META Europe: Media Competency And Cultural Empowerment

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META Europe is a European training course entitled Speaking Out! – Media Competence and Cultural Empowerment - focusing on media competence and new technology. The University of Sunderland’s media department (including its student/community radio station, Utopia FM) is one of the partners in this project.

The objective is to introduce the issue of media competence in non-formal adult education. Participants in the course - adult educators, teachers, community/social workers and media trainers from various European countries working in different areas - will be trained to offer and integrate media training into their regular work so as to promote self expression, media literacy and digital skills for their respective target groups.

The course offers a wide range of media skills including self-expression, digital production skills, training the trainers in community media and European media policies. Participants learn to apply these skills, and how to teach them to the people they work with. The teaching and learning approach of the course is learner - centred, action orientated and participatory.

Partners designed a training course with substantial on-line support materials. The course and materials were based on each partner’s substantial experience of research and training in the area of community media. In January 2006, the course was piloted as a free course in the UK at the department’s well-equipped media centre in Sunderland (there was also a course piloted in Austria in February 2006). There were 14 participants from Sunderland, Newcastle and the wider North East region, all of whom were interested in using community radio to reach groups who have little or no access to traditional media. The trainers came from the UK and Germany.

The University of Sunderland’s media department is the largest in the UK and carries out research into all aspects of radio including community radio training and management, webcasting and podcasting. See www.sunderland.ac.uk/radio for more details.

After successful completion of the training, participants will be able to work with local social groups in the context of community media, particularly radio; encourage individuals and groups in the community to articulate their interests and opinions through community media; and introduce members of local groups to new options for communication and cultural exchange.

After the successful pilots the course is being offered in two other locations (Poland and Finland) in September 2006. These courses will have a mix of participants from European Union member states, funded by their home countries. In Poland, the course will also play an important role in helping a new community media sector to set up training.

The training is offered as a one-week course with approximately 25-30 teaching hours divided into 5 units. There is an additional day for visiting the local organisation where the course takes place in order to facilitate exchange of experience. The course starts with a welcome meeting. The course language is English. See www.meta-europe.de for further details.

The feedback from the training course was extremely positive. Participants felt they had learnt a great deal from working collaboratively with other people in the sector and lots of useful links were made between participants, including plans for future radio work together. Several participants were extremely experienced in their own sector and were able to link this with newfound practical skills in radio/digital production and training.

There are substantial materials available from the META Europe website including course plans, handouts and workshop materials, background reading and web-links and evaluation tools. Curriculum and teaching and learning materials include digital skills, publicity, radio skills and concepts of teaching and learning. Please visit http://www.meta-europe.de for further information.

Partners include university media departments in Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Poland; community radio stations in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and Finland, and a youth project specialising in enabling digital media access and training in Germany.

Participants on the Sunderland course included an African internet radio and music project based in Newcastle; students wanting to work with schools and community groups to get them involved community radio; a development worker from a youth music project who wanted more access for young people on community media; a community business development advisor; a community worker working with young gay homeless people in Sunderland and a volunteer on a rural community radio station in Teesdale who wanted to set up more training for her station.

There has been a great deal of emphasis on formative evaluation and feedback throughout the course so learners’ experiences of community media and community media training have been important in designing the course and the course materials.

On the organisation
The university’s media department has always played an active role in developing research, education and training in the area of community and digital media. Over the past decade the radio department has been working on a variety of European collaborative projects relating to media training and underrepresented groups. The international collaboration was important in underlining that community media and related training is happening Europe- wide and can provide important educational and research opportunities for universities and the communities they are based in.

On staff
Planning and delivering the pilot course enabled less experienced staff to work on a collaborative European project. More experienced staff were able to research and disseminated information about projects in the areas of community media, new media and training.

On adult learners
As mentioned previously, participants were extremely positive about the course (see sections on Achievements and Learner involvement).

Several UK participants who heard about the pilot course but who were not able to attend are now intending to take part in courses in Poland and Finland in September 2006.

On outside bodies
The pilot course had speakers and input from other community media organisations such as Bradford Community Broadcasting and the Community Media Association.

Caroline Mitchell
Principal Lecturer in Radio
The Media Centre
The Sir Tom Cowie Campus
St Peter's Way
Sunderland
SR6 0DD

Telephone no.: 0191 515 2106

Email: Caroline.Mitchell@sunderland.ac.uk

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