Sharing your media knowledge

Have you got any journalism expertise that you are willing to share with others?

If you are a journalist, media manager, or media trainer, and have some tips to share, please consider submitting a training module to Media Helping Media so that journalists worldwide can benefit from your experience.

We have a growing collection of free tips and tutorials on the site which are regularly copied, translated, and shared worldwide.

For example, our basic journalism training section is particularly well used. And in February 2020 we were told that our editorial scenarios are forming the basis for journalism training courses in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Rwanda.

Transferring skills and building capacity

In many countries, journalists and media managers are using the modules from Media Helping Media to train their staff and set up media training centres. And you can be part of it.

It’s all about sharing ideas, giving away tips, transferring skills, and building the capacity of journalists in countries where the media is still developing.

Anyone can pitch in, and it’s not a one-way street. Training modules written by those who’ve traditionally been on the receiving end of media development are welcome too.

Available for all to use

All the material on this site is available under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence, which means it can be shared, adapted, improved and reproduced for non-commercial purposes as long as the author and source is credited.

If you think you have something you would like to contribute, please do the following.

• First check whether the module you intend to write has been covered before. You can do this by using the site’s search box.
• If the topic has not been covered, or if it has and you feel you have more to add, please send us an outline of the idea using the Contact Us form.
• Please add a short biography and include a picture of yourself with any links you would like to your website, blog, or social network site so we can create an information box about you to place at the foot of the article.

And that’s it. We will consider the idea and respond. The more people who are willing to share ideas the richer this site’s resources will become and the more benefit it will be to the media and journalists in need.

Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

All the content on Media Helping Media is shared in the spirit of Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0.

This means that anyone is free to reproduce and improve the material on the site on the condition that:

a) what is created is used for non-commercial purposes (you can’t make money out of it),
b) whatever is produced is published under the same Creative Commons licence,
c) that attribution to the original source material is given.

Media Helping Media is unable to pay for contributions, all material published on the site is donated free of charge.

The post Wanted, your media know-how first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Those invited to help the media overseas need to ensure that the training they offer is continually refreshed.

It takes more time and costs more to produce, but media training must be continually reworked and customised so that it is sensitive to local issues and better addresses local needs.

And trainers working in transition and post-conflict countries and areas where freedom of expression is under threat need to understand that they may have as much to learn as they have to give. If we get it wrong we could do more damage than good.

1: Address the real need

Assessments of training needs carried out by Western media development organisations sometimes examine only superficial technical flaws in media production and delivery.

Such an approach deals only with the cosmetic and may miss the point. Training offered to address perceived shortcomings in what appears on screen, on air or in print may simply make bad journalism look prettier. That is not the where the need lies.

2: Don’t take the lazy option

Off-the-peg training modules, dusted down and delivered like a mass market product, won’t work. The majority world deserves better.

Only bespoke, tailor-made training is fit for purpose. To fashion appropriate training, those offering it need to listen, observe and learn; it is a two-way process. Trainers need to understand the pressures under which the journalists in the host country live.

3: Continually revisit your offering

Reassess your training modules after every trip. Don’t serve up the same material for each client.

The lazy and arrogant option is to feel that you can land in any country and offer a set of tired and worn training modules that may well have been tried and tested in the West, but have absolutely no relevance in the majority world.

There will be different needs and subtle changes in emphasis required. Learn from each visit. Be prepared to ditch everything and start again.

Solutions that worked well 10 years ago in New York, Paris or London may not work today in Jakarta. Training offered in Jakarta last month will not be appropriate for Hanoi next week.

4: Respect those you are trying to help

Those sitting in front of you will probably be working in journalism 10 hours a day and seven days a week. They will be experiencing pressures you may never have come across.

Make sure your solutions are not based on what you did 10 years ago. Spend time in the newsroom with local journalists in order to understand the pressures under which they work.

Realise that those sitting in front of you may well be ahead of you and, even worse, may be too polite to tell you. Take time to understand and, if necessary, return to your hotel, rip up your script and start again.

5: Keep an open mind

Don’t rubbish or trivialise what those you are trying to help do before you understand why they do it.

If a newspaper in South East Asia decides to update its Facebook page before a story has been published in print and online it may be because the journalists know that their Facebook following is 10 times that of its print run and online following combined.

6: Be prepared to be totally humbled

Realise you don’t know best, you may have just been dealt a better hand.

In the West, many journalists are taken out by the rich and powerful and wined and dined. In some of the countries in which you’ll be working, the journalists are taken out by the rich and powerful with bullets and bombs.

Accept that at first you may have little in common with those you are trying to help. Your daily rate may be five times what those you are working with earn in a month.

If they turn up late and leave early it may not be because they are lazy, it may be that they are doing three jobs to make ends meet. Don’t talk down to people before you know the facts.

Respect that those sitting in front of you have probably paid a much greater price for media freedom than you will ever pay – or would be prepared to pay if it came to the push.

Don’t underestimate the sacrifice people make for the vocation of being a journalist. It is rarely for self advancement or material gain, and it is almost always at personal cost and continuing personal risk.

7: Be sure you know who sent you and why?

Training programmes supported by foreign funders responding to politically-focused calls for proposals may do the receiving media organisation no good at all. They may even set them back rather than move them forward, and they will rarely address their needs.

I know of a case in which the editor of a media organisation in a transition country told his staff to turn up for the first session because the training brought with it funding for equipment. As a result, the bewildered trainer was left staring at empty chairs after the first coffee break. But the box was ticked.

Soon after, the donor departed to the next area where those pulling the strings felt that their influence was needed.

8: Always ask what happens next

Media development is a business. The organisations offering assistance have to cover core costs and pay the bills out of the funds raised. They are in competition with one another. They are pitching for tenders, writing proposals and constantly striving to drum up work. In accepting the contract you are accepting their terms. Be sure to ask whether there are sufficient funds to finish the job.

Beware of media training that appears to lack any provision for follow-up. One-off intervention serves little purpose.

In one case I was told by a media development organisation that what happens next was “not my concern” because the project (as set out in the project proposal) was complete. I had been paid and therefore, presumably, I should no longer care.

That experience was part of the inspiration for the setting up of this site, Media Helping Media, but that’s another story.

9: Achieve buy-in from the top

Ensure that there is full buy-in from the media organisation concerned before you get on the plane.

Insist on communication with senior managers in the host media company before any training takes place.

Talk through what is needed. Find out about their target audience. Try to understand the market conditions and the political pressures. See how far they are prepared to go.

There is nothing worse than offering training that may inspire the journalists on the newsroom floor and out in the field only to find that they are not allowed to implement what they learnt after you leave. That leads only to disillusionment and resentment.

10: Ensure that you do no harm

Make sure that whatever you do will not endanger those with whom you are working.

Operate on the basis that in some countries there will be those in the audience who are charged with reporting back. They may also be on the lookout for those who respond to your training in a way that they may consider to be a threat.

This is particularly important when training people about editorial ethics. Objectivity and impartiality sound good in the West, but seeking to achieve both could result in a journalist being reprimanded.

You need to have a long-term strategy. Do not push them too far at first. Let them decide what is possible and what is appropriate, and be there to support them in what they feel will work for their country and their people.

11: Get the basics right

Don’t push investigative journalism programmes in an immature and still developing media market – especially in a transition country – until they have got the basics right.

