journalism

Read more about Music E-learning and writing by MEAKULTURA

Project Location

Country:

Poland

City:

Gliwice (Śląskie Region)

Organization

Organization Name:

MEAKULTURA Foundation

Organization Type:

Cultural Institution (foundations, museums, galleries, etc…)

Website

http://www.fundacjameakultura.pl; http://meakultura.pl

Privacy Law

Consenso al trattamento dei dati personali

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Project Type

Helping youth step in the job market

Project Description

Description Frase (max. 500 characters):

Promoting e-learning and e-writing about music (musical journalism and video-lectures) which help to develop knowledge and skills for future journalists: musicologists, humanists etc.

Project Summary (max. 2000 characters):

MEAKULTURA was established in order to help young journalists and musicologists to appear in labour market. Academic teachers and the best graduates gave rise to a foundation and a non-profit music magazine in which both highly achieved students and young graduates and their teachers can publish their work. Editorial offices are scattered around Europe, the world even (Brussels, London, Berkeley) and the staff communicates via the Internet only. Internships and workshops are conducted via Skype where the youth is taught how to become modern journalists (the goal of the online workshops on music journalism is to improve writing skills of people interested in professional conquest of music press market, which is why they are intended for people in artistic majors, humanities, as well as high school students, especially students of music schools).
Participants will familiarize with modern journalism standards, will be trained within the scope of CMS system which allows them to upload their own articles in accordance with the rules of editing.
The best texts shall be published in the MEAKULTURA.pl magazine. Direct contact with mentor/specialist allows the students to improve their language skills and practice creating various types of texts (such as press releases, reviews and feature articles, interviews or popular science articles), films, work in PR. MEAKULTURA has become an alternative to university student internships and practices which fail to prepare for the nowadays labour market. We also reach people from smaller cities, the disabled. Additionally, for educational purposes, we try to use all the available multimedia and the knowledge of experienced editors in order to inspire and allow development for our collaborators. We create short video-lectures by university professors (Lectures by PhD Krzysztof Moraczewski were even nominated for the Polish Press Agency award “Science on the Internet”).
MEAKULTURA was created by PhD Marlena Wieczorek, musicologist from Poznan, who noticed the difficulty for the humanists and musicologists to find employment. About 40 people are members of the editorial staff, including several in supervisory positions (all of whom present a high professional level). Every year we sent information about the trainings to the Universities from which the best trainees are selected, we also cooperate with the National Centre for Culture in internship programs.

How long has your project been running?

2012-02-28 23:00:00

Objectives and Innovative Aspects

Our project's main objective is to train youth (especially young musicologists and humanists) in music journalism (and in journalism in general) to increase their chances in today's labour market. Having that goal in mind, we try to create an alternative for university practices (that are not innovative enough in Poland, causing many young people to struggle finding a job). We help trainees to gain new, practical skills (usually such majors as musicology and humanities are too theoretical, leading to their graduates having difficulty in finding a job. We want to achieve out objectives through combining high level of education (cooperating with university professors) with modern technological solutions (using Internet, Skype, Facebook etc for training and educating). We want to cross the boarders, connect people with a specific idea. The scholarship will allow us to buy computer programs (e.g. Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Indesign), cameras, microphones and lighting for video lectures. It will also be used to improve our website (translate it into English), add advertisement in press and media, pay for PR service in the project. We also want to reach Polish communities abroad (especially in the East) with our message and our training program as well as to record video lectures at foreign universities.

Results

Describe the results achieved by your project How do you measure (parameters) these. (max. 2000 characters):

Implemented innovations with facilitate reaching a wider target group, including in the Polish communities in the Eastern Europe (Lithuania and Ukraine), and musicology in other countries where we could record other video lectures, given by specialists who are out of reach for Polish students. It is worth mentioning that the inclusion of an English version (of the site and of video lectures) will allow us to higher numbers of recipients interested in this field and people willing to do internship (to increase their chances in the labour market - especially humanists and musicologists). External funding will allow us to conduct internship on a higher level and train more people. We also consider buying programs which will allow a practical training of journalists not only in the framework of running an online magazine, but also in typesetting and page makeup so that we are self-sufficient (the abovementioned Adobe Indesign). Recording video lectures in other countries will integrate the musicological environment, allow international contacts and joint development of projects (in the field of musicology and related areas).

How many users interact with your project monthly and what are the preferred forms of interaction? (max. 500 characters):

Around 5000-6000 people enter MEAKULTURA website monthly, we train approximately 20 people a month, mostly through SKYPE. We also have a Facebook funpage and a closed FB group for editorial staff and trainees, as well as Twitter.

Sustainability

What is the full duration of your project (from beginning to end)?:

From 3 to 6 years

What is the approximate total budget for your project (in Euro)?:

From 30.001 to 75.000 Euro

What is the source of funding for your project?:

Grants

Is your project economically self sufficient now?:

Since when?:

2014-06-29 22:00:00

When is it expected to become self-sufficient?:

2017-02-27 23:00:00

Transferability

Has your project been replicated/adapted elsewhere?:

What lessons can others learn from your project? (max. 1500 characters):

Certainly, the most important is a message that you should not be afraid of your own dreams and match with the best. Thanks to this belief we have created an alternative to academic learning, simultaneously drawing from the knowledge and experience of the academic personnel. All this was developed in an innovative way and it worked independently as a supplement to traditional education. Using the passion of important figures you can actively work for the benefit of education and development of professional chances of young people in the cultural sector, which our project proves.
Another lesson is that money is not the most important factor, because even well-known professors want to give free video lectures in their free time. Another lesson will be to try and develop our project in all ways possible applying for international grants, and not be afraid of it, because this is the attitude that allows to increase scope and level of the activities offered (in our case: workshops and online lectures).

Are you available to help others to start or work on similar projects?:

Yes

Background Information

Barriers and Solutions (max. 1000 characters):

A barrier is a lack of professional equipment, that is why we cannot record as many video lectures as we would like, in places of origin of well-known academic teachers and in quality desired. At present, we have to borrow cameras from universities - that involves massive paperwork and lack of availability. PhD Guczalski from Cracow recorded himself, however the quality of his lectures is poor (moreover, we cannot ask many lecturers to do this, only those befriended). Another barrier is lack of money. Our way of dealing with this problem is that we conduct training free of charge and we ask for help in cases when we need to use expensive programs, we do not advertise ourselves in the media, only in the Internet.

Future plans and wish list (max. 750 characters):

Our ambition is for our internships to be an alternative for academic internships. At present, universities in Poland consider online internships less effective than traditional ones (and they sometimes are more effective indeed). This is, however, noticed by students who come to us. Creating a network of video lectures on different music-related topics with invited guests from other universities in the world can establish an independent platform within the framework of MEAKULTURA which can constitute a unique bank of short educational films on classical music, jazz, rock, which in connection with the translation of the website to other languages, including English, will facilitate our activities in the international arena and help to reach more students (also those from abroad). Poland, due to the historic past and frequent changes in boundaries has large Polish communities in the east of Europe (Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine); we also want to reach these people who will be able to develop their abilities avoiding a very often unfeasible plan to come to their homeland (visa, finances). And last but not least, our dream is to make it possible for the best people trained by us to find employment (in our magazine and elsewhere).

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