edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

Part II Namibia: Multilingual Content and the Need for Organizational Changefor the relevant Namibian ministry committee that was taskedwith drawing up what shall become the text of a future Accessto Information Law.Meanwhile, say numerous interviewees, the change processwithin the state broadcaster NBC has been driven largelywithout the participation of Namibian civil society and thepublic at large. 19 Instead, the corporation is busy working onwhat the NBC Board of Directors is calling the “Strategic Triangle2011,” a corporate mission statement that targets one majorobjective: By 2015 the NBC shall, according to the Board’svision, have developed into “the leading multi-media publicbroadcaster of choice in Africa.” 20 Based on this major objectiveat the top of the triangle, the corporate strategy formulatesgrowth goals, critical success factors as well as strategicinitiatives to be accomplished within the same time frame.The corporate mission also formulates a set of values accordingto which the corporation wants to operate, namely professionalism,honesty, integrity, customer focus, teamwork,courtesy, and employee empowerment.Two international media development organizations havebeen involved – to a varying degree – in NBC’s recent path oftransformation since 2008. Both organizations are briefly introducedbelow, and their methods summarized:Swedish RadioThe media development organizations Swedish Radio (SR) 21collaborated with the NBC from 2008 to 2013 on a changemanagement scheme. With financial backing from the SwedishInternational Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)worth 7,580,000 SEK and a contribution from NBC of 72,000SEK (together around one million euro at the current exchangerate), the exchange was called a “partner driven cooperationproject.” It was divided into two phases: Phase 1 (2008 to 2012)focussed on radio news with the goal of strengthening NBC’srole as provider of balanced and independent news. In Phase 2(2012 to 2013), NBC and Swedish Radio agreed to focus on theintroduction of digital media production within the NBC’s radioand TV structures.With regard to Phase 1, neither Swedish Radio nor NBCpublicly specified the methods used or the results that wereachieved so no further information was available for this study.For Phase 2, some information was available: In line with NBC’scorporate multimedia strategy, TV and radio departmentswere restructured into new multimedia units that create jointcontent for radio, TV, internet, and social media. 22 In 2013, thedepartments “Sports” and “Education for young people” werechosen as pilot departments for corporate restructuring towardsfull multimedia production. SR trainers and NBC staffformed production groups. These teams also introduced audienceresearch for the first time at NBC. With recurrent SR mentoringevery two months, the two pilot groups went throughjoint planning and subsequent production processes of multimediacontent. The final result of this collaboration was anNBC series of programs broadcast via television, radio, and theinternet in autumn 2013. The topic was “Entrepreneurship.”The challenge was, as one interviewee said, “to change people’sminds in the way they work.” To this end, exchange visits werealso an important part of the project. NBC staff visited the SRheadquarters in Stockholm to learn more about productionmethods in Sweden. The participants had conducted interviewsin Namibian schools beforehand that were then usedas production material for radio plays by their SR colleagues.Extending the corporate restructuring to other departments,such as news and current affairs, remains a major task for 2014and beyond. 23DW AkademieDW Akademie has also been – to a lesser degree – involved inNBC’s recent transformation process. Up until 2013, the cooperationbetween DW Akademie and NBC was based on ad-hocarrangements focusing on pressing needs in the sector of journalismtraining and professionalization of staff. For example,NBC staff were invited on a regular basis to participate in advancedTV workshops for an international co-production seriesnamed “African Stories.” These workshops aimed to delivertheory and practice of full production cycles resulting in highquality TV reports. From conceptualization to post-production,the participants from all over Southern Africa had two weeks toproduce the reports. The last of these workshops took place inWindhoek in autumn 2013. DW also has a member of staff permanentlybased in Windhoek: as DW’s local representative, shehas intensified the cooperation with NBC through weekly consultationsand recurrent strategy meetings. This local representativewas also on hand for the final implementation phase ofthe launch of a new children’s educational TV show that wasaired for the first time in winter 2013 to 2014. Particularly duringthe phasing out of support from Swedish Radio in 2013, DWAkademie staff ensured the first months of actual multimediaproduction within the corporation through mentoring andproduction consultancy.8FES 2011, 42.9ITU 2014.10MediaMetrics 2010.11Elizabeth Kalambo M’ule,Executive Director, Editors’ Forumof Namibia (EFN).12Namibian Broadcasting Act;Act 9 of 1991.13Albertus Aochamub, DirectorGeneral of Namibian BroadcastingCorporation (NBC).14NBC 2014.15Albertus Aochamub, DirectorGeneral of Namibian BroadcastingCorporation (NBC).16ACTION Namibia 2014.17http://www.misanamibia.org.na/18http://www.ippr.org.na/19Mareike Le Pelley; Director ofthe Friedrich Ebert Stiftung,Windhoek Office.20NBC 2014.21Or more specifically SR MDO(Swedish Radio MediaDevelopment Organization).22http://www.sida.se/English/Countries-and-regions/Terminated-development-cooperation/Namibia/Programmes-andprojects1/Radio-Cooperation/23Ragna Wallmark, MediaConsultant of Swedish Radio.Edition DW Akademie In the Service of the Public 77