$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.”

Contest partners include Omidyar Network, Google, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the U.S. State Department, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

“Omidyar Network is delighted to be supporting the African 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 is managing the initiative as part of his work with the AMI and International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C.

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 its relevance and usefulness, eliminating access barriers for potential users, and developing products that are meaningful for countries in the region. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.google.com/africa, see our Africa Blog, http://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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Malawi President's health / death - Where to get reliable news

Every Malawian is talking about the health / death of President Bingu wa Mutharika following news that he was rushed to Kamuzu Central Hospital in the Capital, Lilongwe on Thursday 5th April. While some reputable news sites are reporting that the President has died after suffering a heart attack, there is still no official communication on his health status from the government. News sites like BBC, CNN, France24 and Reuters have all reported of the death of the Malawi President.

At a 10 minute press conference held by the Information Minister Hon. Patricia Kaliati and other 4 senior government officials, government failed to make it clear on the health of the President. However the conference was held to clear the mist on the issues regarding succession of the President. Kaliati only said that government will make a statement tomorrow (today).

Following the information blackout government has chosen to take, many Malawians and and other observers have resorted to the use of Social Media (Facebook and Twitter) Since there is too much information being published i have created a list of sites and individuals you can follow to get up to date news, opinions and latest rumours.

1. You can listen online to Zodiak Broadcasting Radio , Read Nyasa Times, Malawi Voice, Maravi Post, Malawi Democrat, Malawi Today and Face of Malawi.

2. For all the tweets talking about Malawi i (@kristungati) have created a site to aggregate them all visit Malawi on Twitter

3. Kondwani Munthali's blog is well updated with accurate information.

4. Mabvuto Banda who write for alot of international media houses also maintains an in depth blog and updates it as the news happen. Mabvuto is also on Twitter - @bvutoB

5. Rebecca Chimjeka is also updating her blog with news from the corridors of power.

6. Kim Yi Dionne's love for Malawi and Africa keeps her very much in touch with news about Malawi. She blogs about well researched and professional issues about Malawi. She is more active on Twitter as @dadakim

7. Though Jimmy Kainja is not writing about the Malawi President's health / death on his blog, he is more active about that on Twitter. Follow @jkainja

8. Follow Fredrick Bvalani on twitter @fredbvalani

9 Follow the Nation newspaper on twitter @malawination and they are updating their news website as it happens

10. Austin Madinga @austinmadinga


11. Idriss Ali Nassah on twitter @mynassah

12 Waswa @malebopo

13. Capital Radio Malawi @CapitalRadioMW

14 Lawyer Wapona Kita on Facebook

15 Civil activist Billy Mayaya on Facebook

16. Dannie Grant Phiri on Facebook

17. Mzondi Lungu on Facebook

18. Sugzo Khunga on Twitter @sugzokhunga

19. Bright Mhango on Facebook and Twitter as @mutafire

20. Edmond Kachale on Twitter as @ceekays

21 Stanley Onjezani Kenani on Twitter as @onjezani

22. Ben Chiza Mkandawire on Facebook and Twitter as @khadiba

23 Chimwemwe Msuku on twitter @chimwemwemsuku

24. Malawi Voice on Twitter as @malawivoice

25. Towards Malawi Elections 2014 on Facebook and @Malawi2014 on Twitter

26. Face of Malawi on Twitter as @malawinews365


You can also join and follow news on these Facebook groups:

People's Party , Malawi Freedom Network, Occupy Parliament Malawi, Malawi at 50: Towards a New Crop of Malawian Leaders Youth Association For the Restoration of Democracy in Malawi YARDEMA and Capital Radio Malawi.

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Malawi News on your Mobile

It is no hidden fact that technology is changing the way we are informed of the things that are happening around us. Malawi is not to be left behind in these developments. Just this week, Malawi's leading publishing house, BNL Times, publishers of the Daily Times, Malawi News, Sunday Times and Weekend Times inconjuction with TalkAWE announced that it will soon launch an initiative to bring breaking news on your mobile phones. The initiative will attract a subscription fee of MK2000 per month, K5, 750 quarterly while half yearly subscription is at K11, 500 and annual subscription is K22, 000.

