Fellowships of Radio Netherlands Training Centre 2010, USA

July 6, 2010

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Job Description: To strengthen the capacity of programme-makers, drama script-writers and the organisations they work for to devise, develop and make long-running broadcast drama serials with the aim of raising awareness and changing attitudes on issues affecting specific target groups in their societies.

Course Rationale:
Some of the problems facing societies around the world today require a change of attitude and ultimately of
behaviour in people within those societies if they are to be surmounted. Issues to do with health and the environment are cases in point. Domestic violence is another. Worldwide the rising incidence of violence in the home and the number of deaths from unsafe water, from alcohol, drugs, smoking and AIDS are evidence of how prevailing attitudes and patterns of behaviour are an obstacle to attempts by experts and educators to persuade people to change. Raising awareness by giving clear and accurate information about the risks and consequences of certain behaviour is a start but is not enough in itself. The reasons and the underlying emotions which determine why and how people act as they do have to be addressed as well. And this is notoriously difficult to do. Attitudes are deep-seated. Well-established habits die hard.

Used effectively – often in collaboration with specialists and educators – the broadcast media can make a contribution to raising awareness and changing attitudes. And there is perhaps no more effective way for them to do so than the long-running serial drama such as the ‘soap’. It is a form of drama with a proven ability to attract and retain a wide audience; it enables viewers and listeners to identify with characters and situations taken from daily life; and it speaks to them more directly than informative programming because it addresses the underlying motives and emotions that universally determine human attitudes and behaviour.

Course Content:
The courses will focus on the design, production and in particular the writing of broadcast drama serials and on how these can be used to support efforts to raise public awareness and change attitudes. Apart from strengthening the participants’ understanding of drama theory, special attention will be given to developing and putting into practice the appropriate knowledge and skills for developing ideas and storylines and for writing and producing long-running serial drama. Radio and television participants on the course will learn how public education and social action programming can be effectively designed and tested with specific target audiences in mind and how its impact can be evaluated. Participants will further be exposed to successful examples of existing practice and come into contact with programme-makers, drama script-writers and educators who have experience of using drama in this way. Attention will be given to encouraging partnerships of complementary expertise between broadcasters and others working in this field with a view to improving the effectiveness of efforts to bring about beneficial societal change.

After leaving the Netherlands at the end of the course participants will become part of a network of programme-makers and other experts through RNTC’s website, intended to foster co-operation and the further exchange of ideas and experience in the use of broadcast drama for development.

Application Deadline 1December2010

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