how to medialab
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HOW TO... START AMEDIALAB
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There isn’t just one type of youngster, one type of media lab or one context. There-fore, there is no single definitive answer to the question of how you should start a media lab with youngsters. There are do-zens of youth media labs in Europe where young people are working as radio produ-cers or bloggers. They work together to create magazines or they lock themselves in the editing room for hours on end to piece together their video documentary. So that’s where you should go for inspira-tion! We’ve already collected some of that inspiration for you. In 5 interviews with the supervisors of 5 media labs spread across Europe, we went searching for
the secret that makes youngsters dedi-cate themselves so passionately to their media lab, week after week. Each media lab clearly has its own story, its own fo-cus on specific media, its history, its way of working with youngsters and its own goals. But what they all have in common is the ‘unbelievable enthusiasm’ of their members. Young people with a burning passion for imagery, sound or text. This enthusiasm is the key to their success. We will now share their stories with you, and give you our conclusions and tips on how you can exchange with these or other Eu-ropean media labs.
HOW TO START A MEDIA LAB WITH YOUNGSTERS
The interviews: Willem Beeck of Project Wolf from Mechelen, Belgium - p.04 Luzia Tschirky of Junge Journalisten Schweiz from Zürich, Switzerland - p.12 Darren Mann of CSV Media Clubhouse from Ipswich, United Kingdom - p16 Mirza Ajnadzic of eFM Studentski from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - p.22 Wannes Fremaut and Marie-Laure Delaby of Villa Bota from Bruges, Belgium - p.26
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PROJECT WOLFHanswijkstraat 32MechelenBelgium
www.projectwolf.be+32 15 29 77 [email protected]
Media: Photo, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Radio, WeblogYoung volunteers: 50 Staffmembers: 1
Willem Beeck
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PROJECT WOLF (BELGIUM)One thing’s for sure: they attract attention in the streets of Mechelen. Wearing their tough-looking baseball caps with the very recognizable ‘Wolf’ logo, you can spot the young Wolves coming from a mile away. Another eye-catcher is their brand new radio studio, just a stone’s throw from the city centre. From the other side of a gigantic window, every passer-by can see the young radio producers at work. “Our radio studio definitely turns some heads” says Willem Beeck, “and that’s what attracts a lot of the young crowd. Radio is the most popular medium here, because it’s so unique. Sure, you can take pictures yourself, at home. But creating radio shows in a real, professionally equipped studio, that’s not something you can do on your own.”
What does the structure of Project Wolf look like?WILLEM: “We have a board of directors at the top, which contains a few volun-teers. They receive support from me, but the board decides by itself which direction to take. Right below that, you have the four different cores: radio, vid-eo, photography and written content. They are divided into different task forc-es. Take video, for example: they have a video clip crew, some VJs, people work-ing on mapping, etc. I provide support wherever I can.”
Is there one person responsible per medium or do you support all the volunteers?“Each medium has one core supervisor who is also a member of the board of directors. But maybe that will change in the future.”
How do you recruit your volunteers?“We recruit mostly at events. We distribute a lot of printed material and we ask people to fill out a form so we have the details nec-essary to contact them with more informa-tion. We also try to reach youngsters online, through social media like Facebook and Twitter. We also use our own website to try and find new volunteers.”
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Do you recruit your volunteers any differently depending on the type of medium?“No so long ago we launched a campaign that stated we were looking for ten radio producers. The number ten was just an indication, a few more or less was also fine. We communicated directly to those ten people, and through Facebook and our website alone, we were able to at-tract about twenty youngsters. We tried the same strategy for our photogra-phy section, but the response was a lot smaller.”
PROJECT WOLF IS MAINLY A LABORATO-RY WHERE YOUNGSTERS CAN EXPERI-MENT AND TINKER WITH STUFF.
Are all of your volunteers required to have a background in journalism?“Absolutely not. We make sure that the volunteers can take basic workshop classes on a monthly basis, but even that isn’t a requirement. We’re mainly a lab-oratory where they can experiment and tinker with stuff, where they learn to fall and get back up again.”
What are the tasks of the volunteers in Project Wolf? Do they only create content or do they have other responsi-bilities?“We have volunteers on different levels. People who want to help us build our structure, who want to take on more re-sponsibilities and delegate a little more. We also have volunteers who wait for a specific assignment before taking action. Then there are volunteers who only like to create radio shows, but there are also oth-ers who focus more on music or technical issues. They are the ones who take care of the technical side of things when we go on location with our mobile studio.”
Do you assign tasks to them yourself, or can they pick whether to be a technician or a photographer?“They all choose that for themselves. One of our main ideas is that they should do the things that they are most interested in. We’re not going to force them to do specific things. External people often ask us to start up something. My answer is always the same: I can propose it to the volunteers, but if they don’t want to do it, then it’s not going to happen. So, everything is really up to them.
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IF OUR VOLUNTEERS DON’T WANT TO DO IT, THEN IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN... EVERYTHING IS REALLY UP TO THEM.
What do you have on offer for your volunteers in terms of training and workshops?“We focus on three different types of train-ing. There are the basic workshops, which explain the basics of every medium. They will receive the basics of what radio or photography are all about. Then we have the freestyle workshops. For example, one that’s coming up real soon is a workshop on Polaroid effects. It digs a little deeper than your usual basic workshop, but you don’t have to take the basic workshop first in order to sign up for the freestyle one. We also offer work-shops based on what the volunteers are asking us to do. One of the people in our video crew was really interested in a VJ workshop. So we went out searching for a good VJ who was able to teach them a few tricks. Based on what the technicians were asking, we also had a technical workshop. Internal workshops are mostly organized based on suggestions we get from our vol-unteers.”
But they have to have a basic know-ledge of handling equipment, don’t they? Or do you adopt the principle of learning by doing?“Yes, learning by doing is a good way to describe what we do, but whenever we hand out equipment to someone, we ex-pect that they do have some basic knowl-edge. For example, before we hand out video equipment, you have to have had a basic course. But that’s just about the only requirement we have.”
