tell stories that have educational consequences and that convey information while the story is being told. Still others have used the form in the interesting graphic novel genre to raise social questions and to invoke civic activism. In all these cases, the form has the advantage of also conveying basic public information, as many comics do, through advertizing on the outside and inner covers. The publication acts as a keepsake and memento; and as a pass-along for those who decide to take education into their own hands. Limitations There are, however, some serious limitations to the use of such publications and these relate primarily to cost and target audience. Cost While reproduction of a comic is much the same as that of a book, there are additional reproduction costs linked to the number of illustrations, especially if these are in colour. But the major cost factor is the creation of the work. Illustrators need not be cheap, and those who are able to work in this medium must either combine with or be writers. In addition, there are considerable costs in developing story lines, which often resemble, and may be used for, scripts for video or film productions. The techniques of the modern comic mimic in many ways (flashback, extreme close up, cutaways, and so on) those of film. Available Options Illustrated material can be prepared in a number of different ways. In addition to the graphic novel or comic, it is possible to use the example of the illustrated and narrated postcard used often in children's publications. Photographic novels, or a mix of comic and text are also possible. Target Audience It is assumed that comics are relevant to the illiterate because they use few words. But, in fact, the combination of words and images in quite complex patterns make considerable demands on the illiterate or the neoliterate. It may be useful for those contemplating the use of comics in such situations to reflect on the age at which comics become popular amongst those who have the privilege of going to school, and hence becoming literate while still young. They are certainly not their first choice of reading matter: this is determined by the need to have pattern and simplicity. In this regard, the picture book (or photo novella), a short story illustrated by a sequence of photographs, seems to be far more useful and accessible. On the other hand, those who have used comics and graphic novels with their natural audiences, young, urban, schooled or semi-schooled people in a modern working environment, have had success. Evaluation suggests that comics have less impact overall in a national educational programme than one would imagine, and their impact can be outweighed by their cost. The proviso is that comics are useful when the audience is particularly well understood and focussed. Mixed Media There are publications with a mix of text, pictorial, illustration and comic. These probably suffer from attempting too much, but they can work in a context where the comic itself is the dominant communication mode. Posters and BannersPosters can convey information and contribute to the aesthetics of an election. It is not surprising that they are amongst the most regularly collected electoral items. The poster has always been an art form as well as a communicator, but the two are not always compatible and the purpose and placement of posters has to be considered in advance of any other criterion. When form and function mesh, a poster can be a very effective tool in the hands of the educator. Where form outweighs function, the message can be lost and posters can be a waste of paper, a public eyesore, and an individual frustration. In short, a proper balance needs to be achieved between art and substance for a voter education poster to achieve its function. Banners play a similar role as posters, although they are normally produced on fabric. Banners can be used for larger signs and in more outdoor situations. Their design also requires an understanding of purpose and placement, and then an appreciation of the production requirements that will translate suitably on the medium available. Purpose
Many cities have established a tradition of using banners to fly on lampposts on special occasions or to hang on the outsides of buildings. Banners convey more of a message than flags but have a similar impact. They are colourful, motivational, and energy creating.
In similar vein, an election can have certain key slogans or concepts it wants to convey: "Your Vote Counts," "Vote For Peace and Prosperity," "Heal Your Land," and so on. These posters may require a simple image or slogan, and can use colour to enhance the emotional rather than the communicative impact of the production.
Such posters can advertize the date of an election, the places where voting or registration takes place, educational events, the recruitment of election staff, key voter education messages beyond the simple election slogan, and so on. Many election authorities have prepared posters explaining steps in the voting process. Because all parts of an election authority are likely to want to communicate such information, there is some need to coordinate such activity and ensure that those requesting the posters and those designing them attempt to convey more than one bit of information in each production. This can be overdone, though, and there comes a moment when efficiency deals a blow to effectiveness.
Placement The positioning of a poster must be determined before its production. When the purpose is clear, designers of posters should consider the intentional placement of a poster as well as the possible unintended placement. Even when precise instructions are given to those who will place posters, it is likely that they will also be used in other contexts. The placement instructions may well have to list the contexts within which the poster should not be used. Election laws and local ordinances may also place restrictions on where posters may be hung. With respect to banners, special permission may need to be obtained to hang them from light posts, buildings, or other poles or structures. Educators need to be aware of these restrictions and requirements and pass this information along to those who will be hanging the posters.
When more detailed messages must be conveyed, and there are other ways to do this apart from distracting drivers, such messages can be sequenced along a roadside.
In general, repetition of a complex poster is less successful than sequencing of a variety of simple posters. People are seldom disciplined or skilled enough to be able to start reading or looking in the middle of a message (as would be required for people to get through a detailed poster while moving past a bunch of repetitions). Thus, placement determines how much information the poster should contain, and in what format, size and colours, it should be designed. Many posters are designed and then approved in meeting rooms, only to disappoint when seen in situ. Where possible, an in situ evaluation should be conducted for any poster that must convey critical information. Production Effective poster and banner design is based on purpose and placement, and not necessarily on colourfulness or glossy finish. While colour can play an important role in attracting the attention of voters and in creating a mood, some successful designs have made use of very limited colours and less costly paper and printing. These types of posters may not become collector's items, but that presumably is not the primary purpose. Countries with a culture of poster advertizing for newspapers will understand how effective a few words on a white newsprint background can be in enticing one to purchase a newspaper. Such a purchase should be considered a lesson for the design of a poster and the complementary activities that can follow such a design. But in general, production will be on paper or cloth for posters and banners. Recent innovations in large-scale printing have made it possible to use plastic and other synthetic materials to good effect. Reproduction of the image, when a large number of copies are required, is likely to be through printing. And the size of the poster is thus limited by the size of the printing press. It is possible to print large posters in sections and then compile these, as is often done with outdoor displays. Whatever size one chooses, there will be ramifications for packaging, storage, delivery and distribution, as well as the available spaces where posters can be hung and the amount of instruction, effort, and supplies required to hang the posters properly. There are alternative ways to prepare smaller runs, or to do runs where the cost per unit does not come down substantially. The most costly is the preparation of lithographs, usually used for limited edition artistic renditions. A cheaper method, and one capable of more copies without degradation, is by silk-screening. Simple posters with limited wording (not necessarily losing impact) can be made by using paint and stencilling or other simple techniques. Individual banners can be made using standard sign-writing techniques and paints. Otherwise, silk-screen and stencilling techniques, or the use of fabric printing methods, are appropriate. The use of treated paper or plastic may allow new methods of printing or commercial silk-screening. Each of these has its uses. The ability to produce a poster in very simple circumstances makes it not only a useful tool but also an appropriate educational method. Complementary Activities The creation of posters by students provides a method of categorizing and synthesizing learning in a creative way that is a very powerful test of what has been learned, and is also a powerful message to others of what has been learned. Because of this, educators can choose to decorate a place with locally produced posters and banners rather than with those developed at a distance. In some cases, poster and logo design as well as slogan development contests have been held in schools to generate public relations and media coverage for the voter education programme and to select winning entries for use by the voter education programmes. In such ways, the poster becomes a teaching tool, and, while some posters are purposely produced for this, others can be appropriated by a skilled group educator. Notes: [1] Standard paper sizes are different in the United States of America and in those places which have adopted the European standard. This topic area uses the European standard of measurement. An A4 size is the standard letter page. A5 is that page folded in half; A3 a double size. BookmarksAnother interesting idea is to print bookmarks with voter education slogans and messages. These can be distributed through public libraries and reading rooms, book stores, schools and universities, non-governmental organizations, and as inserts into a variety of publications, whether books, booklets, or magazines that are specifically dedicated to elections, or though newspapers and the like. They might even be worked into the design of a leaflet or brochure (depending upon the weight and quality of the paper) to be detached along a perforated line and then used. They can also be inserted into multi-media packages that might include other products with the same theme, slogan, and logo such as stickers, games, booklets, posters, and even clothing. These can be particularly popular with young people. Beverage CoastersBevarage coasters have become increasingly popular in cafe cultures where the population may spend a great deal of time relaxing, people watching, and socializing with friends over a cup of coffee, a glass of water, or a glass of wine. While a great deal of information cannot fit onto a coaster, it is of sufficient size to accommodate a logo, slogan and some vital bits of information such as the date, time and type of elections, and may reflect the design and colour schemes used for other voter education products such as stickers, posters, shopping bags, t-shirts, and more. Once produced, the coasters can be distributed to restuarant, bar and cafe owners, who are usually more than happy to put them to use. Special materials will need to be used and the printer will also need to have the capacity to cut the coasters according to the specified size and shape. StickersStickers are also an increasingly popular voter information item. These can come in any variety of shapes and sizes, from relatively small stickers that might be used to adorn school notebooks and children's items, to larger stickers that might be posted to public transport, utility polls, or information boards, to stickers specifically designed for the bumpers of cars. How much information can be included will depend upon the size of the sticker. Smaller stickers will not be able to accommodate very complex designs or