Media refers to the diverse concepts of technology and message. Impact of media is created in the process of production, presentation and receiving which involves both journalist and the audience as well. Alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention therefore involves media education, advocacy, lobbying and building media literacy, engaging every step of the process.
Media is Powerfu
Sri Lanka has approximately 23 television stations currently operating in the country. Most stations are accessible at rural households resulting in attracting and retaining a large television viewership in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a highly literate country with higher media use. As quoted in the Department of Census and Statistics (2009/10) 79 percent of the rural communities have televisions at home in Sri Lanka. However the television viewership is not proportionate to the TV sets available in Sri Lanka as the guest viewing is common among rural community where people without televisions watch them at the homes of neighbors.
There are 23 television stations operating in Sri Lanka, with more than 100 satellite channels accessible at rural households resulting in attracting and retaining a large television viewership in Sri Lanka.
Television viewing patterns Program | Children % | |
1 | Tele drama | 87.32 |
2 | Music | 11.78 |
3 | English Series | 5.79 |
4 | Childrens Program | 25.59 |
5 | News | 21.14 |
6 | Educational /Documentary | 7.13 |
7 | Discassions | 2.62 |
8 | Movies | 8.47 |
9 | Others | 7.57 |
According to UNDA Sri Lanka and the university of Kelaniya (2003 ) Only 1 out of 5 children watch television at 4.00-6.00 children belt. 75% of the children watch during 8.00 to 9.30 family belt.
Alcohol and Media
Sri Lanka has made great progress through media, particularly in the fields of health and education and also in improving the social life in one sense. Media therefore has a huge potential to benefit as well as bear an impact on the society.
News, Tele Dramas, Films, and musical programs are very popular and they reach out to all age groups in society depending on their interests. The impact of these programmes on all age groups cannot be measured simply on the entertainment value it creates but also on the educational value.What the media has been teaching us has been studied in depth in Sri Lanka. This is what it does in relation to Alcohol education!
Media Education
Media education is the process of teaching and learnhng a bout media.It is about developing people’s critical and creative abilities about media. Media education is used effectively in alcohol and tobacco prevention to educate journalists,.
providing an opportunity for journalists to critically analyze media messages created by them and leading to media literacy among journalists and the general public . Smoking causes Sexual Impotence
Media campaigns were conducted island wide so as to make general people aware of the pictorial warning requirement of packs and cartons of tobacco products and supported actions by other civil groups in this regard as well
Media literacy and advocacy intervention
Media literacy and advocacy intervention are considered as an important component consisted of competences that enable people to critically
and create (Counter )messages using wide variety of media
Media literacy explores
structural feature such as media ownership,
Funding mode such as Tobacco and Alcohol industry that affect the information presented.
Media literacy- training of trainers
Learning by doing Staff Traning at field Level in kudu wella Tangalla,
Out door traning venue” Staff and volunteer traning at Haputhale
Understaning our one community small seale research on Media behavior of the community
Staff and volunteer traning at Palmadulla
Volunteers were trained on media literacy in communities. volunteers from few divisional secretariats were pooled into one
Develop a small questionnaire (with few questions ) to be filled
Visit house to house covering the entire village
Bring back data and analyzed them
Analyzing , summering and identify issues in communities
Discuss strategies for intervention.
Each DS divisions developed activities for 6 months
Field level Activities
Activities include door to door visits,
Children‘s survey of smoking and drinking scene in the TV programmes they watch
Small scale study to find relationship between Film viewing as a hobby, smoking scenes in movies and the prevalence of smoking.
Special campaigns such as a campaign against smoking and alcohol scenes in Oshin – a famous Japanese Tele series dubbed in Sinhala.
Media education
Media education is the process of teaching and learning about media. It is about developing people’s critical and creative abilities about media
Media education is used effectively in alcohol and tobacco prevention to educate journalists, providing an opportunity for journalists to critically analyze media messages created by them and leading to media literacy among journalists and the general public .