Content Development – KCOMNET

P-FIM as a production tool for journalists

kcomnet — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 04:59:43 +0000

When it comes to productions, creativity really matter, sometimes it won’t hurt to borrow a leaf.

P-FIM means People First Impact Method. It was created by Gerry McCarthy and Paul O’Hagan who are the Co-Developers and Directors of the exercise.

The P-FIM exercise engages the communities directly by listening to their issues. Just like any other interview done by a journalist, listening and reporting are principles which applies in this exercise. The big difference: with P-FIM there’s no room for interpretation; you report what is said. The skill of listening is wanted here. Ask yourself: When was the last time you listened to someone without interfering, interpreting their statements or judging them?

This activity is important in our day to day work. We serve the community through different mediums and Community Radio is one of them. Community Radios are mostly owned by the community to inform the residents on the happenings using the local language of that community.

Radio is the most powerful medium of communication, using P-FIM when generating our programs and productions will bring us closer to the community. Most of our community members do not understand how radio or any other media tool is working. It is our responsibility as journalists to explain it to them so that they do not feel left out in our programming. Our communities need to feel that they own the stations, they need their voices to be heard and their issues addressed in their radio.

Voicing their concerns through their statements is more important compared to interpreting what they could mean. Statements are very powerful and every producer or editor knows quite well what makes good soundbites in different productions.

Asking the communities to highlight those issues which are important to them and advocating for their priorities is more important than having huge development programs in our communities that residents are not interested in and won’t own because they don’t address their real concerns.

Using P-FIM in our productions will not only highlight issues in our communities but it will help journalists to look at different ways of doing a production. It is a skill that will make our productions powerful and it will have direct impact to the communities keeping in mind the media ethics and law.

Trainings on P-FIM will be conducted and through the Community Radios, we will produce different productions, with different approach. These productions include: Cameo, radio dramas, news items, radio shows, documentaries etc. People use different methods and skills in productions as it advances and as Heraclitus would say, “There’s nothing permanent, except change.”

Radio Drama – The Imaginary Movie

kcomnet — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 04:55:50 +0000

Already more than 10 Million readers, spectators and first of all listeners have met Kadogo, her grandmother, Mwalimu Patricia and Mzee Lodyang. They are the heroes of a little SIF/Kituo Cha Sheria comic book “Real Talk – This can happen to anyone of us” that was published in 2017 and adapted to an animated movie and to a Radio Drama in 2018. In 2019 this Drama got 10 new episodes to be broadcast in the 40 Kenyan Community Media Stations. This new SIF radio drama that was launched during the celebrations of the World Radio Day February 13^th 2019 at Ruben FM, Mukuru slums was produced in collaboration with CPS – Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) project “Umoja – Radio for Peace and Ruben FM. Radio Drama for conflict transformation and community education, informationand empowerment is an interesting and innovative tool using the most widespread media in Africa: Radio!

Did you ever experience this? Your radio is on, you listen to a voice and in your imagination you seem to “see” this person, whether it is a tall and smart man, a younger lady, a bit shy, a gangster, a bad character. You hear a creaking door and suddenly the wind blowing and automatically you turn your head – shivering slightly – to look whether the door is closed or not. If this happens, the radio people did a great job. Radio Drama is like theatre for blind people, as you don’t see anything you must get the picture in your imagination: Voices, ambient noise, silence – different actors with different voices, a narrator, and the noise of everything else which you do not see. A splash of water – was it a stone thrown in a river or someone jumping into the water. You listen: It was Kadogo who just shouted “Look Grandmother!” and “SPLASH” she jumped in the river – she mustn’t say “Look Grandmother, I will jump in the river” – she does it and you hear/see it. And you feel that Grandmother is afraid calling her grandchild “Oh, Kadogo, be careful …!”

That’s Radio Drama – Theatre for radio listeners. In the “UMOJA – Radio for Peace” project we have experienced this with two previous radio drama productions: “Real talk – This can happen to anyone of us”. The story of Kadogo, her grandma, Mwalimu Patricia, Mzee Lodyang, Swalee and others talks and informs about displacement. In 2018 this first CPS-Radio Drama was broadcasted by 40 Kenyan Community Radio Media stations and reached about 12 Million Listeners. It is not easy to get a better outreach for information.