a lot of words, perhaps a logo and a slogan only. Additional information, such as the date, time, and type of voting might be added to larger stickers. Stickers tend to be a big hit with younger voters and can be distributed through schools and universities, through civil society organizations, and at special events as well as part of mixed-media packages that might include t-shirts, posters, comic books, and so on. Many countries also use stickers with the proclamation "I Voted" as a means of demonstrating pride among those who have cast their a ballots and motivating those who have yet to do so. If stickers are to be posted in pulic areas, whether on buses, poles, buildings, bus stops,or in metro stations, educators may want to double check election laws and local ordinances to ensure that this is not a problem. Some companies have exclusive rights to advertising in and on public transport and produce their own, specially sized stickers, for designated locations. Voter Education ClothingClothing with election slogans and designs can come in a variety of forms from t-shirts and baseball caps to articles of clothing made with the election message worked directly into the fabric design, as occurs in Africa where women can literally become walking billboards for a cause. Clothing items can be used to help promote voter education events and programmes, such as "Rock the Vote" style campaigns; to identify participants in those campaigns (or certain groups such as election monitoring or voter education teams); and to build momentum for citizen activism, for example encouraging people to register and to vote. Cloth can be printed relatively cheaply using block prints, silk screening or more substantial printing methods. Clothing items can be a self-financing means of spreading voter education messages and tend to be relatively easy to distribute due to popular demand. However, experience in developing countries is that education organizers end up paying for this clothing and do not recoup their initial investments. Election regulations often restrict the wearing of certain types of clothing on election days. While these regulations are intended to avoid conflict and electioneering around polling stations, slogan and personality based clothing distributed by nonpartisan education groups can become confused with this, or even over time associated with a particular party or group of parties. Therefore local conditions must be taken into account when developing such materials. In Taiwan, election clothing and related paraphenalia – mascots, head and armbands, water bottles, and all manner of noise making and banner waving artifacts – have become intrinsic to election campaigns. These have the advantage of bringing elections to life, see 'Political Parties in Voter Education:en/ve/vea/vea04/vea04c. In other countries, such exhuberant partisanship can be intimidating and limit freedom of movement and association. This has certainly been the case in elections conducted under conditions of latent and unresolved conflict or oppression. Promoting Voter and Civic Education with Product PackagingAn increasingly empoyed means of communicating voter and civic education messages is the use of product packaging. In this way, boxes of cereal, milk containers, candy wrappers, and match box covers can all carry messages to voters. Another option has been to print shopping bags with voter education slogans, logos, and pertinent information to be distributed to shoppers through vendors at stores and market places. Because plastic bags, in particular, can be used over and over again, these tend be a highly visible item out on the streets during the course of an election campaign. Some restuarants will also have paper placemats or tray mats (in the case of many fast-food restuarants) that can be printed with voter education messages and that can accommodate a significant amount of information. In style and theme, this might reinforce other materials such as posters and leaflets that are being made available through other means. Packaging is printed on a routine basis and companies are often pleased to provide a valuable public service by incorporating certain messages into the overall packaging design. Once cooperation is agreed upon, educators will want to confer with the company printing and assembling the packaging to determine their schedule relative to that of the voter education programme. Print ready designs, in the specified dimensions and format, for the voter education announcement can then be provided to the printer. CalendarsWhether of the pocket or wall-hanging variety, calendars have also become a means of communicating voter and civic education messages. The size of the calendar will determine how much information can be included. Some calendars will merely have a slogan, logo, and details about the date, time, and type of elections. These may fit easily into a wallet, appointment book or diary for easy reference. In the case of a wall hanging calendar, and where election related milestones are known well in advance, much more detailed information may be provided. This might include information on the voter registration process; the candidate nomination and qualification process; pre-election day events and activities such as early voting or deadlines for applications to vote by absentee ballot or mobile ballot box; election day activities; and the deadlines for the determiniation of preliminary and final results, certification of candidates, and seating of the elected body. Each month might introduce a new theme with the months of the election period focused on voter information and education messages and the rest of the year dedicated to broader, but mutually reinforcing, civic education messages. These more substantive calendars might include frequently asked questions (FAQs) or learning exercizes. If developed for young people, the calendars might come with specially developed stickers so that students can track electoral events and then identify them on the calendar by affixing the various stickers to the dates with which they correspond. Calendars can also include contact information for regisration and election offices, political party headquarters, civil society organizations active in voter and civic education or election monitoring and public advocacy, and other public offices of note. Many election authorities, civil society organizations and political parties may also have special calendars that announce the number of days left to the election, for example: Arts and CultureCivic and voter education are cultural activities. They are bound up with the expression of people's human rights and social organization. They require interaction between people, thoughtful passion, and the evocation of feelings and interdependence. Most education happens, however, in relatively sterile and highly conceptual environments. But human learning and expression is deeply embedded through words, dance, drama and play. The incredible impact and energy that is reported in those relatively few voter education programmes involving drama bears this out. So it is disappointing to find so few examples of the use of arts and culture to promote democracy, civic responsibility, human rights and voter education. The following sections contain comments on arts programmes and offer suggestions for ways in which the arts can be included in educational programmes:
Formal Performance ArtThe title of this section has been chosen to ensure that educators do not limit their potential choices to any particular artistic expression. The only differentiation between this section and that dealing with street theatre lies in the setting and, therefore, the resources available for performance. Rock concerts, plays, poetry readings, dance (traditional and modern expressions), music and other forms of artistic communication can all be used to promote civic participation. In most cases, they have been used to celebrate or commemorate political events, to mobilize support (personal and financial) for political causes, and to gather people together in order to convey, however briefly, educational messages. It is in this last category that there have been some examples involving voter education and mobilization, especially aimed at a youth culture. The performance in most has been secular, unrelated to the educational message, which then becomes an intrusion into the event. This does not necessarily make it irrelevant: "a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down," as the song says. But performance where medium and message come together to convey a democratic vision, while less frequent and with greater staging demands, provides greater educational benefits. In schools, historic tableaux and reenactments of social events can be used to provide information and to educate. At the other end of the scale, political theatre has played a role in mobilizing support for causes, or awareness of injustice. But we look forward to seeing a resurgence of art that speaks to and on behalf of the present condition of people in modern existing or emerging democracies. In this, educators will have to provide support and freedom to artists working in their communities. There can be tensions between those planning for a very focused and time-bound set of programmes with limited and unambiguous messages and the artist. But collaboration can have its value in establishing a whole new network of allies, in identifying educational themes of special power, and in ensuring that education takes place in a variety of sites and for a wider variety of people. Street TheatreStreet theatre is an important tool for educators and there are a few simple guidelines that can be followed to make it successful. These are discussed in the sections that follow. What is Street Theatre? People are busy. They have lives to lead. Only a select few will give up time to attend an educational event voluntarily. Most will want to be entertained. And if that entertainment can come to them, so much the better. Street theatre is a generic term for all manner of performances conducted where people are - not only on the street or in the marketplace. Performances can be short and impromptu, feeding off the interaction with the watching crowd, or they can be slightly extended and carefully scripted and rehearsed. But they always operate on the assumption that the audience can leave, and that at least some of the members of the audience may leave during the performance. It is up to the performers to get people's attention and then to keep it long enough to convey their message. Find an Audience The first job of the street artist is to find an audience. For this reason, marketplaces, places where people have to queue and social events are most likely choices. Commuter bus and taxi ranks, rural clinics, hospitals, train stations are all places where people are waiting and have time on their hands. In order to manage a street troupe, it may be necessary to provide them with transport to move around. There are troupes that have developed fixed itineraries. Shopping malls in modern towns and trading stores in villages may even encourage such troupes of players because they hold a crowd if the play is good, which is always good for business, and the people break up satisfied and thirsty or hungry. In some countries and towns, buskers' associations and local bylaws regulate what is allowed: when performances can happen, where, and for how long. In other places, there may be local norms and standards, and even important people and organizations who need to be contacted before a performance. There may also be performance places available at public parks, town squares and so on. These are not always as well frequented as the more commercial areas. Street theatre is designed to meet people where they are, not to have to attract people to a distant venue. Get Their Attention Because people are preoccupied, their attention has to be drawn to the performance. This requires theatre singers and dancers, mime artists, small simulations of everyday activity played at a frenetic pace, players dressed in colourful clothes or masks, or wearing stilts. All these are signs that something unusual is about to happen. It may be possible to set up small stages and carry theatrical properties onto the site of the performance. The troupe of players will have to ensure that this material is portable and robust. In many places, sound amplification is not possible or may be illegal. In other places, entertainers may have developed their own system for becoming wired for sound, either through the good offices of a local business, or by using a car battery, or even a small petrol generator. Local conditions require local arrangements. Getting people's attention and keeping it has something to do with what