How do you reward your volunteers?“We never reward them with money or an-ything like that. We try to make it clear to them that this is a unique opportunity for them to gain some experience. We do try to give our volunteers backstage passes or free entry tickets to certain events from time to time.”
Do you reimburse transportation costs or other expenses?“If it’s tied to Project Wolf, yes. If they have to stay the night somewhere, we take care of it. Or if they have to be somewhere for an entire day, we try to make sure they have plenty to eat and drink.”
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How does Project Wolf make sure that volunteers keep coming back for more?“That’s something we’ve been working on very hard over the last couple of months. We’ve noticed that primarily, we have to be really specific. Don’t talk too much about a project, but really make it hap-pen. As long as our agenda contains real projects, we notice that they stay active. Volunteers want to feel engaged and they really look to you to make stuff happen for them. That means you have to be able to effectively offer them something. Having a full agenda and clearly outlined projects are crucial.
Aside from that, we sometimes combine meetings with a barbecue or free drinks. You could almost call them teambuilding events.”
What do you think is the correct way of working with volunteers?“You have to show them that every one of them is unique and at the same time, make them feel like they are getting some unique opportunities.”
Do you have any examples of what you think you could have done better using volunteers?“We have lots of those. At the end of 2013 we did a showcase with gigs of a lot of small bands. At the same time, we were doing live radio, photography and video shoots. Sometimes that tends to go awry from a technical point of view. For some of the volunteers, those technical difficulties can be very demotivating. But on the oth-er hand, it is a good learning experience for them.”
Could you give other media labs two extra tips on working with volunteers?“First of all, I think that once you start giv-ing them a monetary compensation to try and motivate them, you can never go back. So that’s an important decision you have to make. If you do it once, you have to be consistent about it and do it all the time.
Secondly, make sure you know your volun-teers well, and that they know you. Make sure they have someone to talk to and can put a face to a name.”
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JUNGE JOURNALISTEN SCHWEIZ8000 ZürichSwitzerland
www.jungejournalisten.ch+41 79 20 93 [email protected]
Media: Photo, Video, Audio, Online content, WeblogYoung volunteers: 170 Staffmembers: 0
Luzia Tschirky
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JUNGE JOURNALISTEN SCHWEIZ (SWITZERLAND)As far as this list is concerned, you could describe the Junge Journalisten Schweiz (JJS) as a bit of an odd duck. While most media labs mainly focus on media creation, JJS points its arrows at networking. “Primarily, we are a networking organisation. Switzerland is not a very big country and a quality network is crucial if you want to work as a journalist. It’s our job to bring young journalists into contact with more experienced ones.” says Luzia Tschirky, vice-president of JJS.
What does your structure look like?LUZIA: “We are a volunteer organisation in the strict sense of the word. Everybody within the organisation is a volunteer. We don’t have any employees on the payroll. We do have a board of directors which consists of five friends who are doing this purely on a voluntary basis.
In our network you will find content writ-ers, bloggers, video journalists, and also a few radio producers, although the latter group is somewhat small-scaled. We feel that for us, radio as a news medium is less important.”
How do you recruit your volunteers?“We organize events on a regular basis,
which we announce beforehand, mainly through Facebook and Twitter. At these events we get to meet young journalists who come to ask us if they can join our initiative. We are open to everyone, not just journalism students, but also bio-en-gineers, history buffs, etc. Although the common factor is that everyone has ambi-tions in the field of journalism.
There’s only one criterion: you have to be under 30 years of age, and although that rule is tough to maintain sometimes, we have a strict policy on that! After all, we’re called ‘Young Journalists’.”
30 IS REALLY THE LIMIT! AFTER ALL, WE’RE CALLED ‘YOUNG JOURNALISTS’!
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What sort of tasks do the volunteers have? Creating content, or also other responsibilities?“Our focus is not on content creation, but on building a network of journalists. As a journalist, it’s very important to know a lot of people. This gives you access to other people, and also companies.
Of course, they do create content. After all, they’re meant to gain some experi-ence. We also offer them the knowledge and skills they need in order to become a good journalist...
When they do create content, it has to meet our standards. It has to be an inter-esting story, or the way they got to the sto-ry needs to be interesting. It also has to be linked to ‘Junge Journalisten Schweiz’. Oth-er than that, we leave the choice of what they want to create up to them.”
Do you offer your volunteers any type of training?“That’s our second most important task. We train our volunteers in social media, data journalism, online research, etc. It also depends on the theme of our ‘Jugend-
medientagen’. We do ask money for our training courses, although they are very cheap compared to what the universities tend to ask.
We also have a mentoring program, which means that the older, more experienced journalists take the young journalists un-der their wing. The older journalists have to transfer their knowledge and experi-ence onto the younger ones.”
How do you reward your volunteers?“We don’t reward them in terms of money: that would be impossible for us. But if an-yone makes any expenses related to our organisation, of course we pay them back.
A job working in the sector is of course the biggest reward we can give them, but unfortunately this is something that’s be-yond our control. In the end, the young-sters have to take action for themselves and make the most of the network they have built. We help them to find the right contacts, but they have to prove what their abilities are for themselves. The world of media is a rough one, and aside from ef-fort and talent, finding useful contacts is
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very important. We can help them to meet those people. But the talent and the effort, that’s something they have to work for on their own.”
WE CAN HELP THEM TO MEET THE RIGHT CONTACTS. BUT THE TALENT AND THE EFFORT, THAT’S SOMETHING THEY HAVE TO WORK FOR ON THEIR OWN. What is the correct way of working with volunteers?“We are all doing this as volunteers, so it’s not about the money, but all about team spirit. We all do our best, but we know we’re not professionals. We’re a good team, we talk to each other a lot and we support each other at all times. There is a great sense of camaraderie which keeps people engaged and dedicated to our or-ganisation.”
