RURAL STORIES - Médias citoyens ruraux en Europe

"<< Background >>Partners motivation have found their roots in their commitment of several years for the development and the visibility of rural territories. Each of them, in their own country, has made the same observation: rural areas poorly covered by the media, populations lacking expression supports, cut off from the major media flows, suffering from the caricatured vision given of their way of life, little or not trained in new technologies, lack of awareness of digital tools possibilities. They are convinced that this invisibility is not a fatality and that rural populations, by being accompanied and trained in digital tools and journalistic techniques, can take ""their story"" in hand. The needs that this project has met are citizen participation with a proposal for empowerment and leadership tools in rural areas, but also a need for media literacy with the development of multimedia, alternative and participatory digital tools and training in the use of social networks. Finally, it is a need for social innovation that this project has responded to by giving non-specialists the opportunity to tell their identity.<< Objectives >>The project has one main objective: to ""correct"" the lack of visibility of citizens of rural areas in the media by encouraging them to make their voices heard, to take part in public debate and democratic life, to talk about their daily lives, to make the identity of their territory better known, to tell their story. To do this, the project proposed to support, train and develop the skills of rural communities in the creation and animation of local, collaborative, participatory and independent digital media: blogs, webTV, mobile journalism, etc., so that these communities are able to speak out and be part of democratic life. RURAL STORIES aimed at reducing territorial inequalities, empowering rural citizens in their media voice, creating and sustaining communities and mobilizing organizations at the European level. The project wanted to address the challenges faced by rural territories in terms of social development, citizen participation, digital inclusion and experience sharing at the European level.<< Implementation >>To reach our objective, the partners have :-Raised awareness on participatory and citizen media by sharing 1 collection of good practices-Provided practical tools (toolkits) for people who want to do mobile journalism-Allowed inhabitants to consolidate a sense of pride thanks to tools to tell their territoriesThis project involved the participation of the 3 main target groups1.Citizens of European rural territories willing to make their voice heard, to take part in the public debate and to talk about their daily life. 2. Organizations working on the revitalization of rural areas. Educators and trainers of adults who wish to be trained to accompany citizens in the creation of participative local media and in the conception of territorial stories. 3. Young journalists, at the beginning of their professional career. Most often trained to work in large national and urban media, they are not familiar with the problems of rural areas. The objective is to make them aware of the problems of the rural environment and to introduce them to the co-construction of information.<< Results >>-1 experimentation residency in July 2022 in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande (rural territory) in France during the festival Les Reclusiennes with inhabitants of the territories of the 3 countries, journalists and managers of socio-cultural structuresAn experimentation of co-design and transmission of know-how which allowed to test the toolbox kits, their adaptation and their diffusion.-1 guide of good practices with 20 participatory and citizen media from the three countries presented -1 toolboxThe availability of a training toolbox in free access since November 2022 for those who would like to start the cultural and artistic narrative of their territory (10 kits)-4 dissemination events"