DW Akademie trainer Dieter Herrmann (right) in Vietnam

A good interview should be informative, authentic, credible and sometimes even surprising. In the past two weeks, the participants in our workshop ‘Advanced Interview Training’ were able to discover the special benefits of this journalistic format.

Together with my colleague Uli Köhler, I am training journalists in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. Our 15 trainees  work for Vietnam Television (VTV). Most of them are reporters in Hanoi, but we’ve also got the VTV correspondents to Russia and to China in our group. All of our participants are keen to learn more about conducting interviews and recording vox pops.

As Uli and I will leave Vietnam in a couple of days, the trainees are now working on their final productions. Their topic is ‘same-sex marriage in Vietnam’. They chose this topic themselves after an hour-long discussion.

Controversy and discussion about gay marriage

Why did they opt for a controversial issue like that? Because the law on same-sex partnerships in Vietnam will be changed soon and there is a lot of discussion in the country right now.

Working on a contentious topic like same-sex marriage is quite a challenge in an Asian country like Vietnam. But our  participants managed to find a number of interview partners like experts, officials, and of course some gay people as well. With some of them, it was hard work to get good answers on camera – or even just to get them to talk.

Surprisingly for all of us, it was no problem at all to get some really interesting vox pops.

Vox pop in Hanoi

Lots of people in the streets of Hanoi were willing to talk openly about gay marriage. Some were strongly opposed, others were strongly in favor of the idea – just like anywhere else in the world. But what I find interesting in Hanoi is that homosexuality itself doesn’t seem to be taboo at all.

As far as the work-flow in the production of our vox pops was concerned, our expectations were totally different than what we encountered in reality. We originally thought that we would have to record at least 20 to 30 statements from passers-by to end up with four or five sound bites that would be usable  for broadcast. But that’s not the way it turned out at all. In fact, almost all of the statements we recorded for our vox pops were clearly understandable and very usable.

As I write this, our three groups of trainees are busy editing their vox pops. And it’s already becoming obvious that each of them will be proud to show their productions during the closing ceremony of this workshop with VTV at the end of this week.

Author: Dieter Herrmann

Active acquisition of knowledge to solve concrete challenges creates confidence. And that’s something you need when you have to teach journalism to a classroom full of young Laotian twentysomethings, as do the instructors at the National University of Laos (NUOL).

These instructors are currently students themselves: they’re taking part in journalism teachers’ training and coaching, which is organized in partnership with DW-AKADEMIE’s Asia team.

At a workshop in December we reviewed some of the progress made so far. “I have more confidence in teaching these subjects now,” said one of the younger colleagues. Others agreed.

One senior lecturer brought along a revamped version of a project the training participants had created the previous September – a newspaper made from scratch. It was a showcase item at NUOL’s 15th anniversary celebration in November.

The instructors-in-training had put tremendous effort into producing it, and that has really paid off in their daily work. Here’s why:

Getting down to basics

The task we had set ourselves was quite simple: Create a newspaper. From scratch. In three weeks time.

There are several good reasons for choosing such an exercise. Creating a newspaper is low-tech. If necessary (and if you don’t mind creating only one copy), it can be done with paper, pens, a scissor and glue.

It’s also very tangible, easy to talk about, perfect for discussions in dual-language settings (in Vientiane we use Lao and English with translation in our workshops).

Most importantly, it’s a very generic form of journalism – and thus a good foundation for discussing the core elements of journalistic work.

Active participation instead of passive listening

Creating a newspaper from scratch turned learning into active acquisition of knowledge to solve concrete challenges. Much better than hearing lectures on writing, style, research, etc.

Among the many questions discussed during the production of the newspaper were issues like “What will be our editorial guideline?” (As opposed to the more passive “What is an editorial guideline and what is it good for?”) “What should our layout look like?” and  “Are we on track time-wise, quantity-wise, quality-wise?”

As a result of such exercises that produce tangible results, the university teaching staff are not only gaining a new understanding of journalism practice itself, but also experiencing first-hand fresh and viable ways of conveying knowledge to their students.

By Daniel Hirschler

As part of a modernization drive, Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) has combined their radio and television newsrooms. In the future, reporters will be required to provide news reports in both media. It’s hoped that the convergence will allow the state-funded station to cut costs and do more with limited resources.

It was against this background that two DW-AKADEMIE trainers went to Bhutan’s high-altitude capital Thimphu to conduct a workshop with an enthusiastic group of 12 young BBS journalists. While several already had some radio production experience, many had previously only worked on the TV side of things.

Together, the group started with a review of the basics, such as news judgment and news writing for radio, before moving on to the interview and how to ask that all-important first question that will grab your listeners and keep them from turning the dial.

