Uncovered: assessing media and communications needs ... - ICAR

3.20 What courses?Signifi cant interest was expressed for many of the potential training topics, the most popular being‘how to market your organisation’, ‘awareness-raising’ and ‘designing electronic newsletters’ (thiswas the case for all groups and they are not therefore detailed in the following paragraph). The leastpopular topics are ‘daytime TV and soaps’ and ‘proofreading’. The fi ndings cohere with the emphasisorganisations place on external communications.There appear to be some differences in the needs of specifi c organisation types. Refugee and migrantworker groups are more likely to see the need for training in ‘writing for the web’ and ‘interviewtraining‘, and less interested in ‘writing a news release’, ‘how to market your organisation’, ‘whybother with the media’ or ‘branding’. Refugee and migrant organisations did however specify fewertraining choices on the whole. Black and minority ethnic organisations are more likely to opt fortraining in ‘selling your story’, ‘media law’, ‘lobbying’ and ‘sponsorship’, and less in ‘why bother withthe media?’ Church-based organisations are more likely to require training in ‘media law’, ‘dealingwith the media in a crisis’ and ‘controversial campaigning’, and less in ‘lobbying’ and ‘research skills’.Isolated rural organisations are more likely to require training in ‘internal communications’, ‘lobbying’and sponsorship’.Isolated rural organisations favour ‘communications on a shoestring’ training, when they appearto be the organisation type with the greatest resources. As noted previously, this may be becauseinfrastructure organisations are replying and speaking for the groups they serve, whom they knowto be on limited budgets. Conversely, refugee and migrant worker organisations are the least likelyorganisation type to choose ‘communication on a shoestring’ training despite being those with theleast resources and the least number of staff.Other types of training suggested by respondents include web design, raising funding throughsponsorship and donations, new media, general IT skills and training in generating content, especiallyvideo content for websites. One commented that most important was learning how the media works.Feedback from interviews suggests thought should be given to the potential for cascading training.When funds are scarce and people feel more secure amongst their own interest groups there may besome value in constructing courses that enable trainees to go away and share their understandingand experience with others in their own organisations.The point was also repeatedly made that the benefi ts of training soon fade without ongoing support.This is particularly true of media training, which may not be needed for a prolonged period, and ITwhich requires regular practice and a help-line to call up when problems arise.In focus group discussion refugees and migrants expressed an interest in learning to write notspecifi cally for any purpose, but ‘effectively in English’. This suggests there would be a value indeveloping courses that focus simply on good written English. Refugees also wanted to learn how toaccess information, while migrants said they would like assistance in communicating with businesses.32 Uncovered: assessing media and communications needs and capacity of marginalised communities