Share your experience in uncovering sourced, verified and attributed facts and presenting those in a way that informs the public debate.

Investigative journalism for some will mean getting revenge on those they see as the bad guys prior to transition.

That will inflame the situation. Start with the journalism basics and offer investigative journalism training only when the media landscape has matured.

12: Be discerning in choosing who to work with

Get involved only in projects focused on building local capacity and which aim to transfer skills and empower local journalists.

Give priority to projects that aim establish sustainable media training delivered by locals who have become trainers of trainers.

Have a clear exit strategy before you apply for your visa. Make sure that it is about making those you work with great and able to develop without an ongoing dependency on you or those who sent you.

Always try to identify the media leaders of today and the media leaders of the future and work with both. And always say thanks for those who let you work in their country.

The post 12 tips for international media trainers first appeared on Media Helping Media.

A trainer must not shout at participants or get into loud arguments. They must not make those attending their courses feel small or humiliate them. Some fairly strong points made by participants on a media training of trainers course in Vietnam.

At the start of the course I’d asked for participants to list the strengths and weaknesses of a trainer – based on their own experience. From what I jotted down it seems some have been on some scary and intimidating courses delivered by some seriously disturbed people.

I thought it worth republishing some does and don’t from the perspective of Vietnamese journalists. Having asked similar questions in Azerbaijan recently it seems us trainers still have a lot to learn.

A trainer must not:

• Impose their views and opinions without considering the views of the students.
• Start by giving the impression that they know best.
• Introduce ideas that may work in other countries but which have no bearing on the situation faced by participants.
• Be judgemental and superior in attitude.
• Offer unrealistic targets, aims and objectives.
• Reject any comments or ideas from the student without consideration or discussion.
• Get into loud argument with trainees if there is a disagreement.
• Stop the trainees when they are talking during group discussions but allow them to make their point.
• Offer old out-of-date information.
• Read from text books and ask participants to write down what they say.
• Display a lack of enthusiasm for the topic and appear bored and disinterested.
• Focus on theory only and fail to understand the needs of the trainees (inadequate research).
• Provide training without adequate research and offering material that has no relevance to the region and the work of the participants.
• Make the student feel they are bad students by criticising their ideas or humiliating them publicly.
• Become angry with students when they make mistakes such as forgetting to do homework or not pay attention in the lessons.
• Give negative feedback to the students. By doing that you will damage confident.
• Create barriers to learning by failing to encourage interactivity between the trainer and the participants.
• Lose the focus by answering the phone or talking to one individual only.

A trainer must:

• Take time to understand trainees by allowing them to introduce themselves and talk about the issues they face.
• Find examples to illustrate any theory that are locally-relevant, persuasive and easy to understand.
• Include a local co-trainer in the sessions who understands local issues and can help by offering local perspectives.
• Encourage participation at all times and create an atmosphere that allows participants to express themselves.
• Treat students as colleagues and partners and be open to exchange ideas and work together.
• Carry out a thorough survey before designing training (research).
• Choose the appropriate participants for the course.
• Persuade the manager to take part in the course so that they can apply what they have learned in their activities and will encourage other participants.
• Prepare well and give participants the sense that the course is professional.
• Use open questions and open debate to enable participants to voice any issues.
• Sum up after group discussions taking on board all remarks and comments and evaluating them.
• Introduce small ice-breaking activity before any lesson in order to create the right atmosphere and make the training more effective.
• Always set challenges for the student to overcome and continually stretch the group.
• Work with participants on a project throughout the course combining course learning and participants’ input.
• Consider token rewards to – low in value – as an course theme and to create good humour and participation.
• Prepare a gift for the best students in the class. This gets good feedback from the student. Tell the student why they get the gift (low in value, but very meaningful).
• Be friendly and try to use all his talents and tricks to make it humorous and funny.
• Sometimes we quarrel but it is okay with humour.
• Encourage all participants to be involved in the activity and consider changing role play and allowing some to become the trainer for a session.
• Continually refresh information with latest developments to ensure that all is relevant and up-to-date.
• Have enough practical exercises for group work with the trainer joining some of the groups if they are facing difficulties.
• Respect the group by being smart, punctual, disciplined and focused.
• Treat trainees as friends and be sensitive to any student who may be struggling.

All sound advice.

On the theme of being non-judgmental and ensuring that what we share is regionally and culturally relevant, Maria Eismont the Director of Russian Independent Print media programme of the New Eurasia Foundation summed it up well in the article on this site entitled How media assistance could improve.

“You may represent a country with centuries of independent media history and you may be going to work in a country with no history of media freedom at all – there will be things you will need to learn from them.”

If that attitude is wrong the training will be wrong

All of which underlines the importance of the trainer having the right attitude. You may have wonderful experiences to share, but if you offend and alienate it’s game over.

You may have carried out the most exhaustive research for your training and spent hours designing a wonderful training course, but if you come across as arrogant, removed, distracted, detached, uncaring, out-of-touch and out-of-date when you deliver that training you will have wasted your time and that of your participants.

One of the most important points for a trainer to remember is to never presume that the solutions you may have successfully applied in the country you come from will work elsewhere in the world.

Of course, with adequate research and by immersing yourself in how journalists work in the country in question, this should not be an issue. However, even after thorough research bad attitudes can undermine training.

Best to take the approach that those you are trying to help are already doing a great job and that your role is to share some ideas that might make them more effective and their lives more fulfilling.

The post Adopting the right attitude for media training first appeared on Media Helping Media.

What it takes to be a media trainer

Media trainers must have recent, valid experience of all they teach. They need to understand the pressures those they are training live under, and they must be continually on the lookout for new solutions and methods that empower those they are trying to help.

In the module, ‘Maximising the impact of media training’, we looked at the importance of the research part of the media training process. This is the discovery period where the real training needs of the company are unearthed in terms of staffing, management and workflows.

In the second article, ‘Designing a successful media training plan’, we looked at the importance of spending enough time analysing that research in order to design a training plan that addresses those needs. This article looks at what it takes to be a media trainer.

1: Validity

You must have recent, related and practical experience of having delivered in the workplace the solutions or methods that you are teaching in the training session.

There is absolutely no point in talking about systems, workflows, editorial disciplines and business models if you haven’t gone through the hoops yourself and figured out all the issues those you are training are likely to face. Theory is fine, to a point, but those on your course will want to know what happens next in real life. You will need to be able to deal with those questions with examples.

Media managers who invite you in don’t want an academic, they want someone who has experience related to their business, systems that will make that business (and its staff) more effective, and solutions that their staff can improve and implement.

2: Currency

As well as having the validity of experience, you must also have a currency level based on how successful that experience was. Experience is great, but, if it is bad experience resulting in poor results then it is worse than worthless, unless, of course, you bounced back and can show the impact of that recovery on your work and the business.

You need to establish a level of respect earned through having created and delivered solutions in the real media business environment and at the highest level.

The media managers who are hiring you to do the training will want to see a return on investment (ROI) and that has to be backed up with examples of where your solutions and training have saved costs and created new revenue-generating products. If you don’t have these you are lacking in currency.

3: Imagination

A good trainer needs to be able to develop solutions on the fly, preferably based on recent experience, but also based on adapting what they know in order to meet current needs.

