Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

New skills to help journalists in Belarus find new audiences.

03/01/2019

Regional media in Belarus are being helped to find a more modern voice - to deal with the complex challenges presented by their belated entry to the Internet Age.

Thomson Foundation has delivered a programme to help regional newspapers and websites improve digital content and workflows to engage the growing younger audience while ensuring ethical best practices.

Challenges for regional media in Belarus are many - not just tackling the shift of readers to digital platforms. Increasing use of the internet also allows easy access, competition and influence by foreign media - particularly from Russia.

Recruitment is difficult due to low wages while in the state-owned newspapers - still the majority in regional media - there is often little integration between journalists on newspapers and those on their websites and social media. Many websites have been set up under separate brands to the print editions.

To help improve matters, Thomson Foundation's Deepening Digital programme took a two-phase approach: providing in-house mentoring to help news organisations develop a strategy for integrated newsrooms, followed by training journalists to use smartphones to provide eye-catching, but cost-effective, content to drive eyeballs to websites and social media.

Achieving Sustainable Models While television is the main source of news in Belarus, newspapers have a new opportunity with the internet achieving 6.7 million users by the end of 2017 - 71% of the population. https://www.internetworldstats.com/europa2.htm#by

Some of the media outlets continue to rely on traditional formats and practices so the challenge is to help them understand how to achieve contemporary sustainable models, says David Quin, Thomson Foundation's director of development.

Deepening Digital Phase 1: Mentoring Trainer Jamie Donald ran in-house mentoring workshops for editors and journalists introducing them to key aspects of digital best practise across desktop, mobile and social media. The aim was to deepen the digital involvement of all staff and users, improve audience engagement and attract new audiences and, importantly, revenue.

Newer media organisations are privately funded and need advertising. Some state media organisations also rely on advertising.

Deepening Digital Phase 2: Content Production This phase concentrated on mobile journalism where journalists use their smartphones to film and edit videos for their websites at low cost - regularly using softer feature stories as a way of increasing audience engagement.

Thomson Foundation's Head of Training Deborah Kelly worked with camera operator Siarhei Isakov, from the Press Club of Belarus, to provide four-day workshops in video story construction and technical skills working with phones on the Android and IOS operating systems.

The workshops ended with a screening of the video news packages which the journalists had researched, shot and edited on their smartphones to ensure they had grasped the basics. Thirty-six videos were produced by the journalists from the six news organisations participating in the programme.

The Deepening Digital project was funded by the British Embassy in Minsk.

Mobile Journalism videos - Belarus

-- Play

-- --

Making Up A Young Actor Prepares for the Stage.

-- Play

-- --

Mr Popular The headteacher who knows all his pupils by name

-- Play

-- --

The Trees of Slutsk Fighting to save the apple trees

All videos can be viewed on our You Tube Channel Related Content

Deepening Digital Kazakhstan. Building better relationships between Kazakh journalists and government officials.

How mojo has changed the way I tell stories Journalist Leonor Su rez on the smart phone reporting revolution.

Mobile Journalism - that blew my mind Why training to use a phone to film is central to the summer course.

Deborah Kelly Head of Training and Communications

About: Deborah plays a key part in developing and promoting our training programmes and is our specialist on gender in media. Her recent training projects have centred on digital and mobile journalism.

We get around. Explore our project map
LINK: http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/latest/new-skills-to-help-journalists...
See more stories from thompsonfoundation

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

02/06/2026

Cobalt Digital to Showcase End-to-End IPMX Ecosystem at InfoComm 2026, Making ST 2110 Easy for Pro AV

blueCORE standalone processors headline solutions designed to simplify the trans...

02/06/2026

Monetizing the Archive: How Cantemo's JIT Playback Eliminates the Proxy Bottleneck

If you've kept up with this article series, you know by now where to start w...

02/06/2026

Calrec Scales ImPulseV for Greater Choice in Virtualised Workflows

With new DSP configurations and flexible licensing options, Calrec is removing the barriers to virtualised audio, giving broadcasters the freedom to scale produ...

02/06/2026

Marketing Architects Expands Relationship With Nielsen To Include Integration of Media Data Engine on a National Level

The TV agency was one of the earliest adopters of Nielsen's local television...

02/06/2026

Riedel Networks Taps Gudrun Scharler as CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

Grass Valley Enables Sky News Australia s Cloud-First New...

Grass Valley today announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP to transform its newsroom produc...

02/06/2026

STUDIO TECHNOLOGIES INTRODUCES NEW MODEL 385 MIC INTERCOM...

Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...

