Media Skills and Contacts

The ability to engage media effectively is a crucial part of many advocacy efforts. Therefore, this indicator measures the proportion of members of a specific target group (e.g. members of grassroots organisations) who have the desired media skills and contacts.

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Define who the target group members are. It should primarily be people engaged in implementing advocacy initiatives who must have the desired media skills and contacts. For example, the several spokespeople for the campaign who will take interviews and represent the wider collective.

2) Define a limited number of the most important media skills and contacts the target group members should have.

3) Prepare a practical test assessing the media skills and contacts of the target group members. The test can consist of, for example:

     - written test assessing people’s knowledge

     - practical tasks testing their abilities (e.g. how to write a press release or how to manage chat on social media)

     - role plays where they are asked to respond to a certain situation

Avoid having unrealistically high or unnecessarily low requirements by pre-testing the test’s difficulty level among several people.

4) Decide the minimum result a person needs to reach to pass the test (for example, answering at least 7 out of 10 knowledge-related questions correctly and performing at least 3 out of 5 tested skills correctly).

5) Administer the test to a representative sample of your target group members.

6) To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of participants who have the minimum required knowledge/skills by the total number of tested participants. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage.

Disaggregate the data by gender, age group, and other important criteria, depending on the context and focus of the advocacy work.

1) Complement the indicator value with qualitative information on what types of media skills and contacts the participants have gained.

2) The desired level of media skills and contacts usually is not acquired as a part of a single training. It is a longer-term learning process that requires a variety of supports. To ensure that the process is effective, consider preparing a ‘light touch’ Media Training Plan, which sets expectations on who / when / where / how / by whom / and on which topics will be taught (or otherwise supported).

3) Consider conducting both a “pre-test” and “post-test” to understand the extent to which the target group members improved (or did not) their media skills and contacts.

4) To understand further the extent to which the supported people can apply the acquired skills and contacts, consider measuring:

   - the number of engagements with media contacts that they have initiated following the training

   - the media coverage they have managed to achieve following the training (see guidance)