people expect and with what is unexpected. Skilled entertainers who have some experience of street theatre should be drawn into the project rather than sending an inexperienced group of people out onto the streets. Convey the Message Street theatre can be used to convey simple messages. It also can be used to demonstrate and practice skills; and at its most skilful can also provoke debate and dialogue between the players and the audience. Scripts can be useful and many voter education packages include short sketches. The most successful events include humour, some satire, imaginative use of props, and interaction with the audience. Voter education theatre will focus on voting procedures, perhaps with a few people taking part in a mock election. There will be messages about the campaign and the role of political parties and representatives, how to make judgments and select between the offers being made by the contestants, and information on when and where to vote. Generally, street theatre cannot guarantee that there will be a repeat audience, but it is possible, especially in rural or small town settings. For this reason, performers have to develop a repertoire that enables them to change their piece if they discover that people already have particular sets of information. Leave Something with Them Theatre comes and goes, so people need to take away something with them. Small pamphlets and fliers, little souvenirs promoting the election such as stickers are all useful. They have the advantage of being easy to carry and quick to distribute to a dissolving crowd. It is also possible to leave more permanent reminders that the players have been through the town or the market. Posters advertizing the show, or pasted up as backdrops to the performance can be left if this is not going to offend the owners of the walls or lampposts. Local merchants may be persuaded to take posters into their shops. Complementary Activities Street theatre is live. It is also photogenic. Where crowds gather, news is created. So, apart from the usefulness of handouts in the language of the audience, there is also the possibility that the performance can be used to obtain free coverage on television news programmes, or that performers can be interviewed by local radio stations. Photographs taken by the troupe or local photographers may appear in local newspapers with stories about the event. In these ways, exposure of the message is multiplied beyond the audience available at a particular time, at a particular place. Good performances also can be captured on videotape for more general distribution, but this requires a production skill and preparation that should not be taken for granted. The change from street theatre to video production cannot always be made successfully. Gathering the Performers If a street troupe is created and travels around, there are educational resources available to local communities whenever the troupe is finished performing. It is possible to include with the group someone who can handle training of voter educator programmes and use the performance to recruit people for more in-depth training in a later event. Thus, the team leaves behind a small cadre of educators able to talk with their own organizations and individual contacts after the players have moved on. However, keeping a troupe on the move is not easy. It requires substantial logistical support. Transport, accommodation, staff management and public relations can be costly, not to mention the salaries of performers. But using such a troupe can still be a worthwhile activity because of the high visibility it gets and the opportunity to associate other activities and promotional opportunities with such a team. An alternative approach is to develop a programme that mobilizes existing street performers, perhaps giving them training and resources, and then encourages them to weave election information into their own shows. Small subsidies for community groups, perhaps routed not from the electoral authorities but rather from performing arts programmes, can have substantial spin-offs not only in educational terms but also in adding colour and confidence to the elections. Special EventsThere are a variety of other special events that can be used to bring people together in support of a cause, but which may not involve a performance in the form of a live concert, play, poetry reading, or some other sort of show. Dance parties or marathons at local clubs, street parties, barbeques or picnics, a race or other sporting event and fairs are all events that can be planned as a vehicle for promoting awareness and providing information about, as well as building momentum for, elections. These types of activities may be targeted at a community at large, or at a particular group such as young people. In the case of a dance party at a local disco, coasters, table tents, place mats and ballons might be printed with voter education and motivation messages. Patrons might also be given t-shirts, caps, pins, stickers or other items to take with them after the party is over. A local radio station might cover the event live, and incorporate voter information into the broadcast. Local celebraties might be used both to advertise the event and to encourage people to vote on election day. Picnics, sporting events and fairs also provide opportunities to display voter motivation and education materials, distribute items to large groups of people, set up information stands, and as a means of getting publicity. Art and HandicraftsHandicrafts Go to a market in a country that has tourists. Local people have taken the handicrafts that they established for their own enjoyment, pleasure, religious celebrations and use, and have made versions for general consumption. Whether these are totems, cloth, baskets, pottery, locally fired metal ware and jewellery, sculptures or paintings, local arts and crafts define the identity of communities and countries. There is a continuing and heated debate about the manner in which these crafts are being dominated by goods from other countries, a fear that the old skills are being lost and a yearning for a time when these arts and crafts were practised in a communal life that may be dissipating or at least perceived to be dying. In large countries like the United States and India, internal tourists act as a market for additional production; in smaller countries there is an international trade. In fact, the markets of the world have always been markets where goods from a variety of sources come together. But these artifacts can be used by educational programmes as constant reminders of important dates and events, motivators of behaviour, and as triggers for action. Clothing, woven banners, iconic or vernacular paintings and prints and wooden sculptures that communicate the meaning and aspirations of local people are not so readily collected or recognized. Yet, precisely because they communicate directly to people, or because they have a market value that makes them self-financing, they can be useful tools in developing a background milieu that makes the voter education message so much more important and acceptable. Art Displayed art no longer conforms to established categories. Painting, photography, drawing and printing interweave with three-dimensional forms; sculpture enters the dimension of time as well as space; and art plays with movement, sound, and touch through computers, installations, video, and film. Artists collaborating with educators and promoters of democracy have produced photographic records of election triumphs, posters encouraging public participation, evocative sculpture and telling images of the human spirit. Artists working alone or in collaboration with one another have produced exhibitions that support electoral and political moments, and comment on human circumstance. Such works are on display or are created in public spaces, both in galleries and in the parks, gardens, and streets of cities around the world. While specially commissioned work may be required, there is educational advantage in developing walking tours, artists' meetings with the public, specially assembled exhibitions, and educational seminars and symposiums that choose democratic themes and moments to coincide with other aspects of an educational programme. These programmes can use existing material, and even material that appears to be undemocratic can be used to provide object lessons of what the election is moving away from. Art and the spaces within which it is displayed are resources that educators should use. Many of the larger public museums and galleries have their own education officers. These people may well be willing to support an educational programme and they will have skills and resources of their own to contribute. Such staff members are accustomed to developing programmes that attract audiences, and they often work under limited budgets and in relatively hostile or at least apathetic environments. They may also have developed outreach programmes to schools and poorer or disadvantaged communities, in some cases having established strategies for transporting artifacts. This expertise is invaluable to voter education programmes. Competitions Election authorities have used competitions as a way of obtaining images and designs for use in voter education programmes as well as for publicizing the campaign itself through such means as slogans and logos. In Ethiopia, a competition produced a theme song for the elections. School competitions are particularly useful in engaging young people in discussing issues and concepts, producing material that can be displayed, and in obtaining publicity. Such competitions take organization, but result in positive perceptions of democracy and the election authority. Face To Face InteractionVoter education programmes usually include face-to-face interactions. These are also known as direct forms of communication, television or radio being an indirect form of communcation. Whether through community gatherings or door-to-door campaigns, direct contact with potential voters is an important aspect of voter information and education. Some evaluations also suggest that it is neccessary to supplement indirect forms of communication with face-to-face interaction to move from providing information to affecting behavior. In many democracies, where rates of literacy may be low and where there may be widespread unfamiliarity with the newly defined process of voting and elections, this direct contact is a tool that can empower people with the skills, knowledge and attitudes that will allow them to become active and engaging citizens. The oral nature of face-to-face meetings gives illiterate and semiliterate people an opportunity to ask questions and get answers immediately. Meeting with people who give information in a credible and nonpartisan way reduces distrust in the process. It also reduces ignorance and the fear associated with not knowing what to do or what to expect. In groups, at workshops or information sessions, people will realise that they are not alone in their concerns about voting and, knowing that others are going to vote, they will feel confident to do the same. People attending workshops or information sessions and who are thereby able to access up-to-date information, can become resources in their communities. However, face-to-face educational programmes are resource hungry. Unless care is taken to ensure that events are run in local communities using existing venues and local catering, they can be expensive. When events are organized as conference-like programmes in large hotels, the costs can balloon alarmingly. In addition to venue costs, face-to-face events, such as workshops and conferences, require administrative and secretarial backup, travel, recruitment, training, payment of skilled education staff, and extensive care and feeding of the programme participants. In order for events to be successful, participants must be recruited and encouraged to come to central venues, and this is not always successful. Often there must be repeat events. Extravagant events are not necessary: face-to-face programme activities can be developed at low cost and with limited external support. This section of the topic area describes the possibilities and also provides guidance for educators who will engage in such programmes. Group LearningNear the time of elections, people may be gathered in groups to get information about the elections. This information can be purely logistical or it can provide citizens with a deeper understanding of the electoral process and voting and the democratic principles that necessitate the regular occurrence of these events. Not all groups of people are the same. A voter education programme should be aware of each group and the type of meeting that best suits them.
