ToT is often used in international media development in order to develop the teaching abilities of senior journalists so that they, in turn, can train their own staff and ensure they are up-to-speed with current media best practice.

Components:

The main components of a typical ToT course include:

• Adult learning principles: Understanding how adults learn, including their need for relevance, experience-based learning, and self-direction.
• Instructional design: Creating effective training courses, including setting objectives, developing content, choosing appropriate methods, and evaluating outcomes.
  • Tools used include:
    • Setting SMART objectives in order to set targets and goals.
    • Carrying out Gap Analysis to define training needs.
    • Using Learning Management Systems (LMS) to design, develop, and deliver training.
• Facilitation skills: Leading engaging and interactive training sessions, managing group dynamics, and fostering a positive learning environment.
• Presentation and communication skills: Delivering clear, concise, and compelling presentations, and using various communication tools effectively.
• Evaluation and feedback: Assessing the effectiveness of training courses and providing constructive feedback to participants.
• Curriculum Development: Creating training materials that are accurate, relevant, and engaging.

Applying ToT to journalism and media management:

The rapidly evolving media landscape demands that journalists and media managers continuously adapt and acquire new skills. ToT can play a crucial role in facilitating this process. Here’s how:

1. Digital skills training:
   • Challenge: The digital revolution requires journalists to master new tools and techniques, including data journalism, social media analytics, video production, and online security.
   • ToT solution: Train experienced journalists and media professionals to become digital skills trainers. These trainers can then disseminate knowledge throughout their organisations or to wider networks. This creates an internal resource for continuous learning.
   • Example: A ToT course could focus on teaching participants how to train others in using specific data visualisation software or how to create engaging social media content.
2. Ethical journalism and media literacy:
   • Challenge: Combating misinformation, promoting ethical reporting, and enhancing media literacy are critical challenges.
   • ToT solution: Train journalists and media educators to become trainers in ethical reporting and media literacy. They can then conduct workshops and training sessions for fellow journalists, students, and the general public.
   • Example: A ToT course could cover topics such as fact-checking techniques, identifying bias, and understanding media ownership structures.
3. Media management and leadership:
   • Challenge: Media managers need to develop strong leadership, strategic planning, and financial management skills to navigate the changing media landscape.
   • ToT solution: Train experienced media managers to become trainers in leadership, management, and innovation. They can then share their expertise with aspiring managers and leaders.
   • Example: A ToT course could focus on teaching participants how to develop strategic plans for digital transformation or how to introduce and manage a converged newsroom.
4. Safety and security training:
   • Challenge: Journalists, especially those working in conflict zones or covering sensitive topics, face increasing safety and security risks.
   • ToT solution: Train experienced journalists and security experts to become trainers in safety and security protocols. They can then conduct workshops and training sessions for journalists and media workers.
   • Example: A ToT course could cover topics like digital security, physical safety, and psychological resilience.

Benefits of applying ToT:

• Increased capacity: ToT multiplies the impact of training by creating a pool of skilled trainers.
• Cost-effectiveness: It reduces the need to hire external trainers for every training session.
• Sustainability: It fosters a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing within media organisations.
• Contextual relevance: Trainers who are themselves journalists and media professionals can tailor training to the specific needs and challenges of their industry.
• Empowerment: It empowers individuals to take ownership of their professional development and contribute to the growth of their colleagues.

In conclusion, Training of Trainers offers a robust and adaptable framework for enhancing the skills and knowledge of journalists and media managers. By investing in ToT, media organisations can build a more resilient, ethical, and innovative industry.

The post Training of Trainers (ToT) first appeared on Media Helping Media.

The corporate plan is the most important tool in a media chief executive’s toolbox. Without it the media organisation can become lost and directionless.

But with a strong corporate plan, staff and management are brought together, become a positive focus for change, and drive the media business forward.

So it’s important to get it right. This is how to do it.

Writing a corporate plan should make running your media operation easier not more complicated, so don’t make the process complex.

The corporate plan should set out the vision for the media organisation, identify the target audience and its information needs, clarify who does what and why they do it, and set clear objectives that are cascaded down through every department and unit and which include every individual.

Corporate plans should be for a specified time period – too short and they don’t allow you to identify core and long-term value; too long and, over time, they become outdated and irrelevant. Five years is a realistic time-frame.

The more comprehensive and inclusive the discussion about the corporate plan is, the more likely it is that it will be realistic and achievable.

However, it’s not possible to include every member of your staff in the drafting process, so make sure the people you invite to discuss and draft the corporate plan are representative of a wide variety of views in your news organisation.

Select a moderator for the process who is a friend of the organisation, but does not have a vested interest in one part of it or another.

Setting out your unique differential

Start by doing a realistic market scan so you know who your audiences are, what competition you have, the values your staff and mangers need to demonstrate, and what your unique market differential is.

Then distil all of that into one readily-understood, easy to communicate sentence which you can use as the basis of your corporate plan.

This sentence or phrase is essentially a mission statement, so make sure every word merits a place in it, and that the mission statement covers everything you do or would like to do.

Make sure the mission statement is ambitious enough to be challenging, but realistic enough to be potentially achieved.

An example of such a statement might be “To make appealing content for the people with a well-trained, well managed staff using a variety of funding sources”.

Next, expand each part of the phrase and explain what it means in practice.

In the example above, describe what “making appealing content for the people” actually means in bullet points. Identify targets for each of the bullet points which can be measured with a time frame.

At the end of this process, you will have established what you hope to achieve over the lifetime of your corporate plan and a framework for how to measure your progress against it.

Making your corporate plan relevant

Now you have a corporate plan it needs to be translated into an action plan.

Your senior management team should identify the resources (human, material etc.) they need in order to deliver the corporate plan on a divisional or directorate level.

This document should also contain a more detailed description of the major activity to be carried out in the first year to support the corporate plan, and an outline for the second and third years. Each director now has an individual work plan.

The document should also describe what each of the units plans to do along with measurable targets for each unit and the resources needed. Each unit manager now has an individual work plan.

You now have a divisional plan. Each unit manager now discusses with each member of staff a work plan with measurable targets and objectives for the year ahead. This can also be linked to performance related pay if required.

Each member of staff now has an individual work plan which is directly related to the corporate plan with individual, unit, divisional and corporate objectives

The post Preparing a media corporate plan first appeared on Media Helping Media.