By Maire Rowland
A new community media project in Durres aims to give locals a chance to be heard.
Independent media is an important component in a functioning democracy and the pervasive business ownership and political interference in Albania’s mainstream media creates a feeling of distrust among the general population. How can citizens trust the news they hear when the owner of the news outlet is often the subject of the news report? Instead of resigning themselves to frustration with the state of the media landscape inspired individuals alongside civil society groups and international agencies are striving to create their own independent media projects that are free from political or commercial control.
Community media platforms such as Portal, which will be launched soon, give people access to trainings and workshops in creating media content that is relevant to their lives and their localities. Portal is an online digital platform that aims to serve the city of Durres.
The idea for the project came from two American Peace Corps Volunteers, Tom Cartaxo and Jacqueline Labrador. They teamed up with local civil society organisation CSDC and obtained funding from American NGO World Connect to make it a reality.
Community media outlets not only offer a space to voices that are often ignored, but they can be used to teach interested volunteers important media skills. According to Tom Cartaxo, “Originally our main focus was to help diversify media here in Albania, but as things progressed we started to see the potential vocational value.”
Currently the workshops for this project are ongoing; it trains about sixty people a week in media theory and practical skills. The participants have already created radio and photographic content that will be published on the platform for its launch on June 4. The multimedia element of Portal means that those with a variety of different interests and skills can contribute. It will host radio content, written articles, photo essays and videos etc.
The reaction to the idea locally has been extremely positive with lots of young people eager to get involved. The aim of the project is to create a self-sustained community platform. “The current trainees will be facilitating the next round of workshops,” says Tom, “everything has been designed to make the platform as accessible as possible. We expect the community to really own this.”
By facilitating lectures in media ethics and media literacy, alongside teaching trainees the tools to create content themselves, the team behind Portal hope to encourage the people of Durres to turn their annoyance with the mainstream media into inspiration for creating their own media.
To check out the project online visit: www.durresmediaproject.org
