“Hear Me Now. Developing Podcasting Culture in Armenia”

“Hear Me Now. Developing Podcasting Culture in Armenia” is a multilateral project, which is a pioneer initiative in the country dedicated to promoting podcasting as an innovative means of content production and media consumption.

Individual media and personalized brands are in their heyday in Armenia, however, local content producers often lack knowledge of podcasting, a sine qua non medium directed for such individual production.

To train the interested producers in podcasting, building a community of followers/listeners including unveiling the nuances of audio storytelling MIC conducted a podcasting camp. In the framework of the initiative US experts were invited to lecture on storytelling podcast who shared the knowledge and experience with the participants, and worked closely with them on the production and promotion of their stories.

To practice podcasting the project also provided the participants with the necessary sound and editing hardware and software resources. To continuously foster the first generation of dedicated Armenian podcasters MIC provided coaching, training and consultations after the camp, organizing monthly group meetings.

The podcasters of the project have been travelling in the country and sharing their knowledge and skills with youth outside of Yerevan. Podcasting workshops in Gyumri, Vanadzor, Ijevan and other towns  have further built the podcasting community. The youth have learned skills to tell the niche stories of their context using audio storytelling.
The podcasts produced within Hear Me Now project are available at a dedicated platform, which serves as a directory to the Armenian language podcasts.

To extend the impact on the quality of media education in Armenia, MIC also developed a special module on podcasting to incorporate it programs of the Radio Journalism or Multimedia Journalism courses at the Universities.

In order to boost the podcasting culture in Armenia MIC also initiated awareness campaigns by promoting and highlighting the advantages of podcasting platforms and applications among the potential followers/listeners.

The project duration is October 2018 – May 2021. US Embassy Yerevan supports the implementation of the project.