Govt research reveals ethnic groups favour regular media.

Government campaigns aimed at Britain's ethnic minorities are to be revamped following a ground-breaking research project carried out by COI Communications.

In future, Whitehall departments will rely more heavily on mainstream media outlets rather than specialist TV and radio channels and journals when they target blacks and Asians.

The pounds 366,000 'Commons Good' project, to be published in August, used in-depth interviews in people's homes and community centres, with Black Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Orientals, Asians and mixed-race people. Two outside companies - Turnstone Research and Consultancy and Connect Research and Consultancy - were used.

Although many of the Government's campaigns were reaching ethnic groups, the research identified room for improvement. Featuring black and Asian actors in campaigns risked being seen as 'tokenism' unless the cultural and lifestyle settings looked real. The study also identified a need for campaign materials to be in two languages rather than in separate publications since parents and children often read them together.

The research found that merely 'running an ad on Zee TV' was not enough to reach the ethnic minorities. Many people, especially the younger generation, channel hopped and watched domestic TV and radio channels and read British journals as well as their own specialist ones.

Peter Buchanan, COI's deputy chief executive, said: 'In future, we will be more confident about our ability to reach the ethnic minorities through the mainstream media. At the moment, we tend automatically to put some ethnic media on the schedule.'

Buchanan ...