Briefings Briefings are meetings held by key groups or institutions with organizations providing voter education. Briefings aim to assist organizations in the work they are doing in the field by providing information relevant to their target groups. Those attending briefings are usually able to take the information back to their organization and feed it into the voter education programme. For the sake of informing the public, groups such as political parties, electoral authorities and relevant government departments may decide to call together a certain constituency or group of people to provide them with information about the elections that is pertinent to the work they are doing and the information they are wanting to give citizens. They also provide practitioners with an opportunity to question experts on key issues, and get up-to-date and accurate information on issues, debates, and dates leading up to the elections. Briefings are usually short, and happen at times that are convenient for the desired audience. They may also be called at short notice in cases of crisis or changes in important decisions. Topics of briefings for voter educators can include the following:
Information packs should be prepared to provide more in-depth information to those attending. They may contain the following:
In preparing for a successful briefing, groups should remember do the following:
Workshops In voter education programmes, workshops provide logistical information as well as a more extensive look at the purpose and value of elections within broader concepts of democracy and human rights. As with other face-to-face work with citizens, workshops are labour intensive, but the value of direct interaction with people who are trained and know about elections includes the following:
Each country has a different context in which democracy takes root and becomes stable. Different statutory and nonstatutory organizations can choose to emphasise different aspects of democratic elections given the particular context of the country and mandate or mission of the organization. Areas that may be emphasised in workshops include the following:
A number of factors contribute to effective workshop programmes. These factors include the following:
Tips for Running Good Workshops: It takes a lot of time, commitment, and hard work to organize and run workshops. A number of key factors contribute to well-organized workshops:
Cost awareness : Workshops need not be very expensive. Keeping them at community level and using the resources available will help educators run workshops at minimal cost. Budget constraints often determine the scope of work of voter education programmes and keeping costs down can enable educators to run more workshops than planned. Having workshops in very expensive venues can create a misrepresentation of resources that are available for public education programmes, and can create false expectations of community workshops. Possible costs that need to be taken into account for running a one-day community workshop include the following:
Minimising Cost: Local educators should be used rather than getting people from outside to do the sessions as this keeps transport and accommodation costs down. Making use of public spaces is another way in which the cost of workshops can be minimised. Organizations and electoral authorities should make arrangements to use local venues (church, school or community halls) either free of charge or for a nominal donation. Catering costs can be kept to a minimum by asking people to bring their own food (if the workshop runs over lunch), getting donations from food suppliers or by using local community caterers. Venues should be accessible so that participants do not have to spend much or anything on transport. Buying equipment in bulk also reduces the overall cost of items. General Information Sessions The purpose of voter education is to encourage as many people as possible to vote. Giving information to as many people as possible assists in achieving this goal. Information sessions are an important way to do this. They are labour intensive, but they are valuable because they are immediate and people are able to ask questions and get answers. They are verbal, and so are appropriate for illiterate and semi-literate people. The educator may not have another chance to speak to the same people, so this short opportunity must be used carefully. Information sessions are short, formal or informal meetings that provide basic information on the elections to groups of voters. Accurate and up-to-date information is provided to people in a very succinct way. People can learn the date, voting times, and how to find out where their voting station is, as well as simply how to vote. Giving people information too far in advance of the election will not achieve much. People may forget the information and details may change. The dates should be given once they are definite. People will want to find out about the elections in a quick and precise way as the date approaches, and information sessions provide this service. Which Groups Organise Information Sessions?: Both official entities and civil soceity groups may organize voter information sessions (sometimes jointly) as part of nonpartisan public education campaigns. The goal is the quick and accurate dissemination of up-to-date logistical information. Voters are also encouraged to go to the polling stations and participate in the democratic process. Strategy: Information sessions are held at convenient times and do not last as long as workshops. They may take place during lunch times in busy commercial areas in a community center or gathering point. The same information may be given several times a day in the same or different places to different audiences. Complementary Information: Leaflets reinforce the verbal information by the educator and are easy to take away. They can provide contact details for the local election authorities, candidates, political parties, and monitoring organizations. They can also include telephone information help lines. Tips for giving a good information session include the following:
Cost Awareness: Local educators should be used to do the sessions, as this will keep transport costs down. Making use of public spaces is another way in which the cost of information sessions can be minimised as there will be no payment for venues. Using spaces at times when there are many people present means that they will listen to messages while they eat their lunch in the town square or wait for their transportation in railway or bus stations. Equipping Voter Educators To enable voter educators to run these face-to-face sessions effectively, it is important to provide them with the right tools. They should
The person giving the session will be seen as part of the message. It is important that these people are able to create trust in elections, so credible people should be used. The recruitment of voter educators is crucial. Recruiting from reputable organizations or from electoral authorities can ensure this but it is the responsibility of coordinators of such programmes to constantly monitor people in the field to make sure they are unbiased. SimulationsSimulated experiences provide people with a chance to experience reality. They may include the campaign experience, giving participants a chance to play candidates, campaign managers, spokespersons, and volunteers, NGO activists, and journalists. The simulation can also demonstrate the election experience from preparation of the polling station through to the counting of the ballots, from the perspective of poll workers, voters, election monitors, and party agents. These experiences take place in an environment controlled by the educator. People do not learn to ride bicycles by watching how to ride: they learn by actually practising on a bicycle. So too, an effective way to educate voters about the practical ins and outs of campaigns and elections elections and voting is by creating a real situation where citizens have an actual experience. Mock elections, games, and role plays are ways to provide people with real experiences. They usually form part of a workshop programme and provide an opportunity for people to work in an interactive and participatory manner. The real success of the activities will depend on the way in which they are facilitated and debriefed. It is not enough to simply have the activity. Educators need to facilitate a discussion with the participants about their feelings and opinions as well as the relevance of the experience to their own situations. Mock Elections These are used to create a situation in a workshop that is a replica of a polling station, but which will allow people to explore the realities of this situation in a safe environment. One of the reasons that mock elections can be so effective is that they are able to demystify the election process. First-time voters will be eager to discover the practical workings of voting and election procedures. Mock elections will empower them to know what can be expected. People need to be aware from the outset that the simulation is not the real thing and does not take the place of going to the polling stations on election day. Care needs to be taken to create a picture in people's minds of the scene of elections before launching into the exercize. This will make the situation as real as possible and clarify in people's minds the process they are about to undergo. Near the time of elections, people unfamiliar with voting can have many of their concerns laid to rest by going through a simulated voting experience. As people go through the experience, the voter educator should factor in unforseen possibilities to alert citizens to situations that are not in the textbook but that may well arise. Situations of conflict between voters themselves, between voters and officials, or instances of cheating and bribery must be considered, and options for dealing with them need to be discussed. Setting up a mock election need not take much time or money. Simple, inexpensive materials may be used to create a very real situation. The polling station can be set up in a workshop venue or even outside. This method of conveying information to people will also allow the voter educator to stop and start the process at strategic points to give people a more in depth explanation of why the process happens in the way it does. Mock elections are most effectively used amongst groups unfamiliar with the procedures preceding elections and on election day itself. In transitional contexts, mock elections can happen on a large scale and aim to reach as many people as possible. Educators should use what they have: any box with a lid can serve as a suitable illustration of a ballot box. The point to highlight about ballot boxes is the need for them to be sealed and remain that way until they reach the counting station. Voter education programmes can make their own dummy ballot papers with fabricated parties and candidates. If the activity is being undertaken by or in cooperation with an election authority, actual election materials may be lent for the purposes of the activity. Role Plays Role play is a much-used technique in educational events based on the principles of experiential learning. Trainers do not always have to get learners to reflect on past experience: they can construct experiences for them in the workshop situation. A good way of doing this is through role play. Role play requires participants to put themselves in somebody else's boots. For a while, they suspend their real identity and take on another role. For this reason, role play is a particularly good tool for developing empathy and getting people to understand other points of view. It is also a useful way for people to practice a new skill in an imaginary situation. There are many different ways of conducting role plays in a workshop, ranging from complete improvisation to acting according to a carefully developed brief. Sometimes all participants can get involved in playing a few similar roles. Alternatively, a role play can involve all participants playing different roles. The purpose of the exercize must determine the most appropriate approach. Examples of Role Plays Communication Skills. You are conducting a training session on communication skills. You divide all your participants into pairs and instruct one partner to play the role of a parent and the other partner to play the role of an angry, rebellious teenage child. You could keep your brief as simple as that and allow participants the freedom to spontaneously act out any situation that comes to mind. Or you could expand the brief a little and, for example, describe a situation where the teenager insists on going out with some friends and the parent does not approve. In a role play such as this you do not want participants to "learn" the bad behaviour of the teenager, but somebody must play this role in order to give the parent an opportunity to practice his communication skills. It is useful to interrupt the pairs after a few minutes and get participants to swop roles. It can also be a good idea to form groups of three (rather than pairs) and have one participant observe and comment on the behaviour of those playing the roles. Individual Roles. At the end of a voter education workshop you run a mock election in which all participants play a different role. Everybody receives a role card with detailed instructions on the role they must play. The role cards indicate not only the part each person should play, but also how the role must be played (for example a lazy election official who does not check voters' identity or entry on the voters' list carefully, or a drunk voter who disrupts the queue). After all participants have read and understood their briefs, you allow the role play to begin. There is room for spontaneous acting, but you have structured the roles quite carefully to ensure that the mock election follows a certain course. If the simulation or role-play is part of a school based programme or voter education curriculum rather than a single workshop, for example, the scope of the activity can be expanded to include the campaign period. If limited time is available, however, educators will want to keep the exercize manageable and focused. Deroling After a role play is over, it is very important to "derole" the participants. Sometimes it is sufficient to thank people for entering into the spirit of the exercise and then invite them to return to their normal seats and resume their real identity. However, particularly when people have taken their roles very seriously and when the situations have been fairly intense, it is often necessary to derole more carefully. Ask people to take off any costumes they may have worn, get opposing parties (e.g. parents and teenagers) to shake hands, do somethng to help everyone relax and accept that the exercize is over. It is important to derole to avoid a particular role from sticking to a participant (or group of participants) for the remainder of the workshop. Debriefing Having created a common experience for participants in a workshop, it is important to ensure that the learning cycle is completed. Experience on its own is not enough. You should allow sufficient time for reflection after the role play. First let participants recall what took place in the role play (the "identification" step). The comments of observers can be particularly useful here. Then encourage people to analyse what happened. Then draw out the lessons that they have learned and that they feel can be applied in similar life situations. Things to Remember while Conducting Role Plays Be sure to set the scene