Can you give us any examples of when things went wrong with the volun-teers? Are there instances in which you failed?“Sometimes people come to us claiming that they have a lot of time. Unfortunately, that turns out not to be the case. If they
stop answering their phone or don’t reply to emails for two weeks, we can’t use them anymore. I understand that sometimes, family or travel can get in the way. But you have to be fair towards the other volun-teers.
It’s nothing personal, but sometimes we don’t have any other choice but to exclude people from our organisation.”
Can you give us two more tips on wor-king with volunteers?“Our organisation is structured in a clear and simple way. That tends to work very well. It’s clear what we stand for and what we wish to achieve. The most important thing is that you’re working with volunteers who are enthusiastic and are proud of the organisation. That’s when you sometimes feel you can move mountains. Build a net-work with other interesting organisations. Whenever you’re working with volunteers, it’s important to have partners. This will allow you to work together to create inter-esting projects.”
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CSV MEDIA CLUBHOUSE120 Princes StreetIpswich Suffolk IP1 RSEngland
www.mediaclubhouse.org.uk+44 (0)[email protected]
Media: photo, video, audio, online contentYoung volunteers: +200Staffmembers: 26
Darren Mann
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CSV MEDIA CLUBHOUSE IPSWICH (ENGLAND)June 10th, 2014 was a great day. “Goosebumps!”, Darren Mann says. He is one of the driving forces behind CSV Media Clubhouse Ipswich. 300 volunteers helped us move to our new building that day, forming ‘The Incredible Human Chain’. Together, they formed a giant conveyor belt between the old location and the new building. The success of this event typifies the trust that people in Ipswich put in the work of CSV Media Clubhouse. “This is the result of years of hard work and a presence in Ipswich. There is a positive vibe that surrounds our work, and we’re now reaping the rewards.”
What does the structure of your organi-sation look like?“We work with a rather large number of employees, but we’re also able to reach a very large group of volunteers. We most-ly aim at people of all ages with learning disabilities or other educational problems.
There are about 250 volunteers working with CSV Media Clubhouse Ipswich. 140 of them are active as media producers outsi-de of our organisation. Most of them are under 25 years of age, but we also have a few older, more experienced people who are mostly responsible for coaching. We have radio, online, magazine and video crews. Each medium has a designated su-
pervising employee. I support the mana-gers of each medium whenever they need help.”
WE ARE NOW REAPING THE REWARDS OF ALL THE HARD WORK WE’VE DONE IN THE PAST FEW YEARS.
How do you recruit your volunteers?“Right now, things are going smoothly. People come to us to volunteer, because they’ve heard positive stories about us. That sort of mouth-to-mouth advertising really pays off, but aside from that we also actively recruit by broadcasting commer-cials on our own radio network.
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We also try to gain recognition on social me-dia such as Facebook and Twitter, because that’s where the young crowd is at.”
Which medium is the most popular among your volunteers?“I would say the radio and music studio. We started our own radio station in August of 2013 and we’ve noticed that that was what a lot of people were waiting for. Radio is a very easy medium, because most people have something to say, and are glad that they now have that opportunity.”
How do you make sure that volunteers keep coming to your organisation?“They have to enjoy whatever it is they’re doing. We never force them to do anything. If they don’t want to do it, so be it. We’ll find something else for them to do. If they do en-joy doing it, we provide them with support.We also reimburse them for food or other expenses.”
What sort of tasks do the volunteers have? Creating content, or also other responsibilities?“We work with specific target groups and we want to support them in finding their own
strengths. This basically means we encoura-ge them to discover their own talents and use them. Maybe someone has the talent to organize events or to lead a group. We then look at what we can offer them and give them the opportunity to develop their talent. It’s fantastic to watch them succeed in their efforts.
If someone shows they have excellent skills, we offer them more responsibilities. Some-times that can go wrong, but we always keep encouraging people. As paid employees, it’s important that we closely supervise the coa-ching of our volunteers. If I ask a volunteer to do something important and things go wrong, I’m still the one responsible. There-fore, I need to be able to judge who can do what.”
WHEN SOMEONE DECIDES TO PUT HIS OR HER TIME IN THE ORGANISATION, THEN HELPING AND COACHING THAT PERSON IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO!
Do you offer your volunteers any type of training?“Volunteer work and training are closely tied together. When someone decides to put
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his or her time into the organisation, then helping and coaching that person is the least we can do. We try to focus our trai-ning courses on different types of media. They will be able to apply the skills they learn here in their future jobs. So that way, we can give something back to them.
Everyone is welcome in our organisation, but not everyone can simply be placed anywhere. Some tasks require specific training. If you want to be a receptionist,
for example, you need to receive some coaching from an experienced volunteer for a couple of days.”
How do you reward your volunteers?“We can’t reward them financially. We reward them with knowledge and trai-ning. Throughout the year we also organi-ze events for them, like a Christmas party. We also offer them meals whenever we can.”
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Why do you invest in volunteers?“We are convinced that everyone has so-mething to contribute to the community. Everyone has his or her own story and ta-lents. We want to offer everyone the op-portunity of demonstrating those talents and telling that story.”
What’s the best way of working with volunteers?“Treat your volunteers the same way you would your employees. You need to treat them the way you yourself would want to be treated. Volunteers deserve the utmost respect. They put their time and energy into your organisation. They aren’t driven by money, but by passion.”
Can you give us any examples of when things went wrong with the volunteers?
Are there instances in which you failed?“You can’t put too much on their plate. If they had different expectations, things would start going wrong, especially at the start. Always keep in mind that volunteers have other things to do as well. They’re not full-time employees.”
Can you give us two more tips on working with volunteers?“Respect them: they are there because they choose to be. They don’t need to work with you if they don’t want to. Why would they?
Make sure you offer them a stimulating, motivating and exciting environment to work in. This keeps them engaged, happy and dynamic.”
