The project “Greening the Narratives: Advancing Awareness of the Green Transition in the Western Balkans” aims to demonstrably widen public awareness and adoption of the green transition in the Western Balkans. The project’s main objectives are to increase transparency of the renewable energy sector, promote public awareness, and support the democratization and decentralization of energy markets through more robust media coverage.

The project consists of the following interconnected activities designed to enhance media reporting on the Green Agenda.

1. Innovation Hub. This project element will host winter and summer schools, each with up to 15 participants. The Hub will help identify new actors and journalistic solutions, articulate these into media outputs that are able to bring media coverage of green transition to a new level. Innovation Hub is the first step of our theory of change; beside identifying new actors, it will help address any potential fatigue within the existing media actors for the green transition topics;

2. Validation Booster. A 5-month programme with up to 15 participants per cycle, during the project life-span two cycles will be organized, focused on testing and validating new ideas. This project element is the second step within the Thomson’s theory of change and involves online workshops, mentorship, and peer learning to equip participants with the tools and knowledge for media product validation which is essential for sustainability of reporting and also safeguards against any potential market saturation or fatigue within the existing media actors when it comes to green topics.

3. Covering Green Transition. This project element is the third and final step within our theory of change. It will consist of a fellowship for journalists and content producers providing them with expert knowledge, skills and networking opportunities to enable more nuanced and robust reporting on the green transition. The fellowship will include a workshop, mentorship, collaborations, and 5 production grants.

The project will identify and motivate traditional media, content creators, and new media outlets funded or established by CSOs, to develop new approaches towards coverage of the green transition. Project participants will gain skills in idea validation, preparing them for presentations to potential investors or funders (e.g. foundations). Finally, journalists and content creators will produce more nuanced stories, including more investigative stories focusing on the macro and micro aspects of the green transition in the Western Balkans and broader Europe. It is expected that publications produced as a result of this project will pay special attention to the representation of interests of vulnerable and marginalized groups in different processes related to the green transition in the region.

Eventually the project will contribute to a more transparent green transition in the Western Balkans as a result of a greater public awareness.