Radio planning

Yesterday's session was held at the Ujima radio studios where most of the 3 hours was taken up with discussing content and planning the schedule for the radio show that the team will be delivering on May 9th.  However, as you can see from the previous post (and more photos below), the journalists did get a taster of live broadcasting for a 7 minute slot - little warning for them but they all responded really well, with Roger Griffith providing an outline of the project, David Goldblatt explaining the citizen journalism aspect and some of the participants talking about why they'd decided to join up.

Back round the table, Roger outlined the elements that make up most of Ujima's radio programmes, then through discussion with the team and David, each element was explained and expanded and topics for inclusion were vigorously debated - these include the appointment of Bristol's first Muslim mayor, the forthcoming local council elections and how the newly elected mayor and PCC are dealing with policing, transport and economic development and regeneration. How much of the show would be pre-recorded, what subjects would provide good vox pops material and who would be ideal to have as live guests on the show were also part of the conversation.

The result of all the talking was a good collection of potential material but further editing and refinement will be needed over the next few weeks, possible guest speakers must be contacted and decisions made about whether to do more than one programme. Parallel tasks will see each team member researching their selected topics and devising interview questions for a visit to University of Bristol academics with an interest in these fields.

During the course of the session each participant worked on a 'programme clock' (a pie-chart diagram of the radio show) with frequent amendments, additions and deletions along the way. But at the end of the session, with a growing sense of enthusiasm everyone had achieved a 'work in progress' clock chart and for many of the participants a much better understanding of how a radio programme is put together. One of the team said -

"This is my first time [planning a radio show] - it's a … challenge for me, a good challenge. I'm thinking it's something I can go forward to study, I really enjoyed it. I hope that by the end of it I will gain a lot of experience which will really help me as well to build up my own confidence…. I'm kind of shy but I think with this it's going to bring me out of my shell!" 

First time in the studio for the Citizen Journalism team at Ujima Radio.