very carefully before the role play begins. Role play instructions can be quite complex. It is important that everyone understands what is going on, otherwise the experience can be quite confusing. If necessary, write out the scenario in which the role play will take place, or provide role cards for individual participants. Do not let the role play go on too long. Remember that people are acting and that the situation can become quite forced (or alternatively just fizzle out) if you lose track of time. In the case of elaborate role plays with multiple parts designed to illustrate numerous issues, it can be useful to use the "stop-start" technique. Stop the exercize after a few minutes, discuss what has happened, and then resume the action. If necessary, you can stop and start several times. Encourage participants to be true to their roles and to avoid stereotyping. Role play requires a good deal of sensitivity as people try to enter into the minds and experience of others. Stereotypes tend to confirm prejudice rather than facilitate learning. The point is not to go overboard with acting, but to succeed in seeing the world from a different point of view. As the trainer, always be open to see how role plays develop. Assist participants in their reflection on the experience (through observing what happened and asking questions), but be sure to let people derive their own points of learning. You cannot dictate what is meaningful to people, nor impose what they should learn. Games In voter education, games are a much-used to tool to illustrate many aspects of elections. As mock elections and role plays create a virtual reality of polling stations and the voting procedures, games assist potential voters with the importance of voting, the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of the voter, attitude to other voters and electoral officials in an interactive an participatory way. In some games, people may have to practice listening to what people are saying instead of assuming what some one is going to say based on prejudiced ideas of political or religious affiliation, or gender and age. Door To Door CanvassingGoing to people where they are is a very personal way of spreading information about elections. For many people, this is the only time that politics becomes part of their immediate environment and they are faced with political dynamics in such a tangible manner. Statutory organizations and political parties are both involved in some form of "go to the voter" drive in an effort to provide information, encourage voter registration or check the accuracy of voters' lists, answer questions and, in the case of political parties, persuade citizens to vote in a certain way. This kind of door-to-door activity serves to sensitize members of the public to their right to vote or how they can register. Alternatively, it can be used to disseminate information on the different decisions at issue in an election or plebiscite (referendum). [1] Door-to-door canvassers are able to ask basic questions about people's readiness for an upcoming election. Importantly, they may also be able to take complaints and concerns to the responsible authorities. This type of activity calls for proper planning so that volunteers know how to react correctly in the different situations that may arise. This is best done by making door-to-door programmes part of a time-defined campaign in which there is a preparatory phase including the following:
Following the preparatory stage, volunteers may conduct a sustained programme where they meet regularly with the organizers, debrief, and receive any additional training and materials. Such a programme works better when it is condensed into a short period of time and when volunteers are not left on their own to cover a number of homes. Immediate changes can be made, information can be recorded, and any adjustments in the programme made on a daily basis. It is important that there is a differentiation between door-to-door programmes designed merely to obtain information, such as surveys and census, and those that form part of an education programme. Volunteers are expected to interact with those they visit and need to be prepared to do this. Privacy and Security There are many societies where home visiting is not possible. The residences may be too spread out or too secure. Or visitors may not be willing to walk streets. Or residents may be suspicious of and unwilling to talk to persons they do not know. Certainly, any campaign should be well publicized and visitors should be able to identify themselves before entering a residence, either by an identity card or special clothing. Notes: [1] Monica Jiminez de Barros, Citizen Education: Its Importance in Latin America and Central Europe (n.p.: Participa), 40. An unpublished and undated paper. Each One Teach OneAny national voter education campaign is a huge undertaking requiring lots of time, planning, and resources. Training people to run workshops, setting up the workshops or information sessions and conducting them, and preparing and broadcasting radio and television spots have much more impact if people who attend the meetings and receive information pass this information on to others in their families, streets, and communities. Personal recommendations from reliable individuals result in helping people to become better informed, trust the process, and appreciate the value of their contribution. Every meeting and interaction between voter educators and citizens should include an element on disseminating the information. When information has been provided and meaningful learning has taken place, participants should be encouraged to spread the information to as many people as they can. Asking the question: "So, what now?", will get participants to come up with formal as well as informal ways of spreading the information in their communities. In some settings, religious institutions can provide some people with an appropriate platform from which to encourage people to vote and provide them with information on how, where, and when this will be done. The kitchen table is another site of much discussion and can provide a participant with an opportunity to share the information gathered with friends and have free-flowing discussions in a safe and familiar environment. The market place provides another location where there is a lot of human interaction and where information can be passed along. Essential to doing this well is providing participants with ways of updating themselves with information about the elections. Sources should be reliable and equipped to deal with queries from citizens. Providing people with many copies of information leaflets or fliers will enable them to give something concrete to those they encounter. Asking each person at the workshop to take a poster popularising the elections back to their community and place it prominently will also spread information on elections. Contact information that they and others are able to use will be useful for updating information they have. Finding and making use of people who are well connected in the community can be especially valuable (see Interlocutors and Intermediaries). Apart from the initial cost of the first level of workshops, word-of-mouth transmission of information is cost free. There are, however, concerns about passing on information in this way. Ensuring that the information is accurate is difficult. Telling people where and how to get accurate information enables them to update themselves. Unbiased information is extremely difficult to monitor, thus it is vital that citizens are encouraged to emulate voter educators in their unbiased and nonpartisan behaviour. Another reason this is difficult is that people, because they have to make a choice, naturally want their friends and neighbours to agree with their choice and in persuading them may give a slanted view of one party or candidate over another. Here too, encouraging citizens to pass on reliable central hotline numbers will enable people to verify the information they received from their family, friends, or even the press. Ideally, every citizen should take responsibility for passing on to other citizens the message of participating in the democracy by voting in the elections. In a country where every citizen is passing on the message of voting, everyone eventually will hear how they can contribute to building democracy. It is this multilayered approach of working together, to bring everyone to a point of believing in the power of the individual vote to make a difference, that will make an election free and fair and a democracy stable. Other Strategies for Education ProgrammesIncluded in this section are four programme possibilities that do not easily fit into the general categorization. These are the following:
They have considerable merit. While the first topic, setting up information centres and hotlines, has not been widely used, examples of national experiments suggest it should be a regular component of an election programme. Direct mail tends to be used by political parties and by election authorities for general information. As such, it is a regularly used, but not always an obvious component of a voter education programme. Telephone canvassing is also used in many countries by political and special interest campaigns. Finally, street and neighbourhood campaigns describes the active involvement in local political life through which the majority of political leaders have come, and in which the most important education for civic responsibility takes place. Voter Education Outreach via Information Centres and HotlinesThe establishment of hotlines and information centres provides the necessary capacity to respond to the public and enhances any general educational programme. The majority of education interventions are based on an outreach principle: taking information and education to people where they are by using active strategies such as advertizing, face to face interaction, campaigning and mass mailings. But, particularly at election times and during important social moments, members of the public want and seek out information. This sea change can overwhelm an organization or an electoral authority because it is not prepared for individual calls or contacts with members of the public. Yet such contact has significant advantages. It demonstrates some form of civic participation that, however selfish in motive or limited in design, has to be affirmed. The individual seeking information has a specific educational need that can be met quickly and with uncommon focus. Those seeking information also give information about their impressions and attitudes, about the actual conduct of the election, or the condition of the society, and about the performance of the educational programme or campaign. Finally, the satisfied individual is likely to convey both the satisfaction and the information to others, becoming a powerful ally of the educational programme. It is not enough to wait for the public, though. When a decision is made to establish such a centre, it must be advertized and should complement the general programme, through providing information to it, and using information from it, by advertizing the general programme's services and being advertized by it. Types of Information Centres and Hotlines An information centre can be established as a walk-in facility, or it can be linked directly to a telephone line and be invisible to the public. A hotline can be centralized and operate on a continuous basis, or it can be decentralized and operate only at particular times in a campaign. Whichever model is developed, it should be a one-stop shop, where the people who interact with the public have information at their disposal to answer any question without referring people to another department or information source. Members of the public do not have the time nor the knowledge to go from pillar to post looking for information. They expect it from their first contact. Anyone opening an information centre should understand that they will be faced with, and therefore have to have systems for dealing with, a range of questions. With the rise of a consumer society in urbanized and industrialized countries, many companies have established such hotlines to deal with their customers. The technology and techniques of a public information line are similar to these. The difference is in the level of service demanded, the neutrality that must be engendered, and the diversity of service required by statute or by organizational intention. It may be essential to deal with people in their home language, to be able to refer them directly to legal or administrative assistance, and to have access to a broad range of information to answer their questions. Perhaps the closest general parallel is the computer software support offered by vendors. The Importance of the Telephone Information centres are made possible by computers and telephones. In particular, they require access to telephone banks, central exchanges, and, where possible, toll-free facilities enabling callers to place their call anywhere in the country and get a well-trained, and well-resourced, operator. Because these centres have to gather information, it is easier to do this in a centralized fashion, and regional centres often require heavily networked computer systems. This means, however, that members of the public have to have access to a telephone. In some societies, this is taken for granted, either because there is universal personal access to an instrument or because there is a good and cheap public service. In other countries this is not necessarily the case. Those setting up an information centre have to consider alternative ways of making contact with the public. Amongst the strategies that have been tried are the following:
All these systems are complementary to the central information hub, and its establishment is key to the success of such a venture. There are a few experiences of such a system operating in support of elections and democratic participation, and the lessons from these are available. At the heart, they boil down to the following:
When systems are set up, they are extremely popular. In South Africa, the information centre at the 1995 local elections took three thousand calls an hour during the voting period. In Australia, more telephone calls were made to the electoral commission's service in the last days of registration than to all government departments and the national airline. This popularity, with sensational spikes in demand when the numbers are advertized on television, shows the importance of setting up such a line and also the importance of getting the planning and the technology right. Spinoffs One of the major spinoffs of such a centre is its ability to act as an early warning system of security and administrative crises. It can act as a cushion between electoral authorities and the public when complaints are being raised. Many citizens have complaints on election day, but with electoral authorities stretched, an information line not only hands out good information, which reduces frustration, but reduces tension and possible post-election grievance. Mobile phones Mobile telephones, or cellular phones, have been adopted with alacrity in most countries. In developing countries they have been particularly successful in leapfrogging the paucity of existing cable based infrastructure and the informal habitations which inhibit telephony requiring cables, billing addresses, and fixed base services. As mobile telephony technology develops, commercial operators and individual consumers have exploited the technology in surprising ways. It is therefore almost impossible to predict what may happen next. However education planners can take for granted that national mobile networks will incorporate through individual subscribers and community services (such as those in Bangladesh) an increasing number of their urban population, and possibly a significant proportion of the commercially active rural population. Key features capable of exploitation at the moment include the short messaging service (SMS), value added telephone numbers, and caller identification and caller location, ring tones and logos. Technology which is coming on line at the time of writing which may introduce new innovations includes cameras and multi media services (MMS), video-phone and GPRS data services, and e-mail. An increasing number of mobile handsets will allow radio reception, and the features of MP3 or similar music players (see radio and convergence) are being incorporated in some instruments. Amongst the experiments presently being undertaken are:
