The Bangladesh media industry is dominated by urban news. Local newspapers and TV are published from urban areas and do not focus on rural people’s problems. However, 80% of the Bangladeshi population live in rural areas and their voice is barely heard.

In this project rural journalists will be trained to become part of the Rural Visual Journalism Network, a support and training network lead by local journalists to address the current media imbalance and give a voice to rural citizens.

Through the production and selling of news stories, it is expected that journalists will be able to generate a livelihood and support their families. Based on a financially sustainable business model, participants will produce high-quality multimedia stories. Developing innovative ideas and marketing skills are a crucial part of this model. The news stories will be sold and distributed to national and international media outlets.

The training provided will help develop skills in research, news reporting, journalistic ethics, personal safety, language, photography, video, audio, editing, captioning, scripting, negotiating and marketing. Marketing will be an important component of the training, to help overcome the challenge of selling stories.

PRINCE CLAUS FUND
Based on the principle that culture is a basic need, the Prince Claus Fund’s mission is to actively seek cultural collaborations founded on equality and trust, with partners of excellence, in spaces where resources and opportunities for cultural expression, creative production and research are limited and cultural heritage is threatened. Read more about the Prince Claus Fund.