PCRC will approach the problem of skewed media reporting in Bosnia-Herzegovina by launching a youth-oriented, blogging project which will combine investigative journalism with creative methods of storytelling to shed light on the consequences lack of integrity and transparency in the media have on society. The project will aim to educate Bosnian youth ages 16 – 30 about methods they can use to avoid falling victim to skewed reporting and misinformation being disseminated by the media, while at the same time encouraging national dialogue through the provision of an interactive blogging website.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Sarajevo
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
The project will identify eight promising bloggers from across Bosnia-Herzegovina’s constituent ethnic groups, aged 16-30. Whilst this group is not underrepresented in terms of numbers, their opinions and potential are: few are trained in journalistic best practice, reducing the standard, credibility, and respectability of their work. This reduces the efficacy of their work, and belies their talent. In a country that currently suffers from a culture of a lack of integrity and transparency in the media, it is vital that future media activists are trained to form and present critical, independent, factually-based opinions. It is expected that the bloggers will already have an awareness of basic blogging tools, but will be unaware of how these can be integrated with other digital tools.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
Velma Šarić, has worked as a journalist for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and was responsible for the coverage of war crimes cases for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) in Sarajevo. In addition, she was the Bosnian field producer for “I Came to Testify” and “War Redefined” from PBS’ Women, War, and Peace TV series.
https://futurechallenges.org/local/author/velma/
http://iwpr.net/people/velmasaric
Leslie Woodward has an MA in International Studies from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, advanced certification in designing peace building programs from the Peace Action Training and Research Institute of Romania, and previously worked at Center for Sustainable Peace.
http://p-crc.org/category/blog/
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
Participants will produce blog entries on the topic of media manipulation using real-life examples of skewed media reporting from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Participants will be required to demonstrate their newly acquired skills of fact-checking, referencing, attribution in their work. The bloggers’ entries will then be published on the new “Balkan Discourse” website in both English and local languages and distributed via partner organizations and other civil society organizations concerned with youth and media. Publication will be accompanied by a social media campaign, designed in conjunction with project participants, to gain further readership. Subsequent entries will further elaborate on a variety of social, economic, and political topics that are often subject to media manipulation.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
PCRC’s primary partners for this project include the Human Rights House Zagreb, Association of Journalists Macedonia, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, the Center for Independent Journalism Budapest, and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. These partners will give this project regional visibility and the youth's entries will reach a broad audience across the Balkans region. These partnerships will be crucial to the success of the project, as they will provide us with expert facilitators for the workshops. Media professionals will be sourced from multiple organizations to provide a broad range of perspectives and expertise across a variety of media formats. Furthermore, the organizations will be inherent to promoting the project and increasing readership.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
The project will work with 8 youth bloggers aged 16-30 from across BiH’s constituent ethnic groups. The program will be advertised through the Balkan Discourse website, as well as through local partner organizations and outlets. Participants will be selected on the basis of an assessment of their application, level of activity, previous work, and existing following. Participation will be sustained following the program through continued support and hosting of the bloggers’ entries on the Balkan Discourse website. In addition to the publication of the youth’s work, other contributors will be inviting to produce pieces for publication on relevant topics. Trainees will be able to apply fair and balanced reporting and investigative journalism techniques in their future publications.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
PCRC and its partners bring extensive knowledge and expertise to the project's participants from the fields of investigative journalism, and documentary filmmaking and photography. Participant will be given various resources and online tools for necessary for proper fact-checking, referencing, and attribution of their work. Internet and social media tools will be the main technologies utilized in this project.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
Training will take place in Sarajevo at the University of Sarajevo and will utilize their media center, giving participants access to their own computers and Internet connection.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
PCRC has a history of organizing successful youth programs and delivering workshops to young people at a local level across Bosnia. We have an extensive network of youth organizations, NGOs, high schools and universities in both the Republika Srpska, Federation, and Brčko areas. PCRC is also connected with a number of media outles throughout the country that will help this project reach a wide audience. Our network includes the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, PINCH Media (UK), PRONI Center for Youth Development, Al Jazeera Balkans, Radio Free Europe, and many others.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
First are attempts at political manipulation, hacker blockades, verbal attacks and accusations, and the use of hate speech in the blog comments section. Due to the sensitivity of the topics the blogs will present and the reaction of the public, hacker attacks are expected and that should also be taken into consideration. One of the more sensitive issues is hate speech that appears in social networks, blogs, and web portals. Considering that PCRC blogs have interaction with the readers, we can expect the emergence of hate speech in the pre-election period. All of PCRC’s project ethnically sensitive and balanced. We take responsibility of giving all sides a voice and make sure that everyone is included regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, or social background.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
We will measure the workshop’s success by testing the participants’ understanding of the training material by asking them to produce a blog entry for publication. Evidence of success will be indicated by the quality of their written work. The content produced by the participants will be evaluated to measure their understanding and proper usage of newly acquired skills.
Success will also be measured by the level of following we obtain on our project blog and social media sites as a result of this project.
The volume and type of feedback from the online community will be taken into account, as it gives us an idea on the impact and reach of the published blogs.
Volume and type of media coverage produced as a result of the project will be evaluated.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
May 2014 – Online media campaign and advertisement through local partners to call for the participation of promising youth media activists.
June 2014 – Submission of applications for youth training workshop
July 2014 – Selection of 8 participants and notification of acceptance
August 2014 – Planning of workshop logistics
September 2014 – Conduct training and work with participants to publish their initial blog entry
October 2014 – Interim evaluation of workshop component
October 2014 – February 2015 Continued support of participants. Monthly entries further elaborate on the themes learned within the workshops.
March 2015 – Final evaluation.
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
Participant travel – 300
Participant accommodation in Sarajevo – 800
Participant meals – 200
Workshop facilitation – 500
Translation of materials – 200
Editors – 200
Workshop materials – 300
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
The support of Rising Voices in promoting the bloggers’ entries concerning media manipulation would contribute significantly to the project’s outcomes, and the increased traffic would likely facilitate debate on the respective blogs. The benefits of this would not be solely limited to the project: the manipulation of media, and the vulnerability of youth, is a global phenomenon, whilst the bloggers’ thematic subject matter of integrity and transparency within reporting are also universal concepts that could be of benefit to young people around the world.
Contact name
Velma Šarić
Organization
Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC)