02/06/2026

Gudrun Scharler Appointed CEO of Riedel Networks

The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...

02/06/2026

Magewell Levels-Up All-in-One Content Production with Lau...

More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...

02/06/2026

Modena Showcases farmerswife at Mediatech 2026

farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...

02/06/2026

PTZOptics showcases intelligent video ecosystem at InfoCo...

PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17 19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...

02/06/2026

Roku Launches the Roku Soccer Zone

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

FCC Sets Deadlines for Comments in ABC License Renewals

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

Studio Technologies Introduces Model 385 Beltpack

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

Gerald Jerry Pierce, Architect of Modern Digital Cinema, Dies at 73

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/06/2026

Discover Your Next Book-to-Screen Obsession With Our New Dedicated Hub

Back to All News Discover Your Next Book-to-Screen Obsession With Our New Dedicated Hub Product 02 June 2026 Global Link copied to clipboard Dear most vor...

02/06/2026

New LinkedIn Data: 90% of C-Suite Leaders are Continuously ...

New LinkedIn Data: 90% of C-Suite Leaders are Continuously Building Skills to Lead in the AI Era Published on Jun 2, 2026 Categories: Data and insights Lin...

02/06/2026

Why TAG matters in digital advertising

Trust has become a commercial issue With global advertising spend forecast to exceed US$1 trillion this year*, the commercial consequences of weak governance co...

02/06/2026

RT is Supporting 12 Arts and Cultural Events all over Ireland this June

June sees Ireland's cultural calendar in full bloom, as RT Supporting the Arts showcases a vibrant and wide-ranging programme spanning music, theatre, visu...

02/06/2026

New seasons of The Traitors UK and US now available to stream on RT Player

After The Traitors Ireland launched in 2025, Irish audiences proved to have a taste for the global hit reality show. This Bank Holiday Monday fans can indulge e...

01/06/2026

CBS Sports UEFA Champions League Today Studio Show Heads to Budapest for Final as Transcontinental Popularity Grows

In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...

01/06/2026

AudioShake Launches End-to-End Copyright Compliance System for Mixed-Media Audio

Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music AudioShake has introdu...

01/06/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Stats Perform's Charles Kaplan on 30 Years of Opta, a Busy Summer of Soccer, What's Next

The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...

01/06/2026

Production Music Awards 2026

Category line-up & sponsors announced Photo: Paul Clarke The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...

01/06/2026

Evolve Nest Acoustics from Excite Audio

New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...

01/06/2026

IK Multimedia release Royal 45 Legends Signature Collection

Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...

01/06/2026

Scaler Music Carbon Electra 2

Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...

01/06/2026

SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026

SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026 1 June, 2026 Media releases SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...

01/06/2026

Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to Orbit

Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...

01/06/2026

ASG Advances Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/06/2026

Scripps Stations Go Dark on DirecTV

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/06/2026

MARSHALL ELECTRONICS POWERS SEAMLESS AV EXPERIENCES WITH...

Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...

01/06/2026

Adobe Announces Concept to Vector

Adobe Announces Concept to Vector Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026 0 Comments One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...

01/06/2026

Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio

Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton June 1, 2026 0 Comments Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...

01/06/2026

U.S. Broadcasters Ready for Most Complex FIFA World Cup Ever

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/06/2026

Broadcasters Prepare for Nation's 250th Birthday Bash

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/06/2026

Broadcasters Reveal What Makes C-Band Alternatives Right for Them

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/06/2026

IAMT to Offer New Educational Sessions at InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/06/2026

NewsNation Launches New Podcasting Studio and Podcasts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/06/2026

KAULITZ & KAULITZ Season 3

Back to All News KAULITZ & KAULITZ Season 3 Entertainment 01 June 2026 GlobalGermany Link copied to clipboard Our favorite twins are back: streaming on Ne...

01/06/2026

SES Launches Multi-Orbit Satellite Connectivity on Mexico's Viva

Luxembourg, June 1, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, launched fast and reliable multi-orbit satelli...

01/06/2026

NVIDIA Jetson Brings Agentic AI to the Physical World

Agentic AI is getting physical. At COMPUTEX on Tuesday, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA JetPack 7.2 and NVIDIA NemoClaw support on NVIDIA Jetson. JetPack 7.2 brings a...

01/06/2026

Why Financial Institutions Are Converging on Transaction Foundation Models to Build Their Own Intelligence

Financial institutions have spent years building AI: fraud models, credit models...

01/06/2026

Simplifiez vos workflows avec FLAPI. Paris. 2 juin 2026

Mardi 2 juin 14h00 FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...