This ability to build on what works and revise what doesn’t work will ensure that the sessions have a freshness about them and remain relevant.

A trainer needs to be watching the body language of participants and the verbal clues they are giving out at all times. Are people falling asleep, are they doodling, texting or talking to a friend? Be alert to the signs and be prepared to call an unscheduled break.

While they are away rearrange your material. Look for something new to inject into the session. Try to relate it to what has just happened and what will happen next. If possible insert an exercise (an icebreaker works great here).

If there is a gap in understanding between you and the participants you will need to find ways to bridge that. If questions are raised that you have not addressed in your presentations, you need to think on your feet and answer them.

Often finding an answer to the questions they want to ask is  more important than pushing ahead with what you were going to tell them. Dig deep into past experience for something that is relevant, but only speak from experience.

If you are working with complex concepts you may need to find images and phrases that simplify issues. You can search the web for amusing images during the breaks and project them to lighten the event. Always be prepared to rip up the script and start again if the session is beginning to feel like wading through mud.

4: Innovation

It is essential that a trainer continually reworks their material. It is not acceptable to simply take some old training off the shelf, dust it down and deliver it to a new group in a different country in different circumstances.

The trainer must also be able to invent new ways of working, new systems , new business-related theory (based on tried, tested and proven case-studies) and to streamline their knowledge at all times.

Don’t worry if you come up with concept that participants then search for online and come back to you saying that they can’t find any supporting material. That is a good point, not a negative. It means you are breaking the mould and offering something new to the world.

Those who criticise this approach like to bury their head in text books and worn and battered (although often valuable) theories. They like references and sources to all material. It’s a kind of security blanket.

If you are confident in your solutions and can prove they work you don’t need to worry about this. The best trainers are their own sources.

5: Ability to relate

The trainer must be able to relate all their previous experiences to the needs of the media business whose staff they are training.  All skills offered need to be transferable both culturally and locally.

It’s also important to continually inject the latest media trends and best practice into all you offer.

This will involve checking out the most recent articles online, keeping up with media industry news, analysing trends, interpreting statistics and looking at case studies, not just before the training event, but during it.

There is nothing better than to start a morning session with an unscheduled presentation examining new information that has a bearing on the training you are offering.

6: Understanding

It’s important that a trainer understands the pressures that those they are training are experiencing in their day-to-day journalistic life. More on this in the ‘Researching a media training project’ module.

By spending enough time with staff in the research phase the trainer should be able to sense where the problems may be and to empathise with participants about the pressures they are facing.

In doing so, they should be able to tailor their solutions to those circumstances. This will often involve a sympathetic approach, which involves listening, sensing, absorbing and relating.

Check our article ‘How media assistance could improve.’ There was one example where a Western trainer complained that some participants arrived late and left early. Instead of taking the trouble to find out why, he raised the issue publicly in the session. This humiliated the individuals and caused the rest of the group to rally round them. The trainer had lost the group with one comment.

The reason for the poor timekeeping, he discovered later, was that journalists in the country involved didn’t earn a living wage through their journalism and many, including three on his course, had morning and evening jobs in order to feed their families. An understanding of the local issues would have helped that trainer to deliver better training.

7: Delivery skills

The trainer has a responsibility for sharing learning in a way that brings the best out in those being trained and ensures they are stimulated, inspired and motivated. It sounds obvious, but reading training feedback forms throws up some interesting issues.

“Trainer must not think they know best” “Trainer must not talk down to participants” “Trainer must not humiliate or shout at participants”

Clearly, there are some who offer training who are aloof, out-of-touch, unable to connect with the participants, and not fully engaged with the group. That is a recipe for disaster.

Make it clear from the start that you are their friend and colleague and that you are together to share and grow. It’s a two-way process; any trainer who thinks differently will never connect.

8: Audience awareness

It is essential you understand the culture of a region if you are invited to travel and offer training. Here are a few:

• Benchmarks: Many want benchmarks. These are examples they can examine, both successful and unsuccessful, so they can measure themselves against them, assess the implications and copy and improve.
• Signposts: Some want signposts that they can use to avoid going down the wrong route and with clear directions as to the route they should take
• Frameworks: And some want frameworks so that they can work out their own solutions around some firm concepts.

If you offer benchmarks in a country where they are seeking signposts or frameworks you will fail.

The post The essential qualities of a media trainer first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Thorough research is the essential if you are to deliver high-impact media training. Never accept a brief from media managers without question – they could be wrong and often are.

Superficial media training, carried out following inadequate training needs assessment, could damage the business and will waste your time and the time of those you are expected to help.

1: Understand the needs of the business

Establish what senior media managers want to achieve and then question it. A good trainer will never accept a training brief without scrutinising it first. Your first job is to check whether the company bosses are on the right track.

You will need to spend at least one day talking through the expected ROI (return on investment) of the training and ensure that all management expectations are fully tested and grounded in realistic and relevant business deliverables.

Ask the following:

• What is the current situation?
• What problems exist?
• What are the opportunities?
• What is the required, ideal situation?
• What new knowledge, skills or attitudes are desired?

2: Clarify the importance of your intervention

Don’t accept a training brief based on a superficial training needs assessment that bears no relation to the overall needs of the business.

You MUST carry out point 1 (above) first. If the company doesn’t agree to that, don’t accept the brief.

To do so is a recipe for disaster. It’ll waste your time and the time of those you are training.

It will also lead to resentment and disillusionment if staff members are trained in skills they may never be encouraged to put into practice. See point 4 below.

3: Clarify the business objectives

What objectives have been set for staff? Are they being met? If not, why not? Where is the blockage? Are objectives focused on the same expected ROI as expressed in point 1 (above)? Are the objectives flexible and can they be changed if needed?

Be aware that the main blockage may be at the top; you may find staff further down the food chain have a much greater vision for the business need than those in the board room.

Are the objectives being set the right objectives? Do they include corporate, unit and personal objectives? Do all three make sense?

Are they SMART? Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and when do they need to be met (time)?

Ensure you understand:

• Corporate objectives.
• Unit objectives.
• Individual objectives.

4: Watch, listen and absorb

Ensure you are given enough time to talk to all levels of staff before you design your training plan (Step Two).

You will need to watch them in action to get an understanding of the issues you face and the needs they have.

You will need to talk to them to find out firsthand what it is like to work in the company.

Ask if you are allowed to take pictures of the newsroom and the workflows (they will come in useful in the design phase).

Then you need to talk to those they report to and those who report to them.

You need to immerse yourself totally in the day-to-day running of the business, particularly in the area in which you are being asked to offer training.

The usual journalistic questions of who, why, when, where, what and how are useful here.

5: Challenge all assumptions

It is important that everything is challenged and questioned at this stage. Do not accept any statements about why things are the way they are, or what the perceived needs are without thorough scrutiny.

If you don’t question, you may end up introducing training that compounds the problem rather than moves the company forward.

The training consultant should be one of the key players in a media business. You are dealing with one of the media organisation’s most precious resources – its staff – and you are working for the key stakeholders (who are not always right).

You need to understand their motives, both business and personal. You need to be aware of any internal pressures.

You also need to ensure that those commissioning the training understand the needs of the audience.

Don’t presume they have kept up to speed with changing audience behaviour.

