The Chronicles of Osh Media Camp
Aidai Kadyralieva
Make it in a week.
It's a new day, and they are out hunting for stories.
Listening, looking around. It was their only chance, and they were going to use it to the maximum. Don't miss the details, analyze the speech, ask the right questions, capture emotions. They were repeating these golden rules before the start. Camera is fully charged, hero is ready, ideas that matters are awaiting. Let's go.
Just like that, in the mood of an action thriller or an exciting quest participants do practical tasks at media camp. Limited time pushes ideas forward at high speed and makes knowledge and storytelling skills stick to you.
This time, IDEA Central Asia trained civil journalists in Osh. 28 beginner activists, journalists and bloggers from 7 regions learned to write, film and find valuable stories. As well as to get rid of stereotypes and understand each other, despite their differences.
The media camp participants learned to fact-check, to cover sensitive topics in Kyrgyz language, and to prevent conflicts that media can, at times, provoke. They figured out how to stay responsible and objective, especially when it comes to issues of religion, ethnicity and gender.
After the visit to Yntymak, a local media outlet, they saw an example of how journalists create high-quality, local content in Kyrgyz.
People + stories + ideas = change
It's a formula for quality content that young people mastered in practice. Their longreads (large multimedia texts) turned out to be diverse and literally delicious - one of the stories, for example, about Osh samsas and other enticing smells of street food.
How do they implement the electronic bus ticket system in Osh? How can a disease change someone’s fate? What is the life of an Osh jeweler like? Where to go in Osh in the summer? Where to find the creative class of the city?
Media camp teams have created vivid captivating stories to answer all these questions professionally. These are stories that inspire.
Trust the mentor, young padawan.
Throughout this process, mentors have always been side by side with the teams. This is more important than any theory for an aspiring journalist. When you can approach the person whose work you admire, motivation and confidence outscore the lack of experience. Especially when your trainers are awesome Kyrgyz journalists who work for Azattyk and BBC. You are not afraid to kickoff controversial topics anymore. You know that trainers' experience will guide you. Mentors will tell you all the rules, so that you can break them for the sake of your creative vision.
After days and nights of work all participants became the big professional network of civil journalists that will keep bringing ideas and joint projects to life after the camp. As with any IDEA event, chat groups in social media will stay active for many more years. Some of these young men and women will continue to write stories for the blog, some will do internships in major media outlet , get employed or start their own, and some will strive to become documentary photographers or video artists.
All media-campers leave with two stories: one of their hero and another of their own, which is just beginning.