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STUDENTSKI EFM RADIOzmaja od bosne 8SarajevoBosnia and Herzegovina
www.efm.ba+387 33 21 20 [email protected]
Media: Photo, Video, Audio, Online content, RadioYoung volunteers: 6 Staffmembers: 8
Mirza Ajnadzic
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EFM STUDENTSKIeFM studentski was founded in Sarajevo in 1996, one year after the end of the Bosnian civil war. Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a culture of volunteers, as only 1% of Bosnian youth works on a voluntary basis. Still, at eFM Studentski they believe in the po-wer of volunteers and they do their best to convince youngsters to dedicate themselves to their media organisation. “Currently, we have 8 dedicated youngsters, but next week that number could be 15 or just as well be 5. It’s a constant battle to convince people to dedicate themselves to projects on a voluntary basis”, Mirza Ajnadzic explains.
What does your structure look like?MIRZA: “We have seven paid employees in our organisation who create radio shows themselves, we blog, we design magazines or do video reports and docu-mentaries. Volunteers can go to work with any of our employees. We will teach them all they need to know about a specific me-dium, and encourage them to try each me-dium as well. After a month or two, most of them have made their choice, and they possess enough skills to start working in-dependently.
We are an open organisation with one im-portant motto: if anyone asks for our help, we immediately give it to them. We want to show that everyone is welcome and can work with us whenever they want.”
IF ANYONE ASKS FOR OUR HELP, WE IMMEDIATELY GIVE IT TO THEM.
How do you make sure that volunteers keep coming to your organisation?“Because Bosnian education does not pro-vide sufficient practical experience, we try to make that possible for our volunteers. Practical experience proves to be a good stimulus. We also try to introduce our vo-lunteers to other media organisations and sometimes, that lands them a job.
58% of Bosnian youngsters are unem-ployed, and no matter how hard we try... it’s still very difficult to convince Bosnians that volunteer work can be a valuable ad-dition to their diploma. Many Bosnians still live by the pre-war communist
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principle that says you need to get a de-gree yourself, and that it’s the responsibili-ty of the government or of the employers, to help you find a job.
But not many youngsters are interested in practical experience to complement their studies, even though it could help them to separate themselves from the rest.
What sort of tasks do the volunteers have? Creating content, or also other responsibilities?“Volunteers mainly have the opportunity to create content. They decide for them-selves what they want to create. We don’t force anything onto them; we don’t have formats or output expectations, nothing... Together with them, we strive for the best possible quality. For us, quality is much more important than quantity.
That freedom is an important part of what we do. Don’t get me wrong though. It’s not because we allow them to create whate-ver they want, that everything they create ends up on our website or on our radio shows. If what they create doesn’t comply with our publication policy, we will help
them to find another platform that allows them to spread their message.”
IF THE VOLUNTEERS CREATE SOME-THING THAT DOESN’T COMPLY WITH OUR PUBLICATION POLICY, WE WILL HELP THEM TO FIND ANOTHER PLAT-FORM THAT ALLOWS THEM TO SPREAD THEIR MESSAGE.
Do you offer your volunteers any types of training?“The first thing we do, is talk to our vo-lunteers. What do they want to do? Next, we offer them training courses and work-shops. As a start, we require them to take a course of about two months to teach them the tricks of the trade: you can look at that like an internship of sorts. During those two months, we challenge them to think before we teach them the technical side of things.
It’s not like we have a complete range of workshops and training courses that vo-lunteers can participate in. We mainly show them the way our organi-sation works.”
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How do you reward your volunteers?“We don’t, because we don’t have the mo-ney for that. We do try to support them by helping them to look for other me-dia organisations that do offer them the chance to earn some money.”
What’s the best way of working with volunteers?“We offer them freedom and knowledge, without asking for anything in return.
If we would be able to pay them, we cer-tainly would have a lot more volunteers, but we don’t want to stray from our prin-ciples. We believe that the way we’re doing it is the right way. Giving people too much freedom can also harm produc-tivity. Some people can’t handle the free-dom they’ve been given. They wait until we tell them what to do, and that’s not something we believe in.”
Can you give us any examples of when things went wrong with the volunteers? Are there instances in which you failed?“We sometimes have trouble getting the volunteers to commit to our way of wor-king. We try to do the very best we can for
everyone, but sometimes someone just doesn’t fit into our organisation or that per-son doesn’t share our vision.
A lot of volunteers also stop showing up be-cause we don’t tell them what to do. Many of them can’t handle the level of indepen-dence they get from us.” Can you give us two more tips on wor-king with volunteers?“Offer them a place where their opinion matters. Society often doesn’t allow them that. Give them an insight on how they are growing, and on how they’ve experienced that growth. If you allow them to see their own progression that tends to stimulate them a lot.”
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VILLA BOTA MEDIALABPark 8 8000 BrugesBelgium
www.villabota.be+32 50 33 06 [email protected]
Media: Photo, Video, Written reports, Online content, TelevisionYoung volunteers: 45 Staffmembers: 2
Wannes Fremaut
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VILLA BOTA (BELGIUM)You can find Villa Bota at the edge of the Astridpark in Bruges. From the radio studio and the Villa Bota Bar you have a spectacular view on the pond and the kiosk. We asked Wannes Fremaut and Marie-Laure Delaby of Villa Bota to tell us the secret of their suc-cess: “The Villa Bota Bar is the beating heart of our organisation. During the school year, youngsters of different schools in Bruges come here to eat their sandwiches. But there is more: this space just breathes ‘media creation’. A lot of youngsters get to know us this way and are eager to volunteer for us, making radio shows or working for the video crew. But we are also constantly searching for young blood to help us with everyday management.”
How did it all come into existence?WANNES: “About 5 years ago, Villa Bota started off really small, but in no time we grew bigger than any of us would have ever imagined. After a few years of work-ing independently, we were able to ex-pand our organisation with help from ‘Het Entrepot’, a regional cultural youth centre in Bruges. Although it hasn’t always been easy to give up our independent status, we are very grateful for their support. It’s very useful to be able to receive that strong structural support, particularly in the areas of human resources and financ-es. This leaves us with more time to focus on our core business.
