Informant of the City

By covering different topics, from budget spending to education and social sphere for the most vulnerable people, we will fill the gap for impartial and versatile information on local life and decision makers. We will follow decisions made by the local council, fact check them, explain and discuss with the local community. We will follow the situation at schools, local institutions, looking at the reality and informing the community. We'll make journalistic material on that and disseminate it via different platforms for different audiences - on air, online radio, website, Youtube, social networks.

We will have news each day on air on our city and region, radio reports on the most important topic of the day, discussions on air with the citizens and experts. We will have a special programme every month for the analysis of the decisions taken at the local council meetings and how they impact the life of local people. We will have short video interviews with the stories of local people posted on Youtube and shared on the website. All content will be available on our “Radio FM99 podcast“ on all main platforms, such as Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, etc. All content will be also provided on the website and shared on social networks.

Target group

Local communities of the Alytus city and Alytus region will benefit from this project as the news desert of unbiased and versatile local information will be filled. The target is citizens of Alytus city and district, also second target is the region around with other 3 municipalities from Alytus region - Druskininkai, Lazdijai, Varena.

Goals of the project

Our goal is to have a better informed and stronger community, more actively involved in processes around them, participating in the life of the city and region and making an impact on it.
For our project we’ll have:

• 120 radio columns “Information channel“ in the morning show devoted to local news.
• 120 reports/interviews on the most important topic on air and on podcast.
• 24 weekly discussions “Living city“ on air, on Youtube and on podcast.
• Daily local news on the evening programme “Such a Day“ 
• „Radio FM99 podcast“ with 168 episodes will be published on all main platforms.
• 24 Youtube column pieces “People of Alytus“ .

All mentioned above you’ll find on fm99.lt with all the links to the media.

Implemented activities

• 120 pcs of radio column “Information channel“ in the morning show devoted to local news
• 120 reports and interviews on the topics of the day
• 24 weekly programmes “Living city“ with video discussion on Youtube and articles on website.
• 24 weekly reviews of the radio column on local news
• All mentioned above played on air at least 3 times and 120 days on evening programme “Such a Day“.
• 168 episodes published on „Radio FM99 podcast“ on 9 podcasts platforms.
• 5 video reports from events in the regions posted on Youtube.216 (instead of planned 168) articles with links to podcast episodes, videos on Youtube posted on website fm99.lt
• 216 (instead of planned 168) articles shared on Facebook.
• 23 (instead of 48) publications shared on Twitter
• 48 pcs of visual material, photos and short videos from local events shared on Instagram.

Impact addressing news deserts

The media outlet feels stronger and more prepared to fill the desert with the local news. They became more important source of news for the region as they made a real impact on public interest issues and they have more trust from the citizens - they feel that, as people send them information for investigations and come to report some troubles they have. Also, they started some investigations, and gathered ideas for investigations during the project. Moreover - they started discussions with other media from the region on cooperation, encouraging them to make more together filling the desert. In general, they became more confident and more important in the local public space.

IMPACT

A report regarding a development plan that will ruin Alytus' historical value was broadcast by Radio FM99, a Lithuanian radio station. As word spread about the plot, the Prosecutors' Office launched an inquiry. Read more about it here.