Broadcaster profile: How Acirocan Flavia (and her listeners) benefited from our e-course

Farmer program e-course: Strengthening broadcasters’ interview and story-telling skills

 
A journalist by profession, Acirocan Flavia has been working in radio for seven years. She works on the program Community Voice, on Radio Pacis, in Uganda. Through this program Acirocan has been able to integrate listeners into the discussion in many ways. The program regularly sends out staff out to the communities to discuss and identify issues that affect farmers. By going out into the communities, the broadcasters can better understand farmers’ concerns.
 
“Since most people cannot come to us to present their issues and even though you encourage them to use the phone-in, others do not call — especially women. So we go to the people and this alone has made the radio station famous,” she said.
 
Through her participation in FRI’s Farmer program e-course, Acirocan has been able to enhance her broadcasting skills. She initially signed up in order to learn more on farming as a business, but by the end she says she accumulated knowledge on the design of programs, story outlines, important questions geared to farmers and how to use intros, extros and promos. This story-telling and technical information will help her design a more engaging, informative show for her listeners.
 
The 11-week e-course focuses on effective ways to produce farming programs that address the agricultural concerns of their listeners. Participants learn interviewing and story-telling skills, as well as new techniques and technologies for developing participatory programming. Participants are then able to create a farmer radio programs that are interactive, reliable and informative.
 
Ninety broadcasters participated in our farmer program e-course in fall 2015, either as an individual or as a station team. Among the participants were 30 women broadcasters.
 
As an assistant program manager and producer for Radio Pacis, Acirocan writes and edits scripts, books guests, edits audio and oversees technical aspects of the broadcast.
 
Acirocan says she focuses on providing her farming audience of 2.5 million with information about efficient commercial farming methods and new farming techniques. She wishes to empower and encourage the listening community to view farming as a business.
 
When asked why her program is popular among her listeners, Acirocan said, “Our programs give a platform to farmers both male and female to air their views. We consider feedback from our audience that helps us make our programming better.”
 
The Farmer program e-course is undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Ireland via Irish Aid, the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, and Oscroft Ltd .

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