Young people working in the media need support in all aspects. Thus, I saw participation in the Media for All project as an excellent opportunity for my team and for myself, as a writer and editor just starting out in my career. As a youth newsroom, we strive to improve our work every day, and the Media for All programmes have provided us with an opportunity to learn a lot and gain experience. As these contacts always have the chance to develop into friendships after the project, this idea, offering collaboration with the media and organisations from the region, holds a special place in my heart.
I received support throughout all aspects of the programme – which confirms its comprehensiveness. For me, as a young person who is in the media profession and works in local youth media, it is crucial to obtain experience outside of my community and to gain an insight into other ways of working. This not only expands my horizons but also inspires and motivates me. Together with improving my theoretical knowledge and doing practical work, I also felt all the Media for All team’s support and belief in us. Their support is also a factor that has an impact on the final result. In addition to coaches, mentors, lecturers and coordinators, colleagues from other teams provided support for one another and I am confident that this support will continue in our future work.
The activities of the Media for All programme empowered my entire team, regardless of which one of us participated in them. We work as a team that learns from one another, therefore we all took away at least some of the knowledge from this programme. The Radio Active Zenica team and editorial staff have grown stronger as a result of Media for All in every way.
Also, when it comes to my personal development, the activities of this programme have led to greater self-confidence in my work, development of new skills and the application of knowledge. In my line of work, I have faced various challenges, some of which I created for myself, but I have been able to overcome them with the help of the Media for All team.
I think it is difficult to single out one aspect of the programme as the most valuable, because in each activity there is something that adds to the work of the participating media and newsrooms. As I did in my previous observations, I must emphasise the knowledge provided to the participants by experienced professionals. No matter how well we know our job as journalists, we are constantly in need of improvement and that often changes with trends. I think that everyone will find the knowledge and expertise that this programme offers to be quite helpful in our profession.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, informal education is very important for quality work. In a field such as journalism, knowledge cannot be acquired just by theoretical study. Because of this, it is critical who we learn from and whose work we analyse with the aim of creating high-quality content for our media. Through this programme, young people get access to good role models that they can look up to and learn from. What is still important to young people today is the atmosphere in which they work, and through Media for All they get, along with all the knowledge, a relaxed atmosphere for work as well as freedom – without influence over the choice of topics and editorial policy. Also something that is acquired over the years is contacts, and by participating in this programme young people have had a lot of opportunities for networking.