In a press release issued today, BBC Trust said that the first workshops, led by expert Graeme Moreland, started on November 16, 2009. They addressed audience research and marketing.
During these workshops, managers, marketing officers and programme directors learnt how to measure performance against competitors, how to develop programming and make stations more relevant and appealing to audiences and how to help convince clients to invest in advertising.
On the second day, the marketing workshop stressed the importance of research in marketing strategy and introduced media professionals to ways of persuading potential clients on how the investment they make in advertising or sponsorship can increase their business, increase awareness of their company and give them an advantage over their competitors.
Based on the Project’s idea that audiences are at the core of their work, media outlets should be able to provide the audience with professional and quality journalism. To this end, two days of working groups focusing on editorial guidelines were led by Project Director Walid Batrawi, with the participation of the BBC News Middle East Bureau Acting Editor, Jo Floto.
At the end of the working groups sessions, news managers and reporters from across the West Bank and Gaza Strip recommended that each media outlet develops its own editorial guidelines to help in defining their identity and objectives as well as unifying terminology. They said in-house editorial guidelines should serve as a reference on how to report violence, crimes, children issues and other topics, based on local and international laws, conventions and codes of conducts.
Participants also stressed that proper working conditions must be provided by their employers, including safety measures inside and outside media outlets. They also emphasized on the need to have fair employment contracts, proper insurances and pension schemes.
In addition to the face-to-face workshops, the Project published and distributed a 'Best Practices' handbook that can help media outlets create their own editorial guidelines, based on accepted international standards of journalism. The handbook is designed to be fully relevant to the often challenging context in which Palestinian journalists work, and is now available for all Palestinian media outlets and universalities.
In depth workshops on audience research, marketing and advertising will continue to take place in the Gaza Strip until Monday 23rd November 2009, while workshops on marketing and advertising will resume in the West Bank starting 24th November 2009.
'Support to the Palestinian Media Sector’ aims to increase the level of networking and dialogue between media professionals in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. To this end, the project launched an interactive website (http://ilamuna.ps) to promote greater networking between media professionals, featuring discussion forums and social networking tools as well as on-line training and information resources for media professionals. Through its interactive components, media professionals are able to discuss various media-related issues, send messages to each other and discuss with BBC trainers and mentors.
