Africast

Welcome to Africast!

On this webpage, links to our most recent episodes, information about the Africast project's vision and objectives, and updates on our present progress and future plans could be found.

Mission Statement

With the creation of a podcast series, we aspired to bolster the partnership between TUM and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). We sought to increase awareness about ongoing projects in Ghana, particularly in academia and scientific research, and to inform our listeners about unanticipated differences and parallels between Germany and Ghana. We invited all people to listen to the various interviews with experts and students and to learn more about what Ghana had to offer.

Enjoy our first episode - Student Life in Ghana

Check out our newest episode - Economy & Startups

 

Past Progress

The initial pair of episodes in our Podcast series had been recorded by May 2019. The third and fourth installments came in July, with three more following in August.

Before the recording sessions, we had arranged meetings with our podcast guests to lay out a rough guideline for the dialogue. It's critical to mention that there was never a pre-set script or dialogue, ensuring that the conversations could evolve naturally.

To guarantee the utmost quality, we undertook the interviews in a professional dubbing studio, aided by a sound engineer.

We initially planned for 15 minutes per episode, but it became evident that a recording time of 20 minutes per episode was more suitable for facilitating an informative and balanced dialogue. We believed this duration would effectively deliver our message without overwhelming listeners with excessive information. For transparency, we made no edits or modifications post-recording.

We chose to introduce each episode with a one-minute preamble, giving the podcast series a unified tone. This brief introduction covers our identity and outlines the Africast project's objectives.

To enrich the podcast series' informational value, we resolved to integrate several on-screen 'info boxes' that listeners could read during the episode.

The first two episodes were designed to offer listeners a fundamental understanding of Ghana, covering the country's culture, history, and geography. The subjects ranged from the impact of colonial history, Ghana's independence, national languages, national service tradition, the university system, to potential career prospects.

By the year's end, we had planned to release a total of seven podcast episodes. After the foundational content covered in the first two episodes, our attention increasingly shifted to specific projects tackling relevant issues in Ghana, such as infrastructure, electric mobility, land and waste management, economic growth, and start-ups.

 

Next steps

In 2020, we embarked on the second phase of our project. We aimed to host an intercultural workshop day in March 2020. The plan was to invite approximately 30 TUM students who would have listened to several podcast episodes beforehand and then participate in semi-standardized interviews. Besides the survey, this full-day workshop would present an occasion for participants to immerse themselves in Ghanaian culture. We would provide typical Ghanaian food and music, hopefully with the Ghana Student Union's support.

Post-workshop, we would evaluate the qualitative interviews, supplemented by a literature review focusing on three primary questions:

 

a)     How is Ghana’s current development relevant in a global context?

b)    What defines personal interest and how can it be measured?

c)     How are podcasts an effective medium for disseminating new information?

 

Partners

Our project's success hinged on locating partners who could contribute valuable information and assistance. Therefore, we initiated our work by meeting representatives from the Ghana Student Union and a delegation of professors from KNUST. These engagements helped us establish a network of contacts in Ghana and Germany. We were also fortunate to have the support of the Neue Tonfilm München GmbH, which allowed us to record our podcast episodes in a professional studio setting.

 

Release Schedule

Team

We were three motivated students from the Technical University of Munich, each of us coming from diverse academic disciplines.

If there was an interest in our project, we welcomed anyone tocontact us for more information.

• Jaimee Lau - Bachelor student of TUM School of Governance
• Marius Merkle - Bachelor student of Munich School of Engineering
• Patrick Sowinski - Master student of Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence

Our project received guidance from our tutors and supervisors:

• Dominik Irber - Tutor
• Dr. Matthias Lehner - Tutor
• Dr. Veronika Diem - Supervisor
• Prof. Dr. Ernst W. Mayr - Supervisor

Pictures