Media for Citizen Participation and Inclusive Governance

Media and digital media play essential roles in citizen participation and inclusive governance. Over the years, there have been an increasing number of national and local governments and civil society organisations across the world that have embraced digital transformation. But we are also witnessing global civil servants and NGO professionals finding themselves at a loss on how to strategically and effectively use and engage media to amplify their messages to broader audiences – ensuring public access to information and empowering informed citizens to speak out and facilitate collective actions to participate and contribute to public policies. 

On the one hand, governments globally need to develop sustainable and inclusive digital media strategies and approaches to involve their citizens digitally during policy-making processes. While, on the other hand, citizens need to be empowered to access the internet, voice their opinions and facilitate meaningful dialogue on public agendas. 

In late June, invited by the Hague Academy of Local Governance, Lei Ma, Digital Media Lead at RNW Media, delivered a half-day workshop on ‘Digital Media Solutions for Citizen Participation and Inclusive Governance’. As part of the two-week training program of the Hague Academy on ‘Citizen Participation and Inclusive Governance’, the learning objective of the workshop was to equip participants from national, regional and local governments, NGOs and donor and development organisations with knowledge and skills for successful media engagement to unleash the power of media as agents of meaningful citizen participation and inclusive governance. During the session, RNW Media presented several products and tools on how to use digital media to facilitate citizen participation and good governance including ‘The Digital Community Roadmap’, ‘Working with Media for Social Change’ and ‘Creating Engaging and Persuasive Digital Content’. 23 people from global local governments, INGOs and NGOs and CSOs participated in the workshop, including civil servants and young professionals from Columbia, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Uganda, Ghana, Zimbabwe and more. 

The workshop received very positive feedback with the Hague Academy requesting RNW Media to repeat the workshop for their next training on ‘Citizen Participation and Inclusive Governance’. Are you looking to create social change through media? Take a look at our courses and trainings on offer at our RNTC Media Training Centre!