Getting effective message reach in the transition to Web 3.0 is a communication challenge of the developed world as both audiences and messages are fragmented across multiple channels, platforms and digital devices and traditional media selections.

In pre-web days of few broadcast channels, assumptions were that everyone went to work after reading the national or local daily, returning at night to watch the 6 o’clock TV news. Audience reach was broad and assured- either the newspaper, radio or TV would deliver your intact message with maximum reach and message penetration.

The Web 1.0 mindset assumed ‘information-seekers’ would catch up online with whatever was missed on TV or in the papers. Add Web 2.0 social media platforms as primary news sources, the fact of ambient news and mobile access and the once broad-cast, cohesive, targeted and scheduled has become narrowcast, re-mixed, noisy and ‘ambient’.

A few months ago, as this struggle continued in the developing world, I worked on an engagement project in the Pacific Islands- gaining a fresh perspective on the nature of fragmentation.

The Solomon Islands is closer to Brisbane than Perth or Darwin and yet, like many decentralized, remote communities, it faces ongoing communications challenges. Over its hundreds of islands spanning tens of thousands of kilometres, people tackle failures of basic infrastructure – transport, water, sewage and electricity -every day. The deficit in access to and reach of basic traditional communications infrastructure – including internet and digital is just one more layer of disadvantage in a globalised world. A disadvantage shared with 54% of earth’s 7.4 Billion population, who don’t use the internet.

‘Sharing culture’ and ‘social media’, old context, new meaning …

The Solomon Islands daily newspaper’s limited 5,000-copy print run maximises audience reach using people power. Each copy is recycled by initial purchasers –‘shared’ and reread by many as it re-distributes to outer islands. Across 350 islands more than 5,000 villages speak in over 80 languages- language diversity and low levels of literacy further challenges efforts of reach and inclusion. Phone access is about 95% in Honiara, but outer islanders rely on communal access or phone ‘sharing’. Barriers to television ownership include the lack of reception, power supply and its cost. Radio is too expensive for most and half of the people in the capital have computer access –a rarity in the provinces.

Australia’s greatest divide is digital – between remote, rural communities and key urban, policy-making centres. The Northern Territory has the country’s lowest personal device ownership compared with the ACT- the highest. According to the Sensis Social Media Report 2015, Australians on average, own three internet-enabled devices. Laptops and smartphones are most popular. Tablets and desktops are common, internet enabled TVs or an iPod touch less so. By age, smartphones are common in the under 50s, desktops popular with the over 30s -particularly men, and the over 65’s strongly prefer desktops to all devices. Over 40s are as comfortable with print media as with digital, the over 55s still watch TV and the over 65’s love newspapers.

Internet – stratified access, visibility and participation across social scales.

Even collectively, social media doesn’t offer us an inclusive public sphere amongst the digitally connected. Numerous isolated ‘issue’ groups fragment the possibilities of collective, participative deliberation bringing new perspective to the continued value of national broadcast media and participative engagement practices.

Strategic engagement planning seeks to understand stakeholder preferences for engagement across interpersonal, traditional and digital media – mindful of the scales and fault lines of fragmentation existing due to unequal access and channel choice within our own communities, across the nation and globally.

Social media takes on its original meaning in disadvantaged communities.

Effective strategic communication exploits all available opportunities for engagement, considering fully social, economic and cultural contexts. Strategic engagement planning considers audiences attitudes, understandings and the most effective channels, message emphasis, and intensity to use with them. Where digital media can’t deliver community engagement, channels may be interpersonal – relying on people as intermediaries to reach specific groups and participatory processes. Traditional media and digital can only be used according to local resources and access.

But, as in the developed world, this requires understandings of societal norms, customs and behaviours and access to key influencers, gatekeepers and message mediators within those cultures. Getting this right involves research, consultation and planning using engagement savvy – the social more critical than technology in building co-operative relationships.

Age, literacy, disability, location or disadvantage can all affect access to communications which connects people to information, support and economic potential. In Island Nations as in Australia, you can’t ensure you get the right message to the right people at the right time, when access to basic communication infrastructure and channels is lacking. Inclusive strategic engagement planning makes no assumptions about equality of access and message reach, its research identifies those with whom you need to communicate and how to reach them.

Nicola Wright is a communications professional who works with projects, programs, and organisations who deliver social and environmental value. ADAPT Strategic Communications custom-builds strategies to sustain your stakeholder engagement and achieve key performance objectives. Find her on www.adaptstrategic.com.au