The focus was on the practical, and with every topic covered, workshop participants completed exercises that, while not exactly the real thing, got fairly close. Besides writing news, they gathered vox pops from people around town and grabbed interviews with some fairly prominent Bhutanese folk, including the coach of the national football (soccer) team and one of the country’s most famous actors. The group analyzed the interviews together and participants offered their colleagues their takes on the strong and weak points of each one.

Then the workshop tackled the radio feature and for many of the journalists, it was the first time they had learned about how to use natural/ambient sound in a radio reportage to evoke a sense of place for listeners and paint mental pictures that can turn a recitation of facts and opinions into a lively, almost “visual” piece, despite the absence of a screen.

For Kuenzang Choden, a producer in the English department at BBS, natural sound was something entirely new. She was excited about the possibilities, as she explains in this short clip.

Toward the end of the two-week workshop, the participants were divided into two groups and each was tasked with creating their own radio magazine program. Both ended up being thematic: one group chose to make a youth program; the other a soccer/football show.

The journalists used their new skills in presentation, interviewing and report production to put together two lively magazines. Reporters for the soccer show, called Druk Kangtsey, went to the training pitch to catch the national team in preparation for a tournament in India.

Convergence, not phase-out

As BBS continues its convergence drive, management was quick to point out that the merger is not a takeover, with radio being the loser. While television recently got brand-new studios and continues to grow in popularity (TV broadcasting was only allowed in the kingdom in 1999), radio is still the dominant medium for many people in this mountainous country.

Many Bhutanese live in remote regions without electricity where newspapers arrive late, if they arrive at all. A battery-powered radio is often the only link to the outside world.

Kesang, who heads the BBS radio department, is playing a key role in the convergence process, but in this video clip he insists radio will not go the way of the dodo.

Journalists’ special role

Besides the late introduction of television in this country of around 708,000 people, democracy was also a late arrival. Until a few years ago, the country was governed by an absolute monarchy.

In 2005, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, adored by his people and seen as a very benevolent monarch, shocked the nation by announcing major democratic reforms. He also proclaimed he would pass the crown to his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, in order to give him time as head of state in the run-up to the transition to democracy.

Bhutan’s elections for its first parliament and the ratification of its first constitution were completed in 2008.

This major change has put a special responsibility on journalists’ shoulders, according to Thinley Dorji, the managing director of BBS since summer 2011. In the following video he talks about that as well as a government that might not be used to dealing with criticism from the media. He also addresses the country’s changing media landscape and what that means for the broadcaster.

By Kyle James

Is there a proper definition of journalism in the Lao language? Since DW-AKADEMIE’s first workshop on journalism at the National University of Laos in Vientiane, there is. It was conceived by 15 staff teachers of the Department of Mass Communication at the Faculty of Letters – after long discussions revolving around somewhat abstract terms like “media”, “the public”, “society” and “information”. 

Lao is not a language that lends itself to describing abstract ideas. Yet the 15 teachers feel it was worth the effort to lay a foundation they now can build upon. They are learning the mindset, tools and skills that in combination make a journalist. The reasoning behind this is that they are the ones training a new generation of Lao students who are eager to take on the profession.

Redefining public and professional understanding of journalism

Laos is opening up its state-controlled media market. The new economic era, started in the late 1980’s, only recently reached the media.

Today, more and more print publications and privately funded but state-controlled television and radio channels are starting up.

In this era of transition there is a dire need for new concepts. This involves exploring the very definition of journalism and the role of journalists.

Previously, a journalist served the government, “explaining the party’s policy to the people”. This is a concept that a growing number of people reject by simply switching off. The ruling People’s Revolutionary Party now officially wants to swap this premise for one that includes two-way communication between politicians and the people.

Uniting practice and theory

Still, the old mental models are deeply rooted – and so discussions about changing them are lively.

The idea is for the university to become the focal point for dialogue about the concept of journalism in the making of a new Laos.

Until then, practical training is interwoven with more theoretical exploration. “Types of questions and how to use them” was the main focus of a workshop in March. 

The trainees are trainers themselves, so DW-AKADEMIE trainers put emphasis on creating a learning situation that conveys not only knowledge but also methods.

Here’s one training method that was both fun and effective. It’s called “Human Bingo” and is quite helpful for training the mechanics of open and closed questions:

Each participant tells the trainer something special about himself that the other participants don’t know or expect. It can be a talent, dream, wishes, plans. The trainer collects the statements individually (and hidden from the rest of the group), writes them down on individual cards that are then redistributed. Each participant gets one card and has to find out which statements belong to whom. Their first questions have to be general and open questions. If the interviewer thinks that the statement he’s holding in his hands fits the interviewee, he can ask directly about his assumption. But he should choose carefully when to guess because this is only allowed twice per person.

Try it yourself – it also works well as a warm up for all kind of group activities.

Contributed and photographed by Daniel Hirschler and Michael Karhausen