Citizen Journalism – Winner 2014

Project Title : Meroreport – Equal Access (DBI, EA) Nepal

Contact Person: Upendra Aryal

Email: uaryal@equalaccess.org

Country : Nepal

Website : www.equalaccess.org.np

Faceook Page : www.facebook.com/EqualAccessNepal

MeroReport (www.meroreport.net) is a citizen journalism-cum-social networking platform created for the citizen journalists and bloggers of Nepal. Meroreport users can express their views, ideas and news as well as interact with other users. This platform is open to all, who, after becoming a member, can immediately start posting content such as blogs, discussions, status, pictures, audio and videos. MeroReport initiated a series of discussions with blog users and journalists, as a result of which, a code of conduct and Best Practices Guidelines for Blog Users was developed in 2011.

Meroreport also features ‘Blogger of the Week’, a weekly section where youths are nominated for their contribution to citizen journalism and blogging in various issues, to further recognize and motivate youths for blogging practice. Meroreport project also has outreach activities such as ICT and new media training offered to youths, women, underserved communities and emerging journalists. It was also the Nepal partner for World Bloggers Day 2012. At present it has 1611 members who continuously contribute news, views and blogs for the website. There are 5375 blogs posted on various issues such as politics, society, gender equity, violence against women, peace building, local development issues and good governance among others.

Project Title : The Better India

Contact Person: Rahul Anand

Email: rahul@thebetterindia.com

Country : India

Website : www.thebetterindia.com

Faceook Page : www.facebook.com/thebetterindia

Founded in 2008, The Better India (TBI) meets the scarcity of positive and developmental news in conventional media. TBI publishes reports on people, ideas and projects that have impacted communities and brought about desirable social change. It publishes stories about unsung heroes, changemakers, innovations, education, children, women empowerment, travel, history, arts & culture, social development, etc. Starting with the founders as a team of twodoing all the writing, today TBI has more than 100 writers contributing from all over India. TBI got onto social media like Twitter and Facebook early-on and invested a lot in having conversations with its audience all the time.

This helped them get leads for many articles and also acquire a readership of more than 500,000. By showcasing positive stories, TBI has catalyzed significant on-ground social impact. For example, its report on Help Desk, an innovative solution by NGO Arambh went viral on the web. Around 140,000 people watched the video in 6 days and the NGO received over 600 calls on the day it was published.A story about a child-care centre run by a 95 year old led to readers visiting the place and contributing Rs 5 lakh. There are many other such examples.

Project Title : Video Volunteer

Contact Person: Kayonaaz Kalyanwala

Email: kayonaaz@videovolunteers.org

Country : India

Website : www.videovolunteers.org

Faceook Page : www.facebook.com/VideoVolunteers

Through its flagship programme India Unheard, Video Volunteer has built up a network of 206 Community Correspondents who work in 23 of India’s 28 states covering more than 2000 villages. VV’s videos capture the reality of marginalised communities in rural and urban India and gives voice to issues that are relevant to them. It is the largest and most diverse network of salaried community producers in the world. Till date the network has produced over 2000 videos on topics like child marriage, forced evictions, violence against women, atrocities against Dalits, people breaking the social boundaries laid out for them and peace between Hindus and Muslims.

More than 300,000 people have seen these videos in live outdoor screenings in slums and villages. These videos are published on a daily basis on VV’s website www.videovolunteers.org and distributed via networks like Facebook, Twitter, and online and TV news platforms. VV’s content is regularly featured on various news portals and TV channels such as Huffington Post, Tehelka, Youth Ki Awaz, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today etc. So far, more than 1,10,000 people have taken concrete action after seeing VV’s films directly benefiting more than 1.2 million people. It has notched up 1,000,000+ YouTube views doubling its viewership in 2013-14.

Project Title : Impassion Afghanistan

Contact Person: Eileen Guo

Email: aliciaCshepard@gmail.com

Country :Afghanistan

Website : www.impassion.af

Faceook Page : www.facebook.com/impassionafghanistan

Paiwandg?h, is a social media and mobile technology-based platform that allows Afghans to connect and contribute to the national dialogue about the most important issues facing the nation. Using Paiwandg?h, all citizens can send in stories, opinions, and reports through a call, SMS, or social media. The site provides a critical voice for people to be heard using various social media platforms as well as an interactive map that allowed everyone to see what was happening in each of the 34 provinces and read live reports from people on the ground. Paiwandgah.af debuted in February as an interactive platform for Afghan citizens to report before,during and after the historic April 5 presidential election.

We heard from people in 27 of the country’s 34 provinces who sent reports to the Paiwandg?h.af citizen journalism platform about the elections. Since its debut Paiwandgah has given out 41 reporting assignments and received 1,334 reports between February and mid August. It has developed a database of 129 citizen journalists and are adding to it with more details about who they are to provide context to their reports. It is also working with civil society groups to get more women to contribute reports. It also trains people in citizen journalism.