What does your volunteer program look like?WANNES: “We work with a lot of volun-teers. We have three branches, the biggest being radio. We have been making youth radio shows for four years and currently have 100 volunteers working on 35 radio shows. For our European project, anoth-er 50 or so volunteers joined a brand new video crew.
A couple of months ago, we founded our third branch: the editorial staff. They write blog content or put photography reports online. The editorial team consists of about ten people. We try to have them
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write articles or website content on a regular basis, so we have a steady and continuous output.
The radio and video crews are very differ-ent. The radio crew has a show every one or two weeks, so those people are with us on a more regular basis. The video crew is more project-oriented. They pick the things they want to work on with us. This also means that their involvement is a bit smaller and that we don’t see those volun-teers as often.
The radio crew is the most structured. The everyday management meets once per month and consists of about ten very de-voted volunteers. During these meetings they talk mostly about content. About the shows, the events they are going to at-tend, the schedule, etc. They also get to decide who can broadcast, and when. We also work with task forces. We have mu-sic editors, technicians and an FM team, whose job it is to prepare the transition into FM radio.
There is also a team to organize events. Those people don’t necessarily create me-
dia, but they want to contribute in other ways, for example by helping to set up our music fair.
Last but not least, there’s our general meeting that brings together our three branches - radio, video and written con-tent.
For each branch, we have a separate su-pervisor standing by. Although we are in direct contact with the volunteers, we want to make sure they have a specific contact person they can go to.”
How does Villa Bota recruit its volunteers?MARIE-LAURE: “We don’t recruit for our radio department, because we have a constant influx of people. We do have ini-tiatives for video and content writing. We are working on a movie clip in which we introduce ourselves. We also have a “do you want to work with us?” button on our website. You can find a lot of information there. Our Facebook page also mentions that we’re looking for people.
At the beginning of the year, we used a promotional video to introduce Villa Bota
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to youngsters in several schools across Bruges. We also deliberately promot-ed our video department in schools that provide video art education. We distrib-uted our program which contains all the activities we have on offer. While it wasn’t our biggest source of newcomers, we did manage to recruit some new people this way. This is something we plan to do more in the future: communicate personally with youngsters.”
What are the main tasks of the volun-teers within your organisation? Do they only produce content or do they also have other responsibilities?WANNES: “The main focus is on content, but we also have people in the everyday management who occupy themselves with technical aspects. They maintain the equipment or the studio, for example. ‘For and by youngsters and volunteers’ is an important message we distribute, and we can’t lose sight of that.
It’s true that with paid employees you could take all of the responsibilities away from the volunteers and at times be a lot more efficient. But that can’t be our goal:
the input and the ideas of the volunteers are crucial to our cause. If they are unable to do it, it shouldn’t happen at all.”
Do volunteers have the opportunity to receive some sort of education or train-ing courses?WANNES: “We have introductory work-shops like a three-hour session of ‘getting a taste of radio’. But we also use peer-to-peer education. New members of the ra-dio crew are mentored by an experienced radio producer, who supervises the prepa-ration of the newcomer’s first show. Think of it as a test recording. The experienced radio producer should always be there for the new one. We think it’s important that they transfer what they’ve learned onto the newcomers. Some of our volunteers have been working on radio for over 4 years, and they have an incredible amount of knowledge!”
MARIE-LAURE: “Aside from the basic ed-ucation on video and radio, we always try to ask the youngsters what it is they’d like to learn. We can then decide to give them additional training ourselves, or to hire an external educator. We offer these training
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sessions to them for free in exchange for their dedication.”
INVESTING IN PROFESSIONAL EQUIP-MENT IS OF CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE.
How does Villa Bota reward its volunteers?WANNES: “There are many ways in which we reward our volunteers: a New Year’s reception, a thank-you party, workshops they can attend for free. We also provide them with professional equipment they can use to ensure that their first experi-ence with creating video and radio is a smooth one.
Especially that last part is important. As a media lab, it’s not always easy to make big investments. But it’s the way you of-fer technical support and equipment that should separate your initiative from oth-ers. So make sure that you have quali-ty equipment available in order to make working for you a special experience. Buy equipment that’s both durable and pro-fessional.
Our radio department has a lot of DJ’s. Het Entrepot and other organisations put to-
gether a lot of events, for which they also need DJ’s. We like to help them out or we try to get our volunteers booked for these events. In that case they will receive some form of compensation from the organizer. This type of public exposure is a very big reward in itself, which is true for all media products we create with Villa Bota, actu-ally. The more the product is distributed and listened to or viewed by the public, the more motivated the volunteer will get, obviously.”
BEING YOUNG AT HEART, THAT’S OUR PUNCH LINE.
Are all of the volunteers youngsters?WANNES: “No, but they are all young at heart. Our oldest volunteer is 60 years old. Obviously we first talked it over with him, because he needed to fit into the Villa Bota message. What convinced us was the back and forth he had with the youngsters. This person possesses a wealth of musical experience and also actively seeks a dia-logue with the youngsters. Then we also have a somewhat older man who has a lot of technical knowledge. He works hard for Villa Bota, but sometimes also takes a
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step back in order to give young people a chance and then we don’t see him for a while. In short, older participants are cer-tainly welcome, but they have to provide some added value to the youngsters.
The average age of our radio producers is just under 23. The video crew is much younger. There are a few of us who are far above the average age, but we are very mindful about our choices. Being young at heart, that’s our punch line.”
Do things sometimes go wrong with any of the volunteers?WANNES: “We have tons of equipment here, and there is a great sense of freedom. You need that if you want to be creative. But they’re not professional radio produc-ers. They do this in their spare time. Some-times, that can lead to situations where for example someone spills a coke can on the mixing table, even though everyone knows that drinks aren’t allowed on there. Inci-dents like that have led the volunteers to come up with a number of official house rules themselves, which are gathered in a document that all youngsters need to sign when they come to work with us.”