The facility will be available in all phone networks in the country and any handset as long as they have an sms facility. The service will allow subscribers to be the first to know what is in the newspapers and to get breaking news at any time of the day. This will be a step ahead in getting Malawi news which is happening very fast. it was expected to start on 15th June 2011.

This initiative is very similar to the one that Zodiak Broadcasting Station and Airtel have also launched recently. Subscribers will be able to access daily news by sending a word 'Zodiak' to 54141. People will also be able to send messages on condolences, deaths, illnesses, or comment on debates, express their opinion on any topical issue, as well as announcements on religious gatherings or wedding ceremonies using this service. SMS will cost MK25.

These two initiatives are a very big step ahead in technology and news reporting in Malawi as poeple relied on radios, newspapers and just recently websites and social media sites like facebook and twitter.

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MALAWIAN MEDIA AND THE INTERNET

BACK GROUND

When several websites published the controversial report by Plan International on Child Labour in Malawi’s tobbacco estates, a hornet’s nest was stirred. The Malawi government was up in arms against it to the extent that the Labour Minister and a Plan Malawi official held a press conference to counter some of the points raised in the report titled “ Hard Work, Little Pay, Long Hours” But the report had reached out to a lot of people through the internet and was picked up by various influential news sites all over the world.

A few years back a reknowned journalist and blogger, Victor Kaonga, predicted on his blog that the Malawi 2009 Elections will be fought on the internet. His predictions came true in the run up to the May 19 General elections when several candidates including independent, James Nyondo, MCP’s John Tembo and Petra’s Kamuzu Chibambo developed websites to explain their manifestos. But it was a move by Zodiak Radio to start broadcasting via the internet that captured the hearts of many Malawians especially those living in the diaspora. For the first time people had a chance to listen to a live announcement of the results and this was spiced up by the recognition of Zodiak by the Electoral Commission as the official results broadcaster of the 2009 Elections. Zodiak continues to broadcast their live programs online.

Those that follow Malawi politics are familiar with the hatred that the Malawi Government or the ruling DPP has with the award winning online news site, Nyasa Times. In a battle that recently turned to be Nyasa Times vs Dr. Ntaba, DPP and the government accusses the website of publishing false stories about it and claimes that it gets its funding from the former president and Dr. Mutharika’s nemesis, Dr. Muluzi. The fact is Nyasa Times is widely read and every published story, true or false, reaches out to a lot of people and qouted by several other news sites.

These three examples and many others shows how popular the internet is becoming to Malawians and the potential it has to shape the media.

PRESENT SITUATION

Apart from the award winning Nyasa Times and Zodiak Radio, there are several other websites that reports various issues concerning Malawi. The two traditional diaries, The Nation and The Daily Times have gone a step further to have websites where they publish some stories carried out in their papers. The Blantyre Newspapers Limited, publishers of The Daily Times also have websites for The Sunday Times and Malawi News.

These are media houses that give us balanced information and are well respected in the media circles but they fail to live to their expectations when it comes to online reporting. They are not updated in time for the hungry audience that eagerly wait for breaking news from Malawi. The Malawi News was last updated on 30th November 2008 and the Sunday Times on March 18 2009. Their counterparts in the neighbouring countries are doing fine in online reporting like New Vision and Daily Monitor in Uganda, The Zimbabwean in Zimbabwe and Lusaka Times in Zambia.

There are also some websites that dedicate their time to reporting news about Malawi like; Malawi Digest, Best of Malawi, Stories on Malawi, Malawi Financial Mirror , Timve Magazine and several blogs by Malawians listed on the Mablog (blogging Malawi) website. The two dailies are better placed to be leaders in reporting and being trusted online news sources because of their well trained reporters across the country, their vast experience and professionalism. Several radio stations also have websites most of which have no current news and are not regularly updated. Another website worthy mentioning is Capital FM which rebroadcasts their Day Break Malawi programme on their website. Kwacha FM and Radio Yako are also good Malawian owned online radios but are rarely on the ground to report issues in Malawi and put much emphasis on music. Recently Radio Yako agreed to be broadcasting the popular Channel Africa’s programme, Zochitika mu Africa on their website.

