Interactive programmes for young people

With this in mind, a call for applications was launched in March 2020 in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. 15 conventional and web media providers were selected as a result and in November they underwent the first phase of training in Ouagadougou.

Fifteen young people from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger participated in the first phase of support for the production of multimedia programmes, which took place between 30 November and 5 December 2020. The goal of this training was to make them aware of and train them in the benefits of interactive formats aimed at young people, both in terms of their editorial and economic scope.

These 15 young trainees received coaching to polish their radio, web TV or podcast broadcast projects. Every trainee is now able to identify their exact target audience and the most effective interactive formats for their editorial project. Emphasis was placed on the importance of providing a programme for which the content and tone are adapted to a new audience and which leans on a distinct “social media” strategy.

“I now have the creative mindset to consider new aspects of audiovisual production” – a trainee

The training undertaken over the course of six days took the form of a seminar, practical workshops and a final presentation in front of a panel, and helped the trainees to enhance their skills, in particular through the training they received on mobile video and by using their own phones to broadcast outside.
“I was taught how to film on my phone, the different shots to tell a story and editing techniques. For the editing, I was taught how to arrange the various shots by using different angles. I am able to put my project into action. But also to shoot on mobile video. I will share what I learned when I return. This will have a big impact on our work.”

Being Open to New Approaches and Ways of Doing Things

Journalists from RFI’s Atelier des Médias team, Sylvain Mornet from France 24’s Mobile Video team, Juan Gomez from “Appels sur l’actualité” on RFI, together with Soumaïla Rabo from Savane FM were also on hand to present new approaches or ways of doing things, such as podcasting or free-to-air broadcasting.

This training was a great success among trainees and trainers alike. “We think we helped those attending the training to understand that it is not enough to say ‘I want to produce content for young people’ – you have to take that ambition even further by defining the standard profiles of the young target group and imagining the typical content to be produced”, explain Ségolène Malterre and Inoussa Maïga. One participant actually felt that the training could have been stretched out over more days: “I believe that the training was a success overall. More days should be added next time round. It was intense.”

This initial training session led to the creation of a concept note and a pilot programme by the 15 youngsters. This document will be used for the selection in early February 2021 of the three media providers to be involved in the second phase of the project (one from each country).