When designing a partnership with the media on VAWG prevention, it is key to determine the objectives that are to be reached, the appropriate target group(s) of the intervention, as well as the best media channels to reach them. Determining your target audience and objectives requires an understanding of the global evidence-base on how to prevent violence against women and girls together with a sound understanding of the locally identified factors that put boys and men at greater risk of perpetrating and women and girls at greater risk of experiencing abuse. Compiling existing research on these social norms and risk factors is critical to designing appropriate interventions with different segments of the population and ensuring the messaging contributes to broader understanding of the issue.
In some cases, an initiative may be targeting a mass or broad audience on general principles of equality, non-discrimination and non-violence. In others, a specific audience or audiences will be targeted in a tailored way to address the specificities of a population’s context and issues. In some cases, there will be a mix of mass outreach, together with more tailored interventions. Interventions that aim at transformative change to tackle widely held attitudes and beliefs that condone violence against women and girls would require mass outreach on a sustained basis, accompanied by more substantive outreach and programming at the community level through educational systems, mobilization of community members, working with families and others who may be influential (e.g. faith-leaders).