Countering Harmful Narratives: Media as a Tool for Truth, Equity, and Change

You and Your Conscience" was a multimedia campaign addressing technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where online harassment disproportionately targets women and girls. With little formal data available and strong social stigma, the campaign reframed the issue by grounding its design in participatory workshops and narrative storytelling. Developed in collaboration with local civil society, its brand identity drew from Kurdish carpets and the nergiz flower to convey tradition and respect while inviting self-reflection.


The campaign combined TV commercials, radio broadcasts, and social media videos to maximize reach and accessibility. Over 12 weeks, it achieved 202 TV airings, 23,040 seconds of radio coverage in Kurdish and Arabic, and more than 74 million social media impressions. Messages focused on accountability in online behavior, positive masculinity, and rejecting victim-blaming, all tested with diverse youth and community groups.


The campaign demonstrated how multimedia products can shift awareness in contexts where "gender" is politically restricted, using adaptive language and risk-sensitive design. It also showed that community-driven storytelling, cultural symbolism, and engagement metrics provide valid evidence of behavioral change processes when formal prevalence data is absent.

La menstruación es un proceso natural que debe ser atendido de manera segura y digna, sin embargo, millones de niñas, adolescentes y personas menstruantes viven su menstruación con miedo y vergüenza debido a la falta de condiciones idóneas para gestionarla, la falta de información oportuna y confiable, la estigmatización y los estereotipos. 
De lo anterior se desprende el valor que tiene la Comunicación para el Cambio Social y de Comportamiento (SBCC) para combatir estereotipos, reforzar conocimientos y movilizar a la comunidad para cambiar narrativas en favor de la equidad. Por ello, desde UNICEF México en conjunto con la Asociación Mundial de Radios Comunitarias en México (AMARC) y Salud Integral para la Mujer A.C. se creó "Mis Días de Luna", un programa de radio comunitario que busca normalizar las conversaciones en torno a la menstruación y desmitificarlo a través de la historia de Meztli, una joven mexicana de 14 años. El programa está dirigido a niñas, adolescentes, personas menstruantes y mujeres adultas en comunidades con acceso limitado a internet con el objetivo de combatir estereotipos, influir en las normas sociales y de género, así como reforzar los conocimientos básicos sobre la salud menstrual.
Esta experiencia resalta el valor de integrar la comunicación con elementos participativos para visibilizar narrativas subrepresentadas, incorporar perspectivas locales y garantizar su contextualización para movilizar a las comunidades para promover prácticas individuales y colectivas mediante la narración de historias (storytelling) y de la integración de medios de comunicación locales. Mis días de luna | UNICEF

The media powerfully shapes perceptions of gender and social norms in West Africa, often reinforcing bias, misinformation, and the exclusion of marginalized voices. Women are stereotyped in caregiving roles, while youth, persons with disabilities, and displaced persons remain underrepresented. These portrayals perpetuate inequities and limit progress in social and behavioral change (SBC). To address this, the Anglophone West Africa Social Norms and Agency Learning Collaborative (AWA-SNALC), convened by SCIDaR, launched the Norms Lab podcast, a participatory counter-media platform that amplifies diverse voices and spotlights norms-shifting strategies. Across 21 episodes till date, the podcast explores how gender and social norms influence health, education, agency, and leadership with topics spanning maternal, sexual, and reproductive health, gender based violence, women's economic empowerment, and the impact of digital media on development. Guests included leaders from civil society, academia, youth-led, and community-based organizations.
By combining lived experiences with these expert analyses, the podcast promotes truth and transparency in social-behavioral communication. Dissemination extended beyond Spotify to newsletters, X-Spaces, YouTube, and LinkedIn, reaching over 1,000 subscribers and hundreds of listeners through live dialogues and events. Analytics showed steady growth in followers and streams, confirming its resonance.
The Norms Lab demonstrates that participatory podcasting can confront media manipulation by centering authentic voices, exposing bias, and driving transparent, evidence-based storytelling that drives social change