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 Bought Locally. Local Businesses in Valmiera, services and products offered by local businesses 3.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 blogs 13 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