MARIE-LAURE: “Sometimes we notice that the dedication of the video crew can fluctu-ate a little bit. They sign up for a project but then they arrive late or simply don’t show up at all. It’s hard to maintain a high level of dedication at all times. As someone who is responsible for everyday operations, you mostly look at the technical aspect or may-be the creation of content, but sometimes you lose sight of the social aspect of what it is we do. Sometimes we tend to recruit people mainly for their technical skills. But as a media lab supervisor, being able to co-operate with volunteers is crucial too. We have to strive for a good balance between the technical aspect, content creation, and social skills within our organisation.”
What do you think is the correct way of working with volunteers?MARIE-LAURE: “Being open to things. You have to respect the result and the product, because in the end you’re working with a mixed bag of people, all with different skill levels. From newbies to people who are probably going to end up doing this for a living some day. So it’s important that you show a lot of respect to the volunteers and what they create.”
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WANNES: “A personal approach is also very important. We try to listen to a lot of shows and provide the volunteers with feedback, and also approach them in-formally for a friendly chat from time to time. Or you give them a call if you haven’t heard from them for a while. The chal-lenge is to find a good balance between supervising them, and allowing them to do their thing.”
Could you give other media labs two extra tips on working with volunteers?WANNES: “Let them have some fun. For youngsters, this is essentially something they dedicate their spare time to! Second-ly, inspire them. If someone pitches an idea to you, you could say “yes, but have taken this or that into account?” But then they might lose their enthusiasm. Instead, try to think with them, provide them with some examples. It will allow you to create some very cool projects and shows.”
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RECOMMENDATIONS
FUN, FRIENDS, CHALLENGE, PROFIT, OWNERSHIP, COACHING
FUN Volunteering for a media lab is a hobby and a form of dedication. You do it becau-se you want to, not because your boss or your teacher tells you to. If you give it a try and you soon become bored with it, or feel it’s difficult and stressful, you won’t keep it up for long. So the best tip we can give you is: make sure there is a big FUN factor!
Let youngsters tinker and try stuff out: it’s all in the word: a media lab is a labo-ratory for youngsters to experiment with media. Throughout a normal school day, youngsters’ heads are already systema-tically filled with theoretical knowledge. In a laboratory, you get to research and experiment. You learn by trial and error, without having to worry about grades. By pressing a button marked ‘C’ and seeing what happens.
Make it specific: youngsters don’t want to talk for weeks on end about what they could be doing. YOLO, you know! So make it specific for them. Provide them with as-signments, create projects, inspire them, set them reasonable deadlines and let them create something tangible. All im-portant success stories involve being able to start something and being able to com-plete it.
Quote from the interview with Project Wolf (Belgium): “As long as our agenda contains real projects, we notice that they stay active. Volunteers want to feel engaged and they really look to you to make stuff happen for them. That means you have to be able to effectively offer them some-thing. Having a full agenda and clearly out-lined projects are crucial.”
Take their interests into account: eve-ryone has their own talents and interests, and a media lab requires many talents: technical skills, event organizing, content
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creation, expressing yourself, ... So go looking for projects that each individual youngster can and will participate in. It’s not because your organisation needs a new radio voice, that this job necessarily has to go to your latest recruit... All work and no play make Jack a dull
boy: the youngsters in your media lab create media, of course. But next to pro-ject-oriented work, try to provide mo-ments in which they can relax, laugh, and enjoy just being in each other’s presence...
FRIENDS Whether it’s playing, learning, or simply living: it’s always better to do it together, as a group. Being and staying dedicated often depends on the people you are working with and the vibe you experience while being around them. Once you ma-nage to evolve from a group of individuals to a group of friends, your organisation will be a lot stronger. Youngsters create ‘alliances’, forge plans, and arrive at new and refreshing ideas together. Give them a space where they can meet
each other: youngsters are looking for pla-ces to meet their peers. Provide them with
this kind of meeting place in your media lab. By starting from a true meeting place for youngsters, you will be able to grow into a strong organisation.
Quote from the interview with Villa Bota (Belgium): “The Villa Bota Bar is the bea-ting heart of our organisation. During the school year, youngsters of different schools in Bruges come here to eat their sandwiches.”
Make them work together: put the focus on working together, and have 2 or 3 re-porters share the responsibility of crea-ting a news item. Initially, youngsters will look for like-minded people. By working together to create something tangible, they will learn to appreciate the ways in which they complement each other.
CHALLENGE Will he, or won’t he? You can bet your mo-ney it will depend on whether he’s feeling challenged. Look at it as a game: the way to really keep a player engaged is to offer him challenges that are just beyond the reach of his abilities...
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So: Give them challenging assignments: coo-
perate with the youngsters to find chal-lenging assignments for them, different formats, interesting interviews, attractive events, ... anything that makes their eyes sparkle.
Invest in equipment: your media youngsters are fascinated by media and electronics and want to learn everything about it. True, professional equipment for making radio or television is extre-mely expensive. However, it’s also very stimulating for the youngsters to get the chance to work with high quality equip-ment. That’s why we advise you to invest a proper amount of money in equipment, keeping the following thoughts in mind.
• Not all professional equipment is ready to go ‘out of the box’, and it’s not always ‘newbie proof’. Letting a newcomer run loose in a professional radio studio or editing room without proper guidance is asking for trouble. On the other hand, you want to give youngsters a chance to experiment with the equipment, to make
errors and to learn from their mistakes. “The more buttons there are on a piece of equipment, the more professional it is”, Wannes Fremaut from Villa Bota ex-plains. “Look for durable equipment that provides enough challenge to work with, but is still user-friendly at the same time.”
• Not all software is compatible with your average home computer. A large part of media production is done through spe-cialized software for editing audio, video or images. Some software packages are platform dependent which means they cannot be used on both Apple and Win-dows computers. If it’s important to you that your volunteers are able to work from home with the knowledge they’-ve acquired, it’s best for you to choose a software package that’s compati-ble with all of the common platforms. The media lab crowd is not always as ‘res-ponsible’ with the equipment as you would like them to be. Even though you have clear agreements on something, sometimes the equipment you hand out to them gets a beating, or is lost. Something falls over, or a cup of coffee gets spilt, ... accidents hap-pen, and something will inevitably break.
