The program began with a call for participants across five governorates where a selection of UTMA’s member radio stations are based: Bizerte, Kairouan, Gabes, Kasserine, and Kebili.
During the pre-selection phase, Munathara’s expert committee toured the countryside to select participants based on a written exam, voice tests, and psychotechnic exercises to determine the ten most eligible YWM commentators from Tunisia’s north, south, east, west, and central regions.
Munathara held a five-day master training and facilitation program with the ten finalists alongside a cohort of UTMA radio personnel to provide participants with a week-long intensive training program in ethical journalism, including identifying and addressing misinformation and disinformation, effective messaging and framing, reasoning and evidence, fact-checking, how to construct strong arguments and conduct rigorous research, as well as practical media skills training for on-air and on-camera interviews.
Once trained, the ten finalists become Munathara Public Interest Media Fellows who will lead by example in showcasing their research and providing analysis on social, economic, political, and topics about their communities to local radio hosts and the general public.
Fellows and UTMA radio hosts will invite listeners to call in and voice their views, thereby contributing to the generations and engagement of public opinion at the local level.
A video recording of the radio shows will be made available to the public on Munathara’s Facebook and Youtube pages.
Topics of investigation are grouped thematically based on the shared “common concerns” covered by Munathara’s Public Interest Media Fellows at the local level through the Omour T’hemna radio programs, and the same issues are then discussed in depth and cross-nationally as Omour T’hemna: El Podcast (“What Matters to Us: The Podcast”).
The operating premise for the podcast is that for the national conversation to be constructive, it must thematize needs that citizens themselves determine as important on both the local and national level.
In the podcast series, therefore, Munathara’s Public Interest Media Fellows will discuss their reportage among one another, comparing local issues alongside renowned experts and media personalities in an effort to inform public opinion and generate policy-oriented, citizen-driven conversations.