frayintermedia’s Michael Schmidt advises the editor of a community newspaper in Alexandra 2009
February 2, 2010 By
Getting the message across during the Soccer World Cup
January 16, 2010 By 1 Comment
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frayintermedia will conduct a two-day media skills programme for GTZ in January 2010, including practical coaching on being interviewed for radio and television.The massive global media coverage South Africa will receive during the 2010 Soccer World Cup will shape the world’s perceptions of the country and the continent with a lasting effect. Over a billion people in more than 200 countries are expected to simultaneously follow every event of the month-long tournament between the world’s top 32 soccer-playing nations. The World Cup is thus a great opportunity for projects and organisations to showcase their initiatives and achievements. Knowing and understanding the media landscape will, however, be crucial for project leaders and communicators to get their message across in a way that will ensure their organisation’s future success. The two-day course consists of a theoretical and a practical part. Day Oneaims at providing a better understanding of media landscapes, reporters’ needs and how newsrooms operate. The course will look at ways to engage the media successfully and address the issue of media laws and ethics and the interviewees’ own rights. It will furthermore provide participants with the necessary tools to formulate key messages, and to get these across convincingly in writing and on radio and TV. Day Twowill focus on the practical application of all theoretical learning and provide participants with opportunities to handle different types of interview situations. The aim is for participants to gain confidence and become increasingly aware of the importance of self-conduct and speech patterns, in particular on camera. |
Aim of this workshopThe overall course aims at enhancing the participants’ understanding of how the media in SA and Germany works and strives to empower communicators to handle media requirements in a professional manner, especially at a time of increased media interest and global focus on the country. |
The clientThe two-day training course frayintermedia will conduct on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) will prepare team members and partners of the GTZ Youth Development Through Football (YDF) projects for the heightened 2010 media interest and help communicators to become successful ambassadors for the organization and its project activities. |
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Outcomes for the media trainingBy the end of the two-day course, participants are expected to:
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Mentoring staff at Alexandra community newspaper
November 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
In June 2009 the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) commissioned frayintermedia to provide turnkey training and mentoring to the staff of Alex Pioneer, a start-up newspaper serving the Alexandra community.
We gave the staff of Alex Pioneer an intensive, week-long course on editorial and business skills. The training was followed by a five-month mentoring programme in which frayintermedia’s trainers made weekly visits to Alex Pioneer to assist the staff with all aspects of establishing a successful community newspaper.
Finding your newsroom feet
August 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Hitting the newsroom running was the aim of two days of intensive training at the offices of Independent Newspapers in Cape Town.
Junior reporters spent two days with frayintermedia’s Michael Schmidt learning the tricks of the trade.
“This training is aimed at helping journalists who have just started out to find their feet in the newsroom. It enables interns and junior reporters to focus themselves in the newsroom by giving them organisational skills as well as basic writing tools and practical solutions to problems,” said Schmidt.
“The first day of the training is all about being an ‘organised reporter’. Time management is essential for a reporter – and teaching this to reporters entering the newsroom is very important. The course helps to identify how journalists can use ‘down time’ to their advantage.”
Schmidt said often young journalists were overwhelmed when they found themselves in a panic as deadlines loomed, but having the skill to work at a steady pace, to plan ahead and to be able to focus ensured better reporting.
“It is important to instill good work-plan ethics in young journalists who are just starting out. Not only does it stand them in good stead in years to come, but it also helps to focus the mind when tackling stories – regardless of how simple or complex,” he said.
The second day of training focussed more on writing skills. “This part of the course primarily deals with how to properly plan a story, how to map all your sources, decide on the best sequence of conducting your interviews and gathering photographs and documents and how to ensure the story flows logically,” said Schmidt.
“This is all about giving new journalists the right tools to focus on the job. It is about being able to hit the newsroom running with very clear ideas on how to tackle stories, how to break them down into logical parts and how to put them back together again in a tight, readable format that their news editors just cannot resist.”
Find tips for junior journalists here.
