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A recent evaluation of El Kul (For Everyone) 鈥� a training project that aims to produce appealing, impartial, accurate and timely news for young Libyans via Facebook 鈥� found a high level of audience trust in El Kul鈥檚 output and revealed that its diverse content encouraged discussion, appealed to women and enabled users to learn about the cultures of people across Libya.
The project鈥檚 capacity-strengthening efforts were also found to have increased trainees鈥� soft and job-specific skills and their employment in the media sector.
Publication date: June 2017
The project
大象传媒 Media Action launched El Kul in February 2015 as a means of continuing its training and development work with Libyan media practitioners in the absence of a trusted broadcast partner within the country.
El Kul is aimed at Libyan youth who want to gain media skills and provide balanced, fair reporting on events and stories of interest to Libyans everywhere. Trainees are recruited directly in Libya, through advertising on Facebook and other networks such as universities鈥� media departments and Libyan media outlets. In total, 大象传媒 Media Action trained 67 trainees during 2016-2017, of which 37 (55%) were women.
As part of the implementation of the project, El Kul provides daily news on a dedicated Facebook page that aims to offer Libyans an accurate, timely and impartial source of information on key issues (e.g. the ongoing peace talks) at a crucial juncture in the country鈥檚 political transition. In addition, El Kul seeks to produce content that appeals to young audiences 鈥� such as sport, entertainment, arts and music.
Research approach
To evaluate the impact of the project鈥檚 capacity-strengthening element on trainees鈥� abilities, 大象传媒 Media Action commissioned an independent media consultant to assess trainees鈥� outputs before and after training. To further assess change in trainees鈥� skills, trainees completed self-assessment forms before and after training, scoring their job-specific and soft skills. In addition, 55 trainees who had finished training three or more months ago completed a follow-up survey. The consultant also interviewed: two trainees, three trainers, the El Kul social media manager and 大象传媒 Media Action鈥檚 Libya country director.
大象传媒 Media Action used a number of research methods to evaluate audiences鈥� perceptions of El Kul鈥檚 effectiveness. This included: an online survey of 195 users, in-depth telephone surveys of 30 users, and a female panel who were sent content once a month for four months.
Key findings
Audience engagement
- El Kul is engaged a large number of users, with an average of 97,000 engaged users a week
- Research participants had a high level of trust in El Kul鈥檚 output: 84% of online survey respondents reported that they trust the page as a source of credible and impartial information, and the majority of telephone interviewees stated that they would recommend El Kul to a friend
- El Kul compared favourably to other media, with users describing it as 鈥渢rustworthy鈥�, 鈥渦nique鈥� and 鈥渋mpartial鈥�
- Users viewed El Kul鈥檚 content positively, reporting that El Kul was willing to address topics overlooked by other news sources and covered a variety of topics.