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May 10, 2012

$1 million for African media, $100,000 at a time

Enter your best ideas!

 

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International Center for Journalists
For Immediate Release: May 10, 2012
Contact: Sonja Matanovic, Communications Director
Telephone: 202.349.7624,
smatanovic@icfj.org

 

 

Call for Entries: $1 Million African News Innovation Challenge

 

 

 

Africa’s first major contest designed to promote the development of digital media products and innovations is now accepting applications.
African News Innovation Challenge (ANIC) will provide grants from $12,500 to $100,000 for the best projects aimed at strengthening and transforming African news media. The contest is modeled on the highly successful
Knight News Challenge in the United States. Grantees will also receive technical advice, startup support and one-on-one mentoring from the world’s top media experts.
Of particular interest are proposals that improve data-based investigative journalism, audience engagement, mobile news distribution, data visualization, new revenue models and workflow systems.
The
African Media Initiative (AMI), Africa’s largest association of media owners and operators, announced the contest last November as part of a pan-African initiative to spur digital experimentation and technology-driven projects and startups.
“African media have a tremendous opportunity to leapfrog the business disruption faced by media in Europe and the U.S.,” says AMI chief executive Amadou Mahtar Ba. “The growing reach of mobile networks and improving Internet access is beginning to reshape the media landscape in Africa. We believe this competition will help African news organizations stay ahead of the curve.”
“Omidyar Network is delighted to be supporting the Africa News Innovation Challenge,” said Stephen King, partner at Omidyar Network. “Across the continent we are seeing innovative ways in which technology is providing people with greater access to information. This challenge is a great opportunity for journalists, entrepreneurs and technologists to join forces and help enable the African media to hold their leaders to account.”
Digital strategist
Justin Arenstein, a Knight International Journalism Fellow working with AMI, is leading the initiative. The
International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C., administers the Knight Fellowships.
HOW TO APPLY:
Entries must be submitted to the
ANIC website by midnight (Central African Time) on July 10, 2012.
WHO CAN APPLY:
Proposals may be submitted by news pioneers from anywhere in the world, but entries must have an African media partner who will help develop and test the innovation. Projects that are designed for Africa will stand a better chance of receiving support.
PROJECTS OF GREATEST INTEREST:
ANIC is seeking new ways to create, discuss and share news and make quality journalism sustainable. This could include new revenue or production models, new ways to gather, produce or distribute news. Ideas that can be scaled up across the continent or replicated elsewhere are of particular interest. Preference will be given to ideas that solve bottlenecks facing Africa’s media.
THE JUDGING PROCESS  
Winning projects will be selected by an ANIC panel of judges, following public voting and a review by an international jury.

 

 

 

 

About ICFJ

The
International Center for Journalists is a non-profit organization that advances quality journalism worldwide. Its programs combine the best professional standards with the latest digital innovations. ICFJ believes that independent, vigorous media are crucial in improving the human condition.

About AMI

The
African Media Initiative is the continent’s largest umbrella association of African media owners, senior executives and other industry stakeholders. AMI’s mandate is to serve as a catalyst for strengthening African media by building the tools, knowledge resources and technical capacity for African media to play an effective public interest role in their societies. This mandate includes assisting with the development of professional standards, financial sustainability, technological adaptability and civic engagement. 

About Google Inc.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top Web property in all major global markets. Google's mission in Africa is to make the Internet an integral part of every day life in Africa, by increasing it's relevance and usefulness, eliminating access barriers for potential users, and developing products that are meaningful for the countries in the region. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more information, visit
www.google.com/africa, see our Africa Blog,
google-africa.blogspot.com or follow us on Twitter
twitter.com/googleafrica
About Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $500 million to for-profit companies and non-profit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, property rights, consumer Internet, mobile and government transparency. To learn more, visit
www.omidyar.com.

 

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2 Comments

April 20, 2012

If you want to #coverthenight, also read this — Beyond #Kony2012: Advocacy, Activism and Africa

I'm thrilled to join the company of some stellar thinkers, doers and writers in "Beyond Kony2012." I've offered a chapter called "Ethical or Exploitative: Stories, Advocacy and Suffering," an analytic look at trauma stories in journalism and advocacy contexts.

The book is free for two weeks, via LeanPub,. Go download it. Share it with others. Move it like it's a Rihanna song from Pirate Bay. You know, make it move -- if not Invisible-Children/XMDR-TB viral, at least cold-and-flu-season viral.

Here's the skinny on the book, which you can get here:

The first several chapters provide historical and political context. Adam Branch, Daniel Kalinaki, and Ayesha Nibbe explain the roots of the conflict, and how it has persisted for so many years. Alex Little and Patrick Wegner discuss various attempts to end the conflict through peace negotiations, ICC arrest warrants, and military operations, and why they have not been successful.

Later chapters consider the ethics and effectiveness of awareness campaigns like Kony 2012. Glenna Gordon and Jina Moore draw on their experiences as journalists to critique the video’s portrayal of Africa and the people who live there. Rebecca Hamilton, Laura Seay, Kate Cronin-Furman, and Amanda Taub examine the weakness of “awareness” advocacy. Alanna Shaikh explains the ethical dangers of bad aid work. Teddy Ruge offers a different view of Africa, as a place of dynamic innovation instead of violence and helplessness. And youth activist Sam Menefee-Libey describes his frustration with the tone and substance of the campaign meant to target his generation.

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