6: Review and assess what already exists

Before you start to introduce new thinking, examine what already exists.

What training plans have been tried in the past? Did they work? If not, why not? How could they have been better? How were they received? What did the staff think? What did their managers think?

There is absolutely no point in serving up the same again if the previous training failed.

You will have been hired to move the company and its staff forward, not help them stand still, or worse take then a step back.

7: Skills audit and questionnaire

A neat way of finding out a lot of information quickly is to prepare a skills audit for all staff to complete.

Be sure to get permission from the line managers first, and make it clear that confidentiality and privacy will be respected.

The skills audit will assess what people already know and what they need to know.

It is helpful if their line manager is involved in this process. Download our sample skills audit here free of charge and change it to your needs.

You might also want to send them a learning questionnaire to try to establish what type of person they are.

Once completed you will know whether they are activists (doers), reflectors (who review), theorists (who conclude) or pragmatists (who plan).

The Learning Style Questionnaire (LSQ) developed by Honey and Mumford (1986) is one of several measures of individual learning style.

You can try the LSQ via this link to MINT human resources.

8: Talk to competitors and the audience

Don’t just take what you are told inside the company at face value. Go out and test it.

Of course, you will need to be discreet, but you will need to find out what the audience feels about the media organisation and how it is viewed by competitors.

Advertising agencies are also a good source of information here. They will know if the media business you have been asked to help is focused on audience need.

You can’t really have too much information at this stage. You can always discard material, but you will need to justify every element in the design of your training plan, if you are to convince management (and the staff you are training) that your approach makes sense for the company and for them.

9: Be prepared to stand your ground

There are many reasons why a company may want to introduce training.

It could be a box ticking exercise aimed at trying to keep the HR (human resources) department or the unions happy, or it could be tokenism because ‘it’s the done thing’.

You will soon find out. If management are not really serious it will become obvious fairly soon. That is why it is important to challenge all assumptions and question all reasoning.

If, at the end of this research period you feel there is no real desire for change be bold enough to pull out.

To continue and to deliver training that is irrelevant and which the management have no intention of implementing in the day-to-day working of the media business will damage your reputation.

It’s also totally pointless, boring and counter-production. Just don’t do it.

10: Remain professional and on good terms with stakeholders

If all goes well, you will be designing, delivering and then evaluating the training you have just been researching.

So let’s presume you research well, you will then need to design the training. At that point you will be going back to the stakeholders for sign-off. Better you are on speaking terms at that point.

After sign-off you will deliver and then, perhaps one of the most crucial points of the process, you will evaluate.

Once you have done that you will report back. This is also where you will need to have excellent relationships with the stakeholders because you are bound to have some valuable information to share – and some of it may be hard for some of them to stomach.

The post Maximising the impact of media training first appeared on Media Helping Media.

For international media training to be successful, tried, tested and proven case studies from a similar region are needed. Theory has limited value, as do examples of what works in the West, unless the examples directly relate to local issues and concerns.

You also need a great local co-trainer, management buy-in, enough time working one-to-one with participants, and a way of creating a solid network for future learning and development.

The following five tips are for those who want to ensure that what’s delivered is relevant, lasting and can be built on in the future.

1: Achieve buy-in from management

Training delivered following an external training needs assessment that focuses on superficial issues, such as poor TV packaging/presenting skills or sloppy writing, could be failing to identify the real issues that need attention.

Poor quality journalism and output are usually a reflection of an ailing media business.

The real issue may be at the heart of the organisation – the management. Helping them understand that certain changes could benefit their business is the best starting point.

If that process helps management understand the business reasons for the training, and they then buy into the process, then a proper training programme, focused on the business objectives, can be designed and delivered.

If that essential first step doesn’t take place the result could be disillusioned staff who finds there is no appetite from their line managers for them to apply the lessons taught to them on the course.

2: Deliver regionally-relevant case studies

Theory is never welcome on its own. People want case studies. Tried, tested, and proven examples of where the media business has improved through proper training implemented following the management buy-in (mentioned above), and which deliver results in terms of workflow efficiencies, audience satisfaction and increased revenue-generation.

They want examples which they can measure themselves against, practical steps that can yield results, and someone they can contact if they encounter problems.

Most of all, media organisations in the developing world appreciate examples from those who have delivered while dealing with similar issues to those they are facing.

Details of how things work at the BBC, CNN or Al Jazeera are all useful, but a media house in Africa may find tips and tricks from a media house in Asia more appropriate to their needs; in my experience they have certainly paid more attention to those examples.

3: Build local networks and associations

Media intervention is all about capacity building and transferring skills. It should also be about building local networks of like-minded individuals who can take that knowledge to the next level in a way that is culturally and regionally relevant.

Usually, training course participants come from a selection of media organisations. Participants may already know each other, but may not have spent a work together working in interactive sessions and producing group presentations.

Finding how to build on those new relationships, in a way that enables further growth and development, is important. It could also lead to locally-organised training in the future run by those who benefited from the first training.

This capacity building should be a by-product of all interventions. The setting up of a local journalist association could help ensure that the fellowships created during the training are available for future generations.

4: Engage a local co-trainer

Flying in a Western ‘expert’ to deliver training is often welcome. Participants usually seem eager to learn from what is happening outside of their own regions. However, ensuring that training is relevant and sensitive to the local situation is crucial. Every intervention should be double-headed with the invited trainer working alongside a local co-trainer.

This is increasingly happening and, when it does, the training is enhanced.

The outside trainer and the local co-trainer need to spend enough time going through the proposed agenda, carrying out local research, ensuring all the presentations and group work is appropriate, and then sharing the task of delivering.

By the end of the week the international trainer needs to be working as the co-trainer to the local trainer. Ideally, the local co-trainer should run at least one session each day.

5: Offer one-to-one clinics

Feedback forms are important. It enables those organising the training to learn what participants thought about the benefits and flaws. However the feedback forms are often filled out in a rush at the end of a week of training when people are keen to get away and are probably not in the best frame of mind to offer a considered response.

Ideally, the invited trainer and the local trainer should schedule 20-minute clinics with each participants where they can talk through any issues that concern them and which they did not feel comfortable about raising in the group sessions.

These clinics are rather like going to see the doctor. The participant turns up with a question/issue, and the trainer and the co-trainer prescribe a course of action to deal with the problem. The trainers, both local and international, then make themselves available, via email, Skype, Facebook or Twitter to follow up with the participant, if needed (at no cost to the participant).

If there is a local association, the co-trainer could suggest the setting up of a self-help members-only forum where participants offer on-going support to their peer group and continue to learn together from locally-relevant experience.

The point is to ensure that all the effort that goes into organising training has a lasting benefit for those it was intended to help and that it was not just a box-ticking exercise.

The post Five essential steps for media training first appeared on Media Helping Media.

The evaluation process is set in motion the moment you are engaged by the media organisation you are being asked to help.

The first questions you ask in your research, or discovery phase, will form the framework for your evaluation of the intervention. Keeping accurate notes is essential if you are to do the job well.

You will have been invited to help a media organisation because senior managers have a desired outcome and see training as the way to achieve it.

They will have their objectives and, usually, a clear ROI (return on investment).

You need to understand those because they will form some of the measurements you will use to evaluate the project. But there will be more.

