One aspect of the campaign that really interested me was its use of images to mobilise people and turn public opinion. Too often I think, we place far too little emphasis on the power of well-constructed images. I’m one of the guilty, as I tend to be a word person.

This diagram of the slave ship Brookes had huge impact in an era before photography

One of the turning points of the anti-slavery campaign was when someone unearthed a diagram of a fully loaded slave ship, the Brookes. This image had an enormous impact on everyone who saw it, and proved to be one of the most powerful tools of the campaign. These days, almost everybody who has been to school, has seen the Brookes diagram.

Another tool in the campaign was a logo of a kneeling man in chains, bearing the slogan, Am I not a man and a brother?, which was put onto items of clothing such as cufflinks and hatpins — the precursor of T shirts and lapel buttons so common in present-day campaigns.

Visualising Information for Advocacy

Well thought-out and designed images can often be used to instantly convey a message that can get lost in words — and with huge emotional impact. One of the best introductions to the use of visual elements in a campaign is a little booklet called VIsualising Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design. It’s available for free download here and is full of interesting examples and good advice.

In South Africa we’ve never really had strong investigative journalism at the local level (aside from one or two exceptions) and from what I hear, many local papers are increasingly focused on producing poorly disguised advertorial for local businesses and charities. Organisations seeking coverage are being told to get in line behind advertisers, which creates a huge problems for those charities, NGOs and CBOs which don’t have a budget for advertising.

Right now I can think of three implications for those seeking media exposure at the local level. Firstly, expect to see less and less serious content in local papers. Secondly, local organisations will have to start being much more creative when thinking of how to make the news. The photo of the cheque handover is no longer enough. We need to come with stories so complelling, that they simply can’t be ignored. Secondly, organisations need to think about media more broadly. The local paper or ‘knock and drop’ as they are known in South Africa is just one medium among many. Community radio for one, should be getting a lot more emphasis, but organisations also need to start using new media such as SMS and Facebook to reach their audiences.

Obama and new media in Africa

US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Africa has had a lot of media attention. Obama of course is known to have used new media very effectively in his election campaign. He carried that approach through during his Africa visit, using new media such as SMS, Facebook and Twitter, to enable Africans to put questions to him, and to disseminate his speech in Ghana. Crucially though, the new media were used in combination with radio to ensure maximum reach. Ndesanjo Macha wrote about this before Obama’s visit on Global Voices Online.

One of the brains behind the strategy was White African. See his blog post on Obama’s African visit here.

Building Advocacy Campaigns

Oxfam GB has published a very useful book on advocacy called Building National Campaigns: Activists, Alliances and How Change Happens. The book is based on the experience of Oxfam and its partners in campaigning for improved employment standards for workers in five countries. It looks at the various steps or organising, strategising and campaigning for change. There are many useful lessons that can be learned from the juxtaposition of theory with case studies from the five countries. Building National Campaigns can be downloaded free.

There is also a web page with powerpoint slides, photos and other material, and users can also add their own experiences to the content.