232 Impact of workshops for journalists on road safety reporting in Nepal

<h3>Background</h3> Road traffic crash reports in the Nepali media often lack in-depth information about the causes and impacts of these crashes. Most reports focus on the number of casualties, vehicle type, and crash location. They rarely consider factors such as road user behaviour or road and vehicle safety standards. There are seldom follow-up reports on recovery after an injury. This lack of comprehensive reporting hinders public understanding of road safety issues and limits informed discussions on potential solutions. <h3>Objective</h3> To assess the changes in road safety reporting by evaluating outputs published by the journalists before and after attending workshops. <h3>Methods</h3> Outputs assessed included road safety news reports, features, in-depth stories, or opinion pieces available online and published either in Nepali or English between 1st January 2018 and 31st May 2020, categorised as either before or after the workshops. Each output was analysed for 1) the inclusion of story angles recommended by the WHO and 2) prevention tips from WHO guides for journalists. <h3>Results</h3> We examined 56 outputs published by five journalists. The breadth of different story angles increased after the workshops. The use of three (out of seven) story angles was found to increase after the training: these included a) arguing for improved legislation and its implementation, b) greater inclusion of evidence and data, and c) the recognition of road traffic injury as a major cause of deaths. However, the story angle related to the impact of road injuries on quality of life was found to be the least commonly used. In addition to the use of these story angles, journalists highlighted a higher number of issues related to road user behaviours, safer public transport, ridesharing and the use of technology for road safety compared to before attending the workshops. <h3>Conclusion</h3> This before and after assessment of the media outputs found an improvement in using some story angles and ideas recommended by the WHO. The study suggests that training workshops are a valuable tool for engaging journalists in good road safety reporting.