Two Broadcasters, One Shared Mission: Learning through Media Mobility

By Jovo Vukcevic

When I applied for the Innovation. Media. Minds. mobility grant, I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to see. I work in Programme Promotion at RTCG, Montenegro's public broadcaster, where almost everything we produce depends on what happens before the final promo, graphic or campaign reaches the screen. Information has to arrive, tasks have to move between people and departments, materials have to be available, and responsibilities have to be clear.

I wanted to understand how other public broadcasters handle those same everyday challenges. I was interested in technology, but even more in the way people use it: how promotion works with design, programme, production and marketing, how tasks are followed, and how information moves through a large organisation. The mobility took me first to HRT in Zagreb and, a month later, to RTP in Lisbon.

HRT, Zagreb

At HRT I spent time with colleagues from promotion, design, daily graphics, scenography and other parts of the organisation. Jelena Römer, Slaven Kuduz and Zoran Vakula were among the people who shared their work and experience with me, while Alma Pijaca coordinated the visit and connected me with the colleagues whose work was most relevant to what I do at RTCG. One detail I appreciated was the pragmatism around equipment. HRT has sophisticated modern technology, but some older, proven tools are still in use because they remain reliable and continue to do the job well. There was no sense that something had to be replaced simply because a newer version existed. I liked that approach because it was practical rather than fashionable.

The most useful organisational example I saw was HRT's internally developed system for communication and task management. It was built around the way their teams actually work and continues to evolve as their needs change. A request enters the process, responsibilities are visible, progress can be followed, and there is a record of what happened. For Programme Promotion, where many jobs depend on information and material arriving from several different parts of the broadcaster, that is not a minor technical detail. It directly affects how reliably the work gets done. The colleagues I met were open about their routines, the things that work well and the things they are still improving. Because HRT is a public broadcaster in the same region, some of the pressures and working realities were familiar to me. That made the differences in organisation even more useful to observe.

RTP, Lisbon

By the time I arrived in Lisbon, I already had pages of notes from Zagreb and another set of questions. RTP operates on a different scale, and there was plenty of technology to see. I looked at systems connecting scheduling, content, promotion, graphics, newsroom processes, broadcast and archives, including tools such as GMediaTX and Viz in the context of everyday production rather than as a software presentation. During the visit I worked and spoke with Rui Martins, Júlio Castanheira, Mariana Almada Guerra, Mónica Raposo, Vera Roquette and Paulo Madeira, among others. They represented different areas of RTP, but across those conversations I noticed a similar attitude towards the job. Responsibilities were clear, information moved between colleagues, and people took deadlines and their own part of the process seriously. At the same time, communication was direct and informal, without unnecessary distance between people.

That combination probably stayed with me more than any single piece of technology. A good technical system helps, but it only becomes useful when the people around it know what they are responsible for, share information and trust the process enough to use it properly. I had lunch with RTP colleagues every day, and those conversations became an important part of the visit. We would start with television and easily move to Montenegro, Portugal, families, children and everyday life. They were curious about me and where I came from, and I was equally curious about them. From my own experience, there was something familiar in that directness and informality, perhaps closer to the way we communicate in Montenegro than I had expected before the trip.

Those informal conversations also gave context to what I was seeing in the offices and control rooms. A workflow diagram can explain where a task goes next, but the people using it every day can explain where it becomes difficult, what happens when something changes at the last moment, and how they solve problems when the plan meets reality.

I still exchange messages regularly with Paulo Madeira and remain in contact with several other RTP colleagues. That continuing contact is one of the things I value most from Lisbon because the professional exchange did not end when the visit did.

What I brought back

I did not return to Podgorica thinking that RTCG should become HRT or RTP. The two broadcasters are different from each other, and both are different from RTCG. That was precisely why seeing them was useful. The point was to understand what sits behind their results and then decide what could realistically make sense in our own environment.

From HRT, the strongest lesson was the value of processes and tools built around real organisational needs. From RTP, I came back thinking even more about the relationship between technology and working culture: clear responsibilities, direct communication, good coordination and a serious attitude towards the person who depends on your part of the job being finished properly.

For Programme Promotion at RTCG, several ideas are immediately relevant: clearer task management, better communication between departments, a reliable digital record of work, more effective use of technology we already have, and better exchange of knowledge between colleagues. Not everything I saw should be transferred, but being able to see how another broadcaster solves a problem makes it easier to judge our own processes more clearly.

My last day in Lisbon coincided with 25 April, Portugal's Freedom Day and the anniversary of the Carnation Revolution. I had not planned the timing of the trip around it. I went out and found the city full of families, young people, older people, flags, carnations and music. After several days spent inside RTP, it was an unexpected way to see another side of Portugal and to finish the visit. I joined the crowd for a while and simply enjoyed being there. The Goethe-Institut and the Innovation. Media. Minds. programme gave me the opportunity to spend time inside two public broadcasters and speak openly with colleagues doing work close to my own. That kind of access is difficult to reproduce through presentations or remote meetings. I am particularly grateful to Dajana Čelebić for her support throughout the process and for the opportunity to make these two visits happen.

I came back to RTCG with practical notes and ideas, but also with people I still speak to months later and a much clearer sense of what I would like to improve in my own work and organisation. And yes, I would go back to Portugal tomorrow.

Funded by the European Union, the Innovation. Media. Minds Program: Support to Public Service Journalism in the Western Balkans, is managed by the Goethe-Institut on behalf of the European Commission and in collaboration with its implementing partner DW Akademie. The contents of this story are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.