Regional Programs: Training

23. Coronado, Costa Rica, 27 November - 8 December 1995. RNTC/Panos/IICA Central American Radio Production Workshop on Environment, Development and Community Initiatives: "Mi Tierra".

This workshop was designed to foster a creative setting for exploring new radio formats, appropiate for raising public awareness in Central America regarding the theme of community, environment and development. Through analyzing some key Central American experiences, the workshop also hoped to encourage an integrated perspective on the theme and include a number of media angles: women issues, health, agriculture, natural resource use, and the development of a plural press.

The main partner was Radio Nederland Training Centre (RNTC), an institution that provides training in radio production in Latin America since 1978. RNTC offers general as well as specialized courses in educational and cultural programming. Another partner in this venture was the Regional Training Programme for Agronomical Research on Cereals in Central America (PRIAG), based at IICA. PRIAG brought vital information on community agricultural issues into the discussions.

The selection of participants was done based on the combined contacts of RNTC, PRIAG and Panos. Considering the available space and equipment, as well as the facilitation of good group dynamics, an ideal number between 12 and 18 was determined. Eighteen people were formally invited. However, at the last minute, five of these were unable to participate due to personal and institutional reasons. In view of the fact that only one could be replaced, there were fourteen participants.

The group of participants was well-balanced. Key to group work was that the 14 participants came from various backgrounds in radio, environmental NGO, indigenous peoples and community activities. Most had specific work experience in more than one issue, representing or combining: environment (12 people), radio (11), community issues (7), agriculture (3), indigenous peoples (3), women issues (2), children (1).

The production training was supported by a truly great volume of materials. Key materials provided to the participants included the RNTC Radio Encyclopedia for Self-Education (tapes and booklets), a variety of Panos books and publications, as well as two thorough workshop manuals: one on radio production, the other on communication and environment. Additionally, a number of resource documents were put on display during the workshop.

The program of the workshop went through six (teaching, learning and team-building) units. During the first unit, which covered two days, the concepts of the workshop were explored. The facilitators as well as representatives from external institutions provided a number of introductions relating to communication on the theme of community, environment and development. Additionally, the participants presented their institutions and work, and provided useful base material for the discussions.

The second unit covered one and-a-half days and examined and analyzed some of the most outstanding characteristics of the communication medium radio. Through interactive presentations, advantages and limitations of radio were brought forward, various examples of formats and elements of the radio language. Additionally, an introduction was provided to script writing.

Over the next day, the programme continued with the development of individual short messages, considering a number of ways to do this (monologue, dialogue, testimonial, advocating, music, sound effects, use of the voice, etc.). During this third unit, the participants each prepared and recorded a short message (with a length ranging from 1'14" to 3'34"), which was analyzed in a plenary session.

An important extra element during the first week of the workshop was the joint presentations by the participants from each country, in which the national situation was explored, particularly regarding the comunication media, audiences, and interest in environmental themes.

The fourth unit, running during the last half day of the first week and the first one-and-a-half day of the second week, were spent on the development of various campaigns of radio spots. After listening to examples, appropriate to the theme of "Mi Tierra", three groups were formed to plan and produce spot campaigns. For each of the campaigns, first the general objective, the target public and the campaign occasion were planned. After this was done, each campaign developed 5 spots with a duration between 0'34" and 1'05", and for each spot were stated: (a) specific objective, (b) guiding idea, (c) classification, (d) problem addressed, and (e) solution proposed. The themes selected for the campaigns were: (1) wasting water, (2) air pollution, and (3) animal extinction. Specific information is displayed in Tables 5, 6 and 7. When the campaigns were presented and discussed, the high overall quality was noted.

The next phase, the fifth unit, focused on the development of the first pilot programmes for "Mi Tierra", and lasted one-and-a-half days. First the workshop reviewed six mini-programmes which could serve as a model. Subsequently, the participants were divided into four groups and discussed appropriate elements for Mi Tierra. The common lines for the regional radio program "Mi Tierra", based on an analysis of each group report, are presented in section (4) below. After the discussion on the design of Mi Tierra, each group developed a pilot program, with durations of 5'00", 7'29", 8'39" and 11'00". The programs are provided on the audiotape and the scripts are attached in Annex I.

The theme of the sixth and last unit, which ran over the two final days, was evaluation, as a central part of the design process. A thorough theoretical introduction was provided to this vital activity. As a first stage, each of the four groups of participants evaluated the other programs and implemented a self-evaluation as well. During half a day, the groups went out in the field with tape recorders and a questionnaire to solicit feed-back from the public. The field work provided detailed data on the successes and failures of the pilot programmes. The overall reaction of the public was very positive, with on a scale from 0 to 10: 9.1 for understanding; 8.8 for acceptance; 9.2 for involvement; and 7.6 for attractivity.

As a last activity of this unit, the workshop considered the best models and most attractive elements for the continuation of "Mi Tierra". The participants also defined preferred characteristics for the communicators to be involved in "Mi Tierra", and provided written and oral feed-back on the entire conduct of the workshop.

The participants were very active and displayed a lot of enthusiasm for learning and practising environmental radio production. It was brought up repeatedly that they and their institutions welcomed the "Mi Tierra" initiative very much and appreciated to be involved. Gender issues are a central element in discussions about communities and environment. Over the course of the workshop, participants introduced many gender perspectives, which were reflected in the productions.

As with most of the Panos courses, specialized theoretical and practical training (in this case on community and the environment) was combined with basic journalism training. The inclusion of both these elements has been proven vital, in view of the participation of people with varying backgrounds. For a number of topics, due to the very full program, the workshop could only be introductory and focus on practical rather then theoretical training. An example is the stated need to have more training in presentation. However, this requires a specialized course. Some of limitations of time were offset with the provision of the manuals, tapes and other materials, which allow for self-education after the workshop.

Rather than fitting the creativity of the participants into a specific project framework, the workshop was presented as an open forum for discussing the need, rationale, scope, possible directions, themes, partners and production details of "Mi Tierra". This strategy proved effective. A great number of ideas and proposals were collected for the development of the "Mi Tierra" project and its long-term continuation. Most participants felt that "Mi Tierra" needs to be represented in each country, under the auspices of RNTC and Panos, rather than have a central coordination. It was considered most efficient to pursue the project through a combination of additional production workshops and commissions/fellowships. Participants informed that voluntary contributions to "Mi Tierra" are unlikely and journalistic commissions or fellowships are needed for the gathering of information and preparation of material between the workshops. In order to contribute to terms-of-reference for commissions and fellowships, as well as participants for the next workshops, participants analyzed the profile of the "Mi Tierra communicator".

The radio material produced was analyzed and evaluated in several ways and found to be of high quality. It is available on the audiotape "Mi Tierra 1 - programas pilotos, campañas de spots, y mensajes cortos" (programme pilots, spot campaigns and short messages), which is an integral part of this report. Additionally, a videotape has been produced, which gives insight into the methodology utilized.