As set out in the module ‘Researching a media training project’ your job is to design training that will deliver what the business wants, but also to question presumptions and assumptions and, where appropriate, introduce new perspectives.

These, too, if accepted by the key stakeholders, will form an important part of your evaluation process.

With evaluation you are trying to establish:

• Validation: was it the right choice.
• Impact: was it effective?
• Benefits: what was the result for the business? ROI: was it time, effort and money well spent in terms of return on investment?

To help you evaluate, it is useful to have three measurements:

1. the beginning of the project.
2. the middle of the project.
3. the end of the project.

For a training course you may only have two of these, the beginning and the end, although the feedback forms in point 3 (below) will give you some mid-way measurements.

1: Evaluation starts when you are researching the event

As mentioned above, your research phase will produce valuable information about what is expected and what needs to change.

You will have the initial management brief, with, hopefully, clear deliverables, and you will have any added value you bring to the project.

The main points, listed in the research module, include:

• Understanding the needs of the business.
• Clarifying the importance of your intervention.
• Ensuring all key stakeholders agree the business objectives.
• Watching, listening and absorbing the business from management to newsroom and in the field.
• Challenging all assumptions at all levels.
• Reviewing and assessing what already exists.
• Agreeing and organising a skills audit and questionnaire.
• Talking to business competitors and the media organisation’s audience.

2: Evaluation elements are contained in course design

All these steps listed above will have produced a framework that you will have taken to the design phase, see the module ‘Designing a successful media training plan’.This proposed course design will then have been signed off by key stakeholders. This is where you set out how the agreed deliverables will be approached and how you plan to prepare staff to be able to deliver.

Each training module will have an objective such as ‘by the end of this session you will be able to ….’. This is another important piece of information for your course evaluation.

3: Feedback forms offer some level of evaluation

The course feedback forms, which you handed out at the end of the event, provide valuable evaluation of how the training was received – but not about how it will be implemented.

It’s important to analyse these forms and offer the main findings to the stakeholders. They will need to ensure that there are the opportunities available for course attendees to put into practice the training you have given them.

If they don’t enable this to happen it will be hard to evaluate the success. That is why the agreement reached in point 1 (above) is so important. This feedback can help you with some mid-way evaluation because you can see how trainees had progressed after they were introduced to the concepts and before they implemented them.

4: Changes in the workplace

You then need to see what changes your training has brought to the workplace. This will involve careful monitoring, talking to staff, unit managers, senior managers, and those promoting new business for the organisation.

You will be looking for the positive and negative impact on the following:

• Changes in staff behaviour.
• The impact on workflows and output.
• What this means for unit and organisational results.

You need to spend enough time examining how changes have impacted the business – it may take several years.

The post Evaluating the impact of training first appeared on Media Helping Media.

One of the first steps in delivering training is to articulate the ground rules. Participants need to know what to expect, what is expected of them and how you intend to schedule course elements. They also need to know what is expected of them in terms of their participation and behaviour.

The following tips set out some of the basics for delivering a training event.

Establish the ground rules

Soon after welcoming participants and making the introductions you will need to set out how the event will be run. This is where you make sure participants understand the course objectives, what you see as the deliverables, and their part in in the process.

You need inject a sense of urgency and set deadlines. Participants need to know that you mean business and that the course is not a break from work, or a couple of days off, but that it is a key part of their development and that of the organisation they work for. It is important to make this clear at the start in a friendly but firm way.

Go through the basic housekeeping points – arrival times, break times, venue layout including washrooms and emergency exits, rules on the use of mobile phones, smoking, talking etc. It all sounds basic and obvious, but getting such questions out of the way early is important to the smooth running of the event.

If you are intending to write about the event in a report, in a blog or via any social networking platforms you need to let people know. If you are planning to take pictures or video of the event you will need their agreement first.

Your material

You need to rehearse what you are going to deliver at least once and make sure your script matches your slides.

Check that nothing has changed overnight in terms of industry developments. Go online to read industry media coverage. Look out for new developments, statistics, changing audience behaviour. Take time to inject and information that is relevant. If you don’t have time to update your slides consider projecting a web page with any new information and discuss the implications with the group. They will appreciate the fact that you are keeping your material up-to-date and that you are continually on the look out for new developments.

Keep your slides brief, preferably rich in images and thin on words. Never just read from slides. If you have to repeat some bullet points ensure you have added value material in your head. There is nothing worse than being read to.

The technology

If you are using a projector, make sure there is a spare light bulb as backup just in case one blows. Check there is an extension lead with two outlets, one for the projector and one for the laptop.

Make sure there is a table for the projector and a screen for the presentations. Check the distance. Can it be viewed from the back of the room?

If you have audio, make sure there are speakers and that they work. If you have translation and group discussions check the microphones and any translation equipment has been set up and is in working order.

Always deliver a checklist of what you require to the organisers of the event well in advance and never presume everything will be in place – often it won’t.

And always be ready to run a session without a projector in the event of a power cut. Your training must not be dependent on technology and you need to be able to continue when all around you is falling apart.

Room layout

You will notice a massive cultural difference in terms of room layout from country to country. Some like rows of chairs facing the front, others like desks set out in rows, some like a horseshoe layout with the presenter in the middle and towards the front.

Make sure the layout is conducive to your style. A horseshoe layout can prove helpful for group participation and discussion.

The room needs to be set up before participants arrive – you should not be moving chairs as they gather for the event.

Check which way the room faces and whether there are blinds on the windows. You should make sure the sun doesn’t shine across your screen or in the eyes of the participants.

Welcoming participants

It is always nice to arrange for tea and coffee to be available as participants arrive for the first day of the event. If your training is due to start at 10am, invite people for refreshments at 9:30am.

As they turn up be friendly but don’t engage in conversations. Tell them politely that you will talk to them at the next break but that you must prepare.

Allow them to mingle. A neat trick is to have an envelope for each participant with details of the first icebreaker. Ask them to interview another participant over the first tea or coffee and jot down some notes. Then, when the session starts, each participant introduces the person they interviewed. This is a great way of breaking barriers and developing friendships within the group.

Facilities

It’s always a good idea to have pens and notepads for participants. You will need a flip chart with plenty of pages for use in the group and individual presentations. Some adhesive for attaching paper to walls is useful. A whiteboard can come in handy. Make sure you have enough marker pens for both the flip chart and the white board. Sticky notes are useful for presentations.

Check whether there are any breakout rooms for the interactive exercises when participants break up into groups.

Arrange for name plates to be set up in front of each participant with their first name in large bold letters and their title and media organisation. You will want to be on first name terms as soon as possible. If you can arrange to have name badges, too, that may help – especially if you have a large group and a poor memory.

Refreshments

Always have drinking water available for participants. A tea/coffee break in the morning and the afternoon is a good idea – perhaps two in each session.

It is sometimes nice to have a refreshment table in the room where people can recharge their energy levels (even during the event). This sends out the message that participants are not trapped and that your sessions are working events.

Smokers may become restless if they are away from nicotine too long, so make sure you accommodate them, too. Check if there is a smoking area.

If refreshments are available at all times you can integrate breaks into the group interactive sessions so that participants continue to work as they drink.

Also remember that some participants will need to make personal calls and send texts and emails for business reasons. If you have sufficient breaks they can plan to do their personal and business communications between sessions.