It is a known fact that the internet is shaping the flow of news reporting all over the world. The coming in of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed; video sharing like You Tube and Hulu; social bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit and Mixx has not spared the traditional way of news reporting. In the recent elections in Iran, Facebook and Twitter played a very important role in informing the world of what was happening where the main stream media had no access. Lots of videos were uploaded on You Tube, pictures on Flickr and Facebook depicting the ugly scenes of the violence in Iran dring the elections. It was also used in the Gabon Elections, Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton’s visits to Africa. The popular BBC Africa Have Your say also uses Twitter and a Facebook group to get views from people all over the world.

WAY FORWARD

Internet technology is moving at a faster pace and this generation is moving with it. Media houses in Malawi needs to move with technology to enhance the image of the country to the world. They need to look for ways to earn money on their websites in form of adverts. Advertisers look for websites which generate a lot of traffic and traffic follows several things on a website including content, design and simplicity. Developers are now turning to the mobile internet which has a great potential to be the next big thing.

Days of static websites are fast fading and being replaced by regularly updated websites and mobile phone compatible websites.With the coming in of RSS and feeds technology, readers just subscribe to the websites and read the news as they happen on their feed readers like Google Reader. Apart from the Nyasa Times which has recently upgraded their website so that one can subscribe to their feeds, the dailies are yet to embrace the technology while the personal blogs rely on Atom.

Thousands of Malawians are now on Facebook and few others on Twitter but they are yet to see a real impact of the local media on these sites. One can follow news from CNN, BBC, New York Times, The Guardian on twitter but fail to read their own local news from Malawi save for a few passionate Malawians who follow where Malawian news is and bring it on Twitter and Facebook.

A lot of celebrities are now on Twitter and Facebook. Our development partners are tweeting, Obama tweets and many other popular politicians. The White House maintains a blog where it breaks out important announcements, transcripts of various speeches daily briefings and weekly addresses. This is the way news is being shared all over the world and Malawian media needs to be fully involved.

I wait for the day when my favourite paper, The Sunday Times will form a group to interact with readers on Facebook, submit news on Delicious, Digg or Reddit and be on Twitter to alert us on latest news. I long for the time I will be able to browse Malawi News, Weekend Nation or the recently established evening news, Weekend Times on my Nokia 6070. Only then will the world know the real Malawi not the image Madonna built, or the western media shapes, but the warm heart of Africa that we all know. Dr. Ntaba will be the happiest person on earth for he will no longer grace our televisions to refute a false story published on Nyasa Times.

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ARE MALAWIANS MORE SUPERSTITIOUS?

The past three weeks have seen lots of stories about witchcraft making it to the front pages of the local dairies. From here in Mulanje where Agness Musolo delivered a 'stone' to Blantyre where a dead man 'resurrected' through Chileka where a man 'locked' his wife's private parts.

Various commentators have voiced out their views on all these strange happenings which have even prompted reputable geologists, psychologists,and specialist doctors in various fields to conduct experiments.

We all know that witchcraft exists and it is widely practiced in Malawi and many parts of the world (don't ask me how i came to this conclusion). But to find that all of a sudden these news are making headlines and are receiving positive comments keeps one wondering as to whether Malawians are becoming more superstitious.

A lot of property was damaged and people were injured in Bangwe because of chicken believed to be behind the road accidents (superstition). This is no simple matter and is likely to happen another day at another place where lots of accidents happen. A few days later a girl was thrown out on a witchcraft plane in the same area, Bangwe. In Mulanje everyone believes that the spirits in the mountain are behind the disappearance of Gabriel Bushman. From the village headman to those who organised the rescue operation all believe that the spirits are behind this. (More superstition).

The man who 'resurrected' in Blantyre is happily coming back to terms with his family after spending 6 months in the 'grave'. Instead of the authorities who are responsible for our health, safety and welfare, the 'resurrected man', Moses Levison is in the protection of a witch doctor (so these doctors are witches!!) More superstition.

When the scientists concluded that Agness Musolo did not give birth to the 'stone' but rather inserted it to the birth passage, more voices were against these finding choosing to believe the work of magic. (Superstition) I thought these are respected, learned professionals who are supposed to guide us in issues they know better than us.

Some thing ought to be done fast before we are all brainwashed to believe in witchcraft. I don't know what has to be done to deal with this (is it to adopt the witchcraft law or invest more time in prayer).

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