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Here are some pointers:• Get proper insurance for damages to or loss of your equipment.• Check the warranty terms when purchasing new equipment. Often you need to register your equipment onli-ne in order to be eligible for full war-ranty of your device.• Work with ‘entry level’ equipment for beginners and ‘professional’ equip-ment for experienced youngsters.• Keeping track of who you lend equipment to will save you a lot of headache.
Quote from the interview with Villa Bota (Belgium): “But it’s the way you offer tech-nical support and equipment that should separate your initiative from others. So make sure that you have quality equipment available in order to make working for you a special experience. Buy equipment that’s both durable and professional.”
PROFIT What’s in it for me? Well, fun, friends, challenges… but also learning what you or your parents will consider to be ‘use-ful’. Youngsters who are active in a media
lab are primarily eager to learn. They want to progress and to climb the ladder. They want extra knowledge, professional con-tacts, personal growth, new friends, etc.
Give them the opportunity to grow: Most media labs offer both basic and advanced training. You can do a lot of work without taking a course, but before you get to go on the road with certain pieces of equip-ment, you will need to take basic courses. Based on what the youngsters are asking for, the supervisors provide extra training courses and workshops.
Make sure they know their strengths and progress: if you want to grow, you need to know where to put your focus. Media labs are places where youngsters can acquire a lot of knowledge and skills, without feeling like they’re at school. That’s what we call ‘informal learning’. But this context is just as good if you want to teach youngsters how to recognize their own abilities. You can even reward them with official docu-ments which explicitly acknowledge the skills they’ve acquired. On September 1st, 2014, the European Commission launched the ‘Youth pass’, which allows you to hand
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out skill certificates (a type of diploma) to your volunteers when they partake in ‘Youth in Action’ projects. In Flanders, a good place to start is oscaronline.be.
Quote from the interview with FM studentski (Bosnia and Herzegovina): “Give them an insight on how they are growing and how they’ve experienced that growth.”
Give them a chance to market their skills: a lot of non-profit associations are looking for communication support, but they don’t have the budget to really compete in the commercial sector. Maybe they can contact your volunteers and reward them with a small monetary compensation?
Help them to build their network: The media sector is built on professional con-tacts. At ‘Junge Journalisten Schweiz’ they are a big fan of ‘mentoring’. In their men-toring program, youngsters are introdu-ced to experienced journalists who then pass on their skills. This system requires a strong network, but has the advantage of introducing a lot of external knowledge to your organisation, and making sure that
the youngsters are put on the right profes-sional path.
Quote from the interview with Project Wolf (Belgium): “We never reward them with money or anything like that. We try to make it clear to them that this is a unique opportunity for them to gain some expe-rience.”
Help them to build their portfolio: if you want to crack the job market, then rele-vant experience and quality are obviously strong assets to have. The productions they create in the media lab can contribute to that immensely. Help them to build a port-folio and teach them how to showcase it.
COACHING A media maker can have you dazzled and amazed about his or her technical skills, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are able to properly pass this know-ledge on to others.
Peer-to-peer learning: at Villa Bota in Bruges, CSV Media Clubhouse and Pro-ject Wolf, the emphasis is put on peer-to-peer learning. Youngsters who have been
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gaining experience for some time, are pro-moted to coach. This kills two birds with one stone. On the one hand, the know-ledge is passed on and on the other hand, the coach gains recognition for the skills he or she has acquired. A dedicated contact person: Make sure
the youngsters know who they can turn to with all of their questions. They need to be able to put a face to a name within your organisation. Personal contact is crucial to them. If the volunteers get along well with this contact person, he or she could give them the extra push they need to get so-mething done.
Quote from the interview with Project Wolf (Belgium): “Make sure you know your vo-lunteers well and that they know you. Make sure they have someone to talk to and can put a face to a name.”
Have a good team of employees and su-pervisors: Make sure your media lab super-visors have sufficient social skills. Above all, youngsters have to feel comfortable in a media lab. Only then can they start to learn.
Quote from the interview with Villa Bota (Belgium): “As someone who is responsible for everyday operations, you mostly look at the technical aspect or maybe the cre-ation of content, but sometimes you lose sight of the social aspect of what it is we do. Sometimes we tend to recruit people mainly for their technical skills. But as a media lab supervisor, being able to coope-rate with volunteers is crucial too.”
OWNERSHIP Above all, a well-functioning media lab is a place where youngsters can feel comfor-table and recognized. In fact, that should be the basis for any type of organisation working with youngsters and volunteers. Whether you run a youth centre or a media lab, the challenge is to get the youngsters involved in your organisation.
Make sure they are familiar with your way of working so they can decide for themsel-ves what kind of action they should take. That’s not always easy, because as a men-tor, a supervisor, or a paid employee you are often still responsible for the results, the reach, the finances, ... Still, we want to
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give some pointers to the media supervi-sor who oversees this process. Limit the supervisor’s input in the final pro-
duct. The youngster should always feel like he or she is the creator of the product.
Do not immediately offer a solution when you notice the volunteer making a mistake. What you should do instead, is facilitate the thinking process and help them look for se-veral alternatives which will ultimately lead to a solution. Every result that a volunteer can be
proud of, has its merits and deserves to
be recognized and published. If publishing the work really isn’t an option, make sure you can justify that decision.
Quote from the interview with Project Wolf (Belgium): “We’re not going to force them to do specific things. We often get asked by external people to start up so-mething. My answer is always the same: “I can propose that to the volunteers, but if they don’t want to do it, then it’s not going to happen.” So, everything is really up to them.”
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During the development of this brochure, we contacted 28 European media labs. Each of these organisations expressed a clear interest in cooperating with the other European media labs, in order to share their experiences and find inspiration.
We gathered the contact information of these media labs and bundled it, together with other interesting data, in our sum-mary which you can find on page 46, 47 and 48.
