PMC’s 2006 program in Niger, Gobe da Haske (“Tomorrow Will be a Brighter Day”), has been featured in the current issue of Soul Beat. Visit the link below for the full article.

http://www.comminit.com/en/node/270336/38

Andrew Holtz has done a nice article covering PMC’s work in Nigeria.

Dateline Nigeria (PDF, 130KB)

I am pleased to report to you that the Board of Directors of the Population Institute (PI) has formed a formal partnership with Population Media Center (PMC).

PI has a proud 39-year history of programs that have helped to focus the world’s attention on the fundamental need to bring population into balance with the world’s resources. Specifically, PI programs help journalists, policy makers, and the general public to understand the ways in which world population growth is contributing to various global crises: the energy crisis, the water crisis, the climate crisis, the food crisis, the decline of biodiversity, political instability and the failed state syndrome, as well as ongoing poverty and health problems that especially affect people in countries with rapid population growth.

Starting in February, PI began a process to consider how it could be more effective in addressing global population concerns. As part of this process, the Board invited me to discuss program directions and possibilities for a partnership between PI and PMC. Because I started my career at Population Institute and worked alongside its founder, Rodney Shaw, during the decade of the 1970s, I was very pleased to provide whatever help and assistance I could to enable PI to continue and expand its vital work of addressing global population concerns and its outreach to key leadership groups in society to build their support for, and involvement in, population issues.

At the end of the process, PI’s Board asked me to serve as its President and to create an operating partnership with PMC. This partnership will bring together two organizations that share common origins and have complementary strategies for addressing the global population problem. In fact, PMC’s work of using entertainment-education serial dramas in developing countries to role model small family norms, elevate women’s status, and promote the use of family planning had its origins at the Population Institute in the 1970s.

The activities of the two organizations today complement each other in many ways. Working together will also ensure greater efficiency.

We have exciting program plans. One of the most significant will be an enhancement of the Global Media Awards, a program through which PI has encouraged journalists and commentators worldwide to emphasize the importance of population and its impact on global issues. PMC’s involvement in the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, the Hollywood community, and its work with broadcasters around the world, will give the Global Media Awards a new level of prominence.

Another planned program will involve outreach to parliamentarians worldwide to build understanding of, and commitment to, sound population policies.

Additionally, PI, in collaboration with PMC, will work to implement a program to place population experts on talk shows and news interviews and to distribute relevant editorials to print media nationwide.

During PI’s early years, the organization worked extensively with large membership organizations to build their support for bringing population into balance with natural resources and educating their members about population issues. PI is planning similar initiatives now, including outreach to faith-based organizations to build their support for voluntary family planning information and services worldwide. Similarly, PI plans to work with colleagues in the environmental community whose missions are impossible to achieve without population stabilization.

PI will also work with national and international educational institutions to incorporate population education programs in their curricula. It is critical that the leaders of tomorrow and people everywhere understand the implications of population trends for the future of our planet and what is required to solve these problems.

We welcome your suggestions, your involvement, and your support — all of which make the vital work of PMC – and now PMC in partnership with the Population Institute – possible.

Sincerely,

President
Population Media Center
145 Pine Haven Shores Road, Suite 2011
P.O. Box 547
Shelburne, Vermont 05482-0547
U.S.A.
Tel. 1-802-985-8156
Email: ryerson@populationmedia.org

Participatory Assessment of Gugar Goge, an Entertainment-Education: A Qualitative Assessment Report
by Arvind Singhal, Sarah Hurlburt, and Radha Vij

This report documents the results of a participatory assessment exercise conducted in Nigeria to gauge audience reception of Gugar Goge (”Tell It To Me Straight”), an entertainment-education radio soap opera that sought to promote education for girls, the delay of marriage and pregnancies, and the adoption of family planning and maternal health services. The assessment exercise, which used participatory sketching and participatory photography, aimed to assess how frequent listeners engaged with the radio programme, and how they derived personal meanings from its plot, characters, and educational messages.

For full article, visit:
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/269041/304

PMC was recently featured in The Environmental Magazine. Below is a PDF file of the article (PMC is featured on page 31 under the heading “Taught By TV”)

Destination America - Immigration, the Environment and Big Population Numbers (PDF, 1,514 KB)

Soul Beat Africa is carrying a story on PMC’s Nigeria program, Ruwan Dare (Midnight Rain).

The article can be viewed at http://www.comminit.com/en/node/269771.

Soul Beat Africa is running a summary of the article by Kriss Barker, entitled Radio Serials to Change Social Behavior on their website at http://www.comminit.com/en/node/269267. At the end of the article, you can download a copy of the full article by Kriss

I participated yesterday in a 90-minute radio program on population issues produced by Free Range Thought in Media. You can listen to the program – one of several in a series planned on population – at http://www.freerangethought.com/.

Soul Beat Africa has a summary of the study, “Participatory Assessment of Gugar Goge, an Entertainment-Education, A Radio Soap Opera in Nigeria: Qualitative Assessment Report” in the evaluations section of their website, at:
http://www.comminit.com/en/node/269041.

The January 2008 issue of Population Reports carries a feature article on Population Media Center’s Ethiopian radio serial Yeken Kignit (“Looking Over One’s Daily Life”). The publication can be found at http://www.infoforhealth.org/pr/j56/j56.pdf.

Many thanks to NaHyun Cho, who authored the article.