Direct MailCountries with reliable postal systems have an information resource that is inestimable. Educators and election administrators who are able to make their mail appear different from commercial and unsolicited advertising (junk mail) and who are able to prepare it so it has high status and readability are able to penetrate directly to each and every citizen. In countries where the potal system is not reliable, direct mail campaigns will not be a feasible option. Getting Prepared In order to do this, educators must
Deciding on Content Successful direct mail campaigns can be conducted on the basis of an effective set of materials that have utility value for the citizen. When materials are personaliZed, the utility value may increase, but the motivation to read slightly less useful material also increases. The material that is sent in the mail could therefore include registration and voting information, general information about the election, general constitutional information, and motivational material. The direct mail package with the most impact includes a personal letter on a letterhead and supplementary leaflet material that is referred to and explained in the letter. Such a package can include more than one piece of material. If no letter is possible (even a circular that is prepared in the form of a letter), then the amount of material contained in one envelope should be reduced to avoid confusion on the part of the recipient. In some countries, the election authority must, by law, send out "invitations" to vote or notices about the vote. These invitations typically include the voters' name, voter ID number, and the number and location of the polling site assigned to them. Educators may take advantage of this regular mailing by including brief voter education messages either in the invitation or to accompany it. Accuracy with Names If the recipient's name and address are to be included, these must be accurate. If there is any likelihood of them being inaccurate, an apology should be noted and the recipient encouraged to make the correction. This has the advantage of checking voters' list accuracy and establishing the impact of the mailing campaign, but it requires a system that does make the correction once it is noted. Hand Delivery While it is possible to hand deliver mail, this is less highly valued by the recipient, especially if it is addressed to the householder or not addressed at all. In some circumstances, such mail can increase its impact if it is part of a larger campaign and comes with an organiZational identity on the envelope, and an expectation of its arrival by the recipient. Costs and Impact While a direct mail campaign requires solid infrastructural support as mentioned above, and while the total cost of such a campaign can be high, the individual item cost can be quite low. Because the materials are standardized, they can be prepared centrally with limited staff and expertize. In addition, if the information is valued and anticipated, the delivery to an individual can be quite reliable. The assumption driving such a campaign is that the package has general relevance and will be well received. In private direct mail campaigns, where it is intended that recipients respond by making a donation or a purchase, responses are generally under five percent of the total mailed out. This suggests that a campaign that relies on direct mail for motivational purposes or to advertize events or educational products, has to have a massive universe of names before the returns become significant. Direct Mail Responses Direct mail seeks to increase the response by becoming more scientific in its determination of the universe and by directing information based on better demographic studies. When responses are forthcoming from individuals, these can be tracked. When purchases are made, or particular services are required, these can be tracked and the mail that is sent revised to meet the anticipated needs of the individual more directly. It is for these reasons that direct mail systems encourage response, and why an increasing number of commercial institutions are using credit card and other card systems to track individual patterns of consumption. As yet, there is no example of an educational programme making use of these techniques, although private companies use them. Obtaining Mailing Lists In addition to the voters' list, organizations involved in more general educational programmes may decide to add a direct mail component to their programme and may be at a loss as to how to obtain substantial mailing lists. In come countries, these can be purchased on the open market. However, a democracy programme, because of its social value, may be able to obtain such lists more cheaply and may be able to obtain access to lists that are less frequently sold. Amongst these are registration lists of tertiary institutions, church membership lists, union membership lists, motor registration and driver's licence lists. Mailing When There Is No Mail A programme may decide that, despite the difficulty of delivering a package of materials to individuals, it wants to do this in order to overcome the difficulties of arranging outdoor meetings, overcoming prejudice and fear of the only available educational or information staff, or the unreliability or distrust of other forms of communication. It is possible to prepare materials and have them distributed through nodal organizations and civil society networks, through government departments, and on the basis of an individual collecting the packet at a convenient depot. Depending upon the country's infrastructure, such systems may be less reliable than a postal service. Whatever that distribution system, if it is unreliable, then the voter education programme will not reach each individual, and there is likely to be some loss of materials that will add to the cost per item delivered. Telephone CanvassingEffective telephone canvassing is a powerful tool in finding out about the electorate, answering people's concerns and questions about voting, popularizing the elections, and encouraging people to vote. The major advantage of contacting voters in this way is that telephoning provides access to many people in a relatively short period of time. Telephone canvassing relies on an operational telephone system and is based on the assumption that there are telephones available at people's homes. There should be an accurate electronic or manual directory of names and telephone numbers. In instances where recipients do not have telephones, where the quality of the telecommications system is poor, where contact information is not available, or where telephone canvassars are held in low regard, there will be obvious constraints for telephone canvassing campaigns. At least some of these constraints may not exist, however, for the setting up of hotlines, where public or mobile telephones are made available for people to phone into a central number to receive information. Both political parties and nonstatutory organizations can use telecanvassing. Political parties use this tool to provide information and elicit the support of potential voters. Nonstatutory organizations use telecanvassing to popularize the elections and encourage people to support the democratic process. A number of factors contribute to successful telephone canvassing campaigns:
A Popular Marketing Tool Telephone marketing has become a popular tool to both gauge public interest and to sell goods. By now, people in countries where this tool is used are tired of being solicited over the phone to buy every imaginable product or service. Voter education canvassers could therefore be faced with tough competition and should ensure that they have thought through precisely what information their operators intend to obtain or give. This should be placed in a script that operators are trained to follow. A successful telephone call relies on canvassers introducing themselves and their mission effectively. There are a number of points to remember and include in an introduction:
All of this information should be conveyed in a friendly, honest, and open manner. Setting Up a Canvassing Operation For a national organization to set up and implement a telephone canvassing operation, there are a number of factors that will contribute to its success:
TrainingSpeaking to a canvasser can be very frustrating if the potential voter continually asks questions that the canvasser is not able to answer. For this reason, much effort has to be spent on equipping canvassers with useful skills and information. They need
Telecanvassing works only in societies that use the telephone as a natural means of communication and business. Where this is possible, educators have a potential tool for reaching out to individuals at a relatively low cost per contact. Street and Neighbourhood CampaignsEducators have to be open to the possibilities of live campaigns and events that can provide educational opportunities. There are several types of campaigns that are appropriate, actions that can be taken by educators, and election moments that should be exploited. Action Leads to Learning Political and civic participation is learned by action in collaboration with other citizens. Such action, however small, enables people to learn the skills of working together and making decisions, unmasks the social contracts and dynamics that underlie community life, and exposes people to one another's strengths and weaknesses, to models of civic action, and to the dilemmas of the common good. While the majority of citizens engage in such action for a mixture of self-interest and altruism, many political and social campaigns begin because of a personal experience, frustration, or loss. There are those social movements with a model of activism that coaxes people to learn and grow through a sequenced and carefully selected exposure to different campaigns and to different tasks in those campaigns. Political parties provide such an opportunity for citizens. But those involved in voter and civic education must consider ways they can use existing opportunities for civic participation, and, where these do not exist, create them. If learning is a disciplined reflection on experience, then such experiences must not only be lived but also reflected upon. While a number of civil society organizations do build in such opportunities for education and reflection, many do not, to their and their members' detriment. Types of Campaigns Educators shold not attempt to limit the possibilities open to citizens and should be open to two possibilities:
In both circumstances, educators have to be aware that while their motivations are primarily educational, it is unlikely that the participants have the same motivations. Those engaging in civic campaigns expect to change their lives, whether it means ensuring a traffic plan for their neighbourhood, obtaining the right to a forty-hour work week, reclaiming ancestral land, passing legislation, or overthrowing a corrupt mayor. They may be realistic enough to realize that they will not achieve all their objectives, and may be happy to have come through the campaign having learned how to do things better in the future, but they are unlikely to be satisfied with a better understanding of the electoral system. They may, however, during the campaign, learn a great deal about the electoral system and about the role of local, regional, and national politicians, the importance of seeking allies, of using what democratic institutions are available, and of the possibilities of obtaining and maintaining public support for their cause. Civic education thus cannot escape the demands of political activity. But educators can approach the matter in a nonpartisan way and with a belief that people can collaborate to achieve social goals, and that these goals need not be predicated by conflict and contradiction. Such views will be tested by campaigns. The educational opportunities are great and especially significant for those involved. The risks and challenges to the educator are larger in similar proportion. Ways of Building in Educational Opportunities Citizens in pursuit of a goal want to learn. They want to increase their understanding of the issues facing them and to increase the skills they need to organize themselves. It may be, however, that those who already have these understandings and skills are peripheral to the campaign, or uninvolved. Often, leadership is thrust upon those who feel unprepared. So, the first task of educators is to ensure that they can get close to such people and provide them with support and encouragement. If educators are in organizations that have a reputation of supporting human rights and labour organizations as well as other civil society groups, then it is likely that in the course of providing this support, the opportunity for education will emerge. Other organizations may have a strategy of leadership development that has resulted in the creation of a wide range of aware citizens who have received some skills training and already have links with this organization. When a campaign starts they are likely to turn to those who trained them for further support. Having established this relationship, or having been identified as a trainer or educator by the organization leading the campaign, educators should consider the ways in which the campaign is planned, organized, and carried out as opportunities for sharing understanding and skills. Strategic planning exercizes increase people's awareness of social issues and social forces; planning exercizes increase skills in planning and in organizing, in mobilizing resources and in building alliances; preparation for particular activities assists in developing a range of personal skills that have civic consequence as well as more general consequences. Amongst such skills might be those of advertizing, letter writing, administration, bookkeeping, record keeping, communication, printing, and distribution of materials. Educators should insist on two additional activities being introduced into the campaign plan. The first is the use of rehearsal before any public activity, whether a piece of street theatre, a neighbourhood market, a door to door visiting programme, or a direct protest action. Such rehearsal and simulation has the benefits of better preparing people, especially the inexperienced individuals or teams, for the activity. They will have the additional educational benefits of establishing a reference framework for the activity and also of developing critical distance amongst the participants even in the heat of the moment. All these will stand people in better stead for the second educational