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Table of Contents Page

1.Background 3
2.Aims of the 9 day workshop 3
3.Impact/Results 4
4.Lessons Learned 4
5.Recommendation 5
6.Evaluation 5

Annexe I 6

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Background

Students from media clubs of Motithang Higher Secondary School and Lungtenzampa
Middle Secondary School met on Thursday, July 8 in the capital, Thimphu, to discover and
understand media and its impact on youth. The programme organised by Bhutan Centre for
Media and Democracy (BCMD), featured interactive games, Q & A sessions and discussions
that focussed on issues like the influence of media on youth, and how media covered youth
issues like gang violence. The session resulted in some recommendations to schools that
included producing a newsletter for youth by the youth, training by media, queries on how to
raise funds for their school publication and the type of articles to feature in such a
publication.

Two high school students from California, who work for a student magazine and newspaper
back home, joined the students. Emily Watkins and Tiffany Hu shared their experience and
offered tips to the students for their own school publication. The seminar included
presentations by the teacher in charge of the media clubs focusing on changing trends in
media consumption and how it affected the youth. The media club of Lungtenzampa School
also made a presentation on their monthly magazine “Rigs sPel” where they publish creative
and artistic articles.

BCMD is a civil society organization that promotes media literacy activities in Bhutan
through media clubs, film training for youth, and sensitizing teachers on media literacy.

Aims of workshop
BCMD conducted this forum to find ways to enable youth to find avenues for expression
through media by providing a forum for youth to explore and examine media and to enable
youth to recognize broader issues like youth violence, substance abuse, etc.

The seminar hosted discussions and presentations by the students on writing about youth
experiences, youth through moving images and the importance of media literacy.

Based on media survey conducted in Motithang Higher Secondary school, it was found that
students in urban area relied on Television and Radio as their primary source of information.
Thus, BCMD took this initiative to encourage students to take an interest in print media.
BCMD’s main objective for this seminar was to help media cubs in these schools to realize
their vision of creating their own publication.

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Impact/Results

The seminar brought forward some interesting information about how youth in Bhutan view
media. The presentations by the students revealed that there was a “great divide” between
boys and girls in terms of media consumptions. It was found from the Media survey done in
Motithang School prior to the Teenspeak seminar that at a longer stretch of time, above 3
hours, boys viewed TV more than girls. Boys and Girls also differed in terms of different
genres of TV programmes, for instance16 percent girls and 73 percent boys viewed Sports,
27 percent girls and 6 percent boys watched serials, and 46 percent girls and 39 boys
preferred Music broadcasted on TV.

At the end of the seminar, the students were able to distinguish between an opinion based
article and an objective article. The students read and discussed samples of articles published
in different Bhutanese newspapers and were asked to critique and identify the messages.

Students from the Media Club of Lungtenzampa School presented their monthly magazine
RigssPel and discussed what they lacked and the problems they faced to run their magazine.
The presentation was followed by suggestions and recommendations from other students and
BCMD, to make it better.

According to Mr. Sonam Tshewang, Media Club coordinator of the Lungtenzampa School,
they have already started to look for ways to raise funds to run their publication and students
have since written proposals to the development agencies. The students have also started to
embark on fund raising activities as they want to run the publication independently, without
any control of the School authority.

Lessons Learned

Discussions on news articles show that the students of the media clubs could vaguely
distinguish between an opinion piece (Editorial, features) and a news article. The seminar
also highlighted the fact that some of the opinion pieces written on youth violence were
“hyped” as necessary facts and figures were not given.

The members of both the media clubs wanted to run their own publication and suggestions to
start their own monthly newsletter were made but without the interference of their school

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authority. BCMD needs to formulate a way to start their own newsletter, which has an
objective and creative content, also a way to sustain it.

The models and illustrations shown in such forums should be as indigenous as possible as
youth found it difficult to relate to some of the documentaries and articles shown to them.

Recommendations

The already developed newsletter along with future newsletters wants to become fully
independent. To do so, it must generate its own funding.
• The newsletter also wants to expand its content, including news articles and stories
that are important to its audience. To do so, it must be aware of happenings around the
school and the town.
• The newsletter also wants to catch up with the new age of incorporating technology
and journalism. To do this, it can make an interactive website that allows for
comments and includes a “submit section” where students that are not part of Rigs Pel
can submit their own stories with ease.
• Greater interaction between the youth needed to express their views affectively; Radio
program run by youth would allow youth to call in and discuss local teen issues.
Another idea would be blogs, or online journals, that are easily created and accessible
and are also a good outlet.
• Community service and a sense of volunteerism can involve youth and help them
connect with the community to understand each other better. These ideas would
ensure that youth voices are heard

Evaluation
At the end of the forum, we conducted an evaluation. On a scale of one to 10, 1 being did not
enjoy and 10 being enjoyed immensely, the average enjoyment rate was 8.05. Many students
stated that they appreciated the open atmosphere that allowed them to share their thoughts
and opinions without being judged. Many also thought that more schools should have
participated because that way, more ideas could have been exchanged and a stronger sense of
connection between schools could have been achieved. At the forum, we concluded that
media can affect youth in both negative and positive ways. With media outlets such as school
newspapers and blogs, youth would have opportunities to express themselves and their views
on issues that matter to them, thus utilizing media in positive ways. In a democracy,
everyone must be heard and these actions would ensure that youth opinions are taken
seriously.

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Annexe I
Media usage among the participants

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