The Join In project in Sweden

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The Join In project in Sweden

• Media training for NGOs as a strategy for
  awareness-raising

26th of sep 06 Jenny Nilsson / Babak Rahimi
/Tobias Smedberg
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Join In in Sweden

• Cooperation between the public authority Swedish
  Integration Board and the NGO Centre against
  racism

• Focus ethnic discrimination on the
  labour-market

• Goal develop and implement strategies for
  counteracting ethnic discrimination on
  the labour-market

• The importance of the participation of NGOs
  (reflected in organisational structure and
  activities chosen)

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Awareness-raising within Join In in Sweden

• Media training for NGOs working on
  anti-discrimination issues (aug 06)

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Background

• Regional hearings held in april 2005, in order
  to collect ideas and models for how to counteract
  discrimination

• Suggestion to arrange a media training to meet
  the NGOs need for skills and strategies on how
  to create publicity around the issue of
  discrimination

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Media training

• Purpose to provide NGOs with the knowledge and
  strategies on how to create publicity and raise
  awareness on the issues of racism and
  discrimination.

• Focus on how to use media as a tool for
  influencing decision-makers, thus promoting the
  advocacy role of NGOs

• Training led by media consultant, presentations
  by NGOs, group work on media strategies gt focus
  on concrete examples and strategies

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Anti-discrimination and the media - the NGO
perspective
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When media write about immigrants they assume we
are all a big illiterate, moustached group who is
practicing immigrant culture, is dancing
immigrant dance and is committing immigrant crime
Alexandra Pascalidou
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Keywords in reporting

• Using xenophobia instead of racism or even
  nazism
• Not mentioning ethnicity, but writing immigrant
  or non-Swede or Swedish citizen to mark a
  difference
• Often using authorities and government as a
  source instead of investigating and questioning
  how they act.

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The Media picture of Immigrants and Ethnic
Minorities

• Criminal
• A cost for society
• In best case an exotic group
• No difference between refugees, immigrants or
  Swedish ethnic minorities.
• Quick Response (Red Cross Media Critique) reports
  that immigrants are mostly mentioned as a problem
  in news

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Strategies

• More Colour in The Media
• New education system for the media
• Generate reliable sources for journalists to give
  another picture of immigrants
• Starting media critique groups to point out
  mistakes
• If you cant beat the Media, become the Media

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• 1. Travelling without
• destination
• We throw ourselves into lobbying campaigns
  without surveying the key actors.

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• 2. Starting too late
• We start the lobbying campaign when the decision
  process is already advanced. For example when
  its in the newspapers.

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• 3. The expected
• Unexpected alliances generate greater
  penetration and political impact. With that in
  mind, how come we tend to choose the expected
  cooperation partner?

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• 4. We can give a guided tour in New York but not
  in our home town
• We tend to set up long-term goals but fail to
  set up the short-term ones.

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• 5. Believes that the
• boss really is the boss
• We should be looking for the responsible civil
  servant with great impact on the factual matter
  instead of meeting a minister.

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• 6. Unnecessary
• aggressiveness
• We should formulate us as suppliers of promises
  instead of making call-upons unpleasant for the
  decision-makers.

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• Five reflections
• Cooperation between governments and NGOs is
  necessary
• Better lobbying and media campaigns from NGOs is
  in the interest of the government
• Individuals/groups affected by discrimination
  need to be able to define the issues at stake
  and make demands for solutions
• Initiatives to promote the advocacy role of NGOs
  is necessary make demands on decision-makers,
  politicize the question of discrimination
• Unifying perspective non-discrimination as a
  question of democracy and HR gt broader platform
  for mobilisation against discrimination