intervention, which is post-activity debriefing and reflection. In addition to thorough campaign evaluation, debriefing should encourage personal and organizational learning. Election Campaigns Because of the power of civic activism as a learning tool, educators involved in nonpartisan programmes such as voter education should direct people who are interested in becoming involved not only to assist in the voter education programme but to support a contestant or join the election administration. Those who have organized, or even worked in, a polling site or a counting station have an understanding of, and likely commitment to, elections that cannot be achieved by a voter education workshop however exciting. Those who have worked in a political campaign, whether successful or not, have some understanding of political life and a point of reference for future political activity that enables them to make sense of any future education. Again, it is worth repeating that experience on its own, without disciplined reflection, may not result in extensive learning. Those who are involved in party campaigns and in election administration therefore need to consider educational interventions, both for individual and organizational learning. Commercial AdvertisingEducators will use advertising during their programmes, but they may choose to use advertising techniques as a major component of their programme. This section looks at the reasons for this, the responsibilities of the educational team, the limitations on advertising, and the need to assess impact. Many educational programmes require advertising, and large programmes may well develop a relationship with an advertising agency in order to assist them. Such advertising ranges from the placement of staff ads to advertising for events and products. It might involve national and community media. What Advertising Can Do Advertising is good at short repetitive messages, reminders, simple facts and establishing a mood (especially through television). It is less effective with detailed information and complex issues. Advertising cannot solve every problem or deal with every aspect of an educational programme, though agencies may suggest it can. Using and Choosing an Agency There is a much more significant use of advertising in voter and civic education. This is the use of an advertising paradigm and the retaining of an agency to lead and coordinate the entire programme. Agencies with experience of handling public service accounts can be chosen, or those that have previously worked on political contestants' campaigns. [1] But the central feature is that an agency rather than an educational institution is given the commission to assist in the handling of the public education and information programme. Such a decision appears to solve a number of problems for those commissioning the programme. Agencies immediately have access to information about voters and citizens built up through market research; they have a commercial interest in the professional conduct of the programme; they know how to produce and place large advertisements on national, and more occasionally, community impact media; and they make use of their programme management skills and contract money to develop synergy with other companies. Of course, while the programme may achieve certain objectives, it may miss out on a variety of other educational outcomes that the programme may want to achieve. And not all advertising agencies have the same ability to manage such an account or the inclination to work with a bunch of bosses that such a commission to a civil society organization or election administration may bring. Their involvement on behalf of political parties or candidates contesting an election might also present some problems, even if only in perception, for a nonpartisan efforts. In general, those choosing an advertising strategy, as opposed to an educational programme with advertising support, will be required to enter into a contract with one or more agencies and these agencies manage the account under the normal private sector advertising agency terms. Overall budgets have to be set and tenders (bids) submitted, acceptable profit margins will have to be agreed to and the brief has to be explicit. Project Management An advertising campaign is not an opportunity for the organization to abdicate responsibility for the programme, although there may be temptation to privatize the programme and adopt a hands-off approach, merely paying bills and accepting the final report. Such an approach places the onus on the agency and can result in extravagant and unnecessary expenditures, overambitious plans with an eye to advertising awards rather than impact, and occasional incongruencies between the messages communicated and the voter or civic education programme itself. There can also be poorly managed relationships with potential allies of the overall programme, especially amongst educators, election authorities, and civil society organizations who operate outside the private sector paradigm. In particular, organizations should understand that if an advertising campaign goes wrong, the agency will not be blamed. It is the sponsoring organization itself that has to deal with the public criticism, and there have been cases where agencies have been less than professional in their choice of images and slogans, product spokespersons, or placement of advertisements. So it is essential for the organization to establish a vigourous and well-resourced project management team with direct access to all the information they might require, including the ability to conduct their own assessment of impact (see below). Such a team will develop the brief, establish the calendar, and oversee each and every aspect of the project. The agency will report to it, and is not responsible for convening the meetings at which reports are made and decisions canvassed. Tenders and Contracts Those responsible for implementing a programme, especially one related to elections, are under time pressures. They may be inclined to hand over this aspect of their responsibility as quickly as possible. Such an approach may include a decision to consult an agency in order to determine what can and should be done, and then to request the same agency to go ahead and do it. There might even have been an informal recommendation that such and such an agency could handle the job. There are dangers to omitting an opportunity for competitive tendering (bidding) that can enable the organization to discover alternative approaches to the project and ensure that an appropriate price is paid. There are ways to speed up this process, and to develop the internal capacity to establish the original project brief. An initial proposal can be sought from an agreed list of agencies, and then a final brief can be prepared on that basis; or a task group of individuals can be established to develop the brief. The tender (bid) document can make various organizational demands that ensure that the job is spread between a number of agencies each of whom have some particular expertize, without allowing the industry to dictate the terms of the tender (bid). When an initial exploration has to be done, or the preparation of a tender (bid) document and investigation of the initial conditions within which the project will have to operate, it is better to exclude those who prepare this material from submitting a final tender (bid). Otherwise there is a temptation to slant the documentation in favour of the expertize of one's own organisation. Fpr guidelines on how to conduct a competitive tender (bid) please refer to Newspaper - Sweden - Multilingual. When it has been agreed that a tender will be given, care should be taken with the contract in terms of cost overruns. [2] It is far too easy to allow an agency to say that the brief was inaccurate, or the expectations of the client have grown, or that the time available was incorrectly estimated. With election authorities under pressure to get an election right at almost any cost, there are possibilities for agencies to escalate the cost of the contract beyond the initial figure. [3] Understanding Terms Advertising agencies speak a language of their own. Educators can misunderstand it. Some time should be taken to ensure that any project management team is on the same wave length as the agency. In particular there are two types of activities with relevance to a campaign being conducted through an advertising paradigm. Agencies talk about above-the-line activities, which involve the standard and tried forms of advertising campaigns through the national and local medi: press, radio, and television spots, and billboards. They also talk about below-the-line activity, which means the management of events to achieve the ends of the campaign. Amongst these below-the-line activities are the distribution of trinkets, the running of game shows, product placement, and conducting of public events. Involvement of Civil Society It may be assumed that the activities of civil society can be managed through those agencies with experience in below-the-line campaigns. This may or may not be true, but there is evidence to suggest that the control over such activities normally exercized by advertisers is not acceptable to nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and membership-based organizations. Nor are they satisfied to have their activities dictated, but prefer to be involved in the strategic planning stage, something that is often not possible where an agency has received the initial contract. However, there are ways in which civil society activity can be stimulated to support an above-the-line campaign. This is best done not by the agency but by those who understand and work with civil society organizations on a regular basis (see Organised Civil Society as Stakeholders in the Voter Education Mandate). Impact Assessment There is evidence to suggest that face-to-face educational activities (direct approaches) make a greater impact on people's levels of confidence in voting and elections than advertising spots (indirect approaches). There is also some difficulty in separating out the impact of television spots (normally considered the most important factor in an advertising campaign, and the most expensive) from more general television coverage, especially during election campaigns. Large advertising campaigns also determine the organizational design of the organization sponsoring them, as they have particular effects on response from the public. Advertising a toll-free number results in a massive spike of calls to that number followed by a rapid fall off, unless the advertisement is repeated. Organizations may have to gear up to cope with the spike when they actually do not need that capacity normally. There are examples of small businesses suffering because they cannot cope with the demand that a successful national campaign may elicit, and there is also some danger that an organization might come to be associated with the matter advertised. For example, a civil society organization promotes a free and fair vote, and then the election fails: at the very moment when the organization is most needed, its association with a failure makes the public blame it. These may not be matters that a large company has to consider, but the smaller and more ephemeral democracy coalitions, election administrations, individual NGOs, and membership organizations have to consider them. More important than nervousness about embarking on the exercize itself is the assessment of the success of the campaign. An advertising agency has a vested interest in ensuring that the project is successful. If the criteria by which success is measured are not agreed to at the beginning, criteria will be put forward at the end that can only be measured positively. In a programme with qualitative goals as an educational programme might have, it is as easy for an agency to massage its achievements as it is for an educational organisation or NGO. A report that focuses on the number of advertisements placed (a quantitative indicator) might produce more positive results, for example, than one that considered their impact on behaviour. What is more, it is possible to manage impact not only at the end but also during a campaign by selecting the areas where success is likely because of other factors rather than dealing with the difficult areas. Individuals managing a project should, having established the criteria for success, set in place a monitoring programme and their own research facility for measuring impact. They should make the information they obtain available to the agency, and may even write into the contract the manner in which such information will be collected and how it will be integrated into the campaign as it progresses. They also should develop a mechanism for ensuring that the programme is responsive to this information, and that there is sufficient flexibility to renegotiate the brief to deal with changes in the initial conditions, in particular, the political context. There are examples of programmes that have done this and kept very close to the changing dynamics of the overall context and to the evolving needs of the client organization and their interpretation of the public need. There also have been programmes that have remained true to their original strategy despite evidence that the programme was not dealing with the questions being asked by the public. But that is one of the dangers of contracting an agency more used to selling a product than encouraging people to learn and change. The Relationship between Advertising and Public Education Programmes Advertising plays an important role in ensuring the success of a public education programme. It is an essential component and asset of such a programme. But in general, a public education programme should seek to extend its reach beyond the information and marketing approach into areas where advertising agencies may not normally tread. However, the success of public education programmes, and the continuing use of advertising agencies to develop components of such public service projects, has resulted in a convergence between those involved in education and those who are advertisers. The question that has to be resolved then is not which is better, but who is in control of the public service programme. Given the political needs of public education programmes, their social goals, and the importance of public consultation and public participation, it appears natural that advertising agencies will continue to act as providers of a particular specialized service rather than as managers of the overall programme. Notes: [1] Such work is normally put out to tender but there are countries where work on political campaigns would disqualify an agency from taking on a nonpartisan voter education account. [2] While an election authority or a voter education organization may not have much experience with contracts, there is likely to be a more experienced body within government: indeed election authorities which are part of a government office may have to work through a body such as a tender board. [3] Those contracting agencies should look at the ways in which they charge for their services. They may request a direct payment for work done. Or they might charge a commission on advertizsments placed. While the second might appear cheaper, there is an incentive for the agency to Distance Learning TechniquesDistance learning is the preferred term for education in which there is a geographic distance between the educational provider and the learner and where there is not daily or regular contact between the educator and the student.
