Big spring media school “TV, Radio, Social media and PR” for churches, Christian organizations and religious media was held from March, 30th till April, 1st in Kyiv. The event was organized by two partner organizations – Novomedia Association and MEDIAlliance International. The journalists, TV workers, PR managers, bloggers, radio hosts, and press service staff participated in the school. The event caused great interest and even after the registration period ended, people still applied for it. 

The delegates came from many different towns of Ukraine: Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Bila Tserkva, Odesa, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Lutsk, Rivno, Chernovtsy, Slovyansk and even from Makiivka (Donetsk region).

Ruslan Kukharchuk, the Head of Novomedia Association introduced the media school speakers from the United States. They were – Ronald Harris, President/Founder of MEDIAlliance International, the well-known speaker loved by the Ukrainian media workers, because he visited Ukraine the fourth time. One more quest – Wes Ward, Vice President for Strategic Growth, FiveQ Digital Media. He came together with his son Graham, who was making video reportages. Also, Lee Ann Jackson, Senior Marketing Executive at the Ambassador Advertising Agency  and Jim Barnwell, Director, Communications Services Bellevue Baptist Church, Program producer/director.

The format of the media school included parallel tracks and sessions: TV production, Radio and Social media. Also, there were morning and evening super sessions in the large hall for general audience.

On a super session “Media and Church” the speakers from the United States motivated the participants to utilize free social media tools for proclaiming the Gospel. “We have got a great mission, mighty possibilities and pretty fun tools for implementing God’s plans. It’s very important to utilize the existing tools and do it the best way you can for God’s glory!”, shared Ron Harris.

It should be mentioned, that on all general sessions the participants enjoyed beautiful music by a popular saxophonist Nathan Woodward, one of the team members who is known by ability to play in different music genres: Gospel, jazz, R&B. “Your identity is not in what you do but in Him for Whom you do it. My identity is not in the fact that I’m a musician. It’s only a tool”, he said in one of his speech.

Social media track

About one hundred people attended this track. Hot discussions, questions and answers were constantly heard on the lectures. The participants had to think and adapt it to the Ukrainian audience. The speaker gave valuable and practical tips for advertisement in social media, spoke about branding (persons and organizations), trends 2016 in social networks and strategic tactics that form social networks community. The students practiced many recommendations right on the lectures.

The main point of the Lee Ann Jackson’s message was - „Don’t use the social networks to impress people, use them for the benefit of your audience. Never miss the opportunity to show kindness towards other people. Social media is a great opportunity to go beyond something ordinary and create moments that people will remember for a long time. Every person is valuable and important”.

The second most attended track was TV production

Jim Barnwell trained the ministers of television sphere: journalists, scriptwriters, camera operators and photographers. The speaker mentioned, that every Sunday there are three services in succession at Bellevue church with 11 thousand parishioners altogether. Jim Barnwell’s team provided multicamera filming and on-line broadcasting of the services as well as shooting and montage of Christians’ stories, events, concerts, musicals and inspirational videos and news about the ministry to the community and town.

Within three days of training, Jim covered almost everything concerning video production. He explained the process of making good video stories– starting from an idea and choosing heroes, writing the script and the final montage for different needs – internet or cable (satellite) television.

A lot was said about the organization of the shooting process: how to put the light correctly, where to locate cameras, a journalist and the heroes. Much time and attention was paid to the work with the team. In particular, the students got to know in details how to provide synchronous work of two teams, consisting of 6-7 camera operators as well as scriptwriters, montage workers and journalists…

In the end of every session, the students had time for questions, but always it was not enough time for the curious participants. Jim Barnwell almost had no breaks and the students followed him with requests to give pieces of advice or consultation for concrete situations. 

Despite the enormous work done, the majority of Jim’s team members do not get money but serve as volunteers. By the way, he said, that many of them have been in his team for 20-15 years already. So, one of the topic that caused great interest was – how to inspire people to serve and organize work in a big team. 

“The most important thing is to understand why do you do it and to shoot video in order to show God’s hand in the story and not to surprise or glorify team or a journalist. For today media is the sphere where we can preach the Gospel and spread the Good News about Jesus Christ”, underlined Jim.

The third track of the media school - Radio

This class gathered up to 20 participants. The representatives of four Radio stations (“Maria”, “Svitle radio Emanuil”, “Mozhlyvist” and “Nadia”) attended the sessions. Some of the other students planned to launch on-line radio.

Wes Ward and Ronald Harris were the lectures here. First of all, the lecturers spoke about the audience, listeners and reflected on the motives of doing the radio work as well as shared the experience of making successful radio shows. 

“In order to know your listeners you can use questionnaires and surveys”, recommended the experts. Also, according to their opinions, it’s essential to ask the staff and volunteers several questions. For example, they can complete the sentences:

• we are here to…  

• we focus on ...

• our objectives are ...

• we serve ...

• my listener is ...

• we want to offer ...”

Wes told about SWOT analysis that shows the strong and weak sides. While creating a portrait of your audience one needs to take into consideration political, economic and spiritual situation in the country. Due to such questions, one may understand who of the listeners are permanent ones, and who switches on the radio from time to time.

Ron and Wes also mentioned the necessity of strategic planning in a particular sequence: goal – strategy – tactics – evaluation of the work.

“The most important rule in media space applicable for different media workers goes like this: you cannot love you work on Radio more than the people (listeners)”, underlined Wes Ward. Ron Harris added, “Sometimes, radio hosts don’t even imagine in what psychological state are their listeners. So, several right phrases can help a person to get an answer from the Lord and hope for the best”. At conclusion, Wes shared 25 secrets of successful radio broadcasting.

All the participants received certificates that prove their participation at the media school. The concert afterwards was a pleasant bonus to the training. The students joked – one saxophonist is good, but two is even better. The saxophonists Nathan Woodward together with Evgeniy Goltsov had a musical battle and an Ukrainian singer Yulia Djusupova performed her songs. In the very end of the evening, the participants had a photo session and exchange contacts. 

Watch video:

Press-center Novomedia Association.