Encouraged by some young people from the Northern Basque Country, BADA was founded in October 2021. Aim: to inform young people, by young people, in Basque. It was born at the height of a challenge; how to inform young people about local events? How to reach them? And in what language?
Faced with all these questions, we decided to inform the young people of Lapurdi, Baxe-Navarra and Xibero in Basque, subtitling all the contents in French to make Basque accessible.
We adapted to the tools and codes that young people use to inform and BADA spread on social networks, so through different stories, reels, podcasts and designs.
The youth media of the Northern Basque Country
BADA is aimed at young people from the three northern countries and disseminates local information. We propose different contents according to our interest and curiosity. Our three main contents are the formats Reportage, Bada ZerErran and Urubia.
The reports, for example, explain the project of a young man, valuing his career. A shoe salesman, a dancer or a young researcher may appear in the video. Through their own and intimate trajectory, the report aims to address the issues that affect all young people. In the meantime, we give the mic to different young people. In some special initiatives, we questioned the meaning of the initiative and its own point of view by taking the microphone to the streets.
In collaboration with the newspaper Berria, we also propose the video podcast Urubia. A presenter works on a current topic in the Basque Country or worldwide, always with the desire to make information accessible to our generation.
We’ve had many different types of content at BADA. We have been working on video games, cinema or news. For example, the 6Pack stories summarized 6 main news of the week, focusing on the articles proposed by the “traditional” media. Badadoa, on the other hand, has been a cultural performance; in collaboration with Kanaldude, a guest answered the different questions of a presenter, where he was playing video games.
Lastly, Bada Zinema, uses graphics to analyse a Basque film and propose an analysis. Different types of content, with the desire to offer a wide and different proposal to young people, and always created by young people.
Briefly
We are a medium that can be intercepted on social networks; on platforms where everything has to be short and efficient. As a result, our content is short; effective. For 3 minutes, we have to make a topic interesting, respecting the words of those who are questioned, introducing a bit of humor, without losing depth; a great challenge! A big challenge in our day-to-day is the dissemination of elaborate ideas in order to summarize all this in as much as possible.
Whether it’s video, design or podcasts, we want to inform our generation.
Whether it’s the latest news or a cultural initiative, we want to inform our people about it.
Whether the audience is young Basque or French, we want to spread our content in Basque.
But, on platforms that always propose shorter formats, how to do it? To draw attention, what is the recipe? And to keep that attention on the video?
It is not enough to propose content made by young people. As in all, the effect of novelty has a limited period of time and we must always renew ourselves. Capture, elaborate and execute ideas. Be rigorous, reflect on conversations from the beginning, read information, read our texts, correct them and rewrite them. Cut and cut, almost always.
We haven"t detected the magic recipe that keeps the attention on the light. However, in our case, we have learned what to pay attention to in order to make it as attractive as possible and, ultimately, to facilitate public viewing.
The first few seconds of a video are important. The person is there to decide whether to continue watching the video or not. From the beginning we have to be eye-catching and we have to make a good selection of these first passages.
It’s also important for people to identify our work. The name of BADA must be marked. For this we have visual and musical identities that appear in all our contents.
In addition, the content must be brief on social networks. Content viewed on mobile requires availability and our videos don’t last more than 5 minutes on networks.
Finally, regularity counts. By broadcasting videos in multiples, we have more to give the social media algorithm in our favor and it makes it easier to show our videos to users.
Small, far away: unknown
We are a Northern Basque media company. Created by young people for young people. In Basque language.
We have not chosen the easiest route. All the traits that make up our identity can be seen as weakness.
- Being young is difficult in the world of journalism and communication. We are always accused of our poor experience or ignorance. The legitimacy of information is not always given to us. Although we work hard and are demanding, our work is not always valued. We are not always considered as a means of communication.
- We prioritize Spanish in our content. Basque... that minority language. To oppose various political decisions is to choose to report in Basque in a territory that France considers its own. To use this unloved language and make it accessible with the subtitles of childbirth? What an idea! However, we do it, every day, and we strengthen the presence of our language in social networks.
- The Northern Basque Country Media? The one from the north? For some curiosities, exoticism for others. Dances from three different countries, ways of speaking, songs, etc. They are assimilated in many ways by the Basques of the Southern Basque Country.
Ideologically, the three provinces of the Northern Basque Country are not located in the center of the Basque Country, whether we want it or not, because this border that is imposed on us influences us. And here, what emerges and happens from our periphery is, in many cases, excluded from the center.
To finish it
Like I said, our characteristics are not the easiest, but they make our identity. We create with them and, more than weaknesses, we bring new and different points of view thanks to them. BADA has personality thanks to them.
Novelty, rehearsals, mistakes. All of them make up BADA.
Proposing basque content to young people on social networks, informing them and interpenetrating them are our objectives, because social networks have no limits and in them everything is possible: because we have the tool in hand to build our world in our own way.
