MEDIP Rationale
Media coverage about the Millennium Development Goals is very low within the participating countries and public awareness about development issues and MDG commitments is rather low. This is evidenced in the recent Eurobarometer study, ‘Citizens of the new EU Member States and Development Aid', published in September 2007, wherein the study reveals that citizens in new EU Member States have a relatively low level of awareness of EU development aid issues with many being unaware of its existence, or how much money is actually involved. Nearly half of the sample of persons interviewed for this study stated that the EU does not help poor countries or that they do not know if it does, and almost nobody was aware of the amount of aid per inhabitant spent by the EU each year.
This project shall be targeting key players within the media for training about the Millennium Development Goals, their rationale and implications, and the progress (or lack of) made to date. They will be trained on rapportage techniques about development issues, as well as the important role and responsibility which the media plays vis-à-vis the ‘global citizen' and the degree of advocacy for the attainment of the MDGs.
Such training and awareness-raising among media players will then be pursued and elaborated into a range of activities targeting specific stakeholder groups as well as the general public within the six new Member States represented by the MEDIP consortium.
The effect of the media, and specifically of journalists, within this area has been highlighted as one of the important tools of communication regarding development issues, according to the above-mentioned Eurobarometer study.