麻豆约拍

The excitement was palpable when UA:PBC’s executives and board members gathered with ambassadors, dignitaries and representatives of 麻豆约拍 Media Action and our partner Deutsche Welle Akademie earlier this month, to present a dynamic modern newsroom that will form the central hub for the re-branded public broadcaster, Suspilne (Public).

‘(The) revolution on Maidan in 2014, just a few metres from where we are standing now, in many ways, this was the birth of free media in Ukraine. It became clear that a strong independent public broadcaster was needed. Soon Suspilne was born,” said Tetiana Kyselchuk at the opening.

麻豆约拍 Media Action joined the project with UA:PBC in 2017 with one objective: to help it revolutionise its news operation and design a newsroom that would cater to a wider audience, with multimedia and multiplatform content that is trusted, impartial, informing and engaging.

With funding from the European Commission, working with Deutsche Welle Akademie, 麻豆约拍 Media Action has supported the design and implementation of new workflows, based on the newsgathering approach used by the 麻豆约拍, where the story is at the heart of a multimedia news operation. This approach shares stories internally, so they can reach audiences more efficiently and effectively across different platforms.

This required a complete overhaul of the current system. It took more than 300 days of training and mentoring to deliver a successful transition, while working closely with UA:PBC’s management on workflows, staff recruitment and re-assessment of training needs - including expanding journalists’ skills to work across multiple platforms.

By no means was it a seamless journey. But there is a noticeable difference between where the newsroom started and where it is today. Much credit goes to the UA:PBC team, who allowed us space to make suggestions and support its staff, who trusted in our consultants’ expertise from the 麻豆约拍, and who remain committed to serving the public and becoming a trusted and reliable source of information for all Ukrainians.

Changes from the bottom up

We began the project – Newshouse 1.0 – by bringing all the news teams together to work out of one, central multimedia newsroom.

Alongside new roles and job descriptions, new workflows improved communication among the digital, television and radio teams, all working around a story-centric approach. Journalists were encouraged to pitch new themes and formats, and to think about multi-platform distribution, to help embed a culture of thinking across platforms.

The reforms have also included adapting editorial guidelines, and defining and supporting a core mission for the main news bulletin, along with its target audience, unique selling point and its editorial remit and style.

Assessment and evaluation

An independent evaluator assessed the project against its intended outcomes, by looking at the content and news agenda for evidence of the values and principles of public service broadcasting.

The evaluation found:

• News stories were covered with care, accuracy and a high degree of transparency, so audiences always knew the sources
• A clear focus on issues that were of direct concern to the audience because they were expected to impact their lives
• A substantial number of stories were fully multimedia: with text, still images and video with an audio track. Text and video tended to be alternative versions rather than accompaniments
• Multimedia forms of story treatment showed greater story-telling craft and diversity of voices and sources, helping the public broadcaster establish itself as a source of news among audiences it did not reach before
• Voices of some affected and minority groups were clearly represented in daily news items and in features, which were expected to remain on the website for some time.

“This is news that in general one trusts, both to be correct in what it says and not to miss developments of interest and importance,” wrote the evaluator.

Shaping and challenging the agenda

Examples of standout coverage included a background feature on Afghanistan, which demonstrated a ‘mission to explain’ through a well-crafted and engaging history of foreign interventions and the rise of Islamic militancy in the country. UA:PBC also demonstrated exclusive access at the Tokyo Olympics, with a team of reporters interviewing Ukrainian athletes.

The network has covered such major stories as the shooting down of the MH17 flight over Ukraine, unrest in Belarus, the Ukrainian Airlines flight that went down over Iran, conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing conflict in the country’s east and in Crimea.

But it has also taken on less traditional stories for the country, including government measures against the LGBTQI+ community in neighbouring Hungary, a video feature on Ukraine’s Jewish Karaite community, extensive coverage of a sexual harassment case at a Ukraine university in which the accounts of the women affected were prominent, and a science story about DNA evidence suggesting non-binary persons held high office 1,000 years ago.

In project evaluation interviews, UA:PBC’s senior staff and editors noted improvements in the speed and quality of news production, coordination across central and regional bureaux, and streamlined planning and multi-platform distribution of news content.

Still more progress to come

The work is not yet done: the evaluator also found that audience engagement could be greater, if more creativity and storytelling were used in reporting. But, operating in a media environment in which news is often driven by opinion, Suspilne’s emphasis on well-sourced facts stands out.

This second phase of the project, Newshouse 2.0, has brought the opening of the new newsroom, designed, constructed, furnished and equipped by our partner Deutsche Welle Akademie. Overall, the project reflects the joint expertise and effort of media development organisations linked to leading European public service broadcasters in Europe.

“The Newshouse is the latest stage of our journey…We have already achieved so much and for that we have a lot to thank the people in this room - our partners,” Dima Khilchenko coordinator of NewsHouse project, said at the opening.

The project has demonstrated the importance of partnership, and of support and commitment to public interest media in Ukraine.

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麻豆约拍 Media Action has worked with Deutsche Welle Akademie with funding from the European Union on the UA:PBC Newshouse project. To read more about the project, please see Deutsche Welle Akademie's .