has launched the economic empowerment initiative Ruka Juu (Jump Up). The
main vehicle of Ruka Juu is a reality TV entrepreneurship competition. The first.
Audience interaction with Ruka Juu Participatory Involvement in a Communication for Social Change Initiative through SMS By Dr. Ylva Ekström, Malmö University & Dr. Linda Helgesson Sekei, Umeå University Short report to the Nordic Africa Institute for a travel scholarship to Tanzania, awarded in 2011
RUKA JUU – AN INTRODUCTION “It’s all well and good that we learn about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, but we need jobs!” This was audience feedback to Femina HIP, a civil society media platform in Tanzania, which during the past 12 years has provided information and provoked discussions about sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and healthy lifestyles, with youth as the major target group. As a response, Femina has launched the economic empowerment initiative Ruka Juu (Jump Up). The main vehicle of Ruka Juu is a reality TV entrepreneurship competition. The first season of Ruka Juu revolved around entrepreneurship and financial education and was broadcasted on national TV between March and May 2011. The objective of Ruka Juu was to inspire young people to become more entrepreneurial and proactive rather than waiting for opportunities to come to them. Part of the objective was to provide information about different aspects of entrepreneurship needed in order to succeed in business, such as marketing, customer care, savings, capital, recordkeeping and planning. During 11 episodes, the audience could follow six young Tanzanian entrepreneurs, all below 30 years, as they competed for the opportunity of their lifetime. The audience got to know the contestants in their home communities, their ideas and hopes and how they operate their businesses. The program followed each entrepreneur in their local area through a number of competitive challenges to explore money management, look at savings options, deal with emergencies, find working capital, business planning and successes/failures with the aim to determine whether the six could improve and grow their businesses. The contestants were evaluated by three judges, as well as by members of the audience, who were encouraged to vote for their favourite contestant by mobile phone SMS messaging using the Sema na Fema (Speak with Fema) short code platform. The audience could also engage with Ruka Juu by answering “the question of the week” and send spontaneous comments, questions and other feedback. All these SMS messages were collected in a database, which separated the votes from the other messages. The ambition to apply a participatory production process and let the audience speak back is thereby, like in the other Femina initiatives, part of the ambition. Due to a rapid increased of mobile phone use and presence of other social media in Tanzania, this provides communication opportunities. It is this audience interaction, through the particular use of SMS messaging to Ruka Juu, which is in focus in this study. It serves as a preliminary evaluation of the results of using mobile phone communication as a form of participatory communication tool during the first season of Ruka Juu. The study can also serve as a case study which analyses and illustrates opportunities and obstacles occurring in relation to utilization of mobile phone messaging as a tool for participatory communication in an edutainment context. As such, the study is contributing with empirical findings to the theoretical discussion about the role of new information and communication technologies – such as mobile phone communication – for participatory communication and social change. The study is an independent research project, financed by the Nordic Africa Institute.
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Aim and research questions The overarching aim of this study is to analyse mobile media discussion about entrepreneurship, business and finance among youth in Tanzania, inspired by the edutainment product Ruka Juu. The study has been conducted through a thorough and systematic analysis of the SMS responses to the show, as well as through telephone interviews with 50 of the individual mobile phone users who have interacted with the program. The aim is two-fold: (1) To discuss in what ways young people are engaging themselves in a communication for social change initiative like Ruka Juu and the particular themes presented there (audience perspective - with focus on empowerment of youth through mobile media), and (2) To investigate in particular the usage of mobile phone messaging as a tool to create more participatory communication (production perspective - with focus on information and communication technologies as tools for participatory development). The research questions are: (1) Who is communicating with Ruka Juu through mobile phone messaging? (2) What is the mobile phone messaging communication about? The data collection was conducted in Tanzania and was facilitated by Femina HIP who gave us access to their database. At the end of the fieldwork, we held a seminar at Femina, where the results were presented and discussed with the Femina HIP staff. This was a very useful feedback session, which contributed to the analysis in the final report. RESULTS – A SNAPSHOT The results show that there was a mix of educational backgrounds, from primary school leavers to university graduates, who had interacted with Ruka Juu by SMS. It was very clear that the issue of identification with the show and the participants was important, such as either (1) geographical identification by being somebody from the same area as one of the contestants, (2) vocational identification through working with similar businesses as one of the contestants, or (3) identification through a personal relationship with the contestants. By being a reality edutainment project, Ruka Juu gives the audience the possibility to identify with real people. This in turn may trigger the audience think about the opportunities presented in the show as being about “real goals” not only “dreams” as may be the notion when engaging in fiction and classic
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fictive edutainment. It also creates the notion of being able to communicate and interact with real people. Using mobile (and perhaps other social media) can be a way to enhance the experience of “real” connection and interaction with the participants. It also creates a possibility for combining mediated and “in-reallife” communication with the participants in the program. In regards to the content of the messages, this report has illustrated that, apart from votes (which made up the majority of messages), and the responses to the question of the week, the spontaneous comments typically fall within the following five categories: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Praising the show and participants Searching for more knowledge about entrepreneurship and business Calls from geographical areas not covered Requests for contact with and comments on contestants Practical questions
The findings in this study, lead us to summarizing the answer to that question in the following three points: • • •
The sms-format (especially in short code form) does not allow for or invite to very much discussion. Through access to the short messages sent through mobile phone, we can get an understanding of what the patterns of mobilization around the show look like. And through the sms-analysis it is clear that Ruka Juu creates inspiration and increased interest in the themes covered by the program.
From a production point of view, i.e. how does the particular usage of mobile phone messaging work as a tool to create a more participatory relationship with the audience? Our study gives us the following answers to that question: • •
•
Through sms (short-code format in particular) Ruka Juu is engaging certain groups in particular – but maybe new groups? There are technical as well as economical obstacles to using this mode of communication to engage the audience. Cultural as well as social patterns and habits that need to be understood in order to improve the audience’s participation. Voting is the main use for interaction through sms. The questions of the week seem to function more like a knowledge test than inspiration to discussion, and spontaneous comments are often of more practical character than contributing to a discussion.
The fieldwork was conducted during September and October 2011. The full research report can be obtained from the authors:
[email protected] [email protected]
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