Be available to chat during the refreshment breaks – you may pick up important information that you may be able to use in the sessions

Be well organised

Have a course outline available for participants at all times. It shows participants that you mean business and it helps them plan their lives around the event.If you change the course running order be sure to tell participants why.

Arrive early and set up immediately. Say hello when people arrive but only chat when you have set up.

When you start, tell people what they are going to be told and how the training will work. Tell them what you expect from the event and explain what will be expected from the participants. A slide setting out the course objectives is useful – you can use it again at the half-way point and at the end of the event to assess whether any progress has been made.

If you are planning any assignments, both during and between sessions, you will need to make this clear so that participants can set aside enough time.

Overnight assignments should not be time-consuming but should be something participants can think about on the train, bus or in the car.

Inviting them to think through three examples of an issue is an ideal form of overnight assignment which they can all report back on during the first session of the following day. The reason for using this technique is to ensure they continue to think about the event as they travel home and on their return journey the next day. It also gives you a flying start the following morning.

Activities

Keep participants active. The session should not be about you talking at them. It’s about engaging the audience, allowing them to participate and ensuring that they take ownership of the event.

Icebreakers (games to help people participate), energises (more games for the times when energy levels are dropping – usually after lunch), individual presentation and group presentations and group discussions and debates, are all important tools that can help lift a training event.

For example, if people are looking tired it is always good to call a short break and ask them to write down three does and three don’t from the session you have just delivered and ask them to present their six points in 30 seconds after the break. This will give you a great piece of feedback on whether the information was understood.

Understand your audience

Generally, when the training begins, you will have three types in the audience.

Enthusiasts

You will have those who are genuinely interested in the topic being covered and will have made a special effort to attend. They will be the enthusiasts who could be great assets and contribute to the success of the event.

Vacationers

You may have a couple of vacationers – those who are there because it is a chance to have a day off work. Their attitude will be one of contributing the least amount of effort possible. They will be polite, usually quiet although appearing attentive, contribute little and ask few questions.

Prisoners

Then there are the prisoners. They have been sent by their line manager to make up the numbers. They have no desire to attend your session and will be determined not to contribute. They will typically be texting friends, the first to stand up when a break is called, the last to arrive in the morning and the first to leave in the evening.

Your job will be to win over the vacationers and the prisoners and to involve the enthusiasts fully. It’s a delicate balancing act. Your aim, by lunchtime on day one, is to have everyone fully engaged and enthusiastic about the training.

You will also need to acknowledge the activists (those who like to do), reflectors (those who like to review), theorists (those who like to think things through and reach a conclusion) and pragmatists (those who like to plan). All have their part.

These characteristics will have been identified by your course questionnaire (embedded in the module Maximising the impact of media training) which you will have sent out prior to the course or which you will have introduced during the first session.

Disruptive behaviour

You will need a strategy for dealing with disruptive behaviour. Shouting does not work, neither does ignoring it.

If someone is repeatedly interrupting the event you could acknowledge their question but make it clear that there will be a chance for discussion before the next break.

If someone is continuing to cause problems you can take them aside and talk to them over the next tea break. At that point you will need to find out what is concerning them.

You may decide that they have some good points to make and consider involving them in helping with the event. You may deduce that they have no interest in the event and don’t want to be there. If you feel there is no value in them remaining in the group you may need to consider asking them to leave.

Ignoring disruptive behaviour will annoy those participants who mean business. They will see it as a sign of weakness and you may lose their attention, too

Plagiarism

Never steal another trainer’s presentation. Not only is it unethical, but it is also dangerous. If you have not written the training and thought through every point you may fall flat on your face when challenged – or worse, end up in court.

Your material must be all your own work. It must be original, unique, stimulating, mind-stretching, relevant, every-changing and fresh.

If you use quotes from other trainers be sure to reference them, acknowledge them for their value and, if possible, provide links to the original work.

Take aways

You should consider having the following course material available for all participants.

• Outline – why it is taking place and what it is designed to achieve.
• Timetable – refreshed each day and detailed down to the comfort breaks.
• Handouts – printed versions of the main points of each presentation.
• Slides – some participants will want to download your slides.
• Business cards – your contact details should participants want to follow up.

Feedback

Allow enough time for participants to fill out the course feedback form.

They are the people who will deliver the results of the work you have researched, designed and delivered. And you will be evaluating the success of your intervention by analysing how their behaviour changes and what those changes mean to the media business.

With some participants you will be establishing an ongoing working relationship. Ensure you acknowledge those who participated positively and enthusiastically.

Thanking the group

Always say thank you to participants at the end of the event. Without them it wouldn’t have happened.

They are the people who will deliver the results of the work you have researched, designed and delivered. And you will be evaluating the success of your intervention by analysing how their behaviour changes and what those changes mean to the media business.

With some participants you will be establishing an ongoing working relationship. Ensure you acknowledge those who participated positively and enthusiastically.

The post Basic rules for delivering training first appeared on Media Helping Media.

A well-designed media training plan could make the difference between the success and the failure of a media business.

Get it wrong and you could be compounding the problems you were asked to address, get it right and you could release talent, energies, productivity and revenue-generation that was being left untapped.

In the article ‘Maximising the impact of media training’ we looked at the importance of the research part of the media training process.

This is the crucial discovery period where the real training needs of the company are unearthed in terms of staffing, management and workflows.

In this article we look at the importance of spending enough time analysing the research in order to design a training plan that addresses those needs.

The design part involves creating solutions to the issues/problems you have identified during the research phase including: what you plan to do, why you plan to do it, what the likely impact of your training might be, how the expected resulting improvements might be implemented, how the business might be affected, when the training might take place, who will need to be involved etc.

This is always more work than expected and, in general, you will need to allow at least three days preparation for one day of training – perhaps more.

1: Make sure the main findings from the research phase are covered

The key is ensuring that all the issues that came to light during the research stage (when you spoke to senior management and watched the workflows) are addressed in your training design.

It needs to be logical, and the flow needs to make sense to both senior managers and also to those who are going to be receiving the training (of course that may also include senior managers).

Start by listing all the issues you identified by writing a headline and a summary note for each. This will provide the framework (structure) for your training design.

Once you have that outline you can start to flesh out each point out into a presentation/session dealing with each issue.

If you have any pictures of the actual workflows, and people involved all the better; these will come in extremely useful for the presentations and will make your training relevant as well as offering an element of familiarity.

The high-level framework headlines and summaries will also come in useful when you present your suggested training design to senior manager for their sign-off (agreement).

2: Ensure that all you deliver is fresh and relevant to local need

Once you have the outline for your training design, you can start to expand each topic. At this point it is important to create new material.

You may have carried out similar training elsewhere in the past, but don’t presume that those solutions will work in your new environment.

You owe it to those who are hiring you to rewrite and rework any old material based on the new information you have uncovered at the media house you are now helping.

Past experience is valuable, but each case is different and if it is felt that you are simply reusing old solutions you will soon lose credibility.

Of course, previous tried, tested and proven solutions are valuable, but you will need to show how these can be adapted and made relevant to the job in hand.

It is also important to include the latest industry findings, statistics and trends in your presentations. This means that you will need to be updating your material the night before and the morning of each session to ensure you are up-to-date with developments.

