24 August 2004 - RoSPA Believes the Media Can Help Promote the Road Safety Message
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has produced a new guide to help the media with road safety issues when making television programmes and advertisements or even when writing stories.
RoSPA receives many complaints from members of the public and local authorities about the way in which road users are portrayed in the media, but RoSPA believes the media can play a vital role in influencing attitudes and behaviour to the benefit of road safety.
Kevin Clinton, RoSPA Head of Road Safety commented:
“It is clear that the issues raising concern among people who contact us are often unintentional on the part of the producers and could be fairly easily avoided.
“We
hope the guide will help programme makers and advertisers to show road use
positively.
“We fully appreciate that there are times when poor road use is integral to
a plot or character. But, for example, rather than simply showing a
drink-driver or a mobile phone user at the wheel, it would be useful to
indicate the potential consequences with a crash or court appearance.”
Kevin Clinton went on to add:
“Minor
details, such as ensuring passengers are wearing seatbelts or presenters are
looking at the road rather than the camera, may make a big difference in a
viewer’s attitude without detracting from the message of the programme or
advert,” Kevin Clinton said.
“Positive images, showing safe behaviour, may help to prevent accidents and
even save lives. Images showing dangerous behaviour may, inadvertently, have
the opposite effect.”
Funded by the Department of Transport, Presenting Road Safety: A Guide for the Media is available on CD-ROM and can also be downloaded by clicking this link: http://www.rospa.com/road/pdfs/roadmedia.pdf
