The site, which features learning resources, health reporting best practices and a vibrant network of more than 200 journalists and experts, launched during the recent 2013 African Media Leaders Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Knight International Journalism Fellow Gustavo Faleiros is tapping ordinary, environmentally concerned citizens in the Amazon region to help contribute data and information to InfoAmazonia, his digital mapping project that tracks deforestation. Faleiros says "citizen science" movements like this one can be a powerful force for connecting communities, for telling stories about the environment and health, and for helping explain the problems and issues to policymakers.
The headline of the Weekly Trust cover story on Saturday, July 30th was scathing: “Abuja mothers-to-be cry out… ‘We go through hell in hospitals.’” Produced under the guiding eye of Knight International Journalism Fellow Sunday Dare, the story highlighted a critical shortage of hospital staff that prompted many expectant mothers
Sports journalism and the use of India’s Right to Information act could be strange bedfellows. But the recent Commonwealth Games 2010 held in New Delhi reduced the distance. The billion-dollar sports extravaganza was mired in mismanagement, corruption and nepotism. Interestingly, a lot of this was unearthed by Right to Information activists. As a result, the key driver of the event, Suresh Kalmadi, is now in jail on charges of corruption.
Indian magazine Hardnews features citizen journalists who traveled to Delhi for a six-day workshop organized by Knight Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary. These journalists from rural India report local issues using Choudhary's mobile news network, CGNet Swara. CGNet team member Smita Choudhary discusses the marginalization of Indian tribes by mainstream news sources. “Media is politically and commercially controlled these days. Nobody wants to hear a villager’s story,” she said.
India is one of the world's most dynamic economies, and media are an important part of its rapidly changing scene. Hundreds of new television stations are being licensed, magazines abound and newspaper circulation still posts healthy gains.
Many voters across Peru were able for the first time to see local coverage of the hotly-contested June 5, 2011, presidential runoff by watching reports online and on the air, thanks to a year-long project by Knight International Journalism Fellow Hena Cuevas.
In five provincial areas of Peru, TV stations that belong to the Red TV network produced Election Day stories and uploaded them to YouTube.
Himanshu Kumar runs a non-governmental organization in Chhattisgarh district, where Knight International Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary has created a mobile phone news network called CGnet Swara. When Kumar heard from colleagues who described a brutal police attack on several villages, he filed a report using his cell phone. He alleged the police had killed two people and raped five women.
When government food deliveries provided for malnourished children in rural India suddenly stopped around the first of the year, Savita Rath and other indigenous workers who care for the children did the best they could to provide meals.
But with food supplies dwindling, Savita also picked up a cell phone and filed a report through CGNet Swara, a mobile news network created by Knight International Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary.
