USE OF COMIC BOOKS TO ADDRESS SOCIAL ISSUES

Comic books can be effectively used as tools in delivering development messages and addressing social issues, particularly when the message to be promoted is a sensitive topic as in the case of Female Genital Mutilation and Circumcision (FGM/C) here analyzed.

The methodological reason to use comic books is two fold: strips are flexible and adaptable to changing context. Whatever the topic, the suspension of reality combined with grassroots research and highly culture sensitive language make the medium an ideal tool for communicating social messages to the wide audience: among teenagers and young adults comic strips can be used efficiently for this purpose.

Comics are usually funny, therefore applying them to methodological extent should have a interesting affect stimulating participation and involvement. The important thing is that the story line can be followed step by step and can recall its structure easily because of the logic behind the script, as in raising awareness on FGM/C and women’s rights through the ad hoc booklet funded by the Italian Cooperation and based on the original idea by two NGOs, namely Dialogue Foreign (DF) in collaboration with Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK).

The visual nature of comic strips helps to increase motivation and more importantly, if a concept is accompanied by a picture (a visual image in one’s mind) then learner will memorize and recall it more easily. The choice to use well known settings (Nairobi centre skyline, Eastleigh views) improves readers’ identification, still maintaining distance.

– Comic illustration creates a distance between the reader and itself, so that whenever there’s heavy criticism, the audience wont be alienated by it because it still would not feel directly targeted, on the opposite of written text or photography;

– The comic’s use of mannerism and character distortion will further add to the distancing between audience and comic;

– Even if the image can become the language that breaks the barriers of communication, the presence of type (i.e. slang language inspired by street/urban language, text messages, social network sites and email) is a powerful tool to information dissemination.