Are you eager to get to know each other better? To create exciting projects to-gether? Then make sure to check out the possibilities that the Erasmus+ program (Youth in Action) of the European Commis-sion has to offer.
Erasmus+ is the new EU program for education, training, youth and sports. The current Youth in Action program is part of this larger program. Through Youth in Action, the European Union supports international encounters and exchanges for and by youngsters and youth workers of youth organisations in their spare time.Are you struggling with your grant appli-cation or do you want more information on the possibilities within the Erasmus+ program? Be sure to contact the National Agency in your country.
You can find all of the information about Erasmus+ as well as the contact information of all European National Agencies on the website: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus.
MEDIALABS IN EUROPE
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ADDRESSMarina, 210, Pral. 2Plaça Can Suris, snPadualaan 99120 Princes StreetEstonia pst 5AKeplerstr. 3-5Catharijnesingel 55GChrzelice 174
Rimska 8Miestentie 336a Lambs Conduit Streetpl. Sejmu Śląskiego 2Calle Alameda, 15. Plaza de las LetrasSmidsestraat 130Nieuwstraat 5629 Waterson STSülz tor str. 21-25Hanswijkstraat 32Conservatoriumplein 1Kozacka 41zmaja od bosne 8Grodzka 21Instrumentvägen 17Kesk 12Park 8Warszawska 6 lok. 32Prekersstraat 25
CITYBarcelonaCornellà de LlobregatUtrechtIpswichTallinnSaarbrückenUtrecht ŁącznikZürichLjubljanaEspooLondonKatowiceMadridGentGeraardsbergenLondonLüne burgMechelenKortrijkZagrebsarajevoLublinHägerstenValgaBruggeBiałystokAntwerpen
NAME OF THE ORGANISATIONAsociación de Prensa JuvenilCitilabCrossmedialab at the University of Applied SciencesCSV MediaEuropean Movement Estonia NGOExperimental Media LabFirma MediaFundacja OrtusJunge Journalisten SchweizLjudmila Art and Science LaboratoryMedia Lab Helsinki medialabMedialab KatowiceMedialab-PradoMediaraven vzwMIGMouth That RoarsPost-Media LabProject WolfQuindoRadiona / Zagreb Makerspacestudentski eFM radioThe “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” CentreUng Media SverigeValgamaa Noorte NõustamiskeskusVilla Bota medialabWspółpracowniaStampmedia
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COUNTRYSpainSpainNederlandEnglandEstoniaGermanyNetherlandsPolandSwitzerlandSloveniaFinlandUKPolandSpainBelgiumBelgiumUKGermanyBelgiumBelgiëCroatiaBosnia and HerzegovinaPolandSwedenEstoniaBelgïePolandBelgïe
E-MAIL [email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@stampmedia.be
WEBSITEwww.prensajuvenil.orgwww.citilab.euwww.crossmedialab.nlwww.mediaclubhouse.org.ukwww.noorteportaal.eewww.xmlab.orgwww.firmamedia.nlwww.ortus.org.plwww.jungejournalisten.chwww.ljudmila.orgwww.medialab.aalto.fiwww.medialabuk.comwww.medialabkatowice.euwww.medialab-prado.eswww.mediaraven.bewww.radiomig.bewww.mouththatroars.comwww.postmedialab.orgwww.projectwolf.bewww.quindo.bewww.radiona.orgwww.efm.bawww.teatrnn.plwww.ungmedia.sewww.valga.maavalitsus.eewww.villabota.bewww.wspolpracownia.plwww.stampmedia.be
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WHICH TYPE OF MEDIA DO YOU CREATE? Photo, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Radio, WeblogPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Weblog, videogames, scratch, arduinoPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Radio, Television, WeblogPhoto, Video, Audio, Online content, Radio, Television, WeblogPhoto, Video, Written reports, Online content, National Youth Portal, noorteportaal.eePhoto, Video, Written reports, Online contentPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Radio, WeblogPhoto, Video, Written reports, Online content, As a team we mosty organize events for creative people and the media we create come as a result of it.Photo, Video, Audio, Online content, WeblogOnline content, New Media ArtPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Television, Weblog, interactive media of all kinds, including VR, AR, games etc.Video, Online content, TelevisionAudio, Written reports, Online content, interactive installationsPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online contentPhoto, Video, Written reports, Online contentPhoto, Audio, Online content, RadioVideo, Online content, TelevisionPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Radio, Weblog, Book SeriesPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Radio, WeblogPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Radio, Weblog, game, webapplicationsPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, WeblogPhoto, Video, Audio, Online content, RadioPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, multimedia applications with 3D modelsPhoto, Video, Written reports, Online contentPhoto, Video, Written reports, Online content, TelevisionPhoto, Video, Audio, Written reports, Online content, Radio, WeblogWritten reports, Online contentPhoto, Video, Online content, Television
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ABOUT THE PROJECT ‘VILLA CROSSMEDIA’ Villa Crossmedia is a European project of the Interreg IVA 2 Seas-program, led by the City of Mechelen, with Het Entrepot (Bruges), CSV Media Club House (Ipswich) and Tho-mas More (Mechelen) as partner organisations.
The main goal of the Villa Crossmedia project is to make young people aware of the op-portunities as well as the pitfalls that come with the use of media.
Villa Crossmedia gives young people the opportunity to experiment with media and tries to make them ‘mediawise’ at the same time.
Villa Crossmedia developed this brochure ‘How to start a media lab’ in cooperation with Mediaraven vzw, a non-profit organisation that specializes in youngsters and new me-dia. Together, they also developed Caspargame, a media related card game tailored to youth media labs. You can find the card game through the website www.caspargame.eu
COLOPHON Editors: Niels Vromant, Andy Demeulenaere, Wouter De Meester - Mediaraven vzw,www.mediaraven.beCo-editor: Tina Van Acker – project coordinator Villa Crossmedia, www.villacrossmedia.euLay-out: Ruthje Goethals (www.ruimle.be)V.U.: Stad Mechelen, Gert Eeraerts, Grote Markt 21, 2800 Mechelen.
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