At the World Radio Day 2019, 10 new episodes with Kadogo have been launched – 10 stories which are talking about access to education and domestic violence, bad leadership and forced eviction, human trafficking and Trauma. Radio Drama can address serious topics in a light and touching way, it can entertain and inform at the same time with real people whom you can love or hate, they emerge in your imagination. Radio Drama for community information, education and empowerment is an inclusive and participatory tool cutting across separate lines – creating imaginary movies with individual pictures and common messages.

The scripts were developed in a unique approach in a 3-days “Creative Writing” workshop with community actors and stakeholders, radio people, CPS and KCOMNET staff. The technical production was done by Mukuru kwa Rubens community Radio known as RUBEN FM.

Radio Voices are magic: Every listener will hear the same words when Kadogo claims her right to access form 2 with a bursary, everybody will imagine his own Kadogo, “see” his own pictures, giving her an individual face – that’s Radio Drama.

A last question to be answered: Is Radio Drama expensive and complicated to produce? A clear answer: NO! Radio Drama production need not be expensive; it needs time and a systematic approach – Radio Drama is not “Comedia del arte”, an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italy, that was popular in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century.. The basic need is a well elaborated production script with different columns: dialogues, noise and narrator. Noise can be recorded or found in online databases. To get the noise of a Tuktuk taxi we did some kilometers squeezed in a tricycle to record the typical noise of this engine in the traffic, bleating sheep and goat can be found in sound-databases**.For the voicing we worked with actors of 5 community theatre groups, chosen after an audition to find the best voice for every role. The edit with a multitrack sound editor*** is business as usual for trained radio people.

*The Radio Drama “This can happen to anyone of us” can be listened at https://umojaradioforpeace.org/podcasts/ section RADIO DRAMA. The 10 new episodes will be accessible through the same link from March 2019

** https://freesound.org

***An excellent open source sound editor is “Audacity”

VOICE standards to improve your farmer program

kcomnet — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 04:52:26 +0000

Radio is a great communication tool for African farmers. It reaches most of them. It can provide important and timely information in their own languages. And radio, (often coupled with mobile phones), can give farmers a powerful voice in development.

But radio is not always effective. In fact, farmer programs often fall far short.

– The voices of farmers are rarely heard.

– “Experts,” on the other hand, are featured and respected, whether they are helpful or not.

– Program hosts are disdainful of farmers, whom they see as much lower creatures than themselves.

– Important issues are ignored or avoided because they are complex, or sensitive, or require additional resources.

– Broadcasters are given no training, and are expected to produce effective programs with little or no guidance or support.

– And much farm broadcasting is very boring to listen to!

Too frequently, a radio station thinks that a farmer program is a slot in the schedule into which they can simply “dump” agricultural information, and hope that farmers will listen and use it. But a radio program is a distinct communications tool, with its own strengths and weaknesses, like a novel, or a comic strip, or a song. An effective farm radio program follows standards that exploit the strengths of radio.

As a farm broadcaster, you want your farmer program to be useful, interesting – even empowering, for farmers. And you want it to have a wide audience of both women and men farmers. To help you, we have pulled together “best practices” of farm broadcasters, and have grouped them in a way that will be easy for you to remember and use.

We call them the VOICE standards for effective farmer radio programming. There are five standards, and in English their key words spell out “VOICE.”

V – The program values small-scale farmers, both women and men. It respects farmers for their hard work producing nutritious food for their families and the markets, often in the face of major challenges. It reaches out to farmers to understand their situation, and is dedicated to supporting them in their farming work and in their efforts to improve rural life.

O – The program provides farmers with the opportunity to speak and be heard on all matters. It encourages small-scale farmers to name their concerns, discuss them, and organize to act on them. It holds to account those with a duty to hear farmers and serve their needs.

I – The program provides farmers with the information they need, when they need it. Farmers require specific information and they need it in time to act on it.

C – The program is consistent and convenient. It is broadcast at least weekly, at a time when women and men farmers can listen.

E – The program is entertaining and memorable. It appeals to the interests and tastes of a wide range of local farmers. Complicated material is presented in a way that helps farmers remember.