Digital MaterialsThere is no longer a clear boundary between electronic media and the media that have emerged as a result of new technologies. For example, the advent of the Internet has been revolutionary in giving those who own a personal computer access to a range of digital products.
Digital and Recorded MaterialsStandard analogue recording methods are still in use in many contexts and their products are important and versatile media for the distribution of educational content, see Alternative Methods of Communicating Voter Eduction. However, the emergence of digital recording means that an entirely new world of production, editing and distribution has emerged. As with many new innovations, costs of entry and production have come down, and in some cases materials can be produced or reproduced adequately for educational use in individual and small group settings on office or home computers equipped with the necessary peripherals such as microphones, digital cameras and digital recorders. The ability to sample professionally produced materials – clips of films, stills, music excerpts and so on - editing these into productions developed in one or other digital format – from the ubiquitous power point (or similar presentation software) through to the various sound and moving image formats – has liberated the means of production from production houses. Educators have to be aware however of copyright and software licence issues; of mistakenly thinking that an adequate production can be done by untrained people - owning desktop publishing software does not make a person capable of designing a publication – and of underestimating the costs of software support and staff time for inhouse production. Nevertheless, a new world is opening up. Having acquired or developed digital materials for use as supporting educational materials in a larger curriculum, or relying on them as the primary educational tool, there are new opportunities for distribution. Audio materials There has been a boom in personal audio devices. The most successfully marketed is the Ipod, but it is only one of a number of devices designed for storing and playing audio material at the user’s discretion. Made for music, these devices are now doubling as storage devices for large files, and there is an increasing trend towards users downloading material specially prepared and made available on websites. Known as podcasting – although not confined necessarily to this particular brand – materials have now been produced in the form of weekly radio magazines, museum guides, and audio blogs or diaries on current events. As these devices become more generally available, or can be given at low cost to travelling educators, they can be plugged into public address systems and provide a relatively seamless interface between those producing material, loading it onto a website, having it downloaded at any remote location and then having the material played to an audience of one or more people at a time of their choosing. Video materials Similar devices are arriving on the market capable of displaying still or moving images. However, these are more expensive. More appropriate for the distribution of video materials is the increasingly available DVD. Recording equipment for digital video disks is now readily available. Cellphones / mobile telephones Manufacturers of mobile telephones are using the combination of software and hardware developments to enable their telephones to double as digital devices, and to act as radio receivers. However, commercial imperatives have meant that their development is driven in favour of encouraging users to download material directly through wireless connections and to stay connected while listening, viewing or sending. For the educator, this means creating separate (at the moment) arrangements for distributing materials to those who use mobile telephones.
Web-based Voter Education MaterialsWith most computer software developed in societies with the ability to connect computers at low cost and high speed, even standard operating and office software is Internet enabled, with connections for purposes of upgrading, bug fixing, and help operating in the background. The revolution, much talked about previously, is now over. The world has changed fundamentally – and those who have access to a telephone and a computer find it hard to even conceive of a time before the Internet. Nevertheless, there are still digital divides, between those who have this access and those who don’t – still the majority of the world’s population; and amongst the haves, between those for whom telephones and computers are cheap and easy to obtain and maintain and those for whom these are necessary but costly tools. Educators developing web-based materials must remain as attuned to their audiences as those developing materials in any other medium. Unfortunately, the cost of entry and publishing to the web are low, materials can be rushed to publication and they can be amended on the fly. All these make the temptation to publish on the web without considering standard publishing and quality control questions quite high, see Printed Materials. This temptation should be resisted. But in addition to these standard questions, those committed to web publishing should consider a number of other matters which arise as a result of qualitative change which the Web has brought. While there are a few examples of web-based materials being projected to a group audience, this is primarily a use of the Web as a distributor of particular content – for example a video clip or document, or possibly a web-based live interview – but quality of reproduction still imposes some limits to this. However, the Web is largely a facility for simultaneous access by a number of individuals. Even where these individuals are engaged in a joint activity, the technology requires separate screens and keyboards, if not separate computers. Collaborative work on a single access point is possible, but not entirely successful or satisfying. Multi-media There are very few limits, other than those of the imagination and skill of the educator and his or her technical team, to the range of media which can be used to animate, highlight, illustrate, illuminate or merely decorate materials made available on the Web. Limitations should rather be imposed by consideration of educational objectives, audience and the constraints of the equipment and download speeds, and reliability at the user end. This can of course mean that those expecting ‘bells and whistles’ (a term used to describe websites with a high degree of features) may be disappointed by apparently bland or ‘low tech’ sites. Sometimes these people have provided the money or resources, have been commissioned to do the necessary programming, or are programme stakeholders rather than the intended audience. Educators should be prepared to defend their choices vigorously. Differential user platforms In addition to the concerns above, it is in any event true that those at the user end come to the web materials with different interfaces. Different browser software, different screen size and quality, and different download systems – slow modems, cable or satellite, data streaming devices, digital, analogue or fibre telephone lines or wireless - are all present-day possibilities. This affects just what a user sees, in what order they see the material being loaded onto their screens, and the extent to which colours and images display themselves. Managing these differences is normally left to programmers but educators should take some interest in the outcomes of their work, especially if they are trying to ensure standardization and general, as opposed to discriminatory, access to their materials. A number of sites have advisory notes regarding the most appropriate software, screen settings, and other conditions for viewing material, but these do not help those who cannot achieve these conditions. Web to print The majority of websites still operate as electronic and interactive books, whether providing content, how to’s and manuals, or brokering the content developed by others. It is increasingly likely that these materials are going to be printed for later use or for distribution. Therefore educators must consider and develop the appropriate tools to allow such printing without the materials losing their integrity. But in addition to merely considering the conditions under which materials are going to be printed, this facility provides an opportunity for the distribution of materials to educators and learners in remote areas or in widely separate sites. There are a number of possible advantages to this – whether those of reducing cost and impact, overcoming poor infrastructures, or overcoming security and censorship constraints. See Environmental Considerations of Voter Education. On-line activities However, the Web is not only a publisher. It provides significant opportunities for interactive behaviour between an educator and learners, either in real time or through consecutive activities. Real time interactions can include conversations between individuals, or within a group, or the delivery of a video or audio lecture together with questions from remote audiences. Consecutive activities might include moderated forums where contributors e-mail contributions which are then displayed edited or unedited for all contributors; submitting assignments taken on-line after concluding readings posted by the eductors; and so on (see below on e-mail). There are an increasing number of automated on-line tests and surveys being conducted in which the results are then relayed to the appropriate person after being collated. The efficacy of these distance learning techniques – expanded in scope, speeded up and facilitated by the Web – must be judged in the same way as all distance education processes. Do they result in change in knowledge, behaviour or attitudes? Are they cost effective? Are they of the necessary educational quality and standardization? What are the drop-out rates? This evidence is still being collected. Synergy Apart from convergence, in which the same material is ‘streamed’ or broadcast through a variety of media or ‘receivers’, the Web provides for some fundamental connections between different media. While it is perfectly possible for people to use e-mail independently of a web browser, there are an increasing number of subscriber lists distributing bulletins and newsletters by e-mail which alert people to material on a website. Best practice seems to be to keep these e-mails short and to provide links so that users make the decision about what and when to read. Websites are using e-mail forms to solicit responses to their material. Wikis "Wiki wiki" is an Haiwaian term meaning ‘quick’ or ‘informal’. It was adapted to name and describe the development of collaborative software which enables a group of users to contribute to and amend content. The first use of this software was in the creation of “wikipedia” but a variety of open source versions has meant that it is now possible at limited cost to develop a wiki site and allow an interest group to establish a web community where they can interact with one another or develop materials. It was previously not possible to do this, and there are alternative ways of doing this. Increasingly, the tools for such collaborative communities and for web publishing are becoming easier to use and more freely available. User tracking and statistics Software exists to enable some automated tracking of visitors to a website. Unfortunately these automated systems are not able to discriminate as well as needed, so invariably large numbers of users are recorded as being from Virginia in the USA, or from commercial sites only because of the dominance of certain internet service providers who enable individuals to access the Web. However for evaluation purposes as well as to ensure that delivery of the educational materials is to the right audiences, finer tracking may be required. Sites are increasingly encouraging registration to enable them to recognize their visitors in the same way that an institution may require a sign in at reception or a store or hotel may want to recognize frequent visitors. Such registration systems can sometimes have a chilling effect on visitors who do not expect to have to disclose their identity or remember passwords and user names. Because of this, some sites are segmenting content to incentivise registration, or preserving certain parts of the site for those with whom they have established a relationship, whether commercial or programmatic. Public service sites providing educational materials will probably adopt a universal access approach and trade off the quality of their statistical and tracking data, but there have been some attempts by nongovernmental organizations to make their sites self-sustaining through advertizing. These are going to be ongoing dilemmas especially for poorer institutions and countries. File sharing Software exists for facilitating file sharing and file downloading. File transfer protocols are now seldom used by casual computer users who rely on streaming and high speed connections to preserve the integrity of their files: but they were and remain a staple of the larger Internet. More recent developments have been of particular concern to commercial producers of moving images and music, as young programmers have created their own free copying and distribution mechanisms. There may well be times when the ability to file share is useful to educators seeking fast and cheap distribution of materials, see Digital and Recorded Materials. |