You will also need to display enough expertise on the issues/topics you have identified, and you will need to make sure your suggested solution/approach is valid and relevant.

You will need a thorough understanding of all the steps required in the current business/workflow processes, and must be prepared to be tested on every aspect of your training plan design.

Senior managers (and all in the training pecking order) will need to be convinced that you have a systematic and rigorous proposal that will deliver benefits at every level.

You can’t afford to have any doubts, either in your mind or in the mind of the stakeholders. Uncertainty and a lack of clarity can undermine training – and training that lacks clarity deserves to be undermined.

3: Relate all you propose to agreed business objectives

A well-designed training plan will continually refer to the existing business and organisational (agreed) objectives. These will be the reference points for your work. All you suggest will need to relate to these.

This is important because, presumably, all you will be dealing with will be committed to achieving these agreed objectives. Therefore, it will be in the interest of all that the training you deliver is a success – that will provide a great boost to your work, without it you will be starting on the wrong foot.

For some the motivation for attending training will be for personal gain such as promotion and reward, and that is fine. For others it will be because they are keen to help the company move forward, again, another perfectly valid reason. Whatever the motivation, you will need to link all you are proposing to those objectives.

Making each step relevant to the business (and to personal interests) in this way will help as you encourage people to work differently and to adopt your training recommendations. It will also make it easier to sell the project to senior stakeholders when you seek signoff for your proposed input.

Once you have that sign-off it will be much easier to sell your solutions, especially if you can continually relate all you do to the agreed objectives.

You can then drop sentences into your presentations such as “as agreed with senior managers”, or, “in line with agreed objectives” etc.

4: Winning hearts and minds – getting buy-in from stakeholders

Don’t presume that all the stakeholders will be realistic about training.

They may have expectations that you will never be able to meet, or expectations which are not worth meeting (because they are unfocused and irrelevant). However, you can’t tell them that.

Your training design needs to make sense to them, and you can only do this if everything is justified in terms of business benefit.

What you don’t want is to end up in an argument with those you are being asked to help.

They may agree intellectually, but if they don’t feel what you offer is realistic and relevant to their needs they will not offer the support the training needs in order to succeed.

Some may also be afraid of change for a variety of reasons; you need to factor this in, too.

Winning hearts and minds is as important in the boardroom as it is in the newsroom.

Be sure that you have thought through every step and every element and that all you propose to offer the company has earned its place in your planned design on merit.

If there is one manager in the senior pecking order who is not sold on your training plan you are likely to come up against obstacles and resistance.

It is important to establish who is the key stakeholder in the process and ensure s/he wins over any doubters. That is not your job. You can’t afford to get into a fight with the stakeholders.

There needs to be a champion who sponsors your plan and justifies it to all stakeholders as being in the best interest of the company and ensures that it is sold as a concept at every level.

Typically, management will want training to result in a) a more efficient and motivated workforce, b) more productive working practices and workflows, c) a reduction in duplication and wasted resources, and d) a return on investment (ROI).

Regardless whether they have the correct vision or not, they will want to see each of these areas addressed and justified in your training plan.

So you need to design a plan that delivers on all these basics first before you start to inject any fresh thinking or advice on where you feel the training focus should be.

However, if you see a need that is preventing you delivering in the four areas listed above you need to articulate that clearly at the beginning before you head too far down the wrong road.

5: Don’t forget the detail

Your training design needs to not only cover the strategic, but it also needs to cover the detail.

Dates, times, breaks, size of room, desk layout, equipment, power leads, pens, paper, travel time, cost (including time off work) etc. All the boring stuff needs to be factored in.

There is nothing that can be too trivial for your training design. And never take things for granted, such as a power lead with two sockets for your laptop and your projector, or a spare projector lamp should one blow.

Such training design detail can be a one-off and this is one part of the project that can, usually, be transferred from one training event to the next with little to no change.

But do it well. It is amazing how much of a confidence booster it is to have everything in place and working.

You will also need to include an outline of the following elements:

• Interactive exercises, both individual and group.
• The amount of trainer input (presentations).
• Simulations (where you get the whole group working on a project).
• Group discussions and debate (how often, how many).
• Any pre-course reading required (and how material will be distributed).
• Any skills audits or questionnaires (and how they will be distributed, collected and analysed).

The post How to design a successful media training plan first appeared on Media Helping Media.

You have as much to learn as you have to give. That’s the message to those offering media assistance in transition and post-conflict countries from some of those on the receiving end.

Media Helping Media asked a number of people who have run media development projects what they felt needs to change. The replies came from The Russian Federation, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Macedonia, Ukraine, Bhutan and Nepal and make up a challenging list of tips for those who try to help media in need.

Russian Federation

Maria Eismont is the Director of Russian Independent Print media programme of the New Eurasia Foundation

If you think you know exactly what to do – don’t even start. Better spend the money for holidays in Bali, or fund surgeries for ill children. If you really want to help other countries with media freedom, prepare to learn as well as teach.

You may represent a country with centuries of independent media history and you may be going to work in the country with no history of media freedom at all – there will be things to learn for YOU from THEM.

The world is as much global as it is diverse. Local knowledge is crucial. Words have different meanings in different cultures. Be sure you remember it when you promote YOUR freedom of speech, YOUR idea of independent media, or YOUR understanding of media business.

Decide, what is your goal, apart of spending donor’s money of course. Think of the result you want to achieve: do you want to help the media companies to develop and prosper or to help citizens receive better, deeper and more balanced information? Sometimes these things go together, sometimes they don’t.

Even in the West good business does not necessarily means good content quality, and visa versa, while in the developing world, where good business often requires good relationship with the authorities it may be even more conflicting.

Be generally skeptical of the media assistance success stories you’ve heard or read about. Some of them are pure invention of the report writers; others are great but may not work everywhere.

If you want to know more about the experience of other media assistance projects, don’t rely on the reports – they are usually favorable to any results – go and find out about their work on the ground.

Be generally skeptical of the media assistance success stories you’ve heard or read about. Some of them are pure invention of the report writers; others are great but may not work everywhere.

Be flexible. Don’t stick by the initial project design; be ready to change tactics and even sometimes strategy itself. Not only may you be mistaken in the stage of project design, but the situation may change – and in many developing countries it actually does change quite often and very fast.

Reporting numbers mean very little, and intelligent donors know that well themselves (although they will still require to be provided with quantitative figures in the reports).

It doesn’t matter how many journalists you will train, it matters HOW you’ll do it and WHAT they will be able to PRODUCE after the training; it doesn’t matter how many companies you’ve assisted, what matters is the QUALITY of your assistance.

Be prepared for the set-backs and failures, but don’t try to present them as a success: even if that works in the immediate run with your donors, it will eventually lead to developing wrong strategies and raising mistrust in the things you promote.

Personalities matter. Find the RIGHT PEOPLE and link them to one another, make them feel they are not alone in their will and capacity to provide good investigations and to cover stories that matter and inform rather than entertain.

It will be better if the RIGHT people you find are in the RIGHT POSITION to influence the editorial strategy of their media. Without editors and senior media managers on your side you will achieve much less then you could. Remember: journalists you train will then return to work under their guidance.

Don’t be afraid to talk about ethics, although be prepared that people you will be assisting may prefer to discuss business strategies. If you think you have no right to raise this issue as a foreigner – go to the first sentence of the point 1. Talk about professional ethics rather than about democracy and freedom of speech in general. And don’t forget to criticize your own country – especially as it is not that difficult to find negative examples.

