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Communication Channels
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Advantages
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Disadvantages
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Face to Face
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Community meetings
- Door to door visits
- Community leaders
- Community theatre / cinema
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Information desks
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- 2-way communication
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Face-to-face usually peoples’
preferred form of communication
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Persuasive
- Allows for conversation and
community discussion
- Allows for you to collect feedback
- Effective at changing behaviors
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- Can be expensive and time-consuming
- Labor intensive
- Limited reach
- Relies on physical access to population
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Mass media
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Television and radio (shows, news)
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- Can reach large numbers of people
from different segments of the community
- Can reach people who are hard to
access in person
- Radio is usually a popular and
trusted form of communication
- Can be two-way if shows are
interactive
- Can be used to collect feedback
- Radio and TV do not rely on
literacy
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- Airtime can be expensive
- Might require specific technical skills and a well-trained team
- Not the most effective way to collect feedback
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WRITTEN
- Fact sheets
- Flyers & posters
- Notice boards
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- Good for sharing information
relevant to a specific community or topic
- Can use images and text to explain
information
- Can reach many people
- Doesn’t rely on physical contact
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- Limited geographic coverage
- Labor intensive to keep information relevant
- 1-way communication only
- Relies on physical access to distribute
- Limited impact in low literacy communities
- Print costs can be expensive
- Found to have limited impact on behavior
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Technology
- Phone hotlines
- Social media
- Text messages
- Sound trucks / loudspeakers
- WhatsApp groups – public
and internal
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- Can be 2-way communication
- Can reach large numbers of people,
quickly
- Can be interactive and supports
discussion, feedback and answering questions (except loudspeakers)
- Can reach people who are hard to
access in person
- Mobile phone ownership is growing
rapidly
- Can share text, images, video and
audio (social media)
- Most of these can be done cheaply
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- People must have a phone – in some cases a smartphone
- May require internet access
- Network coverage is needed
- Social media can be hard to manage and control what is posted
publicly
- May require technical skills
- May rely on partnerships with mobile network companies
- Some options rely on literacy (social media, SMS)
- SMS and social media messages must be very short
- Loudspeaker is only one-way and only works for simple, clear
messages
- Loudspeaker relies on physical access
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