The context
Support young media entrepreneurs from the Western Balkans in developing their projects
Recognizing a trend of disengagement among young people in the Western Balkans from media and civic participation, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs tasked Canal France International (CFI) and the six French embassies in the Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia) with developing a program to address this issue.
Expression Balkaniques, implemented from February 2020 to May 2022, was created with the goal of raising young people's awareness about imagery and what it conveys, developing critical thinking regarding media, encouraging and strengthening digital production, and supporting audiovisual creation.
To meet the objective of "strengthening the skills of new media players and influencers", Médianes was contracted as a service provider to deliver a training component focused on entrepreneurship within media ecosystems.
Creation of an intensive training program
Transmit the knowledge, skills and proper tools to develop a viable and virtuous media project
Among some sixty candidates, twenty-one were selected to benefit from the mentoring program offered by Médianes. These projects were selected based on their purpose, the originality of the project, and the motivation of the project leader.
A week-long incubation in November 2021 in Paris. It was designed to create the necessary conditions to achieve the mission's objectives:
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- Create a local media project with impact from an idea ;
- Develop and strengthen an existing media project by sharing tools and methodologies specific to entrepreneurship applied to media (business plan, economic models, roadmap, personas, canvas, pitch, value proposition, etc);
- Answer specific questions and challenges encountered by project leaders in their daily work (workload, mental burden, isolation, financing, development of new formats, content production and distribution chain, sponsoring, communication strategy, rebranding, etc) ;
- Meet and exchange with founders and experts from French media (workshop facilitation, debates, shared experience) ;
- Build a regional network of young project leaders with social impact living in Western Balkans countries.
The incubation week was structured as an intensive, immersive training seminar. Training sessions and hands-on practice were alternated in a dynamic that was both collective (discussions, group work) and individual. The goal was to enable participants to develop their own projects not in isolation but by exchanging with their peers and gaining a broader awareness of the specific characteristics of entrepreneurship applied to media ecosystems.
Finally, meetings and discussions with media founders enabled them to address more personal questions, as well as sometimes more technical and concrete ones. The aim was to shed light on the paths and implications of creating impactful media projects.
These training sessions were led by members of the Médianes team or by engaged speakers, founders or experts in media ecosystems.
Throughout the incubation week, the candidates were supported by: Miriam Angoni (CFI), Manon Boquen (Pays), Marie Bouilly (CFI), Pauline Butel (Médianes), Amélie Coispel (Les Internettes, Fondation GoodPlanet), Marine Doux (Médianes), Augustin Naepels (Les Jours), Baptiste Thevelein (Médianes, Pays), Christelle Tissot (Mūsae).
Individual support for project carriers
Ensure support for sustainable development of each project
Thirteen mentees were welcomed to receive individual support through the mentoring program developed by Médianes. Seven sessions were organized, including an introductory launch session and a closing and review session. Four sessions were individual and one session was collective. The entire program ran from February 2022 to May 2022.
Each participant was assigned a mentor based on their needs and the mentor's area of expertise. As such, each mentoring session was unique, with its own pace, addressing different questions, methods, and issues, varying depending on the mentee and the mentor. The organization and planning of sessions were left to the discretion of each mentor/mentee pair, supervised and coordinated by Pauline Butel (Médianes).
The mentoring program aimed to provide personalized, one-on-one support to mentees over several months. This program was designed around the values of trust, active listening, advice, and dialogue. The principle of exchange was central to moving away from a traditional teaching dynamic and instead fostering the growth, confidence, and initiative of each project leader. The objective was to support their development, regardless of the stage their project had reached. Since the mentor's role was to guide rather than do the work on behalf of the project leader, the work accomplished and the results depended on the commitment of each project leader.
CFI
An agency dedicated to media development
CFI is a French public agency, operator of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, subsidiary of the France Médias Monde group, tasked with contributing to the development of the media, information and audiovisual sector in foreign territories, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean, the Caucasus and the Balkans, and Southeast Asia.
The main objectives of CFI are: combating disinformation, promoting gender equality, protecting the environment, and advancing democracy and civic engagement.
