Role of Media in Public Awareness

The media play an important role in increasing of public awareness and formation their views and attitudes toward certain issues. Nowadays, Internet resources are one of the most common means of communication as mass media. Today in Tajikistan, blogging and participation in social networks are one of the most common activities of Internet users after the e-mail and search programs. This trend is particularly noticeable among young people who spend more time on the computer and obtain more information from the global network.
Today, blogging is also a good way to express views on any issues. With the proper formulation of the issue and placing posts in the blogs, social networks and forums, the discussions on the topic can continue for months and attract more attention than other types of media. Now, there are many blogs in the internet created by residents of Tajikistan or Tajik bloggers living abroad. Many people are becoming bloggers now despite of their professions, education and standard of living.
Many of them are celebrities and idols whose opinions considered by most of the population, especially young people. We should expect that gradually the Internet will be the most popular way of exchange of information. The importance of this method of informing the public and attracting the online communities’ attention to various problems is the most efficient way to disseminate information. If we compare the traditional media to Internet resources, the important difference is that you always can post comments in the internet.

The Tajik Family Planning Alliance in its operations put emphasis on the sharing of information, advocating, providing services and subscribing to services in order to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the citizens, with special focus to HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, unwanted pregnancy, as well as unsafe abortion. For this purpose TFPA works with mass media such as newspapers, radio and television within the frameworks of various projects.
This year we started our work with a new direction, which is blogging. Within the framework of Access project it was held three day training for bloggers-journalists on the topic of “Blogging is an internet-based mechanism for the dissemination of information field about SRHR” to improve access of young people to information. 15 representatives of various newspapers have participated in this training. During the training the participants were taught how to create a blog in platform of WordPress. om – one of the most popular and multi-functional platforms for blogging. Participants were provided not only the information on how to create blogs, but also basic information on SRHR and family planning. In practical part of training, the participants created their own profiles on popular social networks such as Face book, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. By creating a profiles and blogs, they contributed to a greater dissemination of information in the global network.
In spite of the free choice of topic for a blog, most of the participants selected the topics related to SRHR and family planning, and the rest the aspects of healthy lifestyle. Thus, it was created 10 blogs, which included both personal blogs and blogs of newspapers. TFPA plans to continue to work with blogs and online journalists by supporting bloggers and active users of social networks and implementing variety of activities on promotion of relevant Internet resources, including the traditional media.