THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Four large articles with speakers have recently been submitted on the website of the Chernivtsi-based A.C.C. Media Agency, posted in the category called I Want To Know. The speakers were people for whom the audience had gathered a lot of questions. However, not always readers or viewers can ask such questions directly due to certain circumstances.
The media agency implemented the project thanks to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) with the assistance of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
“I wanted to do something interesting and useful. A list of potential “speakers” within the project was determined. They received questions from the readers of the A.C.C. Media Agency. Work on each issue began with publishing an announcement, with the introduction of a speaker to whom readers could leave their questions in the comments on social media pages. In total, four publications were created with the announcement of the participation of four speakers,” says the director of the A.C.C. TV and Radio Company LLC, Oksana Danyliuk.
She notes that there were speakers who were difficult to reach, even for journalists, let alone ordinary citizens. So, people were invited to use the opportunity and ask questions.
“Yes, if we are talking about an official, they sure have reception days, etc., but who goes visit them there? Therefore, this project simplified communication. The Facebook page of the A.C.C. Media Agency had a reach of 24,322 users. A total of 43 comments were left under the posts. Four announcements were published on the agency’s Telegram channel, its website, and Instagram. In general, the total coverage was almost 30,000 users. Among the speakers were a cultural activist, a deputy mayor of Chernivtsi, and the head of the Chernivtsi Regional Military Administration. We set a goal of bringing the officials into contact with the audience, acting as mediators in the project, and we can see from the attendance that people liked this format,” says Oksana Danyliuk.
In general, today, A.C.C. is a news agency that also has accounts on social networks and provides videos. The team plans to continue the I Want To Know project, noting its prospects. After all, using the agency as a tool, people were able to get many answers to their questions.
In turn, the Ivano-Frankivsk-based RAI TV and Radio Company was able to implement within the framework of the same project ten relevant and important materials, which were presented through the Power of the Word and A New Viewpoint shows. The RAI TV and Radio Company is a leading online mass media that has been successfully operating in the information space of the Ivano-Frankivsk region since 1992.
Andrii Rusyniak, the founder and CEO of the RAI TV and Radio Company LLC, says that some projects were suspended during the full-scale invasion because they needed sound, design, lighting, and installation and lacked financial resources. Therefore, thanks to the project, it was possible to implement similar things. Thus, now reanimated programs have a chance to move forward.
“In two months, we had released seven Power of the Word and three A New Viewpoint shows. Topics were determined by relevance in the region. Thus, in the RAI TV and Radio Company studio, representatives of the Burshtyn City Council and the public met to discuss the budget, aid to the military, high-profile personnel issues, and events during the recent session. The studio also gathered representatives of the media community of the Prykarpattia area, journalists from the occupied regions, journalist students… The parties discussed the challenges posed to journalists by the war, how our media manages to survive in today’s conditions, and whether the state and local authorities support and help media workers. Volunteers, military personnel, and representatives of public organizations came to the studio of the RAI TV and Radio Company to discuss insufficient funding and resources for the implementation of volunteer projects. The head of the State Emergency Situations Service (SESS) Department in the Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Volodymyr Chernetskyi, spoke in the A New Viewpoint show about the service’s activities, the work of pyrotechnicians, as well as business trips to “hot spots.” In the Power of the Word show, community leaders told how resilient communities are in times of war,” Andrii Rusyniak lists part of the programs.
He also notes that thanks to the project, they were able not only to establish communication with the audience but also to significantly influence public life, stimulating the discussion of current problems and finding ways to solve them.
For two months, 21 local and regional media, on the initiative of the NUJU, will implement their own projects aimed at strengthening interaction with the audience and communities of local communities. As part of the work on the projects, the editors receive assistance from the Ukrainian Media Fund with the assistance of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. TV and radio companies, online media and print publications will participate in the project.
Nazarii Vivcharyk
Discussion about this post