Creators Fund aims at promotion of a variety of media content that would be interesting and useful to the regional audience.
Special attention is paid to improving the delivery of quality content in dynamic media formats. Independent local media and individual journalists are supported both in following the rapid digitalisation of the media and in developing innovative approaches to storytelling. DW Akademie also offers the media professionals the opportunity to join the MediaFit Product Incubator – a product development process that accompanies media professionals at various stages: from the conception phase to product release. The Incubator includes mentorship from a number of international and regional experts, as well as feedback at every stage of product development from colleagues with relevant experience in Ukraine.
The media production had to target the audience in at least one of these 10 regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy and Chernihiv regions. DW Akademie provided a mentoring program combined with the trainings.
Thanks to the active participation, constant communication and support by the team of the Creators Fund mentors - whether online or on the spot during filming, whether during concept development, resource planning or reporting - the project team and the creators themselves were able to successfully complete the projects. Despite all the difficulties linked to the war, i.e. many creators were forced to leave their native places and flee to other regions of Ukraine, the recent serious lack of infrastructure and blackouts, as well as psychological problems that made production and publication extremely difficult and slow, the creators demonstrated high motivation, resilience and worked intensively on their projects and delivered a variety of quality products.
Undoubtedly, power outages and Internet outages have had a negative impact on the distribution of content, significantly reducing its possible reach, especially for video productions.