While the whole of European broadcasting industry is focusing on changes in TVP leadership and relation to the government, there's also an exciting development going on at Polish public television, a long time member of CIRCOM.

Polish public broadcaster TVP is deploying Mobile Journalism in its regions. Each regional station will be equipped with top-of-the-line iPhones and iPad Pros, as well as specialized shooting equipment such as lightweight tripods, grips and microphones. The move was made after two staff members attended CIRCOM MoJo training in Dundalk (Ireland) and Budapest (Hungary). Olga Michalec-Chlebik and Łukasz Borkowski are conducting training sessions in Warsaw.

CIRCOM got in touch for an e-mail interview with one of the trainers and former delegate of CIRCOM workshops, Olga Michalec-Chlebik during the first batch of MoJo training at TVP’s Academy. “The inspiration of training came from TVP3 Lublin and its director who believed in the potential of MoJo. Not only did he send people to CIRCOM Regional training but he gave them a chance to use their newly acquired skills at work”, she says.

Olga and Łukasz were two very enthusiastic delegates during the CIRCOM workshops. They seem to have communicated their feelings back home. After having won a prize for the most creative MoJo piece at the CIRCOM-MTVA Challenge last October, Olga — together with her colleague Łukasz — gave a presentation at TVP’s annual conference before top managers and staff members. “It was the journalists themselves who wanted to know more about it and to become MoJos” explains Olga. And soon the decision to add Mobile Journalism to TVP’s training programme was made.

Fast paced training, many staff involved

Training is currently taking place at TVP’s Television Academy in Warsaw, with the support of its Technology Department and Regional Programmes Department. Thirty delegates are beeing trained this time during a two-day workshop. The trainees are split in two groups. All of them are journalists from the sixteen polish regional TV centres. “MoJo is something new for all of them, says Olga Michalec-Chlebik, but everyone is really interested in this kind of technology and new kind of journalism. Most of them are telling us that they will be using their new skills in their everyday work after the workshop.”

As for the results of the workshop, here is one of the stories produced in white Warsaw by Jakub Klebba (TVP3 Gdansk) and actually broadcast on TVP3 Gdansk, the regional centre he's working for.

This first batch of training was a success, according to Olga Michalec-Chlebik, with great involvment of the delegates: “It is impressive to see their development — they started with tears, especially during the editing process in iMovie and they ended with really good and creative movies (nice shots, good editing, great stories). It was really nice to help them, solve technical or substantive problems. I like that kind of job :-)”, adds Olga.

A two-fold strategy

As of today, Olga and Łukasz are the only trainers teaching Mobile Journalism within TVP. The idea is to train a core of MoJo-aware pionneers that will in turns show their colleagues how to use smartphones to create content for regional news.

MoJo Kits

For the gearheads among our readership, here are some technical choices TVP made, following Olga’s and Łukasz’s advice.

All of TVP’s sixteem regional centers will be provided with:

• 2 iphones 6S (64G)
• 2 ipads pro (128G)
• 2 shoulderpods
• 2 manfrotto tripods
• 2 iRigs
• 2 led lamps
• 1 AppleTv
• 1 Blackmagic coverter

Profile of the trainers

Olga Michalec-Chlebik: Filmmaker, National Film School in Łódź, movie and television editor, associate director, documentary director; works for TVP3 Lublin; participant of CIRCOM MoJo workshop in Dundalk and CIRCOM-MTVA MoJo challenge in Budapest in 2015; in 2014 winner of annual television competition (PiK) which is organize by TVP, winner of special prize on MoJo challenge in Budapest in 2015, winner of History Film Festival in Warsaw in 2015.

Łukasz Borkowski: journalist, author of the music programme „Przestrzeń dźwiękowa”, weather forecast presenter, participant of CIRCOM MoJo workshop in Dundalk and CIRCOM-MTVA MoJo challenge in Budapest in 2015, winner of 2nd prize on annual television competition (PiK) in 2015.