College-aged youth involved in Media Clubs will be trained to produce audio podcasts during the Summer 2013 Elections. These podcasts will educate Bhutanese about democracy and cover stories from Bhutan's second-ever democratic elections. Our organization will then create an online hub where all these stories will be posted and distributed to local radio stations. Overall, we hope this project will engage rural youth in Bhutan's young democracy.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Thimphu/Paro/Samtse/Kanglung/Taktse
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
We intend to work with college-aged youth involved in media clubs. These youth already have basic training in journalism, and regularly produce news content for their communities. If supplied with audio equipment, they could be trained to produce content for the most popular medium in Bhutan – radio. Because many of these clubs are based in rural, underserved communities, they have the potential to foster a national conversation about democracy.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Participants will be encouraged to produce three kinds of podcasts: (1) educational stories that help the average rural voter understand basic ideas and processes of democracy; (2) feature stories that cover the developments, themes, and profiles of key individuals during the 2013 elections in their respective regions; and (3) vox pop/polls that survey public opinion on certain issues such as understanding of democracy after the first 5 years.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.
We are the sole organization that helped start, fund, and train youth involved in these Media Clubs. The club members are in regular contact with us about their activity, and send members to attend our forums and trainings (usually in the capital, Thimphu). Additionally, we have received approval from the authorities at these schools to work with their students. We can procure the audio equipment from our international partners based in the US.
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
We intend to train approximately 150 youth and 5 teachers across Bhutan. We will travel across the country during a three week period to train the members, help them plan their podcast series, review the podcasts and then post them online. While the scope of this project is just during elections, the podcasting skills and knowledge will be sustained through the clubs, who will be asked to transfer the knowledge to younger members.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices can provide sound and audio recording equipment and connect us to individuals or organizations that have conducted similar programs in emerging democracies.
Contact name
Manny Fassihi
Organization
Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy