Ageing in Latgale: Visibility, Inclusion, and Digital Engagement

Project Activities

CHAYKA produced a bilingual editorial series on ageing, with 12 survey themes, including video street polls and text polls, 24 analytical pieces and 21 human stories. The latter included six expert interviews and the Generations of Latgale photo-essay special.

The reporting covered pensions, healthcare, senior education, social services, demography and international comparisons. It also followed the launch and first year of the Daugavpils University of the Third Age, as well as the senior schools in Krāslava and the Augšdaugava region.

All content was published in Russian and Latvian and adapted for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Telegram. Short-form video was used to reach younger audiences.

Alongside the editorial work, the newsroom developed a set of digital tools on its own infrastructure. These include an accessible reading interface with font scaling and high contrast, text-to-speech audio articles in Russian and Latvian, speech-to-text transcription, Russian-Latvian translation and article summarisation at the publishing stage.

CHAYKA also built a deterministic editorial assistant that checks each piece for quality and discoverability. All AI-assisted steps are covered by a responsible AI editorial policy adopted in 2026, with mandatory human sign-off.

The tools were custom-built and do not require subscriptions. They remain in use after the grant and continue to reduce routine workload for CHAYKA’s six-person newsroom.

What is the impact?

A. Countering news deserts

Latgale is a border region where Russian is the dominant language. Most local content in Russian the language comes from politically biased or state-influenced sources, while independent local journalism is nearly absent.

By maintaining fact-based, bilingual public-interest reporting on an issue affecting around a quarter of the region’s population, the project helped keep Latgale from tipping into a news desert. On the subject of ageing, CHAYKA is effectively the only outlet providing consistent coverage for the Russian-speaking audience.

The tools developed during the project also address one of the structural causes of news deserts. A small newsroom operating in a low-income market cannot simply scale by adding staff. The new tools gave CHAYKA production capacity it did not have before and remain available to the newsroom after the project.

B. Positive changes for the audience and community

Older residents gained a more visible and dignified presence in regional media. They appeared as subjects and contributors rather than simply as a statistical category. Access to CHAYKA’s content also became easier through audio articles and the accessible reading interface.

Over the project period, monthly website users grew from 45,244 to 107,104 alongside the outlet’s wider work, exceeding the 5-10% growth target. The share of readers aged 55+ increased from 19.3% to 25.2%, while the 65+ share rose from 5.8% to 9.1%.
Practical explainers about pensions and personal stories about people remaining active after 60 received the strongest response. Several passed 10,000 views, and interactions also grew on CHAYKA’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

A baseline poll in September 2025 and a closing survey in May 2026 found that most residents now recognise population ageing and see it as a serious issue. In an independent assessment, Tatjana Azamatova, head of the Vidusdaugava Senior University, credited the project with shifting the conversation away from demographic statistics and towards quality of life, social inclusion and relations between generations.

Younger audiences were reached through short-form video. Monthly TikTok views increased from 40,000 to 172,000.

Several of the digital tools went live near the end of the project, so usage data are still limited. The editorial assistant, transcription, translation and summarisation tools are already in active daily use. Audience response so far suggests that the accessibility features are reaching their intended readers, although their effect on older readers specifically cannot yet be measured separately.

The community-journalism module is still being refined, and the newsroom is exploring how best to encourage residents to contribute.

Project Links

Project section:

• Section (RU)
• Section (LV)

Generations of Latgale photo-essay special:

• Photo Essay (RU)
• Photo Essay (LV)

Project Pictures

Photos by DAMedia