When reports of Ebola first started coming out in late March, Liberian journalists — like most people in the country — didn’t understand the highly infectious disease or its potential severity.
Sensational headlines abounded — stories focused on Ebola’s impact on people’s sex lives, the fact that they could no longer eat their favorite bush meat or that homosexuals were responsible for the epidemic, Maureen Sieh, senior media specialist for IREX’s Civil Society and Media Leadership Program in Liberia, said Sept. 18 during an event hosted by the international nonprofit in Washington, D.C.
Amid heightened response from the world’s largest multilateral and bilateral donors to help stop the spread of the disease and calls for better civil society engagement with government, an area where there’s still much room for improvement is communication around in-country containment efforts — especially by the local population.