As part of the Western Balkans Media for Change project a Learning Circle titled “Building Foundations for Engaging Citizens in Reporting” for media outlets from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro was organized.
Over the course of March 21 and 22, 18 journalists strengthened their understanding of community dynamics, engaging journalism principles, and the development of investigative stories based on community involvement.
On the first day, journalists received insights into editorial strategies and audience involvement best practices from facilitators such as Dzana Brkanic, Deputy Editor at BIRN BiH; Aleksandra Bogdani, Editor at BIRN Albania; Katarina Zrinjski from BIRN BiH; and Besar Likmeta, Editor-in-chief at BIRN Albania.
They shared experiences in implementing various approaches and methodologies to produce high-quality, investigative, fact-checked, gender-sensitive, appealing and innovative content.
The focus of the second day was on Engaged Citizens Reporting, ECR, tool, developed through the Media for All project. The tool enables users to crowdsource data and facilitate engagement with the community. Karla Junicic, BIRN’s ECR Coordinator, presented the tool and its potential for engaging audiences in content creation. Additionally, journalists had the opportunity to explore the BIRD Platform, an interactive resource desk designed for journalists seeking to stay updated on technological advancements while upholding ethical and professional standards in journalism.
The Learning Circle forms part of the editorial and mentoring support provided to journalists and media outlets as part of the project. The project provides financial support to media outlets and individual journalists to help them improve operational capacity, business sustainability and innovation potential, while aiming to better equip media professionals to produce more quality diverse, factchecked and gender-sensitive content that will reach and engage with wider audiences.
The Western Balkans Media for Change project is funded by the UK government and implemented by the British Council in partnership with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Thomson Foundation and The International NGO Training and Research Centre, INTRAC. It supports the work of media outlets and individual journalists from the Western Balkan countries.