New media projects on the way towards implementation in South East Europe - Media Programme Southeast Europe
More and more journalists in the Balkans go on the path to become self-employed in order to report independently and to determine editorial topics themselves. However, many have difficulties in finding a suitable business model that can be used to finance their own media project. Knowledge about writing for the web and the skills to make journalism projects successful online are often lacking. For this purpose, the KAS Media Programme offers young journalists from South East Europe training in "Entrepreneurial Journalism".
The trainers Marko Nedeljković from the University of Belgrade, Miloš Petrović from the online agency MWEB and the Serbian expert Veroljub Zmijanac have developed the innovative training together with the KAS Media Programme South East Europe. As a result of this cooperation the handbook „Entrepreneurial Journalism“ was published in English and Serbian.
The Head of the KAS Media Programme South East Europe Hendrik Sittig opened the workshop. He briefly presented the KAS activities on this year's focus of the Media Programme in the area of public service media in the region and presented the recently published KAS book on the same topic. He emphasised that progress is only possible when there are people who initiate and implement projects with their own innovative and creative ideas. “Wherever established media cannot completely fulfill their role as watchdogs of democracy, independent journalists are needed in order to use their own projects to raise awareness of problems that they discover through their own research,” Sittig said. He underlined that in this context the work of independent and courageous journalists is of great importance. For this reason, the KAS Media Programme South East Europe also encourages young journalists to start and implement their project ideas.
Lead trainer Marko Nedeljković taught the basics of online journalism. He explained which techniques are necessary not only to write content for the internet, but also to make it easily findable in search engines. Particular attention was paid to the use of keywords and metadata that are im-portant for the visibility of the online content. The participants had to write their own articles in practical exercises based on the techniques they have learned. The solutions ranged from linking external websites to better visual structuring and formatting of the texts.
Miloš Petrović imparted basic knowledge of marketing and corporate development. He presented tools for marketing and monetising online pro-jects. “To be successful, it is not enough to just master the journalistic tools. You have to develop an entrepreneurial attitude,” Petrović said. He stressed that online research is important in order to analyse trends and not to invest resources in projects that do not prove to be successful.
Afterwards Veroljub Zmijanac explained aspects about the definition of stakeholder groups and the creation of prototypes for websites. He said that it is important to develop a well thought strategy and vision for the project that would also convince potential donors.
More in the event report.