Indonesia

Heru Hendratmoko is the Production Director/Chief Editor of radio news agency KBR68H and President of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI Indonesia) 2005-2008.

Observe the macro context in the country where you will take an action. Ask independent organisations such as NGO’s, journalists union/association about what is happening. Gather information as much as possible. Of course you do not need use it all, but the complete information and data which you gathered will help you to understand the situation much better.

Check and recheck all attributes such as name, age, city, rank of public position, etc

Ask what can you do for them to help. The kind of help may be given with various forms, from financial aid, technical assistance, or high level advocacy such as sending international delegation. Or just a simple help such as sending alerts or a public statement.

If you want to make a public statement or press release, make sure that all of its content will not endanger your contacts/clients. In some cases, you’d be better not to mention certain names, except the organisation’s name, to avoid attacks on individuals. Be sure to discuss this issues with your contacts who could be at risk before taking any action.

Azerbaijan

Gulnara Akhundova formerly the Acting Head for Azerbaijan Media Center

While often ignored by international organisation, social factors are crucial. Ensure you are aware of these.

Sometimes it looks so easy to leave your integrated news room with dozens of people working there and travel to a country in transition, where journalists have limited access to the internet and poor office facilities, and try to teach those journalists the standards and working practices enjoyed by the BBC or CNN.

It’s not and what you offer needs to be relevant to the needs of those you are addressing.

Journalists in transition countries are often working more on enthusiasm than for money (they do not earn much). This also needs to be considered.

When there is limited freedom of expression or poor access to information one cannot expect professional media reports.

That’s impossible. So there is need for integrated approach, with a programme aimed not only at boosting a journalist’s skills but also at promoting freedom of expression and pluralism.

Sri Lanka

Nalaka Gunawardene is Director and CEO of TVE Asia Pacific

Media operates as a business, not a charity: All media organisations have a social responsibility, but that must be balanced with its commercial viability. This is so with state, corporate or community-owned media. Bankrupt media can’t serve any public interest.

Media is a plural: Media is a basket term for entities with enormous diversity and variability. One size does not fit all, no matter how well intended. It’s crucial to understand before engaging any media.

Follow the eyeballs: If you want the biggest bang for your limited buck, start with the mass market end of media such as FM radio, tabloid newspapers and music TV channels. Leave your broadsheet/classical prejudices out of investment decisions.

Take it easy: Audiences need entertainment as much as information and education. Supporting quality entertainment in the media is just as important for the public good as nurturing investigative journalism or advocating media freedom.

Sparks of hope: The real world is not an all-or-nothing game. Find oases of innovation and resilience and nurture them to survive and grow in turbulent times. Back media underdogs of today who can become fierce watchdogs of tomorrow.

Lebanon

Wadih Tueni is the Information Technology Manager – An Nahar Online

Understand the culture (the people) in other countries. Don’t try to apply Western ideas and the way you do things as some of those ideas won’t work.

Spending some time observing the country’s media you wish to help will assist you in understanding the issues they face.

This will be of great benefit for you and for them.

Finance the project for a limited time (equipment, training etc) making it clear that your aim is to help and help push them – but make it clear that you are not there to offering continuing financial support.

Create a model that can generate revenue otherwise it’s a waste of time and money. A failure to creating such a model might cause additional problems for the media you wish to help, especially after investing (even partially) in a new project.

Nepal & Bhutan

TP Mishra is the Founder/President of the Bhutan Chapter of Third World Media Network (TWMN)

The media development organisations offering the help need to make sure that it is being used properly. In some cases, the media development funds don’t reach those in genuine need of the support.

Sometimes those running the media-related organisations misuse the funds, or show favouritism in the way training and seminars are run.

Often, those in mainstream media are the main beneficiaries when there are more worthy needs to be addressed.

In transition countries and areas where media freedom is under threat, many publications and media organisations are closing down. Western media development organisations have more or less failed to help them in their hour of need.

In many countries there are no academic courses or training institutions where people interested in journalism can sharpen their skills and knowledge. It would be good if media development organisations focus on this. Making available training resources for real journalists would be a great help.

In some cases, the media development funds don’t reach those in genuine need of the support.

Macedonia

Risto Popovski former editor-in-chief and owner of the MAKFAX News Agency and now a media strategist.

Macedonia’s experience from 20 years of transition, which unfortunately seems indefinite, is far from positive. The old weaknesses reoccur, new problems pile up, and instead of having these problems solved, the problems become even more complicated and deep.

The governments always want to seize control of media. This is an attribute of every government regardless of political orientation and (non) democratic capacities. Only the methods seem different – from brutal attacks, direct threats or hidden pressures to perfidious, illegal or formally legal methods of economic pressure aiming at taking over the control of public say.

Direct or hidden pressures, the latest and also the most serious are dividing the journalists into patriots and traitors. This division has been inspired by the government, which also divides the citizens accordingly, and such a division is being promoted through the media and journalists close to government and through its apologists and spokespersons.

The influence is also closely linked with the media ownership structure, a theme that requires a detailed analysis. It would be enough to say that political party leaders are owners of the media, and certainly not as title-bearers. Media owners are business people with political ambitions or business people who use media to safeguard themselves and their corporate interests. And they do so in cooperation with the government.

It should be noted that foreign organisations that work to support media have not been present in Macedonia for more than two years. This means there is no financial assistance and no training. The government controls the media with economic instruments.

The upmost objective of media-support organisations, providing that they intended to work in Macedonia again, should be to encourage foreign media to enter the media space as investors. It is the only way to ensure economic stability and freedom of media. EU funds, donors’ funds and investment funds could be used for this purpose.

The entry of foreign investors would directly improve the situation in terms of management and the promotion of economic freedom of the media. This is one of the media’s blind spots. Therefore, training is needed, serious and lengthy training, and sending expert consultants.

Training of young journalists is essential, and it should run on a frequent basis, or permanently if it is possible. The training should include the basic techniques of journalist language and expression, specialisation in various fields, investigative techniques. The main goal is to ensure that young journalists learn to use their head, not their editor’s head.

The need for professional and social protection of journalists is more than indispensable. The Association of Journalists of Macedonia needs to enlarged with new members, and it must step up and expand the scope of activities. There is no union of journalists in Macedonia. To be more precise, there is a union but on paper only.

The main goal is to ensure that young journalists learn to use their head, not their editor’s head.

Ukraine

Vitaliy Moroz is the head of new media department – Internews Ukraine

To expand the target audiences for journalism training to civic journalists and bloggers. Media development is important for citizen journalism as well.

To be adaptable to changes while implementing the initial agenda. Let changes happen! During the project implementation new interesting and creative ideas can be found which will strengthen media development. The project needs to be flexible enough to incorporate these.

Pay more attention to local conditions and find local successful case studies. Many countries have successful case studies in the area media development, those offering the training should not turn a blind eye on these but should rather build on them.

Focus not on media organisations but rather on establishing a favorable environment for journalists to work in. Media professionals often changes their posts. But if you work in informal groups, based on trust, a flow of new knowledge and journalist solidarity emerges and those who attend can do even more beyond the boundaries of their office.

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