Blog Post

Reducing Deaths From Illegal Abortion in Mozambique

On Friday, September 28 – the Day of Global Action for Decriminalization of Abortion – my trainees splashed the gruesome consequences of clandestine abortion across major Mozambican media. The weekly SOL published a two-page story on abortion in Inhambane province, 500 kilometers north of Maputo, while the daily O Pais, Radio Mocambique and three Internet news sites picked up a story from the Portuguese news service LUSA by a reporter I coach, Emanuel Pereira.

Indian Women Enrolled in Journalism School See Media Career as Path to Empowerment

The World Media Academy has started its new academic year with a new partner: the 9.9 School of Convergence. By joining forces with 9.9, WMA is able to offer its students a multimedia experience that combines print, online and broadcast.

Our 22 students come from the north, south, east and west of this diverse country. We also have one international student, Susma Pradhan, who hails from Thimpu, Bhutan.

Susma is one of 14 women who make up this year's class.

Mobile and Advertising Innovations Set the Course for Sustainability Efforts by Liberia Media

Since embarking a year ago on a media-sustainability project as a Knight International Journalism Fellow in Liberia, I have worked with managers at three newspapers and three radio stations to help them succeed not only as news organizations but also as businesses.

The Liberia media industry is extremely volatile, with radio stations, in particular, shutting down from time to time for lack of income.

Bogota Hacks/Hackers to Launch Crowdsourced Map on Environmental Problems

“Mi Bogotá Verde,” or My Green Bogota, a new, crowdsourced digital map that will track solid waste disposal – the first of many urban environmental concerns – is just weeks away from going online in Bogota.

The map was developed during the first hackathon of the Bogota chapter of Hacks/Hackers, created just four months ago.

Learning Data Visualization Skills Helps Tell Compelling Stories in Africa

For two days, the trainers became trainees, and it was fun. We stepped into the world of data visualization using the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). These population-based surveys provide reliable information on HIV, malaria, gender, family planning, maternal and child health, and nutrition in more than 90 countries.

Unsafe Abortion Makes News, as Mozambique Prepares for a Change in Law

Abortions are technically illegal in Mozambique. Even though the laws are no longer enforced, medical standards have yet to catch up, especially in rural areas where patients find less sterile, riskier procedures. Now with a new effort to revamp and discard the old national laws, all that is about to change.

Digital Map to Track Corruption Launches in Colombia

A digital mapping tool to track corruption in Colombia on a national scale launched July 24, a result of our partnership with the Consejo de Redacción, a country-wide organization of investigative journalists.

Hack/Hackers Sao Paulo: On the Quest for Journalism Innovation

On Monday, July 16, I launched Brazil’s first Hacks/Hackers chapter in Sao Paulo. The initiative has the support of ABRAJI (the Brazilian Investigative Journalism Association), the local offices of the Open Knowledge Foundation and W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium).

A Journey to the Source: Reporters in South Africa Learn How and Where to Find People Behind the Stories

Stretching across a broad expanse of wilderness along South Africa’s Eastern Cape, the Transkei is the region set aside for the Xhosa people by the old apartheid regime, ostensibly as an experiment in black self-governance. It is also the birthplace of some of South Africa’s greatest freedom fighters, among them Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Thabo Mbeki.

After Rio+20, the Role of Journalists is Even More Important

At the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, I came prepared to learn about new challenges journalists around the world will face as they try to find accurate information about environmental and development issues. As a Knight International Journalism Fellow, I also came armed with some practical approaches for addressing these new challenges – at least here in the Amazon region where my work is based.