Media Foundation

Rural Gufa Held in Mahottari

Mar 25, 2015
Rural Gufa Held in Mahottari

The 6th edition of Media Gufa was held at Suga Bhawani village of Mahottari, Janapur. The 72-hour reporting and writing challenge began on Saturday, March 21 and concluded on Tuesday, March 24.

Five journalists and one development professional participated in the door-to-door rural event.

The following were the participants and their assigned stories (except for the first, all assignments entailed feature stories):

-“Food security in Suga Bhawani: An ethnographic field report”- Babu Ram Fyuba, Independent development professional, Kathmandu
-“Personal hygiene”- Nagendra Kumar Karna, Suga Bhawani Patti, Mahottari (Biswa Jagran daily)
-“A woman change maker in the village”- Dil Bahadur KC, Dolakha (Karobar economic daily)
-“Federalism and local development”- Lokesh Saud, Baitadi (Avenues TV and Dinesh FM 93.8)
-“Civil service career attainments ” – Bimmi Sharma, Parsa (Himal Khabarpatrika)
-“Cultural import of local ponds”- Pratima Silwal, Kathmandu (Chakrapath.com)

gufa6aStory ideas were collected via a 2-hour brianstorming session with local community members. In an intensive news decission process lasting 6 hours, the 27 story ideas suggested by community members were reviewed and sorted out on the basis of core news values. Finally, stories were assigned via drawing of lots.

The activities of the participants were observed by a research team, including Dharma Adhikari, the director of the Gufa, and two assistants, Prasanna Pandey and Sandip Dahal.

A special session with local schol children was organized on Monday focusing on media literacy. Children talked about their access to news media and media technologies, their understanding of media, and their media skills.

Earlier, the inaugural event was addressed by prominent guests from the region. Kiran Thapa, chief guest and Asst. CDO, Mahottari welcomed the rural approach in reporting. Krishna Chandra Jha, senior journalist from the district delivered the keynote address and emphasized on the need to not only highlight local issues and problems but also to help find solutions. Other speakers included Gopal Jha, Broadcasting Association of Nepal (BAN) president, and Ishwari Poudel, FNJ Mahottari president.

During the inaugural event, Gufa team members Dharma Adhikari, Rajneesh Bhandari (Coordinator of Gufa).and Arun Rai (Outreach Officer), spoke about the Gufa process and the distinctly experiential journalistic approach taken to report and write stories.

At the end of the 72-hour event, on Tuesday, participants shared their unique rural reporting experience.

In an effort to regain direct human touch and reengage journalists, the rural version of Media Gufa immerses participants in the field, and prohibits the use of all types of modern media gadgets like mobile phone, internet or computer.

The event, a part of Media Foundation’s innovations in professional development program, is held twice a year. This edition was supported by Vision for Nepal Foundation, Institute of Advanced Communication, Education and Research (IACER), AG Consulting, SoftNep, Broadcasters’ Association of Nepal (BAN), Radio Mithila, and the local Suga Bhawani community.

Event pictures are here

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