Using public relations in organising activism against gender-based violence in Bangladesh: A study of NGOs

Abstract

This research explores and examines the use of public relations (PR) tools and strategies in organising activism against gender-based violence (GV) in Bangladesh. It is an indepth study focusing on three non-government organisations (NGOs) that use PR tools and strategies to raise awareness amongst their target audiences about gender-based violence (GV), while also engaging them to act on this issue. These NGOs are Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), Ain O Salish Kendra (Law and Dispute Resolution Centre – ASK) and Naripokkho (Pro-woman). Globally, GV is a serious health and human rights problem with severe negative health impacts on women and their children (Ellsberg; 2006; Heise, Ellsberg & Gottmoeller, 2002; Nakray, 2013). It is also a social problem in Bangladesh with high rates of violence across families and society (Chowdhury, 2007; Hadi, 2005; Huq, 2003; Hossain, at al., 2012; Sultana & Islam, 2009; Zaman, 1999). A survey carried out by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in 2015, for example, showed that among the 19,987 married women interviewed, 49.6% experienced physical violence and 27.3% faced sexual violence in their lifetime. GV thus affects the lives of women significantly. Consequently, NGOs and their activists seek to address this issue in their social change programmes. Scholarly literature suggests that they organise activism with various PR and communication activities to promote awareness about GV prevention, intervention, and its impacts. However, empirical and indepth knowledge about how PR is being used as a method of activism to stop GV is very limited, particularly in a social development context. Therefore, the study was launched to investigate the use of PR in activism that addresses GV in a real world setting in Bangladesh. To investigate the use of PR in this activism, the study has advanced with three key research questions. It utilised a qualitative methodology to understand the voices of activists and their conventional and unconventional PR practices. The study followed the interpretative and social constructionist paradigms with a qualitative case study design. To provide an indepth and qualitative interpretation of the data, the language used in texts, talks, contexts and activists every actions and practices were analysed using thematic and discourse analysis techniques. The study found that PR has emerged as a tool for addressing structural problems such as inequality, marginalisation and GV in a context where resources are limited. The activists of these NGOs developed and used various PR methods in organising campaigns, communicating their organisation’s stories, raising funds, and garnering public support for their activism. Through these processes they sought to raise awareness amongst audiences about the impacts of GV, primary prevention methods, and legal measures, while also providing support to victims in their reintegration into their respective communities. PR was also used to engage GV victims, marginalised women, village level people and stakeholders including government officials, journalists, donors and local opinion leaders. The PR campaigns and activities of these NGOs appeared to change the attitudes of audience members towards GV, the status of women, and victims, while also helping to enact new laws to prevent and stop GV. By responding to three research questions, the study has sought to conceptualise and theorise about an approach to PR that recognises the voices and PR practices of activists. Their PR actions and practices are strategic, dialogic, informative, discursive and resistive to changing the myths that perpetuate GV and to developing community engagement to act on this problem. Thus, this study has revealed that PR has been developed and used as a tool within social development and humanitarian work to facilitate a complex social change process as it relates to GV. This process largely goes unrecognised in the dominant literature on PR and communication. Based on the findings, two PR models are proposed in this thesis for activists and professionals working in social development and human service sectors.