Informative Eco-System in Local Community

Learning to Use New Media for Advocacy in Vidzeme University of

Applied Sciences

Visvaldis Valtenbergs

Challenges in Rural Areas

Decline Scenario

Migration of people to big cities and abroad

Withdrawal of services, shops, loss of skilled workers

Long term unemployment

Alternative Recovery Scenario

Increase the attractiveness of place

Create sustainable communities for life and work

Explore the power of narratives and story telling to capture immagination

Create lively public sphere. Relevance of local content

Power of Social Media in Public Sphere

Government, Media

People

Government,Media

People

Mass media paradigm Social media paradigm

What We Wanted to Achieve?

• Learn to inform and involve people using new media

• Collect and share useful information to local community

• Promote cooperation of local population, entrepreneurs, NGOs and local governments

Our Working Themes 1. Good News of the Neighbourhood - create hope, community feeling, support, provides

good life examples, inspires, encourages.... 2. Bought Locally. Local Businesses in Valmiera, services and products offered by local

businesses3. Accessibility of Higher Education. Student life conditions, environment, financial

support 4. Local Sports. Campaign to restore sport stadium in Cēsis town. 5. Looking for a Job. How to change fields of work? How to become self-employed? 6. Spirituality, religion and church. Campaign for including Christian education into

schools. 7. Students Abroad. Informal information site for students going to study abroad in

Erasmus and other programmes. 8. Our Country and Us. Blog promoting patriotism.9. Sustainable Environment. Promoting sustainable life style. Organizing “A Day Without

Cars” in Valmiera. 10. Crime in Valmiera. Crime prevention, self-defence. Providing eyewitness accounts.11. Participate. Encouraging formal and informal participation in community life.

“Government should not not do what we can do ourselves!” 12. Children and Parenting. Promote togetherness of young parents and their children. 13. Debate Club. Encourage the involvement of students and local community in debating

socially relevant topics in a format of British Parliamentary Debates.

What We Did?

• Made interest advocacy plans with problem analysis, work objectives, target groups and activities

• Set up blogs to inform and involve our target groups

• Organize real-life events

How We Did It? Group work managed through Ģoogle Docs – collaborative work documents where people can work simultaneously.

Us. 13 working Groups with students from Media Studies Journalism, Political Science, and Public Relations Programmes

Our blogs13 Blogs made by Blogger or Wordpress

Prepare real-life event

Advocacy Campaign Plans

Examples

Public Visibility. Republishing of blog entries in local news portal Valmiera24.lv

Debate Club was able to find outlet for their

Documenting real life activities. Student march “Day without a Car in Valmiera.”

Examples

Advocacy campaign of Student Debate Club helped debate team start webcasting debates with European Commission

Our Erasmus student experiences abroad. Blog became informal extension to University website

Examples

“Circenītis” or “Little Cricket.” Blog aimed at young parents of Valmiera

Lessons Learned • Greater enthusiasm leads to

better learning experience

• Internal collaboration and task division important for group success

• Campaign idea and content matters.

• Collaboration with local media and external stakeholders increases campaign success

• Networking among groups as organic outcome of the process

Informative Eco-System in Local Community

Learning to Use New Media for Advocacy in Vidzeme University of

Applied Sciences

Visvaldis Valtenbergs