Media for development: what mainstream NGOs can do

[These are notes from a talk to a group of senior NGO officials from a major UK iNGO] Back in 1991 the Oxfam press office was worried about the lack of coverage for unreported food-shortages and conflicts in the horn of Africa. So they got a 747 from British Airways and flew a group of UK journalists around a series of ‘war-torn’ ‘famine stricken’ states like Ethiopia. The hacks includied George Alagiah – the BBC’s new developing world correspondent – and bizarrely – Chris Evans – then working at GLR. They stopped at various locations just long enough to measure the ‘fly to eye’ count before hurlting onwards with their magical misery tour. Well that is one way to capture media attention but I am sure you all realise that NGO thinking on communications has changed since then. Well so has the media.