The challenge of interactive citizenship

Lively, engaging and giving citizens a voice, interactive programmes, with the participation of on-air listeners, are highly popular with the public and radio stations of Burkina Faso. When conducted well, they are a precious space for public expression, but when poorly prepared and badly managed on a technical and editorial level, they are programmes with a high slip-up risk. To enable radio stations to professionalise their practice, the Faso Media project has trained ten production technicians on the techniques for producing interactive programmes as well as on simpler, more professional devices in step with the new digital tools. Eight journalists from the same radio stations also worked on interactivity, interviewing, debating and opening up new vectors of interactivity.
The main objective was to propose solutions for a significant improvement, both technically and editorially, in the quality of the programmes.

As one of the objectives of Faso Media is strengthening local teaching skills, 5 young trainers from Burkina Faso – 2 journalists and 3 technicians – received training on this occasion, through the close coaching of two CFI experts, Pierre-Yves Schneider and Guénael Launay.

To promote the practice, a mobile studio was set up and eight programmes were recorded under live conditions by trainee journalists (five in French and two in Moré, one of the national languages). The subjects covered were diverse, but always connected to citizenship and general interest.

At the end of October, a new training course in the production of interactive programmes is planned in Dédougou, this time conducted solely by trainers from Burkina Faso. At the same time, other journalistic training is being conducted by the network of ten Faso Media trainers from Burkina Faso and involves sixty radio stations spread across the country.