On May 20-22 and 27-28, 2010, USAID’s LINC and Internews Network U-Media projects conducted in Simferopol a workshop on economic journalism for a group of Crimean media people. The training is expected to result in a broader and more competent coverage of economic and business issues in the Crimean local media.

Eleven staff newspersons from the Crimean cities of Kerch, Sevastopol, and Simferopol took part in the training broken into two modules of a total of five classroom days spread over two weeks. The training focused on both purely journalistic approaches and techniques, elucidated by journalist from an all-Ukrainian business weekly, and economic topics, explained by eleven LINC experts.

The economic content of the training, which was the LINC responsibility, comprised a broad array of topics, including the basics of economy and business, strategic economic planning in Crimea, business regulation and one-stop shop system, local budgets, and private sector investment.

Two Internews trainers – staff members of the Vlast Deneg (“Power of Money”) weekly – instructed the participants on journalism tools such as the use of statistics, the presentation of materials to a wider audience, ethics in journalism, and how to interview experts and officials. The trainers also challenged the trainees with practical assignments, meant to hone their business-and-economic reporting skills. A highlight of these practical exercises was a specially organized press briefing with Crimean officials and LINC experts, in which the journalists tried out the techniques they had been learning in class.

Welcoming the participants, LINC Chief of Party Howard Ockman emphasized that the role of economic journalists is to examine the uncertainty and confusion that often accompany economic change, and to explain to the public what is happening. He said they do so by being able to analyze economic events and to spot the key business issues and economic principles that are at play, and to set them forth in an understandable, accessible way.

Aziz Abdullayev, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, greeted the journalists and said that their work is vital for the society. “Your prime responsibility in this training is to get an understanding of economic issues,” he said.

Besides the theory, case studies and exercises in class, the journalists received a detailed story-writing assignment to be completed in their home towns between the two training modules. The second module was devoted to reviewing the homework in the classroom. The Internews trainers, LINC experts and participants jointly scrutinized every story. Their authors rewrote and polished them on the spot and presented the final versions to the colleagues again.

Filling out a feedback questionnaire on the workshop completion, the participants estimated its level highly. Anonymous comments on individual lectures by LINC experts included the following: “It was a presentation of genius. Looking like a show but still scientific and informative.”

According to LINC Crimea Field Director Daniel Themen, “The LINC/Internews training program in economic journalism had a greater demand than the first seminar could accommodate, given the intensive and practical nature of the training. We are therefore discussing repeating the training modules for additional Crimean journalists, with refinements based on participant feedback, later this year.”

Combining business duties with training pleasures:

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