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Description
Our observations show that the nationwide media in Poland are very centralized and rarely cover local issues. Those that manage to break through mostly cover road accidents and weather disasters. We also see that there is a lack of inter-editorial cooperation in Poland – editorial offices, instead of cooperating with each other, compete for readers or financial resources. In addition, in small and medium-sized editorial offices, we notice a constant reduction in expenditure on human work, including proofreading. As a result, the journalists working there have to be versatile and deal with everything from contacting the source to promotion.We want to support journalists from independent local media in terms of education and development. We will recruit 30 representatives of such media and then divide them into 5 thematic groups. Each of the groups will receive editorial support through consultations with editorial staff of the partner editorial offices. We will organize a three-day training seminar with 5 workshop sessions prepared by our partners. Topics will include healthcare, local media or the crisis of the Church in Poland. We will also conduct a series of 7 webinars, among others, on digital competences, legal aspects in the press, work on sources, editing and proofreading, or editorial work management. They will be available to people invited by project participants, e.g. people from their editorial office.Our partners are the Nowa Rzeczpospolita Foundation, the Kultura Liberalna Foundation, the Jagiellonian Club and the Catholic Intelligentsia Club. All these organizations have been working together for several years as part of the Spięcie project, thanks to which they have experience in inter-editorial work and cooperation across divisions.
Summary of project results
The project responded to challenges concerning both the situation in local media and inter-editorial cooperation. We noticed a growing marginalization of local media in Poland, which is facing financial, organizational, and personnel problems. These very media, which are often closely linked to local communities, have begun to be displaced by larger, nationwide portals, and their journalists are forced to work under difficult conditions.
We saw the need to support local journalists by establishing partnerships with national editors to enable them to gain valuable experience, develop their skills, and integrate into wider professional networks.
The challenge we faced was the initial mismatch between the group of participants. Initially, we planned to work mainly with local editors, but it soon became apparent that many of these media saw our initiative as competition, fearing the loss of journalists to larger, national media. In response to these concerns, we changed our approach, focusing on working with local freelancers. This solution proved to be a hit, as several of them started to work with project partners regularly, allowing journalists to grow without weakening local media.
As part of the project:
- We organized two ideation seminars, which laid the foundation for further cooperation between the participants. During the first seminar, we conducted workshop sessions, including integrative and thematic workshops, led by experts. The seminar aimed not only to develop the participants'' journalistic skills but also to integrate them into the idea of inter-editorial cooperation. The second seminar dealt with the summary of the project and its evaluation.
- we held seven open webinars to provide participants with information on current journalistic challenges. Topics included issues such as how to write about refugees and migrants in Poland, how to recognize disinformation and the influence of influencers on the media.
- we provided editorial support: the editors collaborated with us on the project: Nowa Konfederacja, Kontakt, Kultura Liberalna, Klub Jagielloński, and Krytyka Polityczna, forming an informal network called Spięcie. Each of these editorial offices ran individual workshop programs for project participants. A total of 32 participants had the opportunity to attend workshops, editorial colleges, and individual consultations with editors.
- We published 40 journalistic texts prepared by the participants. The texts ranged from local problems to national and global issues. Each text reached a wide audience, ranging from a few hundred to more than nine thousand readers, depending on the topic and publication platform.
- we published 24 materials prepared by the editorial teams of the five media outlets that made up Local Spin. The articles were the result of collaboration between the local journalists who participated in the project. Thanks to these materials, it was possible to create a space for journalists from different parts of Poland to share their experiences and perspectives, thus broadening their knowledge of the challenges faced by local communities.
- We have created a closed group on Messenger where participants can exchange experiences, network, and share knowledge.
The recipients of our activities in the project were primarily male and female journalists who took part in seminars, workshops, and webinars, but also the wider media audience, including people from local communities who are interested in social, political and cultural issues.
Thanks to the publications and their wide reach, we also reached people outside the media community who benefited from the available educational material and knowledge.
By taking part in seminars, workshops, and webinars and benefiting from individual editorial consultations, the project participants received significant support in developing their journalistic skills. Practical workshops conducted by experts and editors allowed participants to improve their writing and acquire new tools in their work as journalists. Several participants have established permanent cooperation with the media participating in the project, demonstrating the effectiveness of the activities in building lasting professional relationships.
The publications produced as part of the project have contributed to the quality of public debate, showing local issues from a new perspective and presenting the subject matter fairly and comprehensively.
The number of views of the webinars on Krytyka Polityczna''s YouTube channel shows the wide reach of the activities and interest in the topics covered by the project. The webinars provide a valuable educational platform.
The joint work of journalists from different editorial offices allowed for an exchange of experience and also enabled participants to establish valuable professional contacts. Editorial support in the form of workshops, editorial colleges, and individual consultations had a direct impact on the quality of the texts produced and enabled participants to gain a deeper understanding of the content creation process and editorial collaboration.
As part of additional activities, we developed a model for interaction with readers - we created a system of user accounts and a graphic design for the